I'm thankful for the grace that
can cause someone to find out their husband is dead and sit
down and write that hymn. That's what Jane Bonar did when
she found out her husband, Horatio, had died. She penned the words
to that hymn. Fade, fade, each earthly joy. Jesus is mine. I've entitled the message I'd
like to try to bring tonight, I beseech you. I beseech you. God said to Noah, stop what it
is you're doing and devote the rest of your life to building
an ark. You know what? Noah did it. He moved with fear, building
an ark. God appeared to Abraham and said,
Abraham, leave where you're at and start walking and go to a
place which I will tell thee of. And Abraham did it. Now put yourself in his place. Leave. Abraham obeyed God. Abraham, take now your son. your only son, whom you love,
and offer him up as a burnt offering to me." And Abraham obeyed God. Isaiah, go to these people who
will reject your message and who will not believe, and you
preach the message that I tell you to anyway. And he did. Ezekiel prophesied to these dead,
dry bones. And that's precisely what he
did. He preached to an army of bones. The Lord said to his disciples,
they weren't his disciples yet, he said, follow me and I'll make
you fishers of men. And they forsook all, the scripture
says. They forsook their way of life.
They rose up and they followed the Lord Jesus Christ. He said,
if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take
up his cross and follow me. If you save your life, the Lord
said, you'll lose it. But whosoever will lose his life
for my sake, the same shall find it. Paul the Apostle said, I
am ready, not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem
for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, these scriptures
give us some idea of the demands of the Lord Jesus Christ upon
every one of his followers. Turn to Luke chapter 14. Verse 25. And there went great multitudes
with him. And he turned. And said unto I love to picture
this, this big crowd following the Lord Jesus Christ. I suppose
maybe they thought they could get something to eat out of him,
or perhaps he'd perform some miracle. But they followed him.
And he turned and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate
not his father and mother and wife and children, And brethren
and sisters, yea, his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Notice he doesn't say he won't
make a very good disciple. He says he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever does not bear his
cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. It can't be done. For which of you, intending to
build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counts the cost, whether
he hath sufficient to finish it? Lest, happily, after he hath
laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all behold
it, begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and
was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war
against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth,
whether he be able, with ten thousand, to meet him that cometh
against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet
a great way off, he sendeth an ambassadge and desires conditions
of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be
of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my
disciple." I've made this statement on numerous
occasions. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, if true, it's of infinite importance. If false, it's of
no importance. This is a waste of time, foolishness. But the one thing that it cannot
be is moderately important. Christ demands of me, of you,
full surrender. As the songwriter said, to forsake
my dreams, my self-esteem, and give up all my rights. Does he require anything less? Does he deserve anything less? Now, word used in the New Testament
quite frequently when the speaker is calling upon his hearers to
a particular mode of action following Christ in this sense is the word
I beseech thee. I beseech thee. Turn with me
for a moment to Philemon, and it'll give us some idea of what
this word I beseech thee means. The book of Philemon. It's the
last of Paul's epistles, right before Hebrews. Philemon. I love the way Paul speaks in
this passage of scripture. He's talking to Philemon about
a runaway slave by the name of Onesimus. And he says in verse
eight of Philemon, Wherefore, though I might be much bold in
Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient, I can give you
a commandment regarding this. Yet for love's sake I rather
beseech thee, not command thee, but beseech thee. Being such
an one as Paul the aged, now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ,
I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I begotten in my bonds,
he heard the gospel Coming to me in prison, hearing the gospel,
God did something for him. He became a new creature in Christ
Jesus. He was begotten of God, which
in times past was to thee unprofitable. He was a runaway slave, but now
profitable to thee and to me. Whom I have sent again, thou
therefore receive him. That is mine own bowels. Don't
punish him. Receive him. I'm beseeching you to do this.
Whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might
have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel. But without
thy mind would I do nothing, that thy benefits should not
be as it were of necessity, but willingly." Now, when someone
beseeches someone, the word means literally I call you to my side. I call you to aid me. I pray
you. I entreat you. The entreater
is calling upon someone to walk alongside them in a particular
course of action. If I beseech you, I'm not asking
you to do something that I'm not doing. That would be hypocrisy. But the call of the gospel is
for us to give ourselves unreservedly to the Lord Jesus Christ, to
be obedient to all that he calls upon us to do, to deny ourselves
and to be willing to die if that's what it takes to obey him. Am I speaking the truth? Am I
telling you the truth? Is this not what the Lord calls
of all of his disciples? Now, what arguments are used
in this beseeching? I think of Noah. Stop what you're
doing and devote your life to building this ark I tell you
to build. What argument is going to be
used for him to do that? I think of Abraham. Abraham,
start moving. Go to a place I've told you of
and Abraham did it. What is the argument? Turn to
Romans chapter 15. Now, I'm beseeching you. And
I'm beseeching myself to unreservedly follow the Lord Jesus Christ,
to be his out and out disciple. To deny yourself. And I'm asking,
I'm calling upon myself to do the same thing. To take up our
cross daily and to follow him, to hate your father and mother
and sisters and brother in comparison to the importance of obedience
to him and your own life also. I'm calling upon you. I'm calling
upon me to do that. Now, that's a lot to ask out
of somebody, isn't it? That's a lot to ask. What is
the argument? Well, in Romans, chapter 15,
Verse 30, Paul says, Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus
Christ's sake. Now, here's the basis of the
appeal for me and for you to deny ourselves, to forsake all
and to follow him, and I sure hope those aren't empty words.
I don't want to be guilty of just using rhetoric to talk about
what the Bible says and not really enter into it. I want to be an
out and out disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ to be somebody I'd
like to be like, you know, the disciples, they forsake all and
they follow him. Now, what is the basis of this
appeal? First of all, for Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. For Christ's
sake is the most powerful reason there is. For Christ's sake. Now, first of all, look what
God did for Christ's sake for you. Be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. His only reason for forgiving
you is not because you asked for forgiveness, not because
you desired forgiveness. The reason he forgave you is
for the sake of his son. Isn't there some confidence in
that? I see a good reason why God would
forgive me. For Christ's sake. For the cross's sake. What He accomplished on Calvary's
tree. He put away my sins. God saves
me. God forgives me for Christ's
sake. You look at what the Lord did for your sake, believer.
2 Corinthians 8 and 9 says, For you know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, And how rich he was,
rich in praise, rich in his father's love, rich in ownership. He owns everything. He's the
son of God. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes. He became poor. He didn't have a place to lay
his head. But more than anything else on the cross, he became
poor in righteousness. The sins of his people became
his for your sakes. He became poor in praise. He
became poor and he had nothing but his father's crown. He did
this. For your sakes. For his sake. Is there anything
he calls you to do? Too great. It's not, is it? Is he not worthy? For Christ's
sake. Look in Romans chapter 12. Paul is speaking to brethren. The only person who can enter
into this is someone the Lord has saved. Someone the Lord has
made himself known to. He says, I beseech you. Here's
that word Paul uses. I beseech you, therefore, brethren.
By the mercies of God. By the saving mercies of God. Now, believe or think about this.
He chose you before time began. And determined your salvation.
There's no way you wouldn't be anything but saved. He determined
your salvation. He justified you. He took your
sins off of you, and He took His righteousness and placed
it upon you, and now you stand before God without guilt. He redeemed you. He paid for
your sins. He put them away. He gave you
life. He gave you ears to hear the
gospel. You hear the gospel right now
because he gave you those ears. He did something for you. The
reason you haven't fallen away is because he's preserved you.
He keeps you and he's going to keep you to the end. Now, those
are the saving mercies of God. Salvation is by the mercy of
God. Aren't you thankful for that?
He says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God
that you present your bodies. That's everything you are. A
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable, well-pleasing unto God, which
is your reasonable service. Anything else is unreasonable. He says, I beseeched you by the
mercies of God. His mercies to you. that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice. Turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. He says in verse 10, Now I beseech
you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you
all speak the same thing. that there be no divisions among
you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind
and in the same judgment, I beseech you by the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ." Now, this is the name at which every
knee is going to bow. And every tongue is going to
confess that He is Lord. This is the name whereby we must
be saved. Now listen real carefully. Salvation
is holy for his name's sake. God doesn't have to find a reason
in you to save you. He doesn't have to find any merit
in you to save you. He doesn't have to find any desert
in you to save you. He does it wholly for his name's
sake. Let me show you that in scripture.
Turn to Psalm 106. This is I've got a lot of favorite
scriptures, and this is one of them. I love to think about this.
