I'd like for you to open your
Bibles again now to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Charles Spurgeon was preaching
to his congregation on this subject from this text
many, many years ago. He called his message the old,
old story. And he began the message with
these words. I'll read his words, exact words. There's a well-known preacher
in our congregation tonight who came here to hear me preach
several years ago. He's been back to his place of
service in America. And now once again he's here
in the congregation tonight to hear me preach. I could not help thinking as
I saw his face a few moments ago that as I preach tonight
he will certainly think Mr. Spurgeon is preaching the same
old subject he preached last time I was here. Mr. Spurgeon is harping on the
same old strain. He will surely think that I have
not advanced a single inch upon any new domain of thought, but
that I am preaching the same old gospel in the same old terms. Now, my friends, if that's what
my brother thinks, he'll be exactly right. For years and years and
years ago, I received from my master orders to stand at the
cross of redemption until he returns. Well, he has not returned,
but I mean to stand where he told me to stand until he does
return. If I should disobey his orders,
and leave these plain old truths, the simplicity of Christ, which
have been the means of saving sinners for centuries, I couldn't
expect my master's blessings. So here then I stand, telling
out the good news of God's grace to the chief of sinners through
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And though it may sound stale
and worn and a bit threadbare to those whose ears itch for
some new thing, it's of Christ and Him crucified that I love
to preach. I dearly love to preach Christ
who loved me, lived and died for us sinners. I dearly love
to preach Christ, who is my wisdom, my righteousness, my holiness,
my redemption, my sin offering, my great high priest, who suffered
the just for the unjust to bring me to God. I love to tell the
story of unseen things above, of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus
and his love. And when in scenes of glory I
sing that new, new song, it will then be the same old story that
I have loved so long. So one more time, like this great
man of the past, one more time I believe we need to ring the
dinner bell. You know how folks out in the
country, when the ladies of the house had prepared the meal,
it was all ready, they'd go out and there'd be a dinner bell
hanging in the yard because the men were out in the fields way
out there, in the barns and in the fields, and they'd ring the
bell. And everybody that was hungry,
They heard him and they skedaddled as quickly as possible out there
to where the dipper was by the well and washed their hands and
get in there and dine. And perhaps here in this congregation
there's a hungry sinner who's tired of feeding on the husk
of the swine that's really hungry and he'll hear that bell. and
hear that invitation, come and die, and he'll come to Christ
and find in him the living bread. Wouldn't that be wonderful? But
if you don't hear, he won't come. And if he don't come, he won't
eat. One more time, let's preach.
One more time, ruined by the fall, I mean real ruin. like
I read about earlier, real redemption by the blood and real regeneration
by the Holy Spirit. There may be out there one of
his sheep to whom he's given hearing ears
and thus far they haven't been able to hear, but they could
hear this morning. There's a time for all of the
sheep to hear the voice of the Lord and follow him. There's a time. There's a time. And they'll hear it through a
man. If they don't, they won't come. They won't come. But maybe somebody will hear
it this morning. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Lord,
I'm coming home. We sing that old song, I wandered
far away from God and I'm coming home. Like the prodigal son,
I'm coming home. There are servants in my Father's
house getting along better than I am, and I'm His own, His own. I'm coming home. But I'm going
to say to my Father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight,
and I'm not worthy to be a son, but I'd rather be a doorkeeper
in God's house than to be a son in the house of the wicked. So
just make me one of the doorkeepers. But you won't be a doorkeeper.
No, you won't. And one more time, let's point
like John the Baptist of old, one more time, let's point to
him who is the Lamb of God and say to those who hear our voices,
behold, look, there's the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin
of the world. And there could be, there could
be. a blind Bartimaeus this morning,
who will say, what did you say? I said, the Lord's passing by.
Jesus! Son of David, have mercy on me. Have mercy. Bartimaeus heard
Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, and he cried. And the scripture
says the Lord stood still and said, you come to me. And I'll
make you safe. But now if you don't, if you
hadn't got a problem, if you hadn't got a need, if you hadn't
got a disease called sin, you won't be interested in who's
passing by. It won't matter to you who's
passing by. But I'll tell you if he's passing by who only can
give you life, you'll cry. If he's passing by who only can
make you just before God, you'll cry. If he's passing by who only
can open these blind eyes and make you see the very glory of
God, you'll cry. You'll quit playing church and
you'll cry. And people will try to discourage you, don't get
emotional, don't get excited, don't get upset. I am upset. I'm lost. I am emotional, I'm
going to hell. I need help, and he's the only
one that can help me. And he may not pass this way
again. Did that ever occur to you? We take for granted that
the gospels preached here this morning will be preached again
next Sunday. Who said so? Who said so? But if I don't hear
today, I'll hear next Sunday. Will you really? Will you really? Old Richard Baxter said, I preach
as one who may never preach again. I listened to that message I
preached this morning. I said, well, I'll let that be
my swan song. That'd be all right by me. I
told them the truth. But Richard Baxter said, I preach
as one who may never preach again. But do you know you here as one
who may never hear again? You may never hear the gospel.
