In preaching the gospel of God's
grace, we call upon you who hear our voices to believe on the Son of God, to surrender your lives entirely
to the rule, dominion, will, and direction of Jesus Christ
as Lord. We call on you to be reconciled
to God, to quit fighting God, to give yourselves in wholehearted,
unreserved, relentless, wholehearted, unreserved commitment and consecration
to the Son of God, to live for Christ, for His honor, for His glory,
You who do not know Him, how I pray that this very hour God
will cause you to know His Son and so seize your heart that
you never cease to be drawn relentlessly to devote yourself to Him. Somehow, that's what faith in
Christ involves. Not just trusting Christ to take
you to heaven, but trusting Christ. Trusting Him for everything. Committing yourself to Him. Well,
on what basis can we make such an appeal? How dare I call on
you, young and old, Never to live another day for yourselves. Never to live another day for
yourselves. How can you be expected to devote
everything to the Son of God? Let's see if I can offer some
reasons. Here in verse 11 of 2 Corinthians
5, Paul says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade
men. I want to persuade you to follow
the Savior. Now that's something I can't
do. Only God the Holy Spirit can. Oh, if he will speak, Through
these stammering lips of clay, the word he has inspired that
you hold in your lap by the power of his spirit to your heart,
he will persuade you and continually persuade you to come to Christ,
to follow Christ, to devote yourself to Christ. Let's begin with this. I urge you thus to give yourself
to the Son of God, considering the certainty of eternity and
the immortality of your soul. Look here at verse 18 of chapter
4. You and I are not animals, contrary
to the continually increasing popular opinion of this world.
We did not evolve from some worm or a germ or an ape or something
less. We are creatures of God, made
in the image of God after the likeness of God. We live in these
bodies, but the scripture does not speak of a man's life consisting
in the body in which he lives. God created a body for Adam and
then God breathed into his nostrils and man became a living soul. These bodies are but houses for
our souls. We are men and women with immortal
undying souls. That means that you will live
forever somewhere in some state, in some condition. And that's
a fact from which you can never escape. You who are yet without the knowledge
of our God, without faith in Christ, you know full well that
what I'm saying to you is so. There is a consciousness of your
immortality stamped upon you by God in creation that you cannot
silence no matter how hard you try. Look here in verse 18 of
2 Corinthians chapter 4. The apostle says, we look not
at things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.
For the things which are seen are temporal. I guess for us folks who are
getting to the age of having grandchildren, What's more precious? What's more delightful of things
in this world? Pack that baby on the head and
understand this is just temporal. It's just temporal. Everything. That house you've
worked all your life to get and just about to get it paid for,
it's just temporal. That pension you were talking about signing
up for just a little while, it's just temporal. It's temporal. Everything here is temporary. Every relationship, every possession,
everything you can see, everything you can touch, everything that
affects your day-by-day life, every relationship, it's just
temporary. Those things that are seen are
temporal. But look at this, but the things which are not seen
are eternal. We live in this world where everything's
temporal. We're going rapidly to a world
where everything's eternal. Look at verse one of chapter
five. For we know, we know, Paul's speaking now as a believer, these
things we know. We know that if our earthly house
of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building immediately,
right now. We have a building, a house not
made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this, in this
tabernacle, in this body of flesh we grow. We groan earnestly desiring
to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. If so be
that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we that
are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened. Burdened. Not for that we would be unclothed. No, no. We're burdened that we
may be clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
Now watch this. Now he that hath wrought us for
the selfsame thing is God. You would think that ought to
read, he that hath wrought for us the selfsame thing is God.
That's not what it reads. He that hath wrought us for the
selfsame thing is God. God made us for eternity. God
made us for eternity. He made us new in Christ for
eternity. Read this. Who also hath given us the earnest
of the Spirit. In the new birth, He's placed
His Spirit in us, created Christ in you, the hope of glory, giving
us the earnest, the damnation, the pledge, the assurance of
the Spirit. Therefore, we're always confident.
Believing on Christ, Christ dwelling in us, trusting the Son of God,
we're confident. Knowing that whilst we're at
home in the body, we're absent from the Lord. For we walk by
faith, not by sight. We're confident. Why did Paul
put that parenthetical statement in there? We walk by faith, not
by sight. We're confident. Not because
of anything we see temporal. Not because of anything we do
ourselves. Not because of something we experience
today or tomorrow or yesterday. We're confident because we believe
God. We're confident. What's this?