Psalm 106, verse six. Listen to this confession of
sin. We have sinned with our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly, would
to God that somebody right beginning right here makes that confession
in sincerity. Our fathers understood not thy
wonders in Egypt. They remembered not the multitude
of thy mercies that provoked him at the sea, even at the Red
Sea. Nevertheless, he saved them. Why? For his namesake. Now, you want to find a reason
why God will save you? It's for the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, for his name's sake. Jesus, the name that charms
our fears, that bids our sorrows cease. It is music in the sinner's
ears. It is life and health and peace. Salvation comes for his name's
sake. Now, what came to my mind is when David has become the
most powerful man in the world. And the scripture says the fear
of David came upon all the nations. He was the most powerful man
in the world. He had no enemies. Nobody could
whip him. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. You know that. He said
in 2 Samuel 9, verse 1, Is there any yet of the house of Saul,
his enemies, that I can show the kindness of God to for Jonathan's
sake? And God the Father says, is there
any of the house of Adam that I can show the kindness of God
to for Christ's sake? There was a man working in a
workshop and he was cursing the name of Jesus Christ, using it
in a blasphemous and a vile way. This really happened. The man
looked, stopped, looked at him, he said, son, That name that
you're cursing is the only name that will keep you out of hell.
And that's so, isn't it? Salvation for His name's sake. 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 1. Here's this beseeching
again. And these are such glorious reasons
for giving myself wholeheartedly to him. Now, we beseech you,
brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our
gathering together unto him. Now, this is a wonderful thing
to think about. The Lord's coming back soon. It may not be in our
lifetime, but it's soon. Life is going to continue as
it is. He's coming back. Maybe he comes back as far as
taking you in death and bringing you to himself. But the Lord
is coming back soon. This life that we get so tied
up in, it's going to be over before long. And ain't none of
it really that important, is there? Not really. He's coming
back soon. And so he says, I beseech you
by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Think of this. He's coming
back for me. He's coming back so he can receive
me to himself. that I might spend eternity beholding
His glory. He's coming back for me. And
that's a reason for me to just look at this world for what it
is. I beseech you by the coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody once said, the Old Testament
says somebody's coming. The Gospels say He's come. And the epistles say, he's coming
again. Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter
6, if you turn there. Verse one, we then as workers
together with him, beseech you that you receive not the grace
of God In vain, we beseech you as workers together with him.
Now, this is when I'm beseeching you and I'm beseeching myself
to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not just me talking. I'm
doing this as a worker together with him, it's actually his word,
not mine. I beseech you as workers together
with Him. We're ambassadors of Christ.
As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's
stead, be ye reconciled to God. Now, it's one thing for me to
beseech you, but it's another thing for Him to beseech you
with. We beseech you. Here's the reason. Because we're
workers together with Him. Turn to Ephesians chapter 4. You know, this is exclusive to
the Bible, this thing of beseeching, this thing of intriguing. This
is God's way. This is what's going on in true
preaching. There's beseeching going on.
A lot of other things going on, but there's beseeching. Now look
in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1. I therefore the prisoner of
the Lord. Paul's writing from a prison
in Rome. held there by the Roman government.
And I love what he says. I'm a prisoner of the Lord. That's
why I'm here. I'm a prisoner of the Lord. I,
therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk
worthy of the vocation or the calling wherewith you're called. Now, this calling, it's a high
calling. Oh, the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus. What a privilege it is to me
and you to be called of God. You know, not everybody's called
of God. What an infinite privilege to be called of God. It's a high
calling. It's a heavenly calling. It's
a holy calling. Now, he says, I beseech you,
therefore. I beseech you that you walk worthy
of the vocation wherewith you are called. And here's how it
is we walk worthy. with all lowliness and meekness,
with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now, I
beseech you by the Lord that you walk worthy of that vocation
wherewith you were called. Turn back to 2 Corinthians 16. I mean, 13. Oh, I'm got that
wrong. First Corinthians, Chapter 16.
No such thing. Second Corinthians, Chapter 16. Verse 15. I beseech you, brethren, you
know, the house of Stephanus. That is the first fruits of a
K.I. that they have addicted themselves. to the ministry of the Saints.
Now, there's a good addiction. Would to God that that would
be my addiction, addicted to the ministry of the Saints. And
what he tells to do, he beseeches you that you submit yourselves
unto such. And to everyone that helpeth
with us and laboreth. In light of their addiction,
Submit yourselves unto them. Willing submission is a good
thing. And I'll tell you what, if I
find myself someone who's addicted himself or herself to the ministry
of the saints, if that's really what's going on, it's not hard
to submit myself to them, is it? Be subject one to another. First Peter, chapter two, I'm
trying to hurry up till I get to my last one. First Peter,
chapter two, I've got this and then one more. 1 Peter 2. Verse 10. Or verse 11, I'm sorry. Dearly
beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims. Now, are you a
stranger and a pilgrim? Are you a stranger here? This
world's really not your home. You really can't... I mean, this
is not... This world... the ways of this world, the values
of this world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
the pride of life, the pleasure, the popularity, the power of
this world. You see it for what it is. You
see it for what it is. And you're a stranger and you're
a pilgrim walking through this world knowing that you have a
better home, a heavenly home. And you're just passing through.
