Knowing, therefore, the terror
of the Lord, we persuade man. We persuade man. That's my subject. And I've come here, I think,
with something of the knowledge of what the prophets meant when
they said the burden of the word of the Lord. We persuade man. That means I'm here to put the
squeeze on you. I'm here to put you under pressure,
to pressure your hearts, your minds, your consciences. We persuade men. I want to persuade
you, O Spirit of God, come do this work. I want to
persuade you who are yet rebels to God our Savior, who yet are
under the wrath of God, who yet believe not on the Son of God
to be reconciled to God by faith in his darling son. I want to
persuade you right now, right where you are, to come to Christ. Believe on the Son of God. I know that work is not a work
I can do, but God uses the preaching of the gospel to do that work,
and I pray he will do that for you. Believe on the Son of God. Throw up the white flag of surrender
in your soul. to Jesus Christ the Lord. Faith
in Christ is nothing less than the surrender of your life to
God Almighty in his Son. The surrender of your life to
the rule of the Lord Jesus Christ, the willing voluntary surrender
of the totality of your being to Jesus Christ the Lord. Believe
on the Son of God. And I want to persuade you who
are gods, you who have been born of God's Spirit, saved by His
grace, washed in the precious blood of Christ, I want to persuade
you and persuade myself to utter consecration to God
our Savior, renewed devotion to him who loved us and gave
himself for us. 47 years ago, I took my place
in a watery grave with the Son of God, and I lifted my hand
to God and to the world and to God's church. And I said in confessing
Christ in Believer's Baptism, when I was 17 years old, I belonged
to God, lock, stock and barrel. It is mine now to live for Him. Spirit of God, persuade me again
of that commitment. I've lifted my hand to God, and
I cannot go back. If God gives you faith in Christ
this night, if God has given you faith in Christ, I urge you,
confess Him and believe His baptism, and understand what you're doing.
You're lifting your hand publicly to God. I'm his. Risen with him to walk in the
newness of life. And pastor, I want to persuade
you and brother Clay and myself and brother Greg and you preachers.
I want to persuade us to give ourselves anew. in utter consecration
to the cause of our Redeemer in the preaching of the gospel
of His grace. I realize that some of us are
on the downhill slope, Brother David. We're about done. Our
day's about done. But it is my prayer, it is my
desire, it is my hope that as long as I live in this world
to my dying breath I'll be doing what I'm doing now, only with
more commitment, with more devotion, with more zeal than I've ever
done it before. Would it be wonderful to be like
Caleb when he took the possession of the land? I was 80 years old.
Now, 40 years ago, God gave me this land in promise. 40 years
ago, I came back with a good report and said, we're going
to take this land. And I'm as strong now as I was then. Somehow,
I've got a hunch. He wasn't talking about physical
strength. I've got a hunch. He was talking about a whole
lot more than that. He was saying, I believe God, like I believed
God then. I have this vision just as clear
now as I did then. God, give me grace to give myself
ardently to the cause of the gospel in the last days of my
life. You older men and women, Brother
Joe, Joe McSherry is 70 in a day or two. That's all right, isn't
it, Joe? And you have a tendency to think,
well, I've had my day, I'll give over to these young folks. Don't
you do it. Don't you do it. As long as God
gives you breath, you give yourself to the service of our God in
his house as you have in your youth. I can't contribute what
I used to. When you're 70 in a day or two,
you can contribute other things. And give yourself to it. Children
of God, don't ever grow weary of the calls of Christ and the
service of our Redeemer and the interest of the gospel in this
world. Give yourselves to it in utter
consecration. We persuade men. You'll have
my text in verse 11. Actually, I want to give you
an exposition of these 21 verses, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, but
the burden of my message you'll find in verse 11 and in verse
20. Knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. Now look at verse 20. 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. Brother Clay Curtis just stood
up here and preached to you as an ambassador, an ambassador
for Christ, but not merely an ambassador, not merely a messenger. An ambassador is just a messenger. He doesn't necessarily have any
concern about the one who sent him or the message he carries
or the ones to whom he gives the message. Not God's servants. Oh, no. Oh, no. I've heard men
say many times standing pulpits, I don't care whether you believe
this or not. I do. I do. I tremble for your soul. I do. Nothing concerns me more
than the one who sent me. I'm God's ambassador. I'm here
to represent the God of heaven, the king of glory, to speak for
him and in his name. And I'm greatly concerned about
the message he's given me, the gospel of his free grace in his
darling son. And I'm concerned for your immortal