Confident, I say, and willing, rather, to be absent from the
body and to be present with the Lord. Brother Todd Lane went down to
see Brother Mayhead His dear wife, a while back, and Brother
Henry, if I remember correctly, said, I pray God will take me
every night. Won't let me wake up in the morning. Well, he's an old man. I pray God will take me home
every day. And I'm not sorry about life.
I've got a good life. I've got a good life. I've got
a wife who dotes on me, she adores me. I've got a daughter and son-in-law
who love me and just, they think the sun rises and sets on me.
I've got two grandchildren just, oh, what a delight. And I'm ready
to go home. Well, why would you go to the
doctor then? Have a responsibility before
God. But at God's appointed time, I am perfectly happy, willing,
anxious, not to be unclothed. Chris, there's nothing I want
to get rid of in this world except what's inside me. Nothing. Not
to be unclothed, but clothed upon with that mortality might
be swallowed up of life. I have a little taste of what
life is. A little taste of what life is. And it's not anything anybody
outside Christ has ever dreamed or imagined. It's Christ. It's Christ himself. Christ who
is our life. All right, read on. Wherefore,
we labor. We don't make this thing a matter
of presumption. We believe God, we trust God,
and we continue, we labor, that whether present or absent, we
may be accepted of him. What's it mean? I press toward
the prize, the mark, the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus. We labor that we may be found
in Christ Jesus presently and tomorrow and forever. We recognize
that there are multitudes who as soon as they die, must forever perish. You, who are without Christ,
must forever suffer the wrath of God in hell, in your immortal soul. And I
don't really know what that is. Donny Bell, I don't have any
idea what hell is, and don't want to know. But if you die without Christ,
eternal, endless, tormenting death in separation from God
and good and light shall be your portion forever with a tormenting
conscience that you can never silence. So I bid you, I urge
you, I plead with you, be reconciled to God. Tell you another reason
I make this appeal to you. It's the certainty of divine
judgment. Look at verse 10. 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. I highly recommend that you pay
no attention to anything written in one of those reference Bibles
if you happen to have one that's been messed with by men. I know
that there is a judgment to come at the last day in the resurrection,
but don't imagine that somehow between death and the resurrection
you're going to get by for a thousand years or a hundred years or half
a day. As soon as you leave this world, you're going to meet Jesus
Christ in judgment. to suffer in a body that shall
yet be joined to an raised body, this physical body, in the resurrection
day. And you're going to receive,
you and me, exactly that which we have done in the flesh, whether
it be good or evil. Read Revelation chapter 20, we'll
be judged out of the books. Another book is open called the
Book of Life. And there are those whose names
are written in that Book of Life who are described in verse 6
of Revelation 20, where John says, blessed and holy is he
that hath part in the first resurrection, on such the second death shall
have no power. These whose names are written
in the book of life are written before God in the book of life
of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world from everlasting
to everlasting. And they shall be judged out
of the books according to that which is written exactly according
to that which you've done in the body. Exactly. Exactly. You mean, Brother Don,
we're all going to get what we deserve? Every one of us. Every
one of us. Either what you deserve on your
own, or what you deserve in union with God's darling son, Jesus
Christ the Lord. Now listen to this preacher,
will you? I know what it is to go to bed at night terrified
of meeting God, and to wake up terrified of meeting God. I know
what it is to be terrified at the thought of righteousness
and justice and truth. I know what it is to be terrified
at the thought of everlasting damnation. And either I'm telling you the
truth or I'm an absolute liar and eternity will tell you which. I have absolutely no dread or
fear of meeting God. None. None. How can that be? You think you're that good? I
know I am. I know I am. You see, Christ
obeyed God's holy law for me to the full satisfaction of divine
justice so that God says my name is Jehovah seeking you, the Lord
our righteousness. I'm one with him. One with him.
How do you know that? God's given me faith in Him.
I believe Him. I can't help but trust Him. I
find myself leaning wholly on the Christ, the Redeemer. Knowing
therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade man. We urge you
to believe on the Son of God because none can stand before
His indignation. Doddridge put it this way, you
sinners, seek his grace whose wrath you cannot bear. Fly to
the shelter of his cross and find salvation there. In the
Old Testament, the scriptures tell us about six cities, three
on one side of Jordan, three on the other called cities of
refuge. And those cities of refuge, it was required that they be
maintained every year so that any man in all the land of Israel
could, within one day's run, get to one of those cities so
that that man after whom the avenger of blood was pursuing
could flee to the city of refuge and there be safe and saved and
protected. as long as the high priest lived.
