Let us turn tonight to 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Beginning our reading tonight
in verse number 11. Knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men but we are made manifest unto
God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.
For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you
occasion to glory on our behalf, that you may have somewhat to
answer them which glory in appearance and not in heart. For whether
we be beside ourselves, it is to God, or whether we be sober,
it is for your cause, 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, that
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. Therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are
passed away. 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 do no sin. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. What I hope to do is to bring
two messages to us from these verses, one tonight, and then
again next Wednesday. I truly believe that this part
of the scripture, like all of the word of God, because it is
the word of God, is inexhaustible. There could be many messages
preached from these words. God's word is unlike any other
book. There's no other book like the
Bible. I hope we all realize that. I hope we all appreciate
the fact that we have a Bible, that God's given us his word,
that we thank him for that. Any other book, any other book,
If you were to read it two times, three times, five times, ten
times, you'd probably pitch it in the corner and leave it alone. But this book you can read over
and over and over again. Some men have read through this
book 500 times in their lifetime. And it's still new. It's still
fresh. It's still full. It's living
in that sense. It is like God himself, the same
yesterday, today, and forever. It never grows old. It's amazing
how the Lord has blessed his word, how he uses his word. But I want us to look at tonight,
verses 11 through 16. We're only going to look at a
few of these verses tonight, and next time the Lord willing,
we'll go on to the end of the chapter. But I want you to notice
before we begin in verse 11, these words in verse 12. About
middle way, you see, the apostle said that you may have somewhat
to answer them, which glory in appearance and not in heart. In other words, the apostle is
writing here these words to the believers at Corinth in order
that they might have ammunition, we might say, ammunition to answer
those who came and gloried in appearance. And we'll get to
that in just a moment. But keep that in mind as we go
through these verses. He's giving these believers in
the church at Corinth somewhat, somewhat to answer them that
glory in appearance. Well, now let's first begin with
verse number 11, 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 11. In verse 10, the apostle declared
that he was convinced that he knew that there's going to be
a judgment. 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. Now we saw this last Sunday evening,
the prophecy of Enoch, as it's recorded there in the letter
of Jude. The Lord cometh, Jude prophesied,
the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment. Now Paul knew, he was convinced,
had no doubt whatsoever, that every man, woman, boy, and girl
is going to stand before God one day. There's going to be
a judgment. It is appointed unto men once
to die, but after this, the judgment. Paul knew this. And what was
his reaction? What did this knowledge produce
in him? We persuade men, he said. Knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. We persuade men. We declare that the Lord Jesus
Christ is an able savior, that he is a willing savior, and we
persuade men We exhort man to commit the saving and the keeping
of their soul to Christ. Most people, most natural people,
normal people, I should say, are people that have not experienced
the grace of God in their life, in their heart. They believe
that salvation comes by doing, by us doing something, by us
earning something. And every religion, false religion
and every religion other than the true religion, the gospel,
the Christianity teaches that, that you get something by doing. Well, the gospel declares that
we receive something not by doing, but rather by believing, by believing. Paul was persuaded that all of
us are going to stand before God, and this caused Paul to
persuade men wherever he went. Remember when he ended up in
Athens? You can read this in the first
part of Acts chapter 17. What did he do? He was in the
marketplace disputing with those philosophers there in Athens,
the Stoics and the other philosophers there. And that opened up a door
for him to go to be asked to speak to them on Mars Hill. But
wherever he went, that was his occupation. That was his work.
That was his life. Persuade men. Because there's going to be a
judgment. We know that. Now I want to say
this, when we read this verse 10, for we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ. Then knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. If a person is in Christ, if
you tonight are in Christ, what does the scripture say? There
is therefore now, no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Yes, all men will appear before
the judgment seat of Christ, but those who are saved, those
who are in Christ, they're not going to be condemned. There
is no condemnation. As Paul says in Romans chapter
8 in verse 34, a believer cannot be condemned, why? Because 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. Lost men and women, yes, they
will be condemned. They will hear a sentence, depart
from me, you cursed, into everlasting destruction. But God's people
will not be condemned. We will be there. And that's
the reason I pointed out last Sunday evening, when we looked
at that judgment, that's when there shall be a definitive sentence
passed upon all men. Men are not going to be judged.
