The Love of Christ Controls Us

Introduction

Well, should have that bit.

Is that we’re getting over there?

Anyway there, our we just kind of live or not. There you go.

Oh, look at that.

You thought we had to go through. Five hundred and ninety-six is the next slide of the thing about after we have a little five minutes.

Let’s pray together, please.

Great Father, we’re thankful for this day that you’ve given us to enjoy your creation. The material blessings we have, our families and the food and clothing and things, Father. We’re especially thankful that we’ve been able to come together here to worship you with song and prayer and through a study of your work. Help us, great Father, as we listen to your word, that we cleanse our minds of things outside of your word that it will take root in our hearts, change our lives, that we will seek your kingdom, Father. We’re thankful above all these material things, dear Lord, that you love us and we know that you love us, and we see that love primarily in the sending of your Son and our Savior, the Lord Jesus, to this earth.

We know, Father, that He was sinless, He lived a perfect life, and yet shed His perfect blood for each one of us. And help us, great Father, to consider that every hour and let it impact our lives and help us to tell others of that great gift. Father, we’re thankful for this Christian family that we have. We’re thankful that you brought Gary and Jan to us this week. We pray you’ll bless them both with good health and a good fruitful life in your service. We’re thankful for Tony and Sherry that are here with us. Please continue to bless them and help us to hold their hands up as they work with us. We’re thankful again for this family. We pray you’ll bless us with a zeal to do your work, a love and service for one another.

It will all help each other get to heaven, Lord. Father, we have those of our number who are in need of our prayers. We ask your hand over Linda Parker and the family. Continue to watch over Sister Spencer, Joe Spencer, and Martha and the others. Lord, we know that all things are possible with you, and we ask that you watch over these are of our family. Be with us again, dear Father, now as we worship and help us to focus on your word. Bring Gary a recollection of things that He’s prepared for us. And we ask that your will be done in all things. This is our prayer in your son’s name, Christ. Amen.

321 would be the time of meditation. 321. Well, good evening, everyone. It is good to see you again. Some of you have been here at every service, but I’m so thankful for that. We may have visitors here if you are visiting. Thank you for coming. I know that the church here is delighted that you’ve chosen to attend, and I hope that you’ll come back and worship with them again and again as often as you have the chance. That’d be a nice thing to do. They would be very grateful for that. If you would indulge me for just a moment or two, since this is the last night of our meeting, I would like to say a word or two of thanks to you. This has been a delight for Jan and I to be able to be with you.

We have had the opportunity to be with many of you outside of services and enjoyed renewing our acquaintance one with another, and we have triggered every one of those moments, I will tell you that. It’s just been wonderful to see everybody. And if we didn’t have that chance to see you outside of services, we saw you here, and that’s been great too. Thank you for the invitation to come. We have thoroughly enjoyed it. You’ve taken good care of us. And as exciting as it has been for me to see you, it’s even more exciting for me, honestly, to see that the church here is doing well. This is really important to me. You guys are important to me. And I’m so grateful that Tony and Sherry are doing the good work that they’re doing.

And I know that they will keep it up. So you keep holding up their hands.

I know that you won’t. And I hope our paths will cross again sometime, and I hope that again we’ll be able to say to one another, Well done. That’s what we’re what we’re shooting for, and especially we hope that God will say that to us whenever we see him. To begin the lesson this evening, because we probably should preach.

Although I could talk for another, well, never mind. Let me play a little word association game with you. I’m going to say a phrase, and I want you to think about the first thing that popped into your head when I say this, okay? I don’t want you to say it, just think it. The Apostle Paul. Now, I suspect that the first thing that popped into your head is going to be different for different people around the auditorium. Some people, when they think about Paul, think of his turbulent past. They think about this man who was formerly known as Saul of Tarsus, who, when he was going by that name, resisted Christianity. He was present at the stoning of Stephen. He was one who made havoc of the church.

In Acts chapter 26 and verse 10, he testifies of himself, that he tried to force Christians to blaspheme. He says of himself that he was furiously enraged at them. This is not a man who was willing to sit on the sidelines. He did not believe that Christ was the Messiah. He did not believe his disciples were teaching the truth about God, and he was trying to stop it. Actively, thinking that this is what God would have him to do. He was wrong about that. But that was his past. And it was such a violent past that sometimes when people think about Paul, that’s the first thing that popped into their head. Other people, whenever Paul is mentioned, the first thing they think about is his conversion to Christ.

