If you open your Bibles now to
2 Corinthians 5, I want to make some comments beginning
in verse 14. Now all of the comments and the
statements that Paul makes here in chapter 5 find their basis
back here in chapter 4. He says back in chapter 4, we
preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves
your servants for his sake. This is why he was a servant.
This is how he become a servant. This is why he denounced the
hidden things of dishonesty and all of the things that he speaks
of at the beginning of the chapter. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. That's what
believers see. That's what fills their heart.
That's what thrills their heart. That's what sets them apart from
everybody else in this world. They've seen the light of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Paul said, we've got this treasure,
and this is a treasure. This is a monumental treasure,
but we've got it in earthen vessels. It's in a clay pot. In a clay
pot. And it's there on purpose that
the excellency of the power may be of God and not us. God is
going to demonstrate in the darkness. the greatness and glory of His
light. That's what He's going to do.
He's going to shine out of darkness. That's what He's going to do.
That's what hearing the gospel is all about. It's God shining
light into the darkness. Paul also said before this that
what constituted the blindness and obscurity of his gospel was
the worldwide influence of the God of this world. He's the father
of lies and the father of all liars. That's right. That's what the Lord said. He's
the father of all lies, Satan. He's the first liar. Lies began
in him. And he's also the father of all
liars. He said, you're of your father
the devil. That's what he told them. And
the lust of your father you will do. In chapter 11 of the same
epistle, Paul tells us that Satan himself is transformed into an
angel of light. He pretends to cast light. He
pretends to be light. He pretends to bring light. He
poses as a minister of God. And therefore, it's no great
thing if his ministers also be transformed as ministers of righteousness. And without this understanding,
nothing he says in chapter 5 is going to make any sense. It's
just not going to make any sense. It's not going to make any sense
to you at all. Because until light comes, men
will continue to walk in darkness. They can't walk anywhere else.
They're in darkness. They're in darkness. Not some
of them have a little light. They're in darkness. darkness. They've never seen
this glory. This glory, it doesn't enter
into their thinking. You want to sit down and reason
with men, but they've got nothing to reason from. We want to sit
down and reason with folks and talk to folks and make folks
understand what we're saying, but they don't understand because
they don't have this light. And God's the only one who can
shine it. He's the only one who can shine
it. Listen to these scriptures. He that believeth not, our Lord
said, is condemned already. He said, I didn't come to condemn
the world. I came to save. I'm not here to condemn. I'm
here to save. For he that believeth not is
condemned already. Ain't that what He said? He's
condemned already. He's not awaiting judgment. He's
condemned already. And this is the condemnation. Here's what I'm talking about,
he said. Light has come into the world, and men love darkness
rather than light. That's the condemnation. They
love darkness because darkness is all they've ever known. They
love darkness because they're at home in the darkness. They
love darkness because their deeds are evil. People of the night,
that's how they're described, evildoers. And the nature of
man is so depraved in Satan's ministry of such power and influence
that men's minds and hearts are blinded to the Gospel of Christ. I don't care how many Scriptures
you read. You can just go on and on and
on with Scripture. I don't know any verses anywhere
in this Bible as clear as Ephesians chapter 1. I go to it all the
time as a proof text for what I'm saying. And yet I read that
to people and they Well, I don't believe in election. That don't mean election is not
the doctrine of God because you don't believe it. That doesn't
mean that God don't have an elect because you don't believe it.
That just means you're not elect. That's what that means. He's so depraved. He's under
such power and influence that men's minds and hearts are blinded
to the gospel of Christ. Yet, in the good pleasure of
God, he is determined to effectually call out his elect and shine
his light in their honor. In spite of all that Satan can
do, and in spite of all that the fall has done to man, it created such a darkness in
him that you can bury him in Scripture and he will not believe.