How many people believe Well, we're going to stand before God.
Yes, there's going to be a judgment. We're going to stand before God,
and God's going to take all of our good works and put on this
side of the scale, and he's going to put our bad works over here,
and whichever scale outweighs the other, that's going to determine
where we go, where we spend eternity. That's a lie. That's one of Satan's
great lies. Men are justified. by the work
of Jesus Christ and Him alone. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. All right, look at verse 12.
For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you
occasion to glory on our behalf, that you may have somewhat to
answer them which glory in appearance and not in heart. Paul is not going to say what
he does about himself, seeking his own glory. He's not going
to say what he says about himself, seeking self-aggrandizement. That's not it at all. If you
look in the scriptures at the letters the apostle Paul wrote,
and you see this in chronological order, in other words, what he
said about himself first, what he said about himself next and
what he said about himself last. What did he say about himself
first in first Corinthians? I am the least of all the apostles. Well, there's only 12 apostles.
I'm the least of the 12. But then sometime later, when
he wrote the letter of Ephesians, he said, I'm less than the least
of all the saints. Now, there are a multitude of
saints. And then, eventually, in 1 Timothy, lastly, he said,
I am the chief of sinners. Now, that's what it means to
grow in grace, right there. That's what it means to grow
in grace. As a person grows in grace, he
comes to see his own sinfulness more and more. How many times
have believers told me, well, preacher just seems like instead
of getting better, I'm getting worse. You just see yourself
better. That's all. You just see yourself
better now. And what you see is your need
of Christ, your need of Christ more today than you saw you needed
him yesterday or a week ago. Paul's not saying what he says
here. Seeking glory. The people in Corinth, the believers
in Corinth, they knew Paul. They knew his sincerity. He didn't
need to write to them to convince them. But he did this, he says,
to answer. So he would give them something
to answer these false teachers. These false teachers who had
come among them. And they gloried in their appearance.
No doubt some of them gloried in their heritage. Well, we'd
be Abraham's children. Oh yes, we're believers, but
remember this, we were Abraham's children. You Gentiles, not so
much. Some gloried in their circumcision. That was a mark of that covenant
that God made with Abraham and with his descendants, right?
Some gloried in that. Many gloried in their learning.
Their learning, they were very educated and highly learned in
the things that they proclaimed. But notice the last words in
verse 12. For we commend not ourselves
again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf,
that you may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance
and not in heart. You see, Christianity concerns
the heart, doesn't it? Concerns the heart. Repentance
comes in the heart. Faith, with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. It's not to be seen of men, and
these people no doubt, some of them at least, were of the pharisaical
school. And you know they loved to do
what they did to be seen of men. Our Lord dealt with that in Matthew
in his Sermon on the Mount, didn't he? encouraged and taught us
to pray. He said, don't be like the hypocrites. They love to stand on the corner
and pray so that everyone will see them. Their religion, if
I can use that term in a good way, their religion is all show. It's all outward. True religion begins in the heart. Yes, it'll show outward. But
God's people don't do things to be seen of men. They do things,
as we'll see here in just a moment, out of love. Let's go on to verse
13. For whether we be beside ourselves,
it is to God, or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. Paul was zealous. There's no
question about that. He was a very zealous man in
serving the Lord in preaching the gospel. No doubt many referred
to him as that fanatic, that Jewish fanatic, that Christian
fanatic. He was zealous in serving the
Lord. One of his judges, we find this
in Acts, when he stood before one of those Roman judges, he
told Paul, Much learning hath made you mad. In other words, he thought he
was like a madman. And that's what the Apostle Paul