They remember that as soon as he became a Christian, immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogue, saying that Jesus is the Son of God. When Barnabas brought him to the church in Jerusalem, he testified about how Saul had been, and this is in Acts 9, verse 27, spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus. In Acts chapter 18, verse 4, we’re told he was reasoning in the synagogues daily, every Sabbath, and trying to persuade Jews and Greece. As actively and as forcefully as he resisted Christianity before he was converted, after he was converted, he was every bit as passionate, every bit as active, trying to spread the borders of the kingdom of Christ. Still others, when they think about Paul, may think primarily of his example and his teachings concerning the activity and work of a Christian.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verses 24 through 27, verses that we looked at in the young people’s class last Sunday evening. Paul talked there about the great discipline that is required to run the Christian race and how he would buffet his own body to make sure that he didn’t stumble and fall. In 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 12, he says to Timothy, fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. And you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 2 Timothy chapter 3, no, chapter 2 and verse 3, saying to Timothy, here, suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 2 Timothy 4 and verse 7, I have fought the good fight.

Paul was very instrumental in trying to tell people that this is a thing that you have to work at. Now you don’t earn salvation by works, but you have to make an effort. And it’s and it’s a long road. It’s a fight, it’s a race. And go after it. Discipline yourself. Do what needs to be done. And he set the example in that, didn’t he? He set the example in that. And then there are some people who, when they think of Paul, see him wrongly. I don’t think anybody here would have had this thought, but there are some people, when the word Paul is mentioned, think of a man who they see as trying to kind of alter Christianity, maybe even taking it upon himself to establish certain doctrines and call them things that Christ taught.

And they don’t believe some of the things that he taught concerning, well, concerning a lot of things as far as the church is concerned. And I don’t know how you feel about the Apostle Paul when you think about Paul. But one thing that I think we can see in all the views that I’ve mentioned to you is that most people see Paul as a man of conviction. As a man who not just believed things strongly, but then acted on what he believed, on what he thought was right. Even when he was wrong, he took action. He did what he thought was consistent with what he believed. And I wonder if we could figure out why that is. Why it is that Paul was so highly motivated before he was a Christian and even after he was a Christian.

But especially after he was a Christian. That’s what I want to think about this evening. And I think in terms of finding Paul’s motivation and all that he did being a Christian, where we can go within the book of 2 Corinthians, in 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

I really want us to read the entire chapter. It’s a little bit lengthy, but I think it would be helpful to us if we do that. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, we’re going to start in the first verse. For we know that if the earthly tent, which is our house, is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed, while we are in this tent we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.

Now he who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight, we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God, and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences.

We are not again commending ourselves to you, but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us. Having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died. And he died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore, from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him in this way no longer.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Namely, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us.

He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. If you look at the verses in that chapter, and you were asked to pull out the statement that Paul makes there that would identify his motivation, what verse would you pick out? The verse that I would pick out is verse 14, where he says, For the love of Christ controls us. The love of Christ controls a statement to that effect. I couldn’t help but notice it, knowing the topic of the lesson. Now I am under his control, and I’m happy in my soul. Just to know that his grace reaches me. This was Paul’s motivation. Let me share with you what Melvin Curry says in his commentary in 2 Corinthians about this verse 14.

Brother Curry says this. He says, The love of Christ now constraineth us, he says, by which he surely means that Christ’s love for him, as well as for all of us, is the all-determining factor in his life. He implies that divine love holds him from straying by giving purpose to his life. Impels him to preach, restrains him from self-serving ambition, or controls his entire life. Literally speaking, Christ’s love put pressure on Paul to see things differently from the way he saw them before his conversion. It causes him to realize that he must die to a mode of life in which he was the center. End quote. In many ways, it was the love of Christ that compelled Paul and the other apostles as well. For when Paul uses the terms we and us in this chapter, he almost always is talking about himself and the other apostles in those verses.

