You're the Word of God from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, the 5th chapter beginning at the 12th verse, where we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart, or if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. Or if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ compels us because we judge thus, that if one died for all, then all died, and he died for all that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new. Now, all things are of God who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us, we implore on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God, for He made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. The word of the Lord, thanks be to God. Let us pray, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, try your God. We ask you that you would show your mercy again to us. Holy Spirit of God, we ask that you would come, that you would give us the ability to see and to embrace and to believe what you have said to us. We pray that you would seal this truth with all of its encouragement and freedom to our hearts. We might go forth singing and rejoicing and glad to be named among the people of God those who belong to the Lord Jesus. Come, Holy Spirit, and do this work that Christ might be honored and that we might be glad. We ask in Jesus name, amen. You may be seated.
Some of you I know had an experience similar to mine, you came to faith in Christ. Later in life, you didn't grow up in what we would identify as a Christian home or a covenant family. But you grew up in a non-believing home and it was sometimes during maybe adolescence or early adulthood or maybe even in later adulthood. That you heard the gospel and as I look around the room, I see faces in no particular people who this is true. You heard the gospel and for some reason, some strange reason, it made sense to you. And you knew that you were a sinner and you knew that there was a certain bad news that before God, you were judged guilty and you were deserving of His judgment. But God had provided for you a Savior, Christ, and you looked to Him and you embraced Him and you let go of yourself and let go of all that. All of your efforts and let go of all of your attempts and all of those things that you thought were credentials and things that would commend you in the sight of God. Things you thought that God would be impressed with. You let go of it all and you offered as one Christian writer would say you offered simply the empty hands of faith and you received what Jesus Christ did. And by that, you were declared because of the perfect and finished work of Christ, you were declared innocent, not guilty, and after that experience. And again, some of you grew up hearing about this and you, like Timothy, have known about these things from your earliest days and can't remember a time when you didn't embrace them. But for some of you, it was later in life and after all of this came crashing in upon you and you experienced some of the liberation and some of the freedom and some of the joy which the scriptures talk about, joy in the gospel. You went back to your family members or you went back to friends and you talked to them about what it was that happened in your life and you fully expected that your family members and friends would welcome you with open arms and would say to you, I've been waiting all my life to hear this.
That's kind of what you expected but what you got was, you're from Mars, happened to you or some silly stupid patronizing comment like I got. Well, gee Mike, I'm really happy for you. And you say, oh no, you don't understand. It's not about my happiness. It's about your happiness. It's about your eternal well-being. And you pour out all of this stuff on these people and they do. They look at you like you're from Mars, like you're mad, like you lost your mind.
Am I the only one who knew that happened? Of course not. Well, the response that you got, the response of friends who thought you had lost your mind is like the response that the apostle gets by his preaching.
There are some who, when the apostle preaches, there are some who think that he has lost his mind, that he is mad, that he's coming apart at the scenes, that he's unhinged.
The life of the apostle Paul is characterized by a certain bizarre behavior. The life of the apostle Paul is characterized by a certain insanity by a certain madness. And the apostle in writing to these Corinthian believers in verse 12 is saying, yet again, I'm not seeking to commend myself to you. I'm not parading before you all of my credentials, though I could do that. I want you to look at my life. I want you to examine me. I don't want you just to take it on the basis of someone else's recommendation. That's what these other apostles were doing. They came with their letters of commendation. They came with their resumes. The apostle is saying, look at my life. I want my life to be a reason for boasting among you. I want you to glory in me. I want you to glory in who I am. I want you to glory in the gospel that I preach. I'm not seeking to commend myself to you. Look at me, examine me. And if there is a madness about me, understand that it has to do with who I am in relationship to God. But understand that if there is a soundness in my mind, if there is an orderliness and a predictability and a rationality about me and the gospel I preach, understand that that is for you and for your benefit.
