2 Corinthians 5, verse 14. For the love of Christ constraineth
us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then we're
all dead. and that he died for all, and
they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto
him which died for them and rose again. 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, that is,
after the flesh. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
He is a new creature. Old things are passed away, and
behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God,
who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you
in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. 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. I want to bring a message this
morning concerning this constraining love. the constraining love of Christ. In verse 14, for the love of
Christ constraineth us, or governs us, or causes us, empowers us
to believe these things and to come to him. His love is what
draws us. not the reward of heaven, not
the fear of hell, but when we see Him by revelation, by the
Spirit and the grace of God, when He reveals Himself to a
poor sinner, we are overwhelmed by this great love wherewith
He loves us, and we're constrained, we're persuaded, of things that we see in him
and of him. Nothing genders pride and self-righteousness
more than the delusional doctrine of free willism. The idea that man has the power
and ability to make himself presentable to God or be accepted by God,
the idea that the moving cause of regeneration is somehow governed
by man. This really pumps man up, gives
his flesh gall and grit, exalts him in pride and arrogancy. Nothing
is more offensive to those who have been duped into this already
established delusion of imaginary goodness and powerless by false
preachers and teachers than the clear declaration of the gospel,
the gospel of God's free grace, the gospel of God's sovereign
grace in Christ, the gospel that God uses to call sinners to faith
in Christ. This is offensive to the flesh,
offensive to man's pride in his supposed free will. The gospel
tells men of their spiritual death and depravity, and exalts
the righteousness and sovereign love and grace of God in Christ
alone. This gospel constrains men either
to hate or to love. And this gospel constrains the
love of Christ revealed in the gospel, constrains His people
to love Him. constrains his people to be committed
to him, constrains his people to follow him and to follow no
other. So in man's pathetic way of thinking,
and I'm speaking of religious men, there's this damning message
that seems to be the most acceptable way of all. It's called by some
the middle of the road gospel. that God does His part and man
does his part. Therefore, salvation is by cooperative
effort between God and man. But this is far from the truth. This is far from what the Scriptures
teach. The Scriptures deny such a lie, and our Scriptures and
text this morning does not stand alone, which I'll show you. The
entire Bible declares that all men are dead and that salvation
is by Christ alone. This is what the scriptures teach.
This is not what false teachers and preachers teach. This is
not the Baptist doctrine. This is not the Calvinistic doctrine. This is the doctrine of God.
This is the doctrine of Christ. The love of Christ constrains
us to believe the truth. The love of Christ constrains
us to love Him and to hate a liar. The fallacy of all dogmas and
doctrines of men can be traced to one head. And that's spiritual darkness,
if you will, spiritual blindness, death, and unbelief. And the
stench of this rotting corpse has permeated the whole human
race. There's not a son of Adam that
does not suppose himself to be or to make himself in some way
acceptable to God apart from the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. The message of Christ alone,
mark it, Christ alone, grace alone, the scriptures alone,
is the message. This is the message of the gospel.
And mark this, this is the message that every one of God's preachers
declare. Every one of them, without exception. And those that declare a message
other than this are not God's preachers. They're not God's
ambassadors. They're not God's representatives. Those that do
not declare Christ alone, grace alone, and the scriptures alone. The message of God's grace and
this constraining love of Christ shines like a beacon. in a dark
and troubled sea. And that's what this world is.
The whole world lies in wickedness. And the only light that shines,
the only light that shines is the gospel. Now there are some that would
argue with this. There are many that would. But
there's not but one gospel. There's only one. There's only
one Lord. There's only one faith. There's
only one baptism. There's only one gospel. Look
with me, if you will, to several scriptures. First of all, I want
us to look in Psalms 107, verse 14. Psalms 107, verse 14. And I don't suppose it would
be fitting to read this verse without reading some of the previous
verses. But this is a people that rebelled
against God. Look with me in verse 11 of Psalm
107. Because they rebelled against
the words of God and contemned the counsel of the Most High,
therefore He brought down their heart with labor. They fell down
and there was none to help. But then they cried unto the
Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness
and the shadow of death, and broke their bands and sundered.
Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for
His wonderful works to the children of men." This is the situation
of all of us by nature. We are rebels. We're religious
rebels. We are in darkness. We sit in
darkness, in the shadow of death. There is no goodness. There is
no righteousness. There is no good thoughts of
God in man. There is not one spark of divinity
in a son of Adam. There is not anything in man
to cultivate and to bring out his goodness, because there is
none. There is no faith in man. The scripture says all men have
not faith. There is no faith in man. There
is no spiritual ability in man. We are destitute of anything
good. In Romans 3, there is none good.