He will not believe until God shines in the light. And he can
take the smallest thing, the smallest truth, And it just comes
alive in him, doesn't it? All of a sudden, he'll hang all
his hopes on that one little thread. He poured out the Holy Spirit
of God upon his church, and by his presence and power, causes
his gospel to penetrate the very darkness of men's souls and shine
in their hearts. Shine in their hearts. As did
the Savior Himself shine His glory upon the creation of God. That's that comparison He makes
over in chapter 4. As God in Christ shined that
light out of darkness upon all creation. All created things
are created by Him and for Him. Isn't that what it says? That's
that light He's talking about, that glory of the Redeemer, that
He shined out of darkness on His creation. Same thing, He's
going to shine in the new creation. and by the same person. Here
in chapter 5, Paul begins to give some account of this wonderful
regeneration of God and this light of Christ that's flooded
his soul. His walk now was the walk of
faith. I read that to you. He said,
we walk by faith. You can't walk in this world
and have a heart that longs to leave it. Natural man can't do
that. I tell the truth, I hear folks
talk about it all the time when they go down to the funeral home,
one of their loved ones died and they go down there and they
start talking about going home and being home and all that kind
of stuff. They don't want to go home. They don't want to leave
this world. I tell the truth. Even those of you who believe,
aren't you just a little, were you that cock sure that you're
going to glide right into glory? Huh? You sure ain't. He sure ain't. But here Paul
said, by faith. And that's the only way you can
do this is by faith. By faith, he said, we walk by
faith. And by faith, I'm ready. By faith. But boy, don't look
inside. Inside is doubts and fears and
reservations and all types. But by faith, I see my name written
in the Lamb's Book of Life. By faith, I trust Him. By faith,
I'm seated with Him in glory. Seated with Him in heaven. Already
had the victory in Him. But boy, not here. Not here. Well, old Paul, he begins to
give some account of this wonderful regeneration of God and the light
of Christ that's flooded his soul. And now he begins to talk
about walking in faith, that walk of life and light and peace
and happiness and his sufferings. Things have changed. His sufferings,
now he calls light afflictions. My soul, have you ever read the
life of the Apostle Paul? Shipwrecked a day and a half
in the deep, and he's out here on the island, stranded, and
he's beaten, left for dead, I don't know how many times. Received
the lash. 29 less one, they say 30 lashes,
a man died. They beat him 29 times, several
times. Besides just going about with
a name, religious man, I've only been here three years and there's
people around here right now that just, they walk right around
me. I've never said anything to them.
I've never done anything to them. Can you imagine the kind of reputation
he had among folks, religious folks around, and the lies that
were spread about him? He called them light affliction.
That is light affliction. Why? Because he looked at them
in the light of eternity. He didn't look at them on the
spur of the moment. He looked at these things in
the light of Christ, in the light of the purpose of God, in the
light of eternity. And this life here, James said,
it was what? A vapor. I thought to be just
a vapor. Even death itself now appeared
to Paul as an usher to escort him into glory. He walked no
longer by sight, but by faith. And he saw the fleeting glory
of this world, and he walked accordingly. And only one thing
he said now drove him and motivated him and moved him to do all that
he did regardless of what men said about him. He said, the
love of Christ constraineth me. It constraineth me. The love
of Christ, verse 14, 2 Corinthians 5, constraineth us. It's what he lived for. It's
what kept him going. It's what he rejoiced in, what
he hoped in, what he found to be the center of his life. The
love of Christ. He couldn't get over it. He couldn't
get over it. He was a Pharisee. He was a murderer. He was an ignorant man walking
in darkness, born in darkness. He was a man deceived by Satan
and his ministers of unrighteousness. He was just like his kinsmen
who wandered around ignorantly trying to produce a righteousness
of their own. He knew what he was. What he
couldn't get over is why God saved him. Why God saved him? Because he loved him. Why would
he love me? How could he love me? He loved
him in Christ. He said, the love of Christ.
That constrains me. That's what keeps me going. It's
the love of Christ. There's three things here that
are absolutely necessary. I want you to listen to them.
They're absolutely necessary to the experience of every child
of God to know and experience the love of Christ in their heart.
There's three things. Here's the first. The first thing
is an understanding of our fall and our consequential death in
Adam. You've got to understand that. There's no way you can perceive
the love of God in Christ and be ignorant of the fall and ignorant
of the death, spiritual death. Somewhere in your experience,
I'm not saying we all see it to the same extent or to the
same degree, but you can't get there without this knowledge.
Now, I'm just telling you the truth. If this knowledge is not
a part of your experience, then you don't have an experience
of grace. You ain't got one. He said, the love of Christ constraineth
us because... See that? Here's the reason he
said. Because we thus judge, or we
thus understand, that if one died for all, then all were dead. We understand that. Huh? If death were not the penalty
for sin, then Christ would not have died, would He? What's the
point to His death? That's what's missing in the
preaching. I go on TV and radio and different
things. I listen to men preach every
now and then. This is what's missing when they talk about
His dying is why He died. What's this death all about?