soul. My prayer My heart's desire to
God for you is that you may be saved. I want you to know God. I want you to know the Lord Jesus
Christ. I want you to know the free pardon
of sin, perfect righteousness in him, his everlasting salvation. Now, let's see if I can find
some basis for calling on these things, calling on you to give
up your life. to give up your life, utterly
give up your life to the Son of God. And call on you my brothers
and sisters in Christ Jesus to relentlessly seek grace that
you may more and more utterly give up your life to the Son
of God. How can I find reasons for you
preachers? You know, boy, I'm working to
death now. I'm doing all I can. Oh, no. How can I find some motive
by which to urge you to addict yourselves to the business of
preaching the gospel? I've got seven. I'll give them
to you briefly. First, eternity. Eternity. and the immortality
of your souls. Eternity. Oh, eternity. Eternity. You and I are not animals. We didn't just evolve from a
worm or a germ or an ape. We are creatures made in the
image and likeness of God, living in these Bodies that we dote
about way too much. But these bodies are not us. We are living souls. And we will
live forever. Either in endless death or in
endless life. Either in the bliss of glory
with God and Christ in happiness and joy and perfection are in
darkness and torment and everlasting damnation. One of the two. Another breath and you're going
to meet God. None of us can find words with which to describe
the vanity of all things you can see and feel and touch with
these hands and these eyes and these hearts in this world. We look not, we're told in verse
18 of chapter 4, on things which are seen, but on things which
are unseen. For the things which are seen
are temporal. The things which are unseen are
eternal. And you look on things here and
you get real excited about it. And that's all right. There are
things here that are excitable. Things that we delight in, good
mercies of our God. Oh, what a blessed man I am. I have a family that loves me,
a congregation that loves me, blessed in so many ways, but
everything here is very brief. And there's nothing here you
can hold very long. Try as you might. Soon, you're
going to give up the dearest objects there is in this world
to you, and you can't hold it. You can't hold it. Your wife,
your husband, your son, your daughter, your mother, your father,
just temporary. And soon they're gone. Look at
verses one through nine and understand something about what the apostle
tells us here about a believer's attitude toward these things.
We live in the expected hope of immortality. In the expected hope. I don't
mean that we just sort of hope we're going to live forever with
God. Oh no, no, no, no. Christ is mine. I fully anticipate
glory as soon as I close these eyes in death. For we know that
if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we
have immediately, right now, a building of God and house not
made with hands eternal in the heavens. For in this we grow. Just like Lot did in Sodom. Next,
we grow. Grow with our sin. grown with
the corruptions in us and the corruptions around us. In this
we grow earnestly desiring. Now that's either true or it's
a lie. There are no in between gray.
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. Not for that we would be unclothed.
We're not just wanting to get out of trouble, escape this life
and all. Oh, no, no, no. But we're burdened that we may
be clothed upon. That mortality might be swallowed
up of life. Mark Daniel, this life is just
mortality. This life is just dying. And
we desire for this dying to be swallowed up with living, with
real life. Our faith in Christ gives us
confidence concerning these things, assurance concerning these things.
Now he that hath wrought us for the self same thing. Boy, that
looks like it reads wrong, doesn't it Andy? Every time I read it,
I want to read it. He that hath wrought for us the
selfsame thing. But that's not what it says.
He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing. That is to say,
God who worked us to prepare us for this glory is God. Who hath given us the earnest
of the spirit, the pledge, the down payment, the foretaste of
the spirit. Therefore, we are always confident
because we had the seal of the Spirit in our souls. We have
faith in Christ, sealing to us all the blessings of the covenant,
knowing that whilst we're at home in the body, we're absent
from the Lord. But we walk by faith, not by
sight. We live here and we walk with
God just like Enoch walked with God. We really do. We walk with God just like Enoch
walked with God, having this witness that we please God. We walk with God by faith, but
all the while, something's missing. All the while, something's missing. And that is the immediate presence
and glory of the Savior. So we walk by faith, not by sight,
but we're confident. confident, I say, and willing
rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the
Lord. And yet this confident faith
is not a matter of presumption. Wherefore, we labor that whether
present or absent, we may be accepted of him. Your pastor
has said things just to this effect several times last night,
this morning and tonight. I want to be one of the sheep.