Never, never, never. This may be the last time you'll
ever hear the gospel. God may make an example out of
you. He may make an example out of
you. He may let you hear it with these natural ears and never
hear it with your heart and perish this way. And everybody remember
what I said. And maybe somebody else will
hear it. That's right. He does those things. He does
as he will, when he will, with whom he will. I preach as one
who may never preach again. I preach as a dying man to dying
men. And that's what we're doing.
I have a short text here and we're going to look at it. It
says in verse 18, all things are of God. All things are of God. Now what
he's referring to here, I know we say All things are of God
in creation and providence and salvation, that's true, but here
he's talking about salvation. Because verse 17 says this, Therefore,
if any man be in Christ Jesus, he's a new creature. And old
things are passed away, and behold, all things are become new, and,
and all things are of God. You see that? That's what he's
talking about. If any man is in Christ, he's
a new creature, he's new creation. He had created us in Christ.
He who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined
in our hearts to give us the light of the glory of God in
the face of Christ and the life of the glory of God in the face
of Christ. And old things have passed away.
What's that mean? It was our old ways. We don't
walk in the same ways now as we as we did before we had life. Those old ways are gone. That
old walk's gone. We walk not in the flesh, we
walk in the spirit. The old ways, the old walk, passed
away. The old companions. You don't
run around with the same crone as you ran around with before
you knew God, do you? Well, you don't have anything
in common with them. You got new. And that old stony heart,
he took that out. A stony heart is hard. You can't
chip it. You can't mold it. Shape it. It's cold. Or you can heat it for a while,
but it won't stay hot. It'll get hot and back like a
stony heart. It's cold. Because it's got no
life within. The new heart's warm from within.
It doesn't depend on somebody to put the furnace to it. It
comes from within. So that old heart's gone, that
old proud flesh, he circumcised it. It's gone. That lying tongue,
believers don't lie. That filthy communication that
used to come out of your mouth, that's gone. Old things have
passed away. That old self-righteousness,
bragging on how good you've been and righteous you've been and
holy you are and how much better you are than anybody else, that's
gone. You don't even talk that way anymore. Those old law works that you were presenting as your way to glory,
well that's gone. We talk about him who loved us
and gave himself to us, that's gone. That old religious profession, I expect about half the people
in here made four or five before God saved you, didn't you? You
dedicated and rededicated and reconsecrated and did all these
different things trying to find some peace, but you couldn't
find it because he's the peace of God. So that old profession,
you're now denying it. You're not defending it. You're
not taking folks back and saying, that's when I saved back yonder.
No, that wasn't when I saved. I saved when he saved me, when
I met him. You've forgotten it. You don't
talk about that old profession. Paul did, and he said, what things
were gained to me in religion, I count but loss. They're gone. If any man be in Christ Jesus,
he's a new creature, old things are passed away. They're gone.
I count these things but loss for the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord. I count them but garbage. All my old traditions, garbage. Now I'm not going back and trying
to prove I'm saved by something that happened back yonder. If you want proof of redemption,
I'll take you to Calvary and I'll say there's my redemption
on the cross, on the cross. And he says, and all things become
new. All things become new. Now what
are these all things? Well, they're covenant mercies.
This is redeeming grace. This is the fruit of God's Spirit. This is that fruit that the branches
bear when they got the life of the vine. They become new. They don't bring forth briars
and thorns. They bring forth grace, love,
joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, patience, long-suffering, moderation,
temperance. These are the fruits of the Spirit.