This is how Philip Hughes would paraphrase those 12th and 13th verses. If this is madness and fanaticism, then I acknowledge myself to be mad and fanatico. But it is a matter between me and God. You see, it has to do with my relationship to God. What concerns you is the fact that when I am with you, when I have been with you, when I have preached to you the good news, I am sober-minded. I am sober-minded in bringing you the good news of Jesus Christ and in all my dealings with you. See, there is a certain madness about the Apostle Paul. But understand this and be clear about this. The gospel of Jesus Christ isn't irrational and it doesn't produce lunatics. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the most sensible, most rational thing that you will ever encounter. It answers the questions. It is like a glue which holds all of the pieces of the puzzle together and those of you who have embraced it and who were converted maybe later in life or maybe you embraced these things very early on. But the lights continue to brighten as you grew and matured. You know that that is true. You know that the Apostle preached what is sensible. That answers the questions and deals with the issues of who God is and who we are. But there is something about him which is insane, which is crazy, which does look like madness and it is his passion for these things. It is the same kind of passion, the same sort of madness which was characteristic of the life of Jesus. You know what the family members of Jesus wanted to do with him when he began to preach and to teach and to heal and to confront the religious establishment and point out its sin and where it had in fact contraverted the word of God and the teaching of Scripture. You know what they did. His family members came to him and tried to take him by force. It is in Mark chapter 3. Try to take him by force. Not simply reasoning with Jesus. Don't you think you ought to soften things a little bit? Don't you think you ought to tone it down? Don't you think you ought to be a little more reasonable with these people? No. They came to take him by force physically trying to silence him. Family members. Why? The line is. The statement is. He is out of his mind and the Apostle was on trial before and was recounting in autobiographical fashion, the nature of the gospel and its impact on him and how it is the fulfillment of everything that the fathers had talked about. Festus cried out at one point. Paul, Paul, Paul. Your great learning is driving you mad. You see there is always that group. There is always that portion of humanity. Some of it is in the church. There is always that portion of humanity which looks at passion and thinks it madness. Which hears the gospel and thinks it foolishness. Which witnesses the activity of those wed to Christ and thinks that they have lost their minds. You know, there are lots of things which probably ought to be characteristic of us as Christian. But I would ask you to think about this. I would ask you to think about whether or not the utter and entire sufficiency of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross doesn't free us up to break stereotypes and molds and to be perceived by the world as lunatics. Marginal people, people who live on the edge of sanity and think about it. What is it your most concerned about when you even contemplate and you even contemplate having a conversation with the neighbor over the fence about the gospel? What is it that you're most concerned about when you think about interacting with a family member who is not a Christian about the gospel? They'll think I'm crazy. They'll think I'm nuts. They'll think I've lost my marbles. They'll think that I am a religious maniac. That I'm excessive. Religion is fine. But let's not take it to extremes. Folks, there's certainly needs to be a propriety. There's certainly needs to be a propriety in all of our demons with all people. How many people think we're crazy? How many people think we're nuts? Something was going on in the life of the Apostle Paul, which caused people to look at him. Something was going on in the life of Jesus. If we can put it that way, there was something going on in the life of Jesus so compelling, so constraining that people look at him and thought, and crazy. So there is a certain characteristic of bizarre behavior in the life of the Apostle Paul at least as people would look at him who don't share the convictions that the Apostle has embraced. The gospel is a freeing thing, brothers and sisters. It is a liberating thing. Well, what is it that liberates? What is it that the Apostle either knows or feels or has concluded that results in this bizarre behavior? The life of the Apostle Paul characterized by a religious mania has to do with the fact that he is constrained or compelled by a personal love, a personal love. Look at what he says. In verse 14, verse 13, if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are a soundline, it is for you. For the love of Christ compels us. The love of Christ compels us. The little word for is a connector. It ties what precedes it together with what follows it. There is a relationship here. If I am out of my mind, it has to do with me and my relationship to God. If I am so reminded, it has to do with me and