Well, tonight I wonder if we could turn
in our Bibles to 2 Corinthians, chapter 5,
and beginning with verse 13.
2 Corinthians, chapter 5, and verse 13.
Apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says, 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 were 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.
Old 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 it, 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 ye
reconciled to God.
For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in
him.
Chapter 6 of 2 Corinthians, verse 1, We
then as workers together with him beseech you
also, that ye receive not the grace of
God in vain.
For he saith, I have heard thee in
a time accepted, and in the day of
salvation have I succored thee.
Behold, now is the accepted time.
Behold, now is the day of salvation.
May the Lord bless to all our hearts
this portion of his precious word.
If I could give a title to this,
I would describe it as Paul's explanation of
why he acted as he did.
We would say in the slanguage of today,
what makes a Christian tick?
Now, at the outset, I think we see
as we begin with verse 13 that the
people of Paul's day accused him of being
berserk.
They accused him of being insane.
They said that Paul is beside himself.
And you know, there is that about a
Christian whose following in devotion and dedication to
the Lord Jesus Christ, there is that about
him that makes him an oddball in the
eyes of others.
A strange thing.
And Paul doesn't plead innocent to the charge,
he pleads guilty.
Reminds me of Cornelius Van Der Breggen, a
lieutenant in the Marine Corps during the Second
World War.
They took him up before a medical review
board charged with having lost his mind.
He pled guilty and gave it his defense
that he had found the mind of Christ.
Well, that was true.
He was acquitted, of course, and had a
very long and fruitful career in the Navy.
And Paul says, I understand what you're saying.
I understand that you accuse me of being
beside myself.
Then he says, for whether we be beside
ourselves, it is to God.
Or whether we be sober, it is for
your cause.
He says, no matter what the reaction you
might have to us, there is one of
two explanations, God or others.
And you know, Paul said a lot when
he said that.
Remember when the young man came to the
Lord and said, Lord, what's important in life?
Give me a summary of the law.
If you wanted to digest the meaning of
life as compactly as possible, Lord, what would
it be?
And the Lord Jesus said very compactly and
very concisely, love God and love your neighbor.
Love God and love your neighbor.
That's what Paul says.
If you think I'm beside myself, my zeal
and dedication and devotion are to God.
And if I seem to you sober, if
I have changing moods and varying emotions, then
it's for your cause that I am so.
And then he says, for the love of
Christ constraineth us.
Now, I'd just like to take some of
these verses item by item, and I hope
you follow along with your Bible.
The love of Christ constraineth us.
First of all, I think we should point
out that that expression, the love of Christ,
doesn't mean Paul's love for Christ.
It means Christ's love for Paul.
And the love of Christ is the greatest
constraining motive in all the world.
Do you think if any human authority had
ordered Jim Elliott to go down to Ecuador
with those four other fellows and die for
the Alca Indians, do you think he would
have done that for a million dollars?
I don't believe it.
Why did he do it?
The love of Christ constrained him.
And, you know, it's an interesting thing that
men will do out of love what they
would never do for any other reason in
the world.
Now, actually, everybody is motivated by something.
Everyone is constrained by something.
Some are constrained by money.
Some are constrained by fame, by comfort, by
popularity, by pleasure, by patriotism, and all the
rest.
The greatest constraining force in all the world
is here, the love of Christ.
That word, constrain, is an interesting word.
I like to illustrate it by the crowd
that's shopping at Christmas time.
You go down to the Loop in Chicago,
and there's an awful mob down there.
If somehow or other you could get in
the middle of that mob and lift up
both feet simultaneously, you'd be constrained by the
mob.
That's what it means.
It means just borne along.
It just means moved forward by a force
outside yourself.
And that's what moved Paul.
The love of Christ moved the Apostle Paul.
The love of Christ constraineth us, it says,
because we thus judge.
And I like that expression, we thus judge.
Christianity involves or welcomes the deepest thinking.