Lord, make this work your work. Well, you're one of his sheep.
This is his work. But we don't act presumptuously. We don't deal with God presumptuously. We live continually as mercy-begging
sinners at the throne of grace, walking with him, seeking his
grace and mercy by faith in Christ Jesus the Lord. We recognize
that there are multitudes who, as soon as they die, must perish
forever under the wrath of God, who vainly presumed that they
were perfectly accepted with God. They made a decision, they
changed their lives, they started going to church, they started
acting good. Don't be so foolish. If you die without Christ, You
will die forever under the wrath of God. We persuade you. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. In the light of these things,
give yourself wholly to him. Second, I make my appeal to you
on the basis of the certainty and strictness of divine judgment. There is a day of judgment. I know there is a final climactic
day of judgment appointed by God, but don't imagine that you
won't suffer for your sins until then. Oh no, 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. Knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. You're going to meet God in judgment,
and the books will be opened. And you will be judged of God,
every one according to that which he has done, precisely according
to strict justice, and you will receive from God exactly what
you deserve forever. There'll be no mitigating circumstances
considered. There'll be no circumstances
that might give you an excuse for what you've done or not done.
You will be judged of God according to what you have done in your
body. Exactly by that shall you be
judged. Brother Don, then we're all going
to hell. No, not everybody. Not everybody. I will stand before God in that
day with perfect righteousness and
perfect obedience and perfect faith with never a single deviation
from it with no sin. Read Jeremiah chapter 15 verse
20 and read it for yourself. God says in that day I'll look
for the sins of Judah. I'll look for the iniquity of
Israel and it shall not be found. I know who my pardon. Every sinner who looks to Christ
has been completely obedient to God in every totality. No mark against him in the person
of God's darling son. Oh, that's called substitution.
And God will reward us with perfect obedience because we obeyed him
perfectly in his darling son. Now I know people say, well,
that's the way God sees things. Just in case you didn't hear
me last time I was here. I would let you in on a little secret.
However God sees things. David call you, that's how they
really are. This is how God sees it. That's the way it is. I get messed
up. My vision's not much good. Yours
either. God sees things as they are. And God beholds us in his son. And if God beholds you outside
his Son, who can stand before his indignation? God will reward
you with everlasting damnation because you fully deserve it.
And nobody will be sorry that he does. Nobody will shed a tear
when he cast you into hell. Nobody will be heartbroke because
all standing at the judgment bar will see things exactly as
God does. Ye sinners seek his face, whose
wrath you cannot bear. Fly to the shelter of his cross
and find salvation there. All flee away to the city of
refuge and find safety in the Lord Jesus. Number three. I appeal to you to give your
life in totality to the Son of God. Utterly surrender to him. Savior said, if you hate not
father and mother and brother and sister, yea, in your own
life also, you cannot be my disciple. Does that mean? What does that
mean? That mean that Greg Elmquist
was supposed to go home and start treating his wife and his daughter
and family maids just to treat them like they don't exist? No,
no, no, no. If you follow Christ, you're
the best husband you could possibly be. What's it mean then? It means
that they don't come into any rivalry with God. What did God do when he said,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated? He devoted himself
to Jacob. And he didn't even think about
Esau. Gave no consideration to Esau. That's what he's talking
about. So that you give no consideration
to self, only to him who loved you and gave himself for you.
Fear of wrath won't do that. The threat of judgment won't
do that. Only the goodness of God leads men to repentance.
So look at the next thing here. The love of Christ. Oh, now. I claim your attention and hearing
not because of anything in me, but because of the gospel I preach.
This is my commendation of myself to you. But we are made manifest
unto God. And I trust also it may manifest
in your consciences. For we commend not ourselves
again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf.
that ye may have somewhat to answer them, which glory in appearance
only, and not in heart. My motive, I believe, is obvious.