And once the high priest died, he could go out in the city free
and have no problem facing the avenger of blood. The law demanded
such. Christ is our refuge. And Christ,
our high priest, has died. And there is no threat from the
law attending us, for Christ died in our stead. You understand
that? We've gone free. And our priest lives forever
before God, so we live before God. in him and with him, one
with him. And yet, I know the wrath of
God, the terror of the Lord, will never persuade anybody to
do anything. When I first moved to Danville
in 1980, I hadn't been there in time in all the churches fundamentalist
churches and the conservative churches and the liberal churches
and the papist and the Methodist and the Baptist all got together.
I guess I was the only fellow in town who didn't get involved
with, had a movie that showed at the local school called The
Burning Hell and tried to scare the hell out of everybody and
did. And did. Churches everywhere
that next week flooded with baptisms and church membership. Oh, how
wouldn't you have part in that? Because you can't scare a hell
of a lot of folks. And you can't scare folks into
the arm of Christ. It can't be done. The goodness
of God leadeth thee to repentance. That's what the book says, isn't
it? Well, let's look at the next line. 2 Corinthians 5, verse
11. But we are made manifest to God,
and I trust also are made manifest in your conscience. For we commend
not ourselves unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our
behalf, that you may have some what to answer them which glory
in appearance and not in heart. For whether we be beside ourselves,
it is to God. Or whether we be sober, it is
for your cause. In other words, Paul's saying,
our motive, our motive in preaching the gospel to you, our motive
in laboring in the cause of Christ and declaring the gospel to you,
our motive in establishing the witness of the gospel in this
place where you live, our motive in raising up a church building
and meeting together and establishing a ministry in your midst, our
motive in proclaiming the word of God has It's nothing of selfish
benefit. It's for your cause. It's for
your cause, for the good of your souls. For the love of Christ
constraining us. What compels you to believe on
the Son of God? Cody Griffin, what compels you
to take your family in Mexico, give up a good job, good salary,
good benefits, good house, and move to Mexico? What compels
you to do that? Why, he's insane. What man in his right mind would
do such a thing? None. None. Except one compelled by
the love of Christ. The love of Christ constrains
us. It constrains us. Because we thus judge. Now watch
this. We thus judge. If one died for
all, then we're all dead. Bob Coffey means just this, when
Christ died, you did too. He died for all and all for whom
he died, died when he died. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. But why did he do
that? Why did he do that? And that
he died for all. He died for every one of God's
elect. He died for every sinner who
believes on Him. He died for all who are saved
by His grace. He died for all that they which
live should not henceforth live unto themselves. He bought you lock, stock, and
barrel. Everything. Larry Brown and Don
Fortner, too. Everything. Everything. What's yours? Nothing. Nothing. The sooner you find
that out, the happier you're going to be, the more comfortable
you're going to be. He taught us that we should not
live to ourselves, but unto him that died for them and rose again. Oh, God. Make me live for Him,
to Him, with Him, for His honor. Wherefore, henceforth, know we
no man after the flesh. Though we have known Christ after
the flesh, yet now, henceforth, know we Him no more. You see,
our knowledge of Christ is not just a carnal knowledge of Him.
Our knowledge of Christ is not just some doctrine we've learned
and been taught and memorized and read in a book or had somebody
tell us out of the book. Our knowledge of Christ is not
just a knowledge of facts and theories and historic events.
Our knowledge of Christ is the revelation of the love of God
in our souls in Christ the Redeemer crucified for us. We don't know
him after the flesh. We know him after the spirit.
We know him after the spirit. ourselves to Him because of the
revelation of Him. Irresistible grace so sweetly,
graciously makes known Christ in you that you can't resist
it. You can't resist it. You don't
want to. You don't want to. For you folks
who don't know my dear wife, if you don't know her, she's
not here, she's home packing things up, going on another trip,
and she and I will be leaving Tuesday. But most everybody looks
at my wife and looks at me and says, how'd you get her? And
I wonder that a lot myself, even though I didn't always look just
exactly like this. She always did look exactly like
she does. Things have changed a little bit with me. You know
what I did? We hadn't been dating any time.
A couple of weeks, I thought I was gonna marry her. And she
said, you're crazy, you don't know what you want. And I proceeded
to do everything I could to show her nothing but good about me. I'd drive across town to carry
her books a half a block. Did it all the time. I made sure
nobody got a chance to wiggle in between. And I'd take her
to McDonald's every time I got a chance to take her to McDonald's.
And I'd get her any flavor of milkshake she wanted most of
the time. And after a while, sitting with her and my family
up in Spruce Pine, North Carolina, been dating about a year, and
everybody going to bed, I got down on my knees and I said,
Shelby, I love you and I want you to marry me. Do you know
she jumped at the chance to say yes? She did. She was as excited as I was.