There is none righteous. No, not one. The whole world
is guilty before God. All men are. And if men are to
be brought into right relationship with God, into fellowship with
Christ, and to be able to see and to know Christ and to love
Him, this is the work of God. It's by the constraining love
of Christ that men are awakened, and it's by Him bringing them
down that He raises them up. Everyone must be brought down.
before He's raised up. We must be killed before we're
made alive. We must be made empty before we're filled. We must
be brought down before we're raised up. And He has raised
them up out of the darkness and the shadow of death and break
their bands in sunder. He has given them life. Look
with me at another scripture in Isaiah chapter 29. Isaiah
chapter 29. And in that day shall the deaf
hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see
out of obscurity and out of darkness. Now this seems like an impossibility,
doesn't it? In that day shall the deaf hear. In that day shall the blind See,
isn't that a miracle? Isn't that a miracle of grace
that the deaf would hear? The hour is coming, and now is,
when the dead shall hear the voice of the Lord, and they that
hear shall live. When the blind eye shall see,
like blind Bartimaeus, blind from birth, he couldn't see.
And the Lord Jesus gave him sight. This is a picture of what happens
in regeneration. He gives sight to those that
can't see. Now see. Bartimaeus, what happened
to you? I know this, I was blind, but
now see. You know, it's a miracle that
I believe that salvation is by grace. That is a miracle. It's a miracle that I believe
that salvation, and love it, that salvation is all of grace.
That's a miracle. I wasn't raised like that. I
was raised in a Baptist church, but they sure didn't believe
that. And I didn't believe it by nature. It just went against
the grain. I did not believe, and it's offensive
to the flesh to think that I don't have something to do with my
salvation. That offends man. You mean God
doesn't give everyone a chance? Salvation is not by chance. Salvation
is by choice. God's choice. You mean salvation
is not by works? It's by works, but not mine.
It's by His works. You see, man wants to do his
part and let God do His part, but man doesn't have any part
in salvation. God may let you go. You know,
preachers stand behind the podium every day, I suppose, and promise
people if they'll do something, God will save them. If you'll
walk an aisle, if you'll shake a preacher's hand, if you'll
bow to an altar, if you'll make a commitment, Dr. Billy Graham always gave his
invitation to come forward and make a commitment. Salvation
is not in you making a commitment. Salvation is in the blood and
righteousness and death and regenerating power of the Spirit of God. It's
a work of God's grace. And when we see, and we'll get
to this in a moment, when we see what Christ has done, that
should constrain us to love Him. The love of Christ constrains
us because we thus judge. Then if one died for all, then
we're all dead. And this is not speaking about
an ever-living human being. It's talking about all His sheep.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Look at 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse
6. We'll look in verse 3. But if
our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. In whom
the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe
not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Jesus Christ the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. 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 in the face
of Jesus Christ. This is something God has done.
This is His work. That's what I want us to see.
In Psalm 107, verse 42, you don't have to turn there, but the Scripture
said the righteous will see it and love it. You can jot this
down and look at it some other time. But the righteous shall
see it and love it. The wicked shall see it and hate
it. And many shall see it and sing a new song. Many shall see it and sing a
new song. And those that see it do indeed
sing a new song. He has raised me up out of a
horrible pit. He's established me, put a new song in my heart. even praise to our God. Now, I want us to consider three
things concerning this constraining love. We know that this is a
work of God. We've seen the Scriptures that
this great salvation is a work of God, that it's not of man.
The love of Christ, that is Christ's love for us, constrains us, causes
us, To love Him. This is the message. This is
what I want us to see and understand and examine ourselves. Do I love
Him? You know, Christ asked Peter,
He said, Do you love me? Do you love me? Do we love a
doctrine? Do we love... What do we love? Who do we love?
Do we love Christ? Peter said, Do you know that
I love you? He said, Yes, Lord, I love you. He asked him three
times, do you love me? He said, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Well,
I want us to ask ourselves this question, and I pray that God
would call us to ask ourselves this question, do we love him?
I've seen many men defend the doctrines of grace, sit across
the table and argue points, and defend Calvinism. But oh,
how few and far between have I seen men sit across the table
and weep over the love of Christ. And don't get me wrong, I am
a Calvinist, and I believe the doctrines of
grace, but without Christ, that's a corpse. Do you love him? I love election in Him. I love
predestination in Him. I love justification in Him.
I love imputed righteousness in Him. I don't love it outside
of Him. It's just a cold doctrine. The love of Christ, essentially. First of all, essentially. Manifestively
and efficaciously. I want you to look at these things.