1. The Love of Christ Controlled How He Fulfilled His Ministry

And in this chapter, I think we can see at least a couple of ways in which this control is manifested. And I want to share those with you tonight. The first thing I would say to you about this is that the love of Christ controlled Paul and how he fulfilled his ministry. I mean, remember now, when he was known as Saul of Tarsus, Paul had a ministry of sorts. He believed that trying to wipe out the teaching of Jesus Christ was the thing he ought to be about. He wanted to silence that teaching. Apparently, Saul was very intent on doing that. When Stephen was stoned in the presence of the Jewish council, we’re told in Acts chapter 8 and verse 1 that Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death.

In verse 3 of that same chapter, the scripture says, Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, dragging out men and women. He would put them in prison. What was controlling him there? It was his belief that God would have him do this. In Acts chapter 9 in the first two verses, he’s going around asking for permission from the high priest, can I go and arrest whoever I find who’s following this way? Now I don’t know if any of the other Pharisees, if any of the other Jews were as proactive as Paul in doing this. Again, I think I think he was persuaded he was doing the right thing. He didn’t understand the love of God for all mankind. But as Paul the Apostle, he does understand that love.

He does understand the love of Christ. He says in Second Corinthians 5 there in verse 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Paul understands that everyone, Jew and Gentile alike, is going to be judged. Paul also understands that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And so Paul, putting those two things together, would clearly understand that those who have sinned and who have fallen short, when they are judged, they’re going to be condemned. And he knows also what a terrifying thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God. And yet he also understands that God has made a way, so that those who have sinned don’t have to face that kind of condemnation.

In Romans chapter 8 and verse 1, Paul says there’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Because Christ loves us, he gave his life on the cross. Because he loves us, he shed his blood for us. He did this willingly. He offered himself up as a sacrifice. And Paul came to understand that. And so he says there at verse 11, therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. Paul knew what awaited those who come to the judgment without Christ. He knew the wrath of God. He knew what awaited them. And he did not want anyone to face that. Not after Christ had gone to such length that men don’t have to face that. This moves Paul clearly. It motivated him to consider the need that other people have to have a relationship with the Lord, to be reconciled to him.

2. The Love of Christ Controlled How He Judged Others

Paul was motivated. He was compelled to work as hard as he did to reach out with the gospel because of the love of Christ. I would also suggest to you that the love of Christ controlled Paul and how he judged others. Look again at verses 14 through 16. In verse 14, Paul writes, For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died. He died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore, from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him in this way no longer.

Now, verse 16, I think can be a little confusing. This phrase according to the flesh actually modifies the verbs. It does not modify the nouns. If we were to translate it as it actually appears in the Greek, it would be this way. We know according to the flesh, no one, even if we knew according to the flesh, Christ. And the idea here is that this is a contrast between two perspectives. What Paul is saying is that conversion to Christ has resulted in a different way of thinking about what is valuable and what is true and what is right. He no longer uses the standard of the world to evaluate those things. He now uses a different standard to evaluate those things. For example, concerning Christ himself.

He used to evaluate Christ, to see Christ, to have a perspective on Christ, the way that his fellow Pharisees did, the way the unbelieving Jews did. He saw him as a man, as a man who was claiming to be something he was not, as a man who needed to be stopped. That’s the way he saw him, simply as a man and a false teacher at that. But once he was converted to Christ, he didn’t see him in that way anymore. His perspective changed entirely. He didn’t know him according to the flesh any longer. He now knew him to be the Son of God. And so it was all different for Paul, who judged Christ differently. And he had a different perspective concerning other people, too. I think I may have shared this anecdote with you before.

Some of you may remember it. But it was some time ago that I read an article. Every time I say this, I seem to think it was Andy Cantrell that I was reading, but I’m almost sure this one was Brother Cantrell. He was writing a he’s talking about this verse 16 here in 2 Corinthians 5. And he says this. He says, No wonder Paul is so different than me. I almost always see the flesh. I am repulsed by the sins of others rather than fearful for their souls. I’m sickened by how they act rather than sickened by the eternal consequences those actions will have on their souls. I am more concerned about how they make me feel than how they eventually will feel if they continue to live such lives.