Why must He suffer? Why must He be beaten and marred
and His visage Unlike any other man. You couldn't
recognize him when they were done beating him and slapping
him. Why? Why is all of this? Huh? Because
it's the just penalty for sin. As a representative man, he must
answer to God for all the sins of his people. All we like sheep,
Isaiah said, have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. And the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. God would not put His beloved
Son to the torment of death unless it was the just and righteous
punishment for the sins of His elect. If you go on down here
in chapter 5, you'll see this whole thing down here in verse
21 based on this, this whole ministry of reconciliation, this
whole thing of reconciliation in Christ. For He hath made Him
to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. You want to know what you are
in the face of God? Look at the cross. Look at the
cross. You want to know what death is?
Look at the cross. That's death. That's death before
God. They were all dead. And he said,
we judge that. We understand that in the light
of his death. They were all in a state of spiritual
death, being quickened from it by the gracious eternal covenant
union which fixed us in Christ before the world began. That's
what Paul's talking about over in Ephesians chapter 2. You hath
equipped them who were dead in trespasses and sins. You walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
He said that's where you were. from which we all had our conversation
in times past. But God, who is rich in mercy
and for that great love with which He loved us, even when
we were dead in trespasses and sins, hath quickened us together
with Him and raised us up with Him and made us sit together
with Him in heavenly places. That's that eternal quickening
of Christ. That's my representative. I'm
in Him, if you can imagine. So I'm in Him. God, when those
lashes came, that was my lash. When that suffering came, that
was my suffering. He bore our sins in His own body
on the tree. There is no way that you can
have any sense of the love of God until you have some sense
of that death that we experienced in Adam. And the only place you
can learn that is at the cross. God condemned sin in the flesh
when He condemned His Son. We're dead in sin as by our own
choice and practice. Sin that entered this world,
over in Romans chapter 12, Paul teaches us that that sin was
passed. Passed upon all men. Ain't that
what he said? Well, what's the evidence, Paul?
All of sin. That there's the evidence. It
passed on all men and every last one of them sinned. Every one
of them. A man's dead to all spiritual
ability. He's without spiritual potential. The Bible said to be carnally
minded is death. That's what it is. Why? Because the carnal mind's enmity
against God. It's hostile to it. You're not
going to put anything spiritual in the mind of a natural man.
His mind is enmity against God. He's sitting there, God's enemy. And you're talking to him like
he was a friend. He's got to be reconciled. He's
got to be brought down. There has to be something to
cause him, something that's not in him. There's no potential
in him. He's dead. He's lifeless. He's mindless. He's hostile toward
God. God has to do a work in him. That man born of God has an enlightened
mind. He perceives what spiritual death
is. He perceives what brought about
the death of the Savior and perceives the free and eternal love of
God that manifested that love for him in his death. God, Paul
said, commendeth his love for us in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. And then not only do believers
know how they're dead in trespasses and sins, they also understand
that they all died in Christ so that they could live in him. Isn't that right? That's exactly
what He's saying over here. We thus judge that if one died
for all, then all were dead. If Christ died as a representative
man, everybody in Him died. We judge that. We understand
that. God poured out His wrath on Him.
He poured it out on all His elect who were in Him. They all died
in Him. Paul writes the Colossians, and
he said, ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When we died, we died in Him.
Paul said, I'm dead, but I'm alive. The second thing that's absolutely
necessary to the experience of every true believer, and it comes
to him through the light of the gospel of Christ, is this. That spiritual death is primarily
revealed in a life that revolves around one's self. Let me read
this for you here. He said, because we thus judge
that if one died for all, then we're all dead, and that he died
for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto
themselves. Ain't that what they say? That's
where he found them, living unto themselves. What we know about death teaches
us from this light of God, if we have the light of God, that
light teaches us that we should no longer live unto ourselves. Why? Because that's where he
found us. That's what we were doing when we were dead in trespasses
and sins. That's what we were doing when
we walked according to the course of this world. What is the course
of this world? Self. I, I, I, I, I, I. Everything. I, I, I. Sin elevates the will and desires
of men above the will and purpose of God. God had by eternal design. Now listen to it. By eternal
design, He brought Satan into His garden. Now come on, Satan
couldn't get in God's garden unless God opened the door. What was Satan doing there anyway?