The love of Christ, essentially. The scripture says that God is
love. Did you know that? God is love. Who is the Lord Jesus Christ?
Essentially, who is he? He said, if you've seen me, you've
seen the Father. He said, I and the Father are one. You see,
Christ is love, essentially. That's who He is. He cannot help but love, because
He is love. God is love. That's who He is. Look with me in John chapter
17. This passage of Scripture is very familiar, but I want
you to look at this with me. After several years of trying
to preach the gospel and believe in the gospel, I see things new
every day. Now, you may have seen this,
I don't know, but if you have, maybe we can rejoice in it together.
In John chapter 17, verse 20, our Lord prayed to His Father
in this great prayer, this high priestly prayer. And He said,
He was praying for His disciples, and He said, neither pray I for
these alone. but for them also which shall
believe on me through their word, that they all may be one, as
thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may
be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent
me, and the glory which thou gavest me I give unto them, that
they may be one even as we are one, and I in them, and thou
in me, that they may be made perfect and one. that the world
may know that Thou sent me and has loved them as Thou has loved
me." The God of all glory, the God
of all grace loves His Son. He didn't send Him to the cross
because He hated Him. He sent Him to the cross because
He loved us. And the love of God is best manifest at the cross. And is only manifest,
now listen, the love of God is only manifest in the Lord Jesus
Christ. God is love essentially. God
is love. The Lord Jesus Christ is love
essentially. And that love is manifest in
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Herein is God's love manifest
revealed that He would give His life for us. Look at Ephesians
3.19. God loved His Son. He loves us
like He loves His Son. Ephesians 3.19. This is a prayer, if you will. This is the desire of Paul that
wrote this by the inspiration of God, and it's a prayer. It's all rolled into one. It's
an inspired letter, but also it's a prayer and a desire of
Paul's heart. And in this prayer, he says that
you may be able, in verse 18, That you may be able to comprehend
with all saints what is the breadth, the length, the depth, and the
height. And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge,
that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. That
you may be able to know the love of Christ. You know, to know that someone
loves you, isn't that something? To know that someone loves you?
To know it, not doubt it, not worry about it, not think twice
about it. You just know they love you.
Just know it. To know the love of Christ. Christ
loves me. Not because of anything that
I've done, not because of who I am, but because of who He is. He loves me because He's pleased
to. He loves me because He wants
to. He loves me because He can do nothing else but love me. Look in Romans 8.35. Turn back
to Romans 8.35. Look in verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Who? Christ is God. Who can separate us from God? Who can separate us from Christ?
If He loves us, who can change that? Who is going to... Can I change that? Can you change
it? Can anything I do change that? His love is eternal. His love is everlasting. His
love is binding and constraining. He loves us. He loves His people
with an everlasting love. He said, I have loved thee with
an everlasting love and drawn you with cords of kindness. Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation?
We all have tribulation, don't we? Distress, we've all been
in distress. We've all been persecuted. We've
all experienced not all of these things, most of them. Famine,
nakedness, peril, sword. As it's written, for thy sake
are we killed all the day long. We're counted as sheep for the
slaughter. Nay, in all these things we're more conquerors
through Him that loved us. Don't worry. The love of Christ
constrains me. that He's going to take care
of me, that nothing's going to be able to separate me from His
love. For I'm persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor height, nor depth, or any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing. One of the most ridiculous
things that I've ever heard, that we can be saved and lost. That we know Christ and then
not know Him. See, if I saved myself, yes. If salvation was by Tommy Robbins,
yes. If salvation was my worth, yes.