is saying, whether we be beside ourselves. They say that he preaches
and he's zealous like a man who's a wild man, a man beside himself,
or whether we be calm, whether we be sober. It makes no matter,
no matter if he preached with great zeal or if he preached
with a great calmness. His purpose, as he says in this
verse, my purpose is always the same. What is it, Paul? First
of all, the glory of God. For whether we be beside ourselves,
people think we're crazy, a madman, because I'm so excited about
Christ and what he's done for me. If people think I'm a madman,
it's for the glory of God. And whether we be sober, it's
for your cause. Those two motives. Number one,
he preached, he lived as he did, Number one, for the glory of
God. Number two, for the good of God's people, for your cause. We might say Paul sets the record
straight here. No matter what you think of me,
Paul says, if you think because of my zeal that I'm like a madman,
it's for the glory of God, or if it is the opposite, it's still
for your cause, for your good. Verse 14, here it is, for the love of Christ
constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all,
then we're all dead. This is what moved him. This
is what motivated him. It wasn't fear of hell. It wasn't
to earn a great crown and live in a larger mansion in heaven. That didn't motivate Paul. Paul
lived, Paul served, Paul worked, Paul preached. This is what motivated
him, the love of Christ. The love of Christ constraineth
us. It wasn't fear of being cast
into hell or to earn a larger crown. No, it was the love of
Christ. And it was not his love for Christ
he's talking about here. It's Christ's love for him. For the love of Christ constraineth
us. His love for me, his love for
me, the apostle Paul says. His love for me was so great,
he demonstrated his love for me and dying for me. As he wrote
in Romans chapter five, But God commendeth, that is, he demonstrated
his love toward us in that while we are yet sinners, Christ died
for us. This is what caused Paul to have
the zeal that he had and the labors he labored in the work
of Christ. It was the love of Christ for
him that constrained him. I want you to look at these words
in that text, because we thus judge that if one died for all,
then we're all dead. There are three things I want
to point out about those words, that phrase. The word for, the
word for, because we thus judge that if one died for, What does that tell us? It tells
us that his death was a substitutionary death. He died far. He died in the place of. Under the law, under the Mosaic
law, when a man brought an animal to the priest, to the tabernacle
and to the priest to be sacrificed, That sacrifice served as a substitute
for him. What he confessed was, I deserve
to die. I deserve to die because of my
sin. And this animal will die in my
stead, in my place. Now we know that was just a type. I understand that. Christ who
would come as the sacrifice and die in the stead, in the place
of his people. You know, that's revealed early
on in the Bible, isn't it? Early on, I mean, Genesis chapter
3. No sooner had man sinned, no
sooner had sin entered into this world till God clothed Adam and
Eve with Skins. Where did those skins come from?
They came from animals, right? Those animals died in the place
of Adam and Eve. And so that's so clear here in
this text of scripture, because we thus judge that if one died
for all, a number of people, They talk
about Christ's death being an example. Now Christ is an example
that we should follow in His steps. There's no doubt about
that. But He did not die to be an example. He died in the place
of His people, in the stead, far. Now the word all is the
next word. The word all is limited by what
the scriptures teach of the design of his death. Now let me ask
you this question. Think about this. Was God's design in the death
of Christ to only make salvation possible? Was that his design
that he gave his son, Christ gave himself, died on the cross
only to make salvation possible or was his design to save those
he came to save. You know how I feel about that.
What I believe the scriptures teach He came and his design
in giving himself a ransom was to save those he came to save. Now, the third thing I want to
point out, these words, then we're all dead. Let's read that verse again,
verse 14. For the love of Christ constraineth
us. He's talking about himself. He
uses that plural pronoun, but he's talking about himself. And
he should include all of us, all believers, all Christians.