Huh? He got a whole world out here
to wander around in. What in the world is he doing
in God's garden? He's fulfilling the purpose of God. What does
he do? Same thing he's doing in this
world today. Same thing he did in the death of Christ. Doing
what God's hand and God's decree, purpose before to be done. Sin
elevates the will and desires of men. Now listen to me. God
had this eternal design. He brought Satan into His garden,
and He allowed Satan to speak to Adam's bride. Knowing something
of the holiness of God and the sin of his bride, Adam was not
willing to leave the situation in the hands of God, was he?
Huh? He knew God. He knew God was holy. He knew
exactly what God was going to do to Eve, and he wasn't willing
to leave that situation in the hands of God. He took things
into his own hands. Adam's sin was the willing, rebellious
assault upon the integrity of God. In an instant, Adam's life
become more important to him than the honor and integrity
of God. He didn't want to lose that woman.
Did he? Huh? What was he willing to sacrifice
for? God. Huh? That was his life, wasn't
it? She was his life. And as well
it ought to be. And in that same thing that I
just told you, he's called in Romans chapter 8 a type of Christ. A figure of Christ. He was not willing to give his
bride into the purpose and will of God or wait to see what God
would do or rest His future in the hands of His Creator. That's
man. That's how this sin and darkness
is manifested in a life that revolves around oneself. He has no consideration for the
integrity and glory of God whatsoever. He does what pleases Him. That's
darkness. And man will bow to any kind
of a God except the sovereign, unchangeable, all-sufficient
God of Scripture. To love this God, now listen
to me, is to willingly submit one's life into His hands. That's what it is. You can talk
about love all you want to. You think about this. Your marriage. your children,
your grandchildren, your job, your time, your income, and all
that providence is going to bring into your life until you go to
be with the Lord. That's what you've got to submit
into His hand. That's what faith submits into
His hand, whether it lives or dies. To me, to live is Christ,
to die is gang palsy. That was His life. These all
died in faith, not having received the promises But having seen
them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them, they
confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on this earth. They
were in God's hands. Abraham, come out of your father's
house. I'm going to show you where you...
He never did take him there. He never got to go into Canaan.
Abraham didn't. So long as man's life revolves
around himself, He's not come to know the love of God in Christ,
and he does not yet know what spiritual death is. That's spiritual
death. That spiritual death is to live
for yourself. I don't care what his profession
is. I don't care what his theology is, and I don't care how long
he's attended church. If his life is not a life of
submission to God, he don't know God. Write it down. If you can
ignore the commandments of God, the revealed will of God, and
have no heart for worship, and no love for the brethren, and
no interest in the ministry of Christ, you don't know God. It's
just that simple. That's what Paul's saying. There
is a light, the light of the very glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ is what shines in the believer's heart. They're
not left as they were. They're not wandering around
in darkness. They're not walking according
to the course of this world. They have eyes and ears for Christ
and a heart that loves Him and their bodies full of light. They
see, they understand, they know, they love, they care, they hunger. And if you don't, you don't know
God. You don't know God. See things as they are. And we see that spiritual death
and corruption all around us. And then we see the love of God
in the death of Christ that saves us from it. And we see the free
gift of grace in all that He's received. And a new life begins
to turn His life. His whole, everything about Him
begins to turn. It don't turn all at once. But
it don't stay where it is either. it begins to turn. And if that
life goes unaffected, it's a sure sign that it still walks in darkness. What is this love of God, this
love of Christ that Paul talks about? It's the giving of oneself. That's how it was manifested.
Christ gave him. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Ain't that what
it says? gave himself for it. And then
secondly, a life lived for oneself is a life that tries to fit God
in its schedule. Oh, I hope there's nobody here
that tries to do that. Try to fit God in your schedule. I've
known businessmen married with children who devoted themselves
so completely to their business that occasionally they'd try
to work in times to spend with their wife and children. That
man don't love his wife. He don't love his children. I heard one of them's daughter
told me this one day. She was crying. She told me,
she said, that's all he ever talks about. He don't come home
till 9 o'clock at night, and then the few hours we get to
spend with him, he talks about money. Money, money, money, money,
money. That's all he ever talks about.