In fact, I sometimes believe and often believe
that Christians really think more deeply than anyone
else.
I often think of Einstein.
He willed his brain to medical science after
he died.
But you know, Einstein never dwelt on the
lofty themes that the simplest child of God
can dwell on.
Einstein's mind was bounded by the things of
time and sense, but he never knew what
it was to enter into the deep truths
of the Word of God.
And here you have a great man, the
Apostle Paul.
He's sitting down and he's starting to think.
But you know, that's a great thing when
a Christian starts to think.
And I'd like to suggest this to you
tonight, that if you'll sit down and you
start to think about the truths of the
Christian faith, you start to think of the
incarnation and the sinless humanity of Christ and
his substitutionary death on the cross of Calvary,
his burial and resurrection, his ascension and coming
again, and what it means to you.
I want to tell you, if you'll stop
and think seriously about all that, it'll lead
you down a one-way street.
It really will.
That's the street that's described here in 2
Corinthians 5.
I suppose every man who's ever made history
for God has walked down this street.
It hit C.T. Studd with resounding force.
And here's the conclusion he came to, and
it's the same conclusion you have here in
2 Corinthians 5.
If Jesus Christ be God and died for
me, then no sacrifice can be too great
for me to make for him.
And I would suggest to you tonight, if
you've never come to that conclusion, it's because
you've never thought very deeply.
You can't avoid it.
Everything about the Christian faith says it so.
The love of Christ constraineth us because we
thus judge.
If you stop to think about it, you'll
have to come to the conclusion, what is
a man profited if he gained the whole
world and lose his own soul?
Or you'll come to the same conclusion that
Jim Elliott came to when he wrote, he
is no fool who gives what he cannot
keep to gain what he cannot lose.
You know, I sometimes think that one of
the devil's greatest successes in this world is
to get Christians so busy that they don't
have time to think.
And I believe that's all too true, that
you can live your life and I can
live my life, and we can be so
busy for the Lord that we never really
stop to think of the solemn implications of
the Christian life and take the action that
really has to follow those implications.
We thus judge.
Now, notice, how do we judge?
Well, it says, we thus judge that if
one died for all.
Now, that one, of course, is the Lord
Jesus Christ.
And you know, it's astounding, it's easy enough
to read those words, one died for all,
but it's another thing to stop and think
of it, that the Lord of life and
glory left the ivory palaces and came down
to this world to die for you and
for me.
You know, I think it's a wonderful thing
here tonight that I can stand before you
and say, somebody died for me, and that
somebody was not a mere man, but the
Son of God Himself.
And that's an event of such tremendous importance
that there are solemn implications involved in it,
and I must follow them through to their
logical conclusion.
One died for all.
Now, notice, if one died for all, then
we're all dead.
What does that mean?
Well, dear friends, it means, for one thing,
that if Christ died for me, then I
was on the scrap heap, I was dead,
I had no claim on God, I was
bound for a lost eternity.
I had nothing.
I was nothing.
And He came and died for me.
Now, this should really affect my life.
From the moment I accept Jesus Christ as
Lord and Savior, this should have a tremendous
influence on my life.
If Christ died for me, the only reason
He died for me was that I was
dead.
He didn't die for me because there was
some hope in me.
He died for me because I was hopeless.
I couldn't do anything for myself.
But that isn't all.
If one died for all, then we're all
dead.
And that He died for all...
Notice, that He died for all, it's repeated
again.
Wherever you get repetition in the Word of
God, it's because the truth is important.
One died for all.
He died for all.
And that He died for all, that they
which live should not henceforth live unto themselves,
but unto Him who died for them and
rose again.
Dear friend, here's the logic of Christianity.
The logic of Christianity is this.
Did Christ come from heaven to die for
dead people?
For those who were dead in trespasses and
in sins?
Yes, He did.
Why did He die for them?
So that they would go on and carry
on the way they always had up until
that time?
No, He didn't.