my relationship to you. It explains this behavior. It is the love of Christ which compels me and constrains me and thrusts me for. And it is not Paul's love for Christ, which is in view. He has that effect, thrusts you forward. It is not Paul's love for Christ, which he has in view, but it is Christ's love for him, the love of Christ for me. That love compels me. That love constrains me. That love explains who I am and how I act, what I do, what I think. That love of Christ for the Apostle Paul is an electing and rescuing and preserving love. Remember that the Apostle Paul is a Jew. Remember that he is steeped in old testament thinking and categories. When the Apostle thinks he doesn't think as an American. He doesn't think as a Russian. He doesn't think as a South American. He thinks as a Jew. A Jew who was trained by the best teachers. A Jew who knew the scriptures from his first day. A Jew who knew the story of Abraham. A Jew who knew that the kindness and mercy of God are expressed in this particular way. That a particular sinner living in a particular place in the midst of real darkness and paganism, who was not looking for a way out, who was loving every moment of his existence, was summoned out of that darkness called by God, one by God, drawn by God. In the covenant relationship with himself, God was not waiting for some Abraham to come along. God was not holding his breath, hoping and wishing that someone would find it within himself, to see some light and to ask the questions, God laid hold of Abraham. God always initiates. God always takes the first step and he took it with Abraham and he rescued him and brought him out of that darkness and brought him into relationship with himself and made great and precious promises to him and sealed all of those promises with a covenant sign. Abraham, take this to the bank. Everything that I have promised to you, I most certainly will fulfill. One of the most dramatic and powerful passages in all of scripture is the passage in Genesis where God makes the covenant with Abraham and we may remember this, the beasts are slain, they are laid over against one another and Abraham is told to take a seat on the sidelines. And to watch what happens. And after the beasts are slain, a flaming, smoking pot descends and passes between those beasts and the covenant between God and Abraham is ratified and what Abraham is struck by is this one distinguishing feature that when people make covenants in that day, both parties to the covenant pass between the beasts. But in this case, Abraham is in the grandstands on the sideline. He is a witness to God assuming full responsibility for all of the requirements of the covenant plus nothing on Abraham's point. Paul lived with that for years and years and years. Paul knows that God is a calling and electing a summoning a redeeming God who brought Abraham and all of his descendants into covenant relationship with himself. And the Apostle knows that in the mystery of God's good providence, he is loved by the one whom he hated. The Apostle writes to Timothy, all the old man, not as old as he's going to be, but an old man who has taken this Timothy under his wing, who has nurtured him and cared for, who has taught him everything that he needs to know, everything that he does know. But this Timothy is a retiring, insecure evangelist. And if you read first and second Timothy with those thoughts in mind, you will see the Apostle over and over and over again reassuring Timothy, encouraging Timothy, admonishing Timothy. And then this one particularly poignant statement in the first chapter, in the fifteenth verse of his first letter. The Apostle says this to Timothy, this is a faithful saying. And when the Apostle says this is a faithful saying, he's saying the same kind of thing that Jesus said to his disciples when Jesus said, amen, amen. Listen to this. Listen to this. This is true. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He didn't come to make salvation possible. He didn't come to open the door to salvation. He came into this world in the same way that Moses went into Egypt as a redeemer with a specific people in view determined to save them to the uttermost. Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That is the love of Christ. That is what constrains the Apostle Paul and then he adds this little thought, Timothy. Timothy, remember this, that I am chief first among the sinners. Timothy, with the love of Jesus, is sufficient for me than know how it is sufficient for you. It's big enough to save the chief of sinners. It is big enough to save you. If it is big enough to set me free, it is big enough to set you free at a conversation with one of our members just this last week, one who is struggling, really struggling. In the course of the conversation, I don't know if this was insensitive. I hope not. I said, do you think you're a bigger sinner than the Apostle Paul? Do you think the sins you've just told me about are greater than the sins of the Apostle Paul? His person said, yes. And then I said, well you understand, you're calling the Holy Spirit a liar because the Holy Spirit said the Paul was the greatest of all the sinners. Did you disagree with the Holy Spirit? Paul's not speaking in hyperbole, he's not speaking in exaggeration, he