I'd never be saved. Much less be saved and lost,
I'd never be saved to start with. But salvation is not something
I did. It's something He done. And did
it because He loved me. And nothing will be able to separate
me from that love. This constrains me to love Him. For the love of Christ constraineth
us. And this love is manifest in
such a great way. In such a wonderful way. You
know, I was thinking this morning, it would be wonderful If everyone
would say it every time the gospel was preached, you'd come and
sit and listen to the gospel. I think that's a pastor especially could
identify with this. If everyone that professed to
believe the gospel would come and sit and listen to it. It'd
be wonderful if everyone that sat and listened to it would
believe it. That'd be doubly wonderful. But what would be
greater than that? You say there'd be something
greater? Yes, there's something greater than that. Not only if they sat
and heard it and they believed it, but if everyone heard it
and believed it and loved it. That would be the greatest. Love
Christ, love His Word, love the things of God. The Lord Jesus
Christ manifested His love in something He did. That love was
manifested in something that He did. You know, love is not
what we do, but what we do manifests whether we love or whether we
don't. I wrote an article in this week's bulletin or last
week's one that you might want to read. Love is not commitment. Love is not these things we do. But commitment and the things
we do is a result of that love. I don't really know what love
is. God is love. That's all I can say. God is
love. But to identify, to define love, I don't know. It's a passion
of the heart. It's something that happens in
here. You just love somebody. You just love. And that love
causes you to do things. It causes you to do things. It
causes you to drive like a maniac. If you're dating a girl and you
think you're going to be late and she'll be mad at you, you'll
drive like a maniac to get there. Love will make you do crazy,
stupid things. It will also make you do sensible
things and good things. Love, the love of Christ constrains
us because we thus judge. Love will make us deny ourself,
take up a cross and follow Him. Love will cause a man to deny
the flesh, deny the comforts and pleasures and toys and things
of this world to sit down and listen to a plain, simple gospel
message that means not being beings to nobody else. But boy,
that love. That love that He loved us with,
He's given to His people. Love. Manifested. That's love
manifested in 1 John 4 and 9. And this is the heart and the
meat of this message, I believe. 1 John 4 and 9. You may find it before I do.
1 John chapter 4 and verse 9. It's going to be hard not to
read the whole chapter, but I'll not read the whole chapter. Look
at verse 7. And this beloved means beloved
of the Lord. It means that God has loved us, that He does love
us. Let us love one another, for love is of God. And everyone
that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not
knoweth not God, for God is love. And this was manifested to love
God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into
the world. that we might live through Him.
Hear in His love, not that we loved God, that He loved us.
And send His Son to be the perpetuation for our sin. Think with me for
a moment before we turn to another scripture. Think with me for
a moment. The Lord Jesus Christ, willingly, without any reservation,
Without any second thought, without any drawing back, the Lord Jesus
Christ laid down His life for us. This was not just a legal thing
that He must do, although there is legality in justification. But this legality of it did not
drive him or constrain him to go to the cross. It was just
not a matter of fact thing that he must do. But this is something
that he wanted to do. The Lord Jesus Christ was God
manifesting the flesh. He is God manifesting the flesh.
He came into this world, and let's bring this down on a personal
level. and see if the love of God constrains us. This is what
constrained him, his love for us. He came to this world and
he loved Tommy Robbins. And you put your name there.
He loved me, that's why he came. You see, this is a personal thing.
He didn't die for the masses, he died for individuals. He died
for His elect. He died for His people. He died
for the sheep. He came into this world with
me on His heart and on His mind. Every step that He took, every
step that He took, every thought that He thought, every sorrow
He bore, every strife that He endured, all of the scourgings,
all of the abuse, everything that he did, all of
the law that he upheld, he did it for me. He did it for me. I was upon his heart. This is
not, he's not an abstract God. He's not an abstract Christ.
He's not doing this to see if someone will respond. He did
this on purpose for me. Have you ever thought about it
like that? Has He ever caused you to think about it like this?
He did this for me. And then, not only did He undergo
all of those things, upheld the law and suffered as a man of
sorrow and acquainted with grief, My stripes were laid on Him.
My nickel was laid on Him. And He lived thirty-three and
a half years for me, to work out a righteousness for me. He
was tempted in all points, like I am, yet without sin. And then
that final hour, that final hour, He was made sin. We read in our
text this morning, God made Him to be sin for us. He took all
of my sin, all of my all of my lies and all of my depravity,
all of my adultery, all of my fornications, all of my filth
and scum that goes on in my soul, my mind and my thoughts, and
all that I am by nature, all of my self-righteousness, all of my rebellion. He took it all, willingly. He was constrained to. He said,
I'll do it. He took it all because He loved
me. That's a manifestation of God's
love because He is essentially love. He could do no less because
He loved me. He took all of my sin, all of
my sorrow, all of my shame. He took it all in His own body. And when He cried from the cross,
My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Like I've said so
many times, this wasn't for His information. He knew. But He
cried out under the wrath of God as He underwent the penalty
for my sin. And what I see in the face of
the Lord Jesus Christ as He hangs on the cross is love. That thief on the cross said,
Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And in love,
he said this day, thou shalt be with me in paradise. That's
constraining love. That's what it is. This is what
this message is all about. Cold, hard doctrine is just that. But the love of Christ gives
it seasoning and life and sense and power. The love of Christ
constrains us because we thus judge that if one died for all,
then we're all dead. The Lord Jesus Christ in sovereign love one day caused me to hear the gospel.