The Lord Jesus died for them so that
those who would be saved through His death
should no longer live for themselves, but for
Him who died for them and rose again.
And this, of course, is where we must
come.
You see, Paul brings us right away to
the cross of Calvary.
And the cross of Calvary is the best
place in all the world to see things
the way they really are.
When you come to the cross, you see
the person who died, the Lord of life
and glory.
When you come to the cross, you see
what He suffered.
You see those three hours of darkness when
He was separated from God, His Father.
And you see Him bearing our sins' guilt
in His own body on the tree.
And you know, the ice of my heart
melts in the warm glow of Calvary.
And any person who has been really saved
should never be able to stand before Calvary's
cross and look upon the form of the
dying Savior there and never be the same
again.
Dear friends, if it's true, my life has
to be different.
If it's true, it means that I must
henceforth live for Him.
The hymn writer says that.
Thou hast bled and died for me, henceforth
I will live for thee.
And so the purpose of His redemption was
not so that we would live for ourselves,
not so that we would live for food
and clothing, not so that we would live
to make a name for ourselves or the
world, not so that we should even choose
our own careers, but so that we would
live first and foremost for Him alone.
I'd like to suggest this to you, and
before you eviscerate me, I'd like to explain
it.
I don't believe anywhere in the Bible that
a man is called to be a plumber
or a carpenter or a doctor or a
dentist.
I see your blood pressure rising, but I
really don't.
I don't.
It never says in the Bible, Paul called
to be a tentmaker.
It says Paul called to be an apostle,
and he made tents to pay expenses.
I think we should think that over.
I'm not saying tonight it's wrong to have
a secular occupation.
Very much the reverse.
But that's not our calling in life.
Our calling in life is to be apostles
of Jesus Christ, to be disciples of Jesus
Christ, and the job is secondary.
It's a means of paying expenses.
And that's something to think over from the
Word of God.
You see, we tip things topsy-turvy, and
after a while, our secular occupation, that becomes
our vocation in life.
That becomes the thing that we live for.
And the things of the Lord really take
secondary place.
But that isn't the way it is in
the Word of God.
Not unto ourselves, but unto him who died
for us and rose again.
Notice those three expressions again in these verses.
I like to emphasize them.
One died for all.
He died for all.
Him that died for them.
You know, it astounds me in the light
of that, to see the attitude that many
parents have with regard to their children.
We've said this before.
I just mentioned this.
There was a servant of the Lord visiting
in a home, a young girl growing up
in the home.
He said to her, what are you planning
to do?
She said, well, I plan to become a
nurse.
And he said to her, fine.
He said, I hope you'll keep the mission
field in mind.
He said, you know, there's a wonderful opportunity
for nurses today in various mission fields of
the world.
Nurses can sometimes get in when just a
simple preacher of the gospel can't.
The mother interrupted and she said, don't you
talk like that to my daughter.
That isn't what I have planned for her.
And I like to think in contrast to
that, to what Spurgeon wrote to his son.
He wrote, I should not like you if
meant by God to be a missionary, that
you should die a millionaire.
I should not like it were you fitted
to be a missionary, that you should dribble
down into a king.
What are all your kings, all your nobles,
all your diadems when you put them together
compared with the dignity of winning men to
Christ, with the special honor of building for
Christ, not upon another man's foundation, but preaching
Christ's gospel in the regions far beyond.
One time a missionary named John Mott was
invited by Calvin Coolidge to become the ambassador
to Japan.
And Mr. Mott said to Calvin Coolidge, Mr.
President, since God called me to be his
ambassador years ago, my ears have been deaf
to all other calls.
Billy Graham also tells about a missionary in
China, when China was still open to the
gospel.
Standard Oil Company was looking for a representative
in this area, and they heard about this
missionary and he seemed to have the ability
that they wanted.
And so they came to him with a
proposal to be their representative in China.
They offered him $10,000 and he turned
it down.