I don't have any concern in this thing except God's glory in your
eternal good. For whether we be beside ourselves,
it is to God. Or whether we be sober, it is
for your cause. The basis of our appeal, the
foundation of our message, The strength of God that's issued
to you in the gospel is the love of God revealed in the sacrifice
of his dear son. Look at verse 14. For the love
of Christ constraineth us. The love of Christ with effectual
Irresistible power constrains, compels, forces us because we
thus judge. Considering that Jesus Christ
died in the room instead of his people 2,000 years ago, he was
made a curse for us because of his great love for us. That constrains
us to make this judgment, make this conclusion. If one died
for all, then we're all dead. If Christ
died for all his people, we were dead when he died. We were crucified
when he was crucified. We were put to death when he
was put to death. We were executed when he was
executed so that justice has no claim upon us. The love of
Christ constrains us considering this. and that he died for all,
that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves,
but unto him which died for them and rose again. You're not your own. You've been bought with a price,
and Christ died for you. that you may live to him. He didn't die for you so you
could live here and make money and get a lot of property and
have a lot of stuff to leave to your children. He died for
you that you may live to him. Live to him. Live to him. Read on. Wherefore, henceforth
know we no man after the flesh. Yea, though we've known Christ
after the flesh, Yet now henceforth know we him no more. That is
our knowledge of God in his son is not just a carnal knowledge.
It's not just something that affects the mind. It's not just
an intellectual thing. It's not just a historic thing.
We know him by the revelation of God's spirit in our hearts,
revealing Christ in us. And now we know all men in the
light of that. We look upon all men in this
light. What a marvelous, compelling
force this is. Amazing love. How can it be that
thou, my God, shouldst die for me? I make another appeal, and I make it on the blessedness
of God's salvation. Look at verse 17. Therefore,
that is, since Christ died, since Christ died and we died in him,
since Christ died, that we live no longer to ourselves, but unto
him who loved us and gave himself for us. Therefore, if any man
be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away and
behold, all things are become new. If any man be in Christ,
by God's decree, by the power of God's Spirit in the new birth
and the effectual call, by faith in Him, he's a new creature,
a new creature. Now, theologians, folks who study
God, theologians and folks who think they are, use the word
regeneration to refer to this. I have used it many times and
will probably use it again tomorrow, referring to the new birth. You
other preachers do it. We do it all the time. But do
you know the word regeneration or regenerate is never used in
this book to refer to the new birth? The only time it's used
in this book refers to God creating all things new in the last day
when he's destroyed the earth and made it anew in the regeneration.
That's the only time it's ever used. Well, how do you describe
this then? In the word of God, the scriptures
speak of us being quickened. The word is made alive. Raised
up from the dead, blessed and holy is he that hath part in
the first resurrection, on such the second death shall have no
power. The word of God speaks of us being raised up from the
dead, born again, born of the spirit, but never regenerated. You see, when God saves his people,
he doesn't regenerate the old man. Oh, no, no, no. He doesn't regenerate the old
man. He puts a new man in you. He creates you new. He makes
you an altogether new creature by his grace and puts Christ
in you. The hope of glory puts Christ
in you, making you partakers of the divine nature. We're born
again, born of the spirit, given an entirely new life in Christ
and old things are passed away. Some of you are young and old
enough to remember when we had tape players instead of DVDs
and CDs. Y'all remember those old days?
We were talking to our granddaughter. She can't hardly think about
folks not having cell phones. Some of us had readers. But how
did you communicate? Well, we used to have cassette
tapes, reel-to-reel tapes, VHS tapes, and you could push a rewind
button and start all over. How many times have you thought
to yourself, I wish I could push the rewind button and start all
over? What would you give if you could
start all over with a perfect record, with no sin, with no
guilt, with no blame from God, with no possibility of messing
it up? With no possibility of messing
it up. Believe on the Son of God. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Old things are passed away. Their
sins and iniquities, God said, I will remember no more. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity. I'm calling for you to be reconciled
to God. your soul's eternal good. I'm
trying to persuade you to come to Christ. Now, here's the fifth
appeal. The finished work of Christ.