I never heard his voice. Oh, I'd heard religion all my
life. I was raised a fundamental, independent,
premillennial Baptist. And if you used to ask me, I
wouldn't even tell you what that is. I know what it is, but I wouldn't
waste my time telling you. I knew all that. I finally was brought to the
place I knew what Calvinism was. Five points. Knew all that. But then somewhere, God in grace
and mercy and Christ Jesus in his great love, wherewith he
love me. He brought me to Himself and caused me to see that He
loved me. And do you know what that's done to me? Do you know
what that's done for me and does for me and does for you? It caused
us to love Him. We love Him because He first
loved us. One day, I heard the message
of Christ. I didn't just hear Calvinism. I heard Christ. I heard Him. He that believeth on Me shall
never perish. Come unto Me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Come to Me. Folks say, I come to the doctrines.
I'm over the Reformed persuasion now. I've Reformed. I'm not a Of the fundamentalist
group now, I'm a reformed Calvinist. Like Brother Scott Rich said,
every man to his own poison. Have you come to Christ? The
love of Christ constrains us. Oh, he said, come. Come unto
me, all you that labor. Heavy laden, I'll give you rest.
What am I supposed to do, Preacher? Come up to the front of the church
and I'll just sit still. Believe in your heart. Come to
Him in your heart. He gives faith. Constrain. What Christ did for us was out
of constraining love. Now, one last I want to mention. What does
that love, that constraining love that he has for you, what
does it constrain you to do? What does it constrain me to
do? What does us seeing how much He loved us, we'll never see
how much, but us seeing a portion of His love for us, what does
this give us a desire to do? I want to know Him, don't you?
It gives me a desire for Him. I want to know the Lord Jesus
Christ. I may have been a Calvinist all my life. I haven't been,
but I could have been. Maybe some of you have been.
But now, I want to know Christ. I'm just not satisfied. I want
to know Him. I'm not satisfied in my religion.
It just doesn't keep me faithful, doesn't keep me committed, doesn't
keep me that desire there. I just, it's weak. I want something
that's real, something that works, something that possesses me and
empowers me and governs me. Bring me to Christ. Give me that
love and desire that I need, that I want. I want it. I want
to be committed to Him, don't you? I don't feel like I am,
but I want to be. I want to be faithful to Him.
He's faithful to me. Oh, how faithful He was. He's that true
and faithful witness. He was faithful. Faithful in
His life, faithful in His death. And he's faithful now as he sits
on his throne of glory, ruling and reigning for my good. He's faithful. He's our faithful
high priest. Sits in the heavens, sovereign
over all, moving everything to my good and his glory. That's
what he's doing right now. He's faithful. And all that I
could be faithful to him. I want to be faithful to you.
I want to be faithful to my wife, to my children, my grandchildren,
my neighbors, you. I want to be faithful to you.
But I ought to be faithful to Him, to be faithful to Him, to be
committed to Him. You see, this is a fruit of love. This is where duty and responsibility
vanishes and become a desire. I don't go to church because
I have to. I don't go to church because you expect it. I don't do this because it's
my responsibility, although it is. This is the way I want to be.
This is what I desire. And maybe someday, by God's grace,
He'll cause this to happen to us. I want to do everything I
do because I love Him. And this is a revealing thing,
like I said, and I'm going to close on this. You see, the Lord
Jesus Christ manifest His love of what He did. Sometimes we get to cart before
the horse. We say, well, if I do this, this will cause me to love
Him. No. What he did, God didn't send
his son so that he could love us. He sent his son because he
did love us. Isn't that right? I don't want
to do something to make God do something. I want to do it because
I want to do it. There's a lot of difference.
Lots of times my kids, grandkids would ask me to do things that
I didn't really want to do but went ahead and done it. Does that ever happen to you?
You go ahead and do it. But I want to do it because I
want to do it. I don't want to come down and
preach to you all Sunday after Sunday because I have to. I'm
your pastor and I've got what I've got to do. I want to come
down here and do it for the glory of God because I love Him, love
you. That's the reason I want you
to come. And like I said a while ago, what a wonderful thing would
it be if everybody came to hear the gospel. That would be a wonderful
thing, wouldn't it? What a wonderful thing it
would be if everyone believed the gospel. That would be really
wonderful. What a wonderful thing, wonderful
thing it would be if we all loved the gospel. You're talking about
commitment and joy, fellowship, awe. And God's only one can do it.
Constraining love. Constraining love. The love of
Christ constrains us. You know, I'm standing up here
wanting to make this happen, and I can't do it. I can't do it, but He
can. Christ said, Peter, do you love
me? Lord, thou knowest all things. You know I love you. We love you. Let's bow our
heads.