You're not investing too much in this world because you're
a stranger and you're a pilgrim. Now, dearly beloved, I beseech
you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which
war against the soul, having your conversation honest among
the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers,
they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify
God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves to every ordinance
of man for the Lord's sake. Now, you can go on reading about
that, but that's what it is to live as strangers and pilgrims
and to abstain from fleshly lust, which war against the soul. Now,
go back to Second Corinthians, Chapter 10. This is what inspired
this message. Second Corinthians, Chapter 10.
Paul says, now I, Paul, myself, I beseech
you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. You know, when the Lord described
Himself, He said, I am meek. and lowly in heart. And that's our Lord's description
of himself. You know, I think it's interesting
how men generally don't. I mean, they think they've got
this power and strength, which in reality, they don't have any,
but they think they do. And they can become so arrogant
and proud and hear the one who possesses absolute power. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Lion
of the tribe of Judah, when he describes his own heart, he says,
I'm meek and I'm lowly in heart. How many times have you been
around religious people? That you feel threatened by,
you feel judged by, you feel like you're under their microscope
and you just you just don't like it. You feel uncomfortable around
them, you feel like they're your critic, you feel like they're
your judge, and you just want to get away from them. Do you
know nobody ever felt that way around the Lord Jesus Christ? I mean, publicans and harlots,
and he didn't in any way justify their conduct, but you know they
could be around him and not be threatened. Not feel condemned. the meekness and the gentleness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now meekness, it is what is on,
what's going on on the inside. Meekness is an attitude toward
God. Every believer is meek by the
grace of God. That's a part of the beatitude,
the blessing of the meek Meekness is that attitude toward God that
believes whatever he sends my way is right. And therefore,
it doesn't resist. Meekness bows before the God
of glory. It's an attitude toward God.
Anything he sends my way is right. Oh, may the Lord give me the
grace to have that temper of spirit. Instead of complaining
or getting mad or feeling, no, whatever he sends my way is right
because he sent it. As far as that goes, I don't
have anything my way of merit and whatever he sends my way
is right. And the Lord Jesus Christ. Is
meek. Now, what is behind meekness?
I can tell you exactly what's behind meekness. Trust. Though He slay me, yet will I
trust Him." Isn't that exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ said
with regard to the cross? Though He slay me, and His Father
did slay Him, yet will I trust Him. Meekness is born of trust. You know, He trusted His Father
completely. That's why he was so meek. He
trusted his father completely. Gentleness is what is seen on
the outside. I love the meaning of this word,
the gentleness, the gentleness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
dictionary gives it this meaning, fair. Humane. Moderate. Not insisting on the
letter of the law. Not holding people's feet to
the fire. Looking at the facts behind the
case, understanding human weakness. Now, here's an example of what
gentleness is. The Lord sees his disciples asleep. Third time, he'd already come
to them once. He said, could you not watch an hour with me?
He comes again. They are asleep again. He comes again. You know what
the Lord said? The spirit is willing and the flesh is weak. Gentleness takes in human frailty. Isn't that wonderful about the
Lord? The meekness and the gentleness of Christ. What a glorious master
we have. Meek and gentle. Lowly in heart. He says, come to me and you'll
find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy. My burden is
light. Question. Can I do anything less? Then
give him my all. Why should I give myself to him?
Because of how glorious he is. I beseech you by the meekness
and the gentleness of Christ. Remember this about his yoke.
He said, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Why is it
so easy? Because it's a yoke of grace.
It's a yoke of grace. It's not heavy. He bears all
the weight. My yoke is easy and my burden
is light. So, I beseech you. I beseech
myself. This is something I'm calling
on both of us to do. All of us. I beseech you by the
meekness and gentleness. Isn't He glorious? The meekness
and gentleness of the Lord Jesus Christ. What God has done for
Christ's sake, may that have such power over me and you. To think of what He's done for
Christ's sake, oh, for Christ's sake, give yourself wholeheartedly
to Him. And let me tell you where to
begin. Let me tell you where to begin. Trust Him as your salvation. If you do that, everything will
follow suit. Let's pray.