These are the new things. He's the ear there of God. Turn
to Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel 36. Listen. If a man, when God saves
a man, when he converts a person, like Peter, he said, when you're
converted, you strengthen your brethren. You'll be a rock then. You'll be a strong tower. You'll
be a stone. Y'all change your name from from
Simon to Cephas, a stone, and used to be a pillar. All these
things of God, look at Ezekiel 36 verse 24, and notice the high
wheels. You know, all these, we drive
down the street and see these free-wheeled Baptist church,
And I will forget the first time Bill Clark came to the States
to visit me. We drove somewhere and he saw
Free Will Baptist Church. He said, to advertise an apostasy? I said, yes, but to advertise
it. It's not my will. It's his will. Look at this.
Verse 24, I will take you from among the heathen. That's where
he found you. Brother Walter said the other
night, your mama was an Amorite and your daddy was a Hittite.
You're a heathen. And I took you from among the
heathen, I gathered you out of the country, I'll bring you to
your land, I will sprinkle clean water on
you, and you'll be clean from all your filthiness, from all
your idols, I will cleanse you. All these things are of God.
A new heart will I give you, a new spirit will I put within
you. I'll take this stony heart out
of your flesh. Nobody can operate on a sinner
but God. Nobody can do this work of circumcision
of the heart, to rip out that old stony heart. I'll give you
a new heart, a heart of flesh, pliable, warm, living. A heart of flesh, a stony heart,
living, hard, cold, cruel, selfish. You can't straighten it out.
Or you can dress it up in robes of religion. It's still hard
and stony and cold. It's got to be ripped out. And
some of you that have been under the surgery of a heart surgeon,
you know what that means. It's an operation. It's traumatic. I'll rip it out,
and I'll put in you Pulsating, living, heart of flesh. If you were God's son, you'd
love me, Christ said. You'd have a heart of love. I'll
give you a heart, and I'll put my spirit within you. Spirit
of God. Well, man, this doesn't sound
like an easy believism profession, does it? No, it doesn't, does
it? This doesn't sound like this is your hour of decision, does
it? It doesn't sound that way to me. It doesn't sound like
it's all up, God's done all he can do, now it's up to you. That
doesn't sound like that to me. Sounds like he's doing a pretty
good job out there, isn't he? Sounds like to me he's doing
it all. God's done all he can do. He is doing it all. I put
my spirit in, I'll cause you to walk in my statutes. The steps
of a righteous man are ordered by God. You know what it says? I'll make you walk in those steps. You keep my judgments and furthermore
you'll do them. You will. People say a Christian
ought to pray. He will. A Christian ought to
give. He will. A Christian ought to
behave himself. He will. God said I'll make you
do that. And you're going to dwell in
the land that I gave to your fathers. You're going to be my
people. I'm going to be your God. And
that, my friends, is salvation. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creation, created by God, who said, I will do this. I will. I will. I will. I will. And you
shall. I will and you shall. It's direction changing, life
changing, thought changing, heart changing, everything's changing,
everything. Old things pass away and all
things become new and all things are of God. Can you think we'd
call some scripture which declares all things in salvation are of
God? Well, listen to these. The one
I read a while ago. You hath he quickened who were
dead. That's an operation. You hath
he quickened who were dead. I will send my spirit and he
will convince the well of sin. I'll send him and he will convince
you of sin. Romans 2, 4. Do you not know
that it's the goodness of God that led you to repentance? That's
Paul asking. Do you not know that, Paul says?
But you didn't come to yourself of yourself and decide to repent.
It's the goodness of God that led you to repentance. He got
ahold of you and led you. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, by grace
are you saved through faith and that knowledge of yourselves.
It's the gift of God. Faith is the gift of God. Not if it works, lest any man
should boast. Christ said no man can come to me. He doesn't
have the desire or the ability or the will to come to me. Everything
that I am and preach and teach, he's against. He's not going
to come to me unless my Father draws him. He'll find you and
he'll draw you. And you'll come. You'll be taught
of God and you'll learn. Christ said you'll come to me. Peter said we're kept by the
power of God. Perseverance is a gift of God. To continue in the faith is because
he keeps you. Not apart from faith, but by his power in faith. We're kept by the power of God
through faith. And then Paul said this. He that hath begun a good work
in you." Now, I put out a little warning. I have been preaching a while,
and I put out a little warning. Evidence that it is of God is
that it gets the job done pretty soon. It doesn't take God five years
to bring a man to Christ. Four or three years when he is. That's right. You go through
the Bible. The Ethiopian eunuch heard the
gospel and believed it. Cornelius heard the gospel and
believed it. Lydia heard the gospel and believed
it. Paul didn't come through six
years later and they were still wondering whether they were going
to believe on Jesus or not. And that's what I'm saying. I'm
saying if it's of God, something happens. Something happens. Everything that I read throughout
the New Testament, I've experienced throughout my ministry, is when
people really hear the gospel, they act on it. They act on it. It affects them. Nobody's in
neutral. Nobody goes down the same, throw
in that gear shift in neutral and just float down He's either
backing up or going forward in gear if he's heard anything. Lord, lead me to seek thee, and
seeking thee to find thee, and finding thee to love thee, and
loving thee to abide in thee, and thou in me. And verse 18 says, All things
are of God, because he hath reconciled us to himself. He's reconciled
us to himself. Now don't just hurriedly read
that reconcile. That's a big word. That's a powerful
word. That's a word full of riches. Don't regard it too lightly.