The love of Christ constraineth us. This is the reason we serve
the Lord. This is the reason we're here
tonight. This is the reason that we do what we do in His service. We're not trying to earn salvation. He's already earned my salvation. The reason we're here tonight
and the reason we come weekly and give and support the work
and missionaries and send the Word of God out, why? The love
of Christ constraineth us. Because we thus judge that if
one died for all, then we're all dead. What does that mean,
then we're all dead? Well, a number of believers,
a number of commentators or writers, they believe that he is simply
saying that if he died for all, then all for whom he died were
dead in trespasses and sins. Now that's true. That's certainly
true. In Ephesians chapter 2, Paul
tells us that, right, that all of us by nature, as we come into
this world, are dead in trespasses and sins. But I believe it's
best here to understand what Paul wrote, that the all for
whom he died, died in him. Died in him. This is how he wrote,
for instance, in Galatians 2 and verse 20, I am crucified with
Christ. Well, Paul, how were you crucified
with Christ? He was in union with Christ.
Just as Christ is a head and those of us who are members of
his body, we are in union with him. Adam, when he sinned in
the beginning, we all partook of that sin, we all fell. So
when Christ died, we all, that is all for whom he died, we all
died in him. We died. And the life that we
now live, we live by the faith of the Son of God who loved us
and gave himself for us. We're crucified with Christ.
Remember in Romans chapter six, And some people accused him of
teaching, let us sin that grace may abound, or let us continue
in sin that grace may abound. He said, what? How can we that
are dead to sin live any longer in sin? Well, how did we become
dead to sin? We died in him, in union with
him. You know, there's several unions. There's a legal union. There's
several unions that teach us that every child
of God is one with Christ. We're in union with him. I use
that example of the head and the body. He's the head, we're
members of his body. If one died for all, they all
died. Now look at verse 15. 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. This is actually a continuation
of verse 14, Paul. He was convinced that the death
of Christ was the death of all his people. And the design of
Christ dying for us is that we might live for him. I'm gonna
give you a quote here from Charles Hodge. He was a Presbyterian,
taught at Princeton Seminary for years when they believed
something. when they believed something
and confessed and followed the Westminster Confession of Faith.
This is so good. He said, in this verse, we have
both what it means, now listen, we have both what it means not
to be a Christian and we have what it means to be a Christian. What does it mean not to be a
Christian? To live for self. To live for
self. Remember our Lord said to follow
him, to be one of his disciples, we must deny what? Ourself. Take up our cross and
follow him. Charles Hodge said this verse
teaches us what it means not to be a Christian. It means to
live for self. And then he said, it also declares
what it means to be a Christian, that is to live for him who died
for us. Now, in closing, let's move on
to verse 16. 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. In this
verse, I know it almost sounds like Paul said that at one time
in his life that he knew the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no
scripture to indicate that whatsoever. What he is saying is that there
was a time in his life that he judged men. When he was
a proud Pharisee, He judged men after the flesh. He judged men
by outward appearances. Was a man a Jew? He'd meet a
man. Is he a Jew or is he a Gentile? He would make his judgment based. Is he a Jew or is he a Gentile? After the flesh. Is he rich or
is he poor? Is he educated or is he uneducated? Paul knew Christ after the flesh. As he was a proud Pharisee, what
he knew about Christ was he was a poor, lowly, suffering man
who claimed to be the Messiah. who claimed to be the Son of
God, and I hated him. I hated him. I knew him after
the flesh. He didn't appear to be what I'd
been taught all of my life to expect the Messiah to be. In
fact, he was everything the opposite. I knew him after the flesh. But
that's all changed. That all changed when he appeared
to me that day on the road to Damascus, when he appeared to
me. I no longer know him after the
flesh. I know him now as the Son of
God. I know him now as the Messiah. I esteem him now as the exalted
Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Brother Henry Mahan in his Bible
class commentaries pointed this out, and I just wanted to give
you this. I think it's something relevant
to us today. When Paul said he did not know
Christ after the flesh, Brother Henry said, we don't use pictures.
We don't make pictures of Christ as a man and use them in worship. But we love and worship him in
spirit and in truth. We don't know him after the flesh.
We know him as the Lord of lords and as a king of kings. We know
him as the eternal son of God manifest in the flesh. Well,
we'll take up here the Lord willing next time.