Verse eighteen. And all things are of God. Salvation is God's work from
start to finish. Didn't you love the illustration
that Paul gave when he talked about that camo going through
the needle's eye last night? Wasn't that good? Sitting back
there trying to picture that. Now I don't use sewing needles,
my wife does, but I do know what one looks like. And I used to be able to see
how to get thread through the eye, but I get thread up close
to it now, I just clog up the needle. I can't even get thread
in a needle's eye. But God Almighty is able to take
a camel and put him right through the needle's eye. I could picture
God on both sides of the needle's eye, pushing the camel from his
tail and pulling him with his nose. All things are of God. This is
God's work. But what does man have to do
with it? But what about our will? It's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. First
time I preached in Louisville, Kentucky. for Redeemer Church,
Brother Ian B. Magruder came up to me after
the message, and he said, after telling me, he said, well, you
gave the Reformed fellows a hard time tonight. He said, isn't
it interesting that man takes the weakest part of his nature
and makes a god out of it? His will. It's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus
Christ. What? Hath reconciled us? Past tense? Done already? I thought
we were trying to get folks to be reconciled to God. Hang on
a minute. I'll talk about that in a minute. Here he says, he
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. How was that
done? God, by the sacrifice of His
Son, took away every obstacle to our union with God in His
Son. All our sin, all our iniquities,
all our transgressions, He took it all away and reconciled us
to His Son. And we're sent to preach repentance
and forgiveness of sins. Sent to preach. That is to announce,
to proclaim, to declare the good news of repentance and forgiveness
of sins. What? How is it that repentance
gets connected with good news? It's a turning. It's a turning
accomplished by God in His Son at Calvary when He turned us
again to Himself. and is given to us the ministry,
the service of reconciliation. Oh, what a service. What a service. The service of reconciliation.
He sent us into the world with the gospel of his grace to reconcile
sinners to himself. To proclaim reconciliation and
call sinners to reconciliation. You remember when our Lord stood
at the tomb of Lazarus? He's about to raise Lazarus from
the dead. And he says to some fellas standing
there, take ye away the stone. Well, it looks to me like if
he could raise Lazarus from the dead, he could take away the
stone without any trouble. He could, but they couldn't raise
Lazarus from the dead. They could take away the stone.
And he gives them the high honor of rolling the stone from the
tomb. Oh, I'd like to put my shoulder to that rock. Oh, I'd like to have been involved
in that. What an honor. I couldn't raise
the ashes from the dead, but the Lord let me push the rock
out of the way. I can't raise you from the dead,
but I pray God will use me to push the rock out of the mouth
of your tomb, and you'll come to God this night, be reconciled
to him. He's given us the ministry of
reconciliation. What is that? It's ministry of
reconciliation. To wit, God was in Christ, reconciling
the world. Now, for the sake of brevity,
let me tell you what that means. Reconciling his elect wherever
they're found in the world unto himself. Oh, but world means
world. Well, we'll take that up another
day if you want to. But if it means world, then everybody's
going to heaven. If it means everybody in the world, everybody's
saved. There's never a hint of such blasphemy in the scriptures.
Our Lord God was in his son, reconciling his elect scattered
through all the nations of the world unto himself. not imputing
their trespasses unto them, and hath committed to us the word,
the message of reconciliation. And that's my sixth appeal. The
message of the gospel. Here is the word of reconciliation.
There is no passage in this book more glorious than these last
two verses of second Corinthians five. No words to be found in
human literature to compare with these words. Read them and weep
over your sins that demanded such a sacrifice. Read them and rejoice and give thanks to
God for the grace that provides the sacrifice. For he hath made him sin. Sin. I preached from this text years
and years ago down in Houston, Bel Air Reformed Baptist Church,
where my brother Drew was pastor. through Garner. At the service,
we talked a little bit about the sin. Paul is quoting from
Isaiah 53, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.
And by divine inspiration, he writes it this way. He hath made
him sin. Not a sin offering, sin. Why? If you care to get your concordance
and look up the word sin offering in the Old Testament, every single
place, no exception, the word is sin. Sin. It doesn't say he
hath made him to be sin, he made him sin. He made him sin for
us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. How can that be? I don't have a clue. I don't
have a clue. Now, I know there's a lot of
arguing, debating and fussing over this. My dear brothers,
hear me. Hear me. This is too precious, too magnificent, too wonderful. for debate and argument. It's
altogether proper. We talk and try to understand
it better. It's altogether proper. We raise questions, talk. That's
fine. But to debate, divide up, take
sides. Oh, God forgive us for such evil.