cannot enter into the joy and the blessings of this glorious
word, reconciliation. He hath reconciled us. He hath
reconciled us. You can't enter into that unless
you have understanding of two things. And the first one is God's awesome,
awful, immaculate, immutable holiness. That's what Isaiah
saw when he saw the Lord. High and lifted up. Holy, holy,
holy. And the second thing, you can't
enter into the joys and blessings of the word reconciliation until
you see something of the holiness of God and the wretchedness of
your own heart, and the guilt of your sin, and the wrath of
God against it. And when you see those two things,
how your sins have separated you and your God, I'm away from
God. God's angry with me. God hates
the workers of iniquity. God is angry with the wicked. He that believeth not on the
Son, the wrath of God abideth on him. Now you talk to that
man about reconciliation, and he says, you've got my ear. I'd like to learn how in the
world that that can take place. What is it to be reconciled to
God? He hath reconciled. Well, we
use the term, you know, you have a little spat with your wife
and you all become reconciled. Or a child becomes upset with
a father or mother and they become reconciled. But that's generally
what it means. Two at odds are brought together.
Well, God has reconciled us to himself. It means this, it means
the forgiveness of all my sins. for all my sins might just all
up past, present, and future, sins that I haven't even committed
yet. Don't go too far, I can't go too far on this. We reconcile,
forgiven, he hath cleansed us from all sin. It needs to be
restored to sonship. I'm a son of God. The son has been received, and
embraced, and kissed, and the ring on his finger, and the robe
on his back, and the shoes on his feet, and the fatted calf,
he is slain, and the dinner is served. The son, this myself,
is home to stay. Think about that. Reconcile. God kissed you. He did in Christ. He did in Christ. Would God kiss
a worm like me? Yes, sir. Because that's God. To be reconciled is to be forever
received into his embrace in peace. That's big doings. It's the Lord's doings. Because
it says he hath reconciled us. You have nothing to do with it.
Not one thing in the world. He did it. He's the reconciler. He's the one who's reconciled.
He was angry. You think God's not angry? Ask
the outfit in Sodom about it. Ask the folks of Noah's day.
Ask the devil and his angels if God's angry. They'll tell
you. The reconciler and he's the reconciled. He's the one that's reconciled.
He's reconciled before you are. God's anger against me was removed
before my anger against him was removed. You were still a rebel
and he was reconciled. See, Christ reconciled you to
God. He's the reconciler, he's the reconciled, and he's the
reconciliation himself in his own body on the tree paid to
death. Bore the invitative, put away
the sin. Isn't that something? But how did he do it? It says
here in this scripture, by Jesus Christ. All things have gone,
who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. Turn to Colossians. I want to read this to you. By
Jesus Christ. Colossians 1, verse 19. Listen to this. Colossians 1,
19. This is all of God, out of grace,
sovereign grace, particular grace, effectual grace, keeping grace. For it pleased the Father that
in Christ should all fullness dwell, and having made peace,
that's reconciliation, through the blood of his cross, by Christ
to reconcile. all things to himself. By Christ
I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven,
whether people down here on the earth or whether they're Old
Testament saints that are dead and gone. He reconciled people
who were already in heaven. Did you know that? When Christ
died on the cross, there were people already in heaven by his
reconciliation? Boy, they couldn't have been
there if it hadn't been for Christ. Moses was there, Enoch was there,
Enoch walked up there. Didn't even die. They were there,
David was there, Abraham was there, he reconciled folks that
were already in heaven, and folks on the earth when he died on
the cross, that's right. And you come along in 1900 and
whatever year you were born, and you that were at one time
alienated, enemies in your mind by your wicked words, hath he
now, right now, he hath already done it, reconciled you, you're
reconciled, if you're his son. How am I going to know if I'm
his son if he kills that rebellion in you? That's right, that's
how you know if he strips you, if he breaks you, some people
won't be broken. They're born a wild ass that's
cold and they'll die a wild ass that's cold, but God's going
to ride his people in triumph. That's right. Yes he will. And he did it in the body of
his flesh through death to present you. holy, unblameable, unreprovable
in his sight, if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled,
and don't be moved away. That's the terms of peace. God, verse 19 says, to wit, I'm
going to sum this up, Paul said, namely, that is to say, I'm going
to tell you what I just said. I'm going to tell you what I
just said. That God was in Christ, Jesus
Christ is God, reconciling the world, that is, people from every
nation, tribe, kindred, and tongue unto heaven, unto himself. He's
the reconciler, he's the reconciler, and he's the reconciliation.