Because of everything Paul has said he knew in this chapter, he no longer saw people as flesh and blood. He saw them as souls, made in the image of God, as those for whom Christ died. Just imagine how things would change if we saw things this way too. Relationships, behavior, the way we speak, the way we work, unity, productivity, evangelism, and everything else that matters would change with such a perspective. Maybe many of us can understand where Brother Cantrell’s coming from. The anecdote is this. What was it? Five years ago, six years ago when Hurricane Rita came through. I remember just how far back it was, but I was living in this house a mile down the road. Jan was out of town, as I recall.

And my son Alan was here with me, and it was time to get out of town. It was time to leave. So we hop in our car and we head toward the interstate. How long do you think it takes to go from my house to the interstate? Ah, 20 minutes, right? Twenty minutes is about right, maybe 25 minutes. Three hours later, we still weren’t there. And part of the reason why we weren’t there is because as we are in this line of cars, all trying to get to the interstate and try to head north. There are people driving on the shoulders. There are people even driving on the opposite lane where no cars are coming this way, go in that direction. And then every so often, of course, a car would come this direction.

They’d have to stop. Someone would have to let them in. And they succeeded in their purpose. I got in way ahead of those of us that they’d passed a mile or two down the road. I have to confess to you, I got very irritated at that.

I wasn’t feeling real happy about that. It was very irritating. Now, fortunately for Alan and I, we were almost at the interstate. Then we got the word that we’re going, it was going to be on the right side a few stents, so I didn’t have to, we didn’t have to go. I’d try around and I came back. But I was really upset with these people. I found myself thinking things like, who do they think they are? Why is it that we have to wait in line and they think they don’t have to wait in line? Why are they more important than we are? Why are they so selfish? And I and here’s the bad part of the confession. Not one single time that I think about these people as souls.

As people who were so consumed with themselves, with the fear of getting out of town, with the trying not to wait, and the and the probable ungodly nature of their life that I should be concerned about them. I didn’t do that a single time. And I should have. I should have seen them as not just what they were, but as what they could be. I should have seen them as what’s going to happen to them. If someone doesn’t try to reach out to them, I didn’t have that opportunity, I grant you, but still, we need to see people that way. That is how the apostle Paul came to see people. He didn’t judge them according to what they were anymore. He judged them according to what faith they may face and according to what they could be.

If they did hear the gospel of Christ, and if they did respond to it, a different perspective. And that’s the perspective that I need. And whenever I read this article by Brother Cam Frell, I found myself immediately going to this. I don’t know why. Immediately I thought about this. I thought, oh man, is he right about that? Exactly right about it. That’s what we need. But notice what Paul says in verse 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. Whatever kind of a selfish, ungodly, terrible person someone might be, Paul recognized that if they became a Christian, they would be different. They would be changed. They would be given a new perspective.

No, I’m not saying that temptation would go away magically somehow. Bad habits, bad ways of doing things, old things. They die hard, don’t they? It’s hard to get rid of those things sometimes. But at least the intent is there. I want to be different. I want to try and be what God wants me to be. That’s the change. That’s the change right there. It’s a new orientation toward Christ. The definition of the new creature is down in verse 15, isn’t it? He died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves. But for him who died and rose again on their behalf. There’s a new orientation. Before a person comes to Christ, they live for themselves. That’s what they do. I’m not saying that they’re not generous.

I’m not saying that they’re not good in many ways. They may do a lot of wonderful things, but in the final analysis, a person who has not come to Christ is living for himself. And a person who comes to Christ is now supposed to be living for Christ. That’s the change. That’s the difference. How is this manifested? It should be manifested in every aspect of a person’s life. In terms of their goals for living, in terms of their daily walk, in terms of their speech, in terms of how they dress, as we talked about last night, it should be manifested in every kind of way. And again, I recognize, and you recognize old habits die hard. But it’s it’s a great change even when people struggle with sin after becoming a Christian.

Because, I mean, think about this. A person who’s not a Christian, temptation comes their way. Typically, it’s it’s an opportunity. That’s how they see temptation. A Christian sees temptation for what it is. Oh, ooh, I shouldn’t. Now they may give in. They may succumb to it, but even if they do, they know that they did wrong. A thought that would have never come probably to the person before they became a Christian. Maybe it would, but certainly not as quickly. It’s a new perspective on everything. And that’s the goal. That’s the goal that we all have in being Christian. It’s the goal we try to talk about. When we have a chance to talk to other people. And so it’s the love of Christ that’s the root of all this.