God forgive us for such evil. It's too precious. The word made
here I'm not like Brother Donnie.
I do know a little Greek and Hebrew. I knew a little Greek
who ran a restaurant down in Winston-Salem. I knew a little
Hebrew who ran a clothing store right around the corner from
him. But I have a friend who's a linguist,
and I called him up. I said, tell me what this word
means. What's it all about? He said, it's a marvelous word.
It means wondrously. mysteriously, inexplicably made. In other words, you can't tell
what it means. Made, made. The gospel we preach is full
of paradoxes that can never be understood by our puny brains. I don't know how God became a
man, but he really did. and never cease to be God. I
don't understand that. And the fellows I've read who
tried to explain it, I found out understood less than I do. I don't understand how the eternal
God, without beginning and without end, could live the space of
time on the earth for 33 years and die. But the book says he
did, doesn't it? God purchased the church with
his own blood. Well might the sun in darkness hide and shut
his glories in when God the mighty maker died for man the creature
said. I don't understand that, but
I know it's so. I know it's so. I don't understand. I gave up long ago trying to
figure out how the incomprehensible eternal God can dwell in the body of a man
in all the fullness of his Godhead. Have you got that figured out,
Dwayne? But in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you're completely in Him.
I can't understand it, but I worship God. I can't understand it, but
I believe God. And I don't have an inkling of
an idea how Christ, the Holy One of God, could be made sin,
really made sin, and yet remain the Holy One of God. But he did. He did! The spotless Lamb of God was
made a curse for us when he hung on the curse tree. And God rewarded
him justly. He cried, Awake, O sword, against
the man that is my fellow. Smite and slay the shepherd. And he who is all fullness, in
whom all fullness dwell, emptied himself, utterly emptied himself
in his obedience unto death, even the death of the cross.
And yet he remains him who is all fullness in whom all fullness
dwells. Why did he do that? Why did he
do that? That we It might be made the
righteousness of God in him. Made the righteousness of God
in him. Here's another paradox. How can
a man, how can a woman be the very righteousness of God? Your pastor read it after Donnie
finished preaching this morning. This is the name whereby she
shall be called Jehovah Sikinyu, the Lord our righteousness. Now
that's not pretend, that's real. How can, Todd and I, how can
you be the righteousness of God? Perfect holiness, perfect righteousness,
perfection, perfection. It shall be perfect to be accepted
and still be full of sin. How can that be? He's a new creature in Christ.
God puts something new in you. He declares us to be righteous
because of Christ's obedience. And he makes us righteous in
the experience of the new birth, imparting righteousness to us
in free grace, giving us that holiness without which no man
shall see the Lord. Some of you have been exposed
to legalistic works, religion all your lives. And folks latch on to that statement
in Hebrews 12, 14. It said, you've got to follow
peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see
the Lord. Now, yeah, God gets you started. And God, that's
all of grace. And God justified, and that's
all of grace. And God put his spirit in, and
that's all of grace. But now you, you've got to pray,
read up, and tithe, and do missionary work, and you've got to wear
your hair a certain way, and talk a certain way, or whatever
group you come from, you know. Down at our place, we've got
two groups of what they call simple people. They split off
of one another. Some of the old fellas wear breeches
with zippers. And the other ones just wear
buttons. Because that's holy. That's holy. Fall in peace with
all men and holiness! That means you wear a straw hat
and chew on hay seed and wear bibbed overalls either with buttons
or zippers, whichever denomination you're part of. Now we laugh at that, but that's
going on all over the world, in churches everywhere. What
is that holiness without which you can't see God? It's Christ
in you. Christ in you, Christ in you,
born again, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now, oh, in the
light of these things, may God give us grace to live not to
ourselves, but to him who loved us and gave himself for us. My preacher brethren, Oh, pray
for me and for yourselves. God, give us grace. God, give
us grace to utterly consecrate ourselves to this work. I'm 64 years old, and I don't
have the strength I used to have. But I tell you what I'm doing
best I can. I'm looking for more to do, not
less. I'm looking for more to do in
the service of the master, for the furtherance of the gospel,
for the cause of Christ, not less. Because I haven't yet begun
to get started doing anything as I ought to do as the servant
of God. Brother Ryan Heller sitting back
there, his mom and dad, missionaries in New Guinea, Probably the most
primitive part of the world it is to live in. His grandmother
and grandfather just came home the last time just because of
physical health forbidding them to live there. You correct me
if I'm wrong, Ryan. Last time they went back there,
last tour down there, your granddad was 84 years old, wasn't he?