They offered him $25,000 and he turned
it down.
They offered him $50,000 and he turned
it down.
They said to him, what's wrong?
And he said, your price is all right,
but your job is too small.
Your price is all right, but your job
is too small.
Unto him that died for them and rose
again.
Then the Apostle Paul says in 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.
Paul says why when salvation comes into the
life, a man sees things through different eyes.
People really become different to him, and you
know that's true.
I don't know if you realize this, but
in the unsaved world today, almost all decisions
between individuals are made on the basis of,
what will it mean to me?
Seems uncanny, but it's true.
Social life, business life, all areas of life
today, really the motive behind it all is,
what will that person, a man in the
flesh, mean to me?
Paul says that isn't true.
After we become a Christian, we don't know
any man after the flesh.
We don't look upon him as someone who
can benefit us.
We look at him as a precious soul
for whom Christ died.
And I'd just like to say again tonight,
which I think is something I suggested before
in one of the meetings, that to me,
one of the greatest thrills of living is
to think that we as Christians can do
a work under God in the lives of
others that will last for eternity.
I don't think I'll ever get over the
joy and thrill of that.
To think that you can witness to a
person, that that person can be brought under
conviction of sin, be converted to God, be
saved for time and for eternity, you tell
me what in life compares with that.
Now, I don't think there's anything wrong for
a man to fill a person's teeth as
a means of livelihood.
But mind you, I would hate to think
that that was my contribution to eternity.
I would like to think that that was
a way by which I could make a
living and devote my life primarily to the
spread of the gospel and the building up
of the people of God.
Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the
flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after
the flesh, yet henceforth know we him no
more.
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, there's
a new creation.
He's a new creature.
Old things are passed away.
Behold, all things are become new.
The Apostle Paul, remember, is explaining why he's
beside himself.
He's explaining what makes him react the way
he does.
And he says why, of course, that's it.
I don't blame the world if they think
I'm different, if they think I'm odd, if
they think I'm queer.
When a person is saved, there's a new
creation.
He's a new creature.
Old things are passed away.
Behold, all things are become new.
And then notice how this slides along.
There's a definite movement in this portion of
Scripture.
It starts off with a man beside himself
telling why he's beside himself.
The love of Christ constrains.
Now notice what the love of Christ constrains
him to.
Well, it's going to lead up to the
gospel.
It's going to lead up to the ministry
of reconciliation.
It's going to lead up to the fact
that as a saved individual, he can't be
indifferent to people about him.
That's the movement of the plot in this
portion of the Word of God.
He says, And all things are of God,
who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus
Christ, and hath committed to us the ministry
of reconciliation.
This is beautiful.
A two-fold thing.
First of all, God reconciles us to himself
by Jesus Christ.
My sin had created enmity between my soul
and God.
And as a result of my sin, there
was distance between myself and God.
And that must be remedied before God can
draw nigh to me.
How is it going to take place?
Well, I didn't have the power.
And so God sent His lovely Son, the
sinless Son of God, came into the world,
and He died to take away the penalty
of my sin so that I might draw
near to God.
He has reconciled us to himself by Jesus
Christ, and then He says, Now you go
forth with the ministry of reconciliation.
The blessings of God are never intended to
stop with us as terminals.
The blessings of God are always intended to
flow through us to others.
And you have that beautifully expressed in this
portion of the word of God.
First of all, He reconciled me.
Why?
So that I might go forth with the
ministry of reconciliation to others.
How selfish it would be if I should
enjoy reconciliation with God and do nothing about
it.
Well, this begins to explain things, doesn't it?
This begins to explain why a Christian can't
leave other people alone.
This is what the world can't understand.
Why don't you leave me alone?
Why do you have to pass that tract
to me?
Why do you have to make me uncomfortable
speaking to me about my soul?
This is why.
He's reconciled me, and He's committed to me
the ministry of reconciliation.
And I have to go forth to men
with a message they don't want.