That man don't love his wife. He don't love his children. Loves
himself. That man does not love his wife and children,
who loves himself, and then works them into his schedule. And I believe the same thing
goes for any man who tries to fit God in his life. It's his
life. That's the problem with it. Paul said, Christ is my life. He said, for me to live is Christ.
And from the day God shined His light of Christ into his soul,
his whole life was rearranged. In Matthew 10, verse 39, it says,
he that findeth his life shall lose it. You're going to lose it. You
find that life. Boy, you find that, what they
used to tell me, that niche. You find that whatever it is,
that thing that prospers your life, that thing that you stick
your hope of life on and base everything on. You find that
business. You find that whatever it is that you find. You find
that treasure, whatever it is. You find it. You find that life.
You find what appeals to you. You've just lost your spiritual
life. He that findeth his life shall
lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
He found his. His life's in Christ. God gave all preeminence unto
the Son in creation, providence, and salvation. That's what it
says in Colossians chapter 1. It pleased the Father that in
Him should all fullness dwell. Gave Him all the preeminence.
Now, do you honestly believe that he'll occupy a lesser place
in the lives of all those he loves? He'll have the preeminence
in your life, or you won't have a life, one or the other. And
then thirdly, a life lived for oneself is a life exposing your
true affection. That man who lives for himself
loves himself. He exposes. He don't love Christ.
If he don't love Christ, if he loved Christ, his whole life
would revolve around Christ. You women who've married these
men, you love them. Your whole life revolves around
them. What would you do? I don't even like to go to the
store without my wife, let alone just be without her all the time.
That's love. It exposes. When that's not there,
you expose the absence of love. It's not an inconvenience for
that man who loves Christ to worship. It's not a chore for
him to hear the gospel. It's not a difficult thing for
him to give himself. Some little something to ask
of him, well, sure. It's not an inconvenience to him. And
then, fourthly, a life lived for oneself is a life that brings
no honor to God. Now, brethren, good works is
God who worketh in you, isn't it? Both the will and to do of
His good pleasure. It's God working in you. Well,
what about that life who lives around self? Where is the honor
of God in that? Men look at that and say, God
working in him? Huh? There's no God in that. You don't have to know God to
live for yourself. You have to know God to live
for Him. Because it requires the giving
of oneself. Willingly. God's not going to
twist your arm. He's not going to threaten you
with punishments. God's people willingly give themselves
to Him because they love Him. That's what Paul said. These
people have been talking about me, been ripping me from one
end to the other. And now he said, I'm going to
manifest myself to you. It's the love of Christ that
constrains me. And he begins to tell them a
little bit of something about it. This life lived for oneself brings
no glory to God. Everything good in the life of
a believer is owing to God's free and sovereign grace. His
service, his devotion, his life as it's lived in this world is
a testimonial to the free grace of God in Christ. And then fifthly,
a life lived for oneself does not long for a heavenly change. That's all he thought about.
That's all he thought. The older he got, the more he
experienced of this world, the more he craved that life. This
is eternal life. This is everlasting life. This is my house, my new house. And this old house is full of
holes. He craved a heavenly change. Those who live for themselves
find a satisfaction here in this world. John said, if any man
loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Not
in him. And then thirdly, it was the
revelation of Christ that now manifested this new creation.
That's what I titled the message this morning. Henceforth. Henceforth. That's what he says here in verse
18 of 2 Corinthians 5. Wherefore, henceforth. What's
that mean? What a word. Henceforth. Think
about it. From now on. Ain't that what
that word means? From this day forward. That's
what that word means. From the day this light shined
in my heart. From now on, he said. From henceforth. And the view of the intervention
of Christ and the raising of his dead mind and heart into
a state of understanding. A new creature was born. Great
change had come upon Paul by this spiritual resurrection.
Paul had a new view of his religious kinsmen. Those he once gloried
in and took pride in, he now prays for them to be saved. You'd ask Paul before this happened
about his kinsmen. He'd have bragged on them. He'd
have bragged on them. That's what these old Jews did. Well, we'd be not born of fornication,
and they'd start bragging about all their kinsmen. Paul prayed
for his that the Lord might save them. Those he once considered
righteousness, he now says they're ignorant of the righteousness
of God. Those he once viewed as children of God, he now says
this, he said, they've not submitted themselves to the righteousness
of God in Christ and are ignorantly going about trying to establish
one of their own. Every man born of God comes to
understand that his religious kinsmen are lost and don't know
God. That's what this tells me. And
then secondly, Paul had a whole different view of society. He
didn't view men by their rank and wealth and office and nationality. He saw everyone in Christ as
one. Male or female, bond or free,
whatever you are, he saw you as one in Christ. One in Christ. What else changed? Paul no longer
viewed things in the light of traditional religion. The religion
in which he was raised was upside down and backwards. It was the
very opposite of what he knew to be the truth. Everything they
preached was opposite of what he now believed. Everything.