How come? Well, she couldn't resist me
anymore. I hadn't shown her any reason to resist me. She simply
was attracted to what she saw. And God reveals His Son in you. And you can't resist Him. You
find yourself believing the Son of God. You find yourself pursuing
Him. You find yourself tonight, you
come in here, I will not hear that babbling preacher again.
And you go, oh yes, oh God, give me Christ, I've got to have Him.
How come? Because God, by the sweet revelation
of His Son, irresistibly forces you to His feet, to worship Him. Let's look back at our text again. Oh, what grace, what mercy, what
love is revealed in the sacrifice of God's darling son, his substitutionary
sin-atoning death on our behalf. Here's another basis of appeal. I call you to be reconciled to
God, to believe on God's Son, and
I urge you to do so because of the blessedness of God's salvation. Verse 17, therefore if any man
be in Christ, he's a new creature, Old things have passed away,
and behold, all things are become new. What a description of God's
salvation. Preachers and theologians use
the word regenerate or regeneration to describe what happens when
God saves a sinner. I have done so many times and
probably will again, but that's not right. God does not regenerate
anybody. To regenerate would be to make
alive that which was dead. The Lord God comes to chosen
redeemed sinners, dead in trespasses and incest, and they are born
again. They are born again. Not the
dead thing is regenerated, but a new thing born in them. that
holy nature, born of God that cannot sin, that righteous thing
that loves God and can't do otherwise, that spirit of grace making us
partakers of the divine nature, that new man created in righteousness
and in true holiness. So as Brother Todd said just
a little bit ago, we now live with two distinct diametrically
opposing natures as long as we live in this world. One flesh,
the other spirit. The one Adam, the other Christ.
The one the old man, the other new. And that new man is that
which is born of God, a new creature. Not only does he give us a new
nature, old things have passed away. The old nature sure hadn't. That hadn't passed away. Is there
anybody in here who even has a question about that? That old
nature hasn't passed away. Well, brother Don, I have one.
When God saved me, he took a tip out of my toes. That ain't so. That just ain't so. I've always
heard it that way. You always heard wrong. That's
just not so. Which of you have less problem with your vile affections
now? Stand up and I'll sit down and
shut up and let you talk. Which one? Well, I'm not bad
as I used to be. Then come up here and tell me
about it. That's just not so. You're worse than you used to
be. Flesh is nothing but flesh and
it never gets any better. But God's given us a new nature.
Well, what's he mean then? Old things are passed away. You
remember, we started out talking about judgment out of the books.
God says, I, even I am he that blotteth out thy transgression. He hath not beheld iniquity in
Jacob, or sin in Israel. He's cast our sins behind His
back, buried them in the depths of the sea, removed them from
us as far as the east is from the west. You mean all the record
of our sins gone? Well, that's talking about our
past sins. They were all future when He took them away. He did
this before the world began. He did this at Calvary. You mean,
Brother Don, sinners in Christ Are treated as if they had no
sin? No! No! I do not mean that. I mean
they don't have any sin. How can that be? He bare our sin in his body on
the tree until he bare our sin away. And therefore David said,
and the Apostle Paul, writing by inspiration, says, Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. He'll never die. Old things are
passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. Let us new creatures in Christ,
a new heart, a new nature, a new record before God. I said, well,
that's the way God sees things. Now, I've been telling our folks
at home a good bit, and it's time that you hear it. Your pastor,
I'm sure, has been telling you a good bit, and it's time that
you hear it. However God sees things, that's how they really
are. Is that right? Now, you might
see it wrong, but however God sees you, that's how you really
are. However, God sees things, that's how they really are. God
sees me in his son and smiles all the time. He's got no reason to be angry
with me. He's got no reason to be angry with me. Oh, he may
be as he was with David, displeased with what David did and displeased
with what I do, but never with me. I'm accepted in the beloved. And that took place before ever
I came into this world. And nothing I do in time will
ever change that. We're accepted in the beloved.
All right, let's move on. How can I call home men and women
to give themselves completely to Christ? Let's look at verse
18. The Spirit of God tells us here
about the finished work of our Savior. All things are of God. Now you can apply that just to
all things. That's perfectly all right. All
things are of God. You mean, brother, everything?