And I have to wound them and offend
them before they can be saved, it seems.
And Paul says, I don't blame you for
thinking I'm beside myself, and I'm not denying
it.
And here's why.
Here's the why and the wherefore of it
all.
He has committed to us the ministry of
reconciliation.
Now, what is the ministry of reconciliation?
Well, the next verse explains it to it
that God was in Christ reconciling the world
unto Himself.
My, what words of luster these are.
The Lord Jesus Christ is hanging on Calvary's
cross, dying for the sins of the world.
God is in Christ reconciling the world unto
Himself.
You know, nobody but God would have ever
bothered.
Really.
If you think of your own heart and
the depravity of your own heart, the wickedness
of your heart, within a single week, and
you start to think about it very seriously,
you'll realize that nobody but God would have
ever bothered.
I wouldn't do it for anyone else.
God did it for me.
God was in Christ reconciling the world unto
Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto Him.
If I had received what I richly deserved,
I would have gone to hell.
There's not a single, logical, sane reason why
I shouldn't have gone to hell.
God, in grace, acted toward me and saved
my guilty soul, not imputing their trespasses unto
Him, and has committed unto us the word
of reconciliation.
Now, the word of reconciliation is found in
verses 20 through the second verse of chapter
6.
In other words, Paul, beginning with verse 20
and going down through the second verse of
chapter 6, gives a little short account of
the gospel he preached.
Now, he wasn't preaching this to the Corinthians,
but he was telling the Corinthians the message
that he preached to the unsaved.
Now, what was it?
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ.
You know, there's a tremendous dignity to being
a child of God through faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ.
I can imagine how your chest would swell
tonight if you were appointed by President Kennedy
to be an ambassador to some foreign country.
But I want to tell you, and I
say it in all sincerity, this will sound
like an exaggeration, but it isn't.
It's a far greater honor to be an
ambassador of Jesus Christ.
And that's what we are if we're saved
by the blood of Christ.
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ.
An ambassador is one who represents a sovereign
power in another country.
And that's our calling.
That's what the Lord Jesus has called us
to, to represent Him in a foreign land.
This is not our home.
We're pilgrims and strangers journeying on to our
heavenly home.
As though God did beseech you by us.
Notice those words.
As though God did beseech you by us.
You know, sometimes a Christian speaks a word
of testimony and the person snarls or sneers.
Well, really, they're not sneering at us.
They're not snarling at us.
They're snarling at God.
God is speaking through the believer.
And the reception the Christian gets is the
reception God gets.
Those who receive a prophet will receive a
prophet's reward, it says.
And those who reject the ministry of reconciliation,
they're rejecting God.
Isn't that amazing to think that God speaks
through the humblest believer?
Sometimes you might be embarrassed by the witness
of a simple child of God.
Just remember, he's a mouthpiece for the Most
High God.
And as though God did beseech you by
us, we pray you in Christ's dead be
ye reconciled to God.
Paul says, I sat down, I fought this
thing over, I've gone over the implications of
the cross and the resurrection, and it boils
down to this.
We go forth to men and women and
we beseech them be reconciled to God.
Why?
Because if you don't, if you die in
your sins, you'll perish forever.
Provision has been made, come and accept the
provision God has made and be reconciled to
God.
Now here's the basis upon which reconciliation can
be made.
Verse 21, For he hath made him, he,
God, has made him Christ, to be sin
for us.
That is the sin bearer.
God caused our sins to be placed upon
the Lord Jesus Christ.
He bore the penalty of our sins in
his body on the tree.
God hath made him Christ to be sin
for us, he who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God
in him.
Matchless exchange.
My sins on Christ, God's righteousness on me.
You know, in the cross of Calvary, at
the trial, at least, of the Lord Jesus,
they put on him a scarlet robe.
A scarlet robe.
My sins on Christ.
My sins were a scarlet.
They were placed on Christ.
He died for me.
I accept him as my Savior.