They preached works. He believed grace. They preached
a God who couldn't do what he wanted to. He preached a sovereign
God who did everything he wanted to. And he said, henceforth now,
we know no man after the flesh. By worldly wisdom, philosophy,
religious bias, it went by the wayside. It's all gone. And then fourthly, everything
he thought he knew about the Christ of God, he put on the
dung heap with everything else. He took it out and threw it on
the dung heap. He said, though we have known Christ after the
flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more. And over and
over and over after that day, Paul warns us in his preaching
of those who come preaching another Jesus. He said, there's another
Jesus. He said, how did he know that? Because at one time he
had Him. He believed in Him. He said, there's another Jesus.
He said, they'll come preaching Him. And they'll come preaching
another gospel with another spirit. And over and over and over, he
warned those that he preached to. Paul didn't preach some poor,
defeated reformer come into the world attempting to get folks
to change their way. He said, I am the way. That's
what Paul preached. This is the eternal, everlasting
Christ, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
This is the victorious, resurrected, justifying Christ who was delivered
for our transgressions and raised again for our justification.
This is the ascended, seated, enthroned Christ, the King of
glory, having all power in heaven and earth. He's the Lord of the
dead and the living, absolute potentate, King of kings and
Lord of lords. He's Lord of the angels, and
He's Lord of the devils, and He's Lord of the saved and the
lost and the dead and the living. He's Lord. And He's Lord where
men believe or don't believe. He's still Lord. Believers are
not going about debating what they're going to do for Him.
They're going about wondering what He's going to do with them.
He's the Lord. The heart of the kings in the
hand of the Lord, just like those rivers of water. And He turns
them whether so ever He will. He alone controls and guides
His preachers, His gospel, the spirit of revelation. He said,
if I go away, I'll send the Comforter Ain't that what he said? That's
pretty personal, isn't it? Had that little handful of disciples
there. He said, if I go away, he said,
I'm going to send them to you. What a statement. He bought the right, Paul preached,
for you to hear. And those who will not hear,
he said, are not of my sheep. They don't hear because I didn't
buy the right for them to hear. If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly. He said, I told you. You believe not because you are
not of My sheep. My sheep. He said, I know My
sheep, and they know Me. My sheep hear My voice, and they
follow Me. It says in John chapter 1, to
as many as received them, to them. Huh? To them. He gave the right and privilege
to become, not to be counted as, to become the sons of God. In their very being, in their
very minds and souls, to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on His name which were born. Born of what? They weren't born after the flesh.
They weren't born after Abraham. They were born of God. Born of
God. Now, he says, therefore, therefore,
considering these things, if any man be in Christ, he's a
new creature. He said, now that's what I'm
talking about. I ain't talking about somebody gets dressed up
on Sunday morning, comes to church once every three or four weeks.
He said, I'm talking about men whose lives have been dedicated
to him, changed, turned upside down. Now, he said, if you're
in Christ, If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things
are passed away, and behold, all things are become new. And
all these things, he said, are of God, who reconciled us unto
Himself by Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation. We preach a gospel of which Christ
has bought the right for men to hear. That's my confidence. There's no way they're not going
to hear. They may not hear from me, but they're going to hear
from God's preacher because he bought that right with his blood. I'll tell you, it's a different
Jesus. The Christ of the Bible is not the same Christ that this
world talks about and worships. You listen to what they're saying,
and then you read about what this book says about this Christ.
It's another Jesus, ain't it? It's another Jesus. New creatures
in Christ. Father, we thank you. Thank you
for this opportunity to stand one more time this side of eternity
and preach this glorious gospel of Christ. Be pleased this morning
to use these things and open men's hearts and shine that light
of the glory of Christ within. Turn men's lives around. Turn
them upside down. Make them new creatures in Christ.
We ask it for Christ's sake. Amen.