Everything. All things are of God. But in this particular passage,
it's talking about the whole work of redemption and grace
and salvation. All things are of God. All things. It's God who chose us. It's God
who preserved us in Christ unto the day of our calling. It's
God who redeemed us by the blood of His Son. It's God who called
us by His grace. It's God who keeps us looking
to Christ. It's God who holds us up when
we would fall a thousand times a day. And when we do fall, lifts
us up again. It's God who keeps us forever
in everlasting life in Christ Jesus the Lord. All things are
of God. Watch this. Who hath Reconciled
us. He reconciled us in Christ. That's what he's talking about
right here. When Christ Jesus died, God was in Christ, reconciling
the world. Now don't let that word world
bother you. And he's talking about the world of God's elect.
Well, boy, that's a stretch. In that Luke chapter 2, we read
about Caesar Augustus who sent out a decree that all the world
should be taxed. Well, David, I wasn't around
there. You weren't there. But it says the world. World
means world. No, it doesn't. World means who it entails to
me. It referred there to all the Roman world under Caesar's
dominion. And when it speaks of God's grace and mercy to his
elect, it's talking about his elect scattered through all the
nations of the earth. Men and women and black and white
and Jew and Gentile, learned and unlearned, bond and free,
wherever they're found in all the world. It reconciled to God
at one time by the death of his son. He took away every reason
for God's anger. every reason for judgment, every
reason for wrath, and declares at last, fury is not in me. God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and
hath committed to us the word of reconciliation. What is that
word? Salvation is of the Lord. This is God's work, this is God's
doing, for God's praise, for the glory of God's name. Now,
look at verse 20. I call on you. I call on you who are just beginning life,
you young people, Oh, I pray that God won't set the world
in your heart. I call on you to say farewell to everything
temporal and devote yourself to the Son of God entirely. Entirely. I call on you, my brothers
and sisters of the grayest hair and the weakest frame, devote
yourself entirely to Jesus Christ the Lord. I call on Todd Nybert,
Don Fortner, Donny Bell, Bill Eldridge, Chris Cunningham to
devote yourselves entirely to the Son of God. Entirely. To
your last breath. Well, how can you expect such
a thing from anybody? Look at the message of God's
grace in verse 20. The Lord God speaks by his servant. He says, now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's head, be you reconciled to God.
Quit fighting God. For he, the holy triune Jehovah,
have made him his own darling son to be seen for us who knew
no sin. How did he do that? How did he do that? Anyone who attempts to explain
it doesn't have a clue. Well, we can explain that on
this term or that term. You can't explain it on any terms. How did God make an axe head
swim? Did he do it? Did he make the
iron swim? Somebody tell me, did he or didn't
he? He made that, would you care to explain to me how an ax head
swale? How did God turn water into wine? Did he do it? Did he do it? Best wine Thunders ever tasted.
How'd he do that? I don't know. He didn't even
say that the water be like wine. He said, Thunders, you fill it
up with water. And it wasn't just wine, it was just water
out of the wine. Why? How did he do that? I don't know.
He did. He did. How did the Word, how was God made flesh? How was God made flesh? I don't really get out much but
I do read some of the theologians and try to study things and get
up on good terms and they tell me that it was a Hypostatic union. That helps a lot. How did God become flesh? Well,
you can't say that. God didn't become a man. The
book says he did. The Word was made flesh. The Word was made flesh. He never
ceased to be God, but made flesh. So much so that the book says
in Acts chapter 20 and verse 28 that God, who cannot change
or be changed, God, who is spirit, has no parts like we have, no
body like we have, God, the immortal, eternal, incomprehensible God,
died in our stead at Calvary. God died. Well, God can't die. No, he can't, but God did. You
explain how that happened. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. We beheld His glory. The glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
And at the appointed time of love, it was God who purchased
the church with His own blood. God made His Son sin. He did what only God could do.
And when He made His Son sin, He drew forth the sword of his
justice and buried it in his garment because the Son of God fully
deserved to die. He was made saint. Justice cannot execute one who
doesn't deserve to die. He was made to bear our sin in
his body, and bearing our sin in his body, he bears all the
fury of God's wrath and justice until God said, enough! Justice
was satisfied. He did that, that he might take
such things as you and me. and make us the very righteousness
of God in Him. Look here, look here. This, this man right here,
this one you're looking at, this man, I never say this man, this man,
but this man is holy and righteous and perfect, without spot, without
blemish, before God Almighty. Amen. I'm one with Christ. Amen. With his spotless garments
on, I'm holy as God's own Son. Oh, Brother Dodd, I'd do anything
if I could say that. Would you do nothing? cast yourself on the Son of God
and go home tonight a new creature with no possibility of ever being
otherwise. With no possibility of sin ever
being charged to you. With no possibility of condemnation. With no possibility of judgment
to come. with no possibility of death,
now, tomorrow, or forever. Amen.