God clothed me in the robe of his
own righteousness so that I, as a believer
in Christ tonight, can look up into the
face of God and say, Oh God, I
thank thee that I'm clothed with thine own
righteousness.
And you know, that's what makes me fit
for heaven, isn't it?
Nothing in myself, nothing in my hand, nothing
of my works, but the fact that I'm
clothed in the righteousness of God is the
thing that will get me to heaven at
last.
He has made him to be sin for
us, who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him.
And then Paul says, now there's an urgency
connected with the message.
Too bad there's a chapter break here.
He says, We then, as workers together with
God, beseech you that you receive not the
grace of God in vain.
This is what Paul preached to the unsing.
He says, Now I've told you the word
of reconciliation.
I've told you that God wants you to
be reconciled to him.
He's provided the basis upon which you can
be reconciled to him, the cross work of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now don't receive the grace of God in
vain.
That is, God has come out in grace.
He's offering you salvation.
Don't spurn it.
Don't turn it away.
Don't reject it.
Receive it.
Receive it when?
Well, he says, For he said, I have
heard thee in a time accepted, and in
a day of salvation have I succored thee.
Behold, now is the accepted time.
Behold, now is the day of salvation.
And so Paul ends this beautiful summary of
the reason for his being and why he
behaved the way he did with his urgent
plea to men and women to trust Christ
now.
Behold, now is the accepted time.
Behold, now is the day of salvation.
According to the word of God, there's only
one time when a person can be saved,
and that's now.
N-O-W.
God promises tomorrow to no one.
God says, Act now.
You've heard the word of reconciliation.
You've heard the message burning from the lips
of a servant of God.
Now accept it.
And accept it now.
Now just think back over the portion of
Scripture we've covered tonight.
A man charged with being beside himself.
He said, Very well, it's to God, and
for your sake, everything I do.
I'm driven on by a power outside myself.
That motive power is the love of Christ.
I look at the cross and see what
He did for me, and I realize that
I must turn over the reins of my
life to Him.
I realize that He bought me with His
precious blood, and if He bought me, then
I belong to Him.
And if I take my life and use
it the way I want to use it,
then I'm a thief and a robber.
And God not only reconciled me to Himself,
but He committed a message to me.
He conferred upon me the tremendous privilege and
dignity of being an ambassador of Jesus Christ.
And as an ambassador of Christ, I go
to a people with a message.
I tell them to be reconciled to the
King whom I represent, to my Lord and
to my Savior.
And I tell them to do it now.
And dear friends, that's what we tell you
to do tonight.
Should there be some in our audience, and
you've never been reconciled to God, you've never
laid down the arms of surrender, and if
the truth were told, you're fighting God tonight,
and you know what I mean, too.
And you've been fighting God all this week.
And God's been speaking to you that you
won't give up.
But dear friends, not until you lay down
the arms of warfare will God save you.
During one of the wars in which Britain
was engaged with France, the two flagships of
the fleets came together.
Apparently the British had won this particular battle,
and the French admiral came on board the
British ship.
And he strode up to the British admiral,
and he reached out his hand to shake
his hand.
The British admiral said, Your sword first, sir.
You know, in a sense, that's what God
is saying tonight to sinners.
Your sword first.
You lay down the arms.
You come to me and say, Lord, I
surrender.
I give up.
I've been fighting against you, but tonight I
will accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and
Savior.
Dear friends, the moment you do that, you're
reconciled to God on the basis of the
work of Christ 1,900 years ago.
You're saved by matchless grace and sure of
a home in heaven.
Tonight at the end of our meeting, at
this closing meeting, evening meeting of the conference,
we would invite you to do that.
While we close the meeting in prayer, we'd
invite you to look to God and say
for the first time, Lord, I want to
be saved.
I can't save myself.
I believe Jesus died to save me, and
I'll commit my case to Him.
I'll put myself in His loving arms, and
I'll trust Him for time and for eternity.
Would you do that tonight?