Well, what kind of fool would do that? A fool for Christ's sake. A fool
for Christ's sake. God makes such fools of us all
in the eyes of this world, in the eyes of family and friend.
Give yourselves to him. Now look at verse one, chapter
six. Here's my last appeal. We then as workers together with
God beseech you also. that you receive not the grace
of God in vain. Oh, don't hear this in vain.
You've been privileged. Do you know there are few places
in this world where people will hear in a year's time such free
graces you've heard in the last two days? Few places in the world. Don't receive the grace of God
in vain. Don't let this fall on deaf ears. For He hath said, I've heard
thee in the accepted time. In the day of salvation have
I succored thee. What day is this talking about?
What time is this talking about? Go back to Isaiah 49. I had Shelby
turn back and read it to me on the way over here tonight. It's
talking about the day when God reveals His Son in you. I've
succored you. The reason you call on me now
is because I came and helped you. I've heard you in accepted time
in the day of salvation, I succor thee. Behold now, this day of
grace, this is the accepted time. Behold now is the day of salvation. All this blessedness, all this
grace, all this forgiveness is in Christ. God give you grace
to trust him. Years ago I read a story A man
in Chicago and his son, a very wealthy, wealthy man, had a large
art collection. And they were well known for
their wealth, their position, their rank in the community,
and their art collection. And when the Vietnam War broke
out, the young man felt it his duty to enlist in the military,
and he did. And he wasn't there very long. and he was killed rescuing some
soldiers who were caught in a horrible battle. And the father got word. Of course, he was devastated.
Some months later, several months later, someone knocked at the
door, and he had a large package under his arm, and the father
didn't know who it was, but he answered the door, and the young
man introduced himself. He says, sir, you don't know
me, but I knew your son. served together in Vietnam. In
fact, your son was killed carrying me to safety. And he often spoke
about you and his great love for you and his admiration for
you. And he told me about your art collection. And he started
to unwrap a package. And he said, this is nothing
but, he said, I did this painting of your son. I loved it. And
I wanted to give it to you. And the man looked at him and
tears welled up in his eyes. He just captured his son, just
captured him. And he started to offer to pay
him. He goes, oh, no, no, no, no, no. This is my gift to you.
And he took him inside and hung it right over the mantel in the
living room. And everybody who came in from
that day on, he showed her a picture of his son. And in the time appointed,
he died. left everything to be auctioned
off, public auction, according to his will. And it was advertised,
well advertised, and folks came crowded from everywhere, just
packed into the place, wanting to get a chance to purchase one
of those masterpieces at a good price. And the auctioneer stood
up, time to open the auction, and he struck his gavel, and
he said, we're going to open the auction with this piece here.
And he unveiled that picture. drawn by that soldier of that
man's son, painted sort of crudely. Folks started to jeer and mock.
We didn't come here for that. Where are the masterpieces? Who
wants that? And the auctioneer said, according
to the stipulations of the will, we start with this picture. What
am I bid for the picture? Nobody wanted it. Nobody said
a thing. Finally, a man back in the back raised his hand and
said, I'll give you $10 for it. $10 once, $10 twice, sold for
$10. The old man was a gardener. He'd
worked for that old man all his life. And he bought that picture
for $10. He loved his son, too. And the
auctioneer struck his gavel, and he said, the auction's over.
And the folks were really angry. What's going on? We came here
to buy the pictures, to buy the artwork. He said, well, there's
one more stipulation of the will. I wasn't allowed to give out
until now. The stipulation reads like this.
He who gets my son gets all. Get Christ and you get it all. Miss him and you miss it all.
Amen.