Conclusion

That is what ought to control us. That’s what ought to give us the ability to do this. That’s where Paul was. He changed his perspective because of the love of Christ. It controlled him, it compelled him, it impelled him, it constrained him to do all that he did, to teach all that he did, to say all that he did, and we should not be any different. I know that we’re not apostles. We don’t have the same call of service to God that Paul had, but we still have things that we’re to be about. And although, we talked about this the first day of the meeting, although we talk about duty and we talk about obligation, and those can be motivating. I’m not saying that they can’t, I’m not saying we shouldn’t talk about those things because we should.

What really ought to be motivating us is the love of Jesus Christ. He gave his life for us. Willingly.

Oh, I know how we contemplate it. Because we leave here, we go out into the world, and suddenly we’re in the world again. And the same things that we typically do in a world we do, we have to we have to think about this. We have to focus on this. We have to let his love control us. And that maybe will help us to talk to others about it so that his love might control them. In verse 20 of this chapter, Paul writes these words. He says, Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were making an appeal through us, we beg you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Paul says he is an ambassador for Christ. So let’s remind ourselves of what an ambassador is.

An ambassador in the political world is an official who speaks for the ruler of a country, the king. The king might not be able to go visit this country and that country and speak to this other king and this other king and make foreign policy and talk about this. And so he sends someone else. He sends an ambassador. And it is understood both by the king who sends him and by the king who receives this ambassador, that when the ambassador speaks, he is not speaking his own ideas or his own opinions or what he thinks might be good. He is speaking the words of his king. Here’s what my king says to you, O king. And that’s what he does. And if an ambassador comes to a king and says, My king says that because of these atrocities that you have done, we are now at war with you, then that king knows they’re now at war.

Because the ambassador said so. That was something his king told him to say. That’s how it should be understood. So the Apostle Paul, when he speaks, and the things that he writes, we have the words of our king. If anyone thinks he’s spiritual, let him recognize the things I write to you are the Lord’s commandment. 1 Corinthians 14, about verse 46. I can’t remember the exact verse. 36, 46. So Paul says here that his role as an ambassador is as though God were making an appeal through him. And the appeal is this. Be reconciled to God. I don’t know how that makes you feel.

He begs us, he pleads with us. Be reconciled to God. This is God’s desire. This is what he wants. Is there someone here tonight who has not yet been reconciled to God? If that’s where you are, then my appeal to you would be this. Let the love of Christ control you. Let it compel you. Let it motivate you. Let it urge you this night to obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. Come to him in faith. Turn away from the sin in your life. Confess his name before others. Be baptized in order to have your sins washed away. Don’t do it because I said it. Don’t do it because the person next to you wants you to do it. Because mom and dad want you to do it, because Tony and Sherry want you to do it.

Do it because the Lord wants you to do it. If you don’t do it for that reason, then I don’t know what good it does you to do it. It is Christ who we serve. It is Christ who we love. It’s Christ to whom we want to give our lives. And so this night, if you have not obeyed the gospel, you have an opportunity to do that. For those of us who are Christians, sometimes we mess up. Bad habits die hard. Sometimes we let temptation get the best of us. And even though we have been reconciled to God, now we find ourselves fearful of judgment. Fearful of standing before the Lord on that day. Well, we’ll have to give an account for what we do because we have sinned.

And we know we need to make that right. If the sin that you know you need to make right, please take care of that tonight. There’s no point in waiting. You don’t know how long you have. Take care of it tonight. If it’s something you can do privately, if it’s something between you and the Lord only, then ask his forgiveness, he will forgive. We talked about that on Sunday too. It doesn’t matter what it is. If we turn away from sin, he will forgive. If it’s something that you think in your conscience is more appropriately handled publicly, then why not take care of that as well? We would be very pleased to hear of your confession of sin, not that you have sinned, but that you want to turn away from it.

And we’d be happy to pray with you and for you that God would forgive you and you’d be restored to faithfulness, you’d be embraced by this congregation, and you’d be encouraged not to commit that sin again. So this night, the question is: does the love of Christ control us? Is that our motivating force? That’s the way it was for Paul. Is that the way it is for us? It ought to be. Let’s work on that. And if we can if we can help someone tonight, please come forward now. We’re going to stand and we’re going to sing a song to encourage you.