knows who he is, the chief of the sinners who persecuted the church, who blaspheme the name of Christ. There is nobody bigger, nobody greater, and if Christ's work is big enough for him, if his love is big enough for Paul, it's big enough for you, it's sufficient for you. What is it that constrains the Apostle? Paul, personal and particularizing love, not love in the abstract. Smile, God loves you. As though that were all that needed to be said, there's so much more that needs to be said. It is true that God loves, but what is the nature of His love? It is a personal love that involves a person, and it is a particularizing love. It involves being attached to particular individuals. That's what the Apostle has in mind. It is this love of Christ. A love set upon me before the foundation of the world, just as it was with Abraham, which has rescued me from darkness, and brought me into light. I heard somebody say one time that Lembarni was preaching in a prison, the gospel, and I don't know, maybe he wasn't getting much of a response. At one point in his message, he said to the folks there, if this doesn't turn you on, you don't have any switches. The Apostle Paul has been turned on, switches the love, and people look at him and think he's a lunatic, as a result. So the love of Christ, which is personal and particularizing, explains this characteristic of Paul and the issues forth, as we've suggested, in a comprehensive salvation. Come to the end of this chapter, and the Apostle explains very succinctly but very profoundly what it is that Christ has done. What it is that God has done in Christ, God made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the very righteousness of God in Him. What is the Apostle saying? And as he says above everything, verse 18, everything is from God. Christ, the sinless one, the one who lived perfectly under the law, satisfying all of the requirements of the law, who had not to die for Himself, who had not to suffer judgment for Himself, was perfectly prepared as a spotless lamb, perfectly prepared to act as a substitute for His people, and in His death upon the cross, all of the sins of His people passed and present and future. If you're a Christian today, do you understand this? Would you wrestle with this? Would you do battle to embrace this? Would you do battle to be liberated and set free by this? But all of your sin, not just the garbage that you did before you came into this. Not just the garbage that's characteristic and true of you right now, and it's all there, you know it's there and I know it's there. This sort of parenthetically, I got to do another wedding yesterday, and I got to do my favorite thing. I got to tell this precious couple, this wonderful groom, this wonderful bride, groomed bride. About Jeremiah 179, your hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Great stuff for a way. That's the truth about us. And you know what that means? It means the precious off. It means we don't have to pretend anymore. I know the truth about you, you know the truth about me, and the other truth about us both is that Christ has taken all of it upon Himself. God made Him who knew no sin, to be sin all of it, yours particularly past, present, and what you'll do tomorrow. And the wrath of God was visited upon Him, punishing Him, bearing our sin so that we might become not only declared righteous because of that finished work, but truly righteous in Him. These things make the Apostle sing. These things constrain the Apostle. These things cause the Apostle to crawl across glass. They cause him to be beaten with rods. They cause him to be stoned. They cause him to be shipwrecked in the ocean. They cause him to be harassed by his friends, his countrymen, those whom he thinks are loyal to him. He endures it all because of this great and matchless love of Jesus. So madness, this kind of passionate, persevering, embracing, and communicating, and living of the gospel which breaks the molds, which sets people free, this kind of madness. It really is a virtue. It really is a virtue. And may God grant us the grace so to live. So madness, freedom, joy, and if the world thinks us mad, then we are in good company. Blessed with us, we continue to struggle with this. Think about this. Pray about this. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. So be free. Be free. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, how we all long to be set free from the things which bind us and constrain us and limit us. And if we don't long for it how desperately we need you to work in our hearts so that we will long for it. And how I pray that you would give us your grace, give us your spirit at this great and glorious work of Christ, this great and glorious love of Christ, which elects, which draws, which redeems, which preserves, this great love which assumes all of the obligations of the covenant. May this love fill our hearts and give us that joy and that sense of liberty and freedom in the spirit of Christ. You know these people gather here, O Lord, be in their hearts and do for each of them each of whom is in need. Do for each of them exactly what is needed and give us all grace to sing your praises as we watch you meet our needs in our very particular ways. We ask them Jesus name. Amen.