Not imputing their trespasses, not charging their sins unto
them, and he's committed to us, he's committed to these Preachers,
he's called. He's committed to us this word
of reconciliation. We've got this word. We've got
it in earthen vessels. This treasure is an earthen vessel
that the power might be of God, not of us, that the excellency
might be of God, not of us, but this is where you hear it. Turn
to Romans 10, I'll show you what he's talking about there. This
word of reconciliation. This word of reconciliation.
He says here in verse 8, what saith it? The word, almost 10.8,
the word is nigh unto you, it's in your mouth, it's in your heart,
it's the word of faith which we preach. This is the word of
reconciliation. That if you shall confess with
your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe in your heart that
God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with
the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. There is no difference
that you and the great, the same Lord over all, is rich unto all
that call upon him, and whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be saved. But how are they going to call
if they don't believe? And how are they going to believe
if they don't hear? And how are they going to hear
without a preacher? And how are they going to preach
if he doesn't send them? Verse 20, Now then. I looked
at those two words, Daniel, what an important cause. Now then. We're coming down to Where it
is now then, now then. I'm an ambassador for Christ.
I either am or I ain't. Preachers either are true preachers
or false preachers. There ain't no middle ground. There ain't
no part-time preachers. They either are preachers or
they aren't preachers. They either tell the truth or
they're not. Now, I'm telling you the truth because I just
read it right here. I'm an ambassador of Jesus Christ. Sent by Him,
ordained by Him, commissioned by Him. empowered by him, and
I bring you terms of peace. I'm an ambassador for Christ,
as though God Almighty was preaching this morning himself in this
pulpit. That's how I'm telling you. That's how it is. Christ said to the disciples,
they hear you, they hear me. They don't hear you, they don't
hear me. If you go to a place and they don't hear you, shake
the dust off your feet. as a witness against them, and
nobody else will ever go. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. What does that mean, be me reconciled
to God? That's right. We're born rebels,
and a rebel has got to surrender. Well, I'll just say bet. No,
we're not a bet there anyway. You do what the scripture says,
what the God's servant says. You lay down your sword, you
stack your arms, you surrender, you kiss the son. You believe
the word priest and you sit at his feet with Thomas and say,
my Lord and my God, what would you have me to do? I don't care
what it is. You just tell me. That man's been conquered. He's
reconciled. Now, I'm not preaching a gospel
that says God's reconciled and he's going to save a bunch of
rebels. He'll save men who have been rebels. Rebels are not saved. That's right. No, they're not
either. No, they're not. They're not. You'd be reconciled
to God. You lay down your shotgun. you
surrender, because here is your foundation. For he, God, hath made him Christ
to be sin for us, shame and guilt. He knew no sin, that we might
be made the very righteousness of God in him. Well, I'm happy. I'm happy with that. I rang the
bell. I rang the bell. And everybody's hungry, heard
it. And I preached ruin, redemption,
and regeneration. And I said, there's the Lamb
of God. And everybody that heard it, they'll embrace Him. You want to come down front?
No, I want you to come to Christ. Don't move a hand, don't move
a hair, don't move a foot. Lord I believe, help my heart
to believe, be merciful to me a sinner, have mercy on me. Between me and you, I'm going
to lay down my shotgun, Christ is my Lord. And then it will
be caught on you, that's what Brother Barnard said, and somebody
will find it out. Somebody will find out, hey he's
different. She's different. They find it out. They say, what's
going on? Let me tell you what the Lord
did for me. That's right.