YP Address—J. Brereton
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We are by Christine.
The cost is precious love.
Nothing by our souls seems like this great, good 316.
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I would like to turn this afternoon.
Dear young people, to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5.
2nd Corinthians.
Chapter 5.
Beginning with verse.
14.
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?
Yeah, 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 said, be 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.
We then as workers, together with him, beseech you also that he received not the grace of God in vain.
He said, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I suckered thee.
Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation, giving no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed.
In all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes and imprisonments, in tumult, in laborers, in watchings, in fastings, by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost.
By love unfeigned by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true, as unknown, and yet well known as dying. And behold, we live as chastened and not killed.
As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, As poor, yet making many rich. As having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.
You are not straightened in us, but you are straightened in your own bowels. Now for a recompense in the same.
I speak as unto my children.
Be also enlarged.
Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
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And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore come out from among them, and be separate, saith the Lord, And touch not the unclean thing.
And I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, set the Lord Almighty.
I have it on my heart, dear young people, this afternoon.
To speak to you.
Particularly to those who belong to Christ.
Concerning the vast difference.
That God has established between you a child of God.
And the one who is today an unbeliever.
Where we began to read this afternoon.
You will notice it starts off by saying the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead.
Now, dear young people, if I may phrase it this way.
Everyone of us here started off on the same basis.
By nature, God looks upon us as dead. Everyone of us started off that way.
And so it was that apart from God's sovereign election.
Everyone in this room, in this city, in this country, comes under that one basic start dead.
Dead.
All dead.
But we then find that immediately that God brings before us, that beginning in this portion that we have here, He begins to separate between those who are His and those who are not.
And so it is, it says, and that he died for all that they which live.
Should not henceforth live unto themselves?
And so it is we find that the first difference.
Brought before us in this portion of the Word of God.
Between the Saints of God and the one still in his sins is that, whereas the one who is an unbeliever is still dead.
The one who has been redeemed now lives. He has.
Life from God.
He has had by the operation of God.
Been given to him.
Light and so it is that everyone here dear young people this afternoon that belonged to Christ, we can commence our.
Discussion this afternoon by seeing that the Spirit of God points out to you and I.
That you live and the unbeliever is dead.
We know that all are dead.
Apart from Christ, because as it says here, Christ died for all.
All were under the same condemnation and therefore the Lord Jesus died for all. But not all live, indeed not. There may be this afternoon here in this company, those who are still dead. They do not have life.
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And therefore this afternoon they form a separate company.
Here today.
Those who are still then and those who have light indeed form a separate company.
The 16th verse. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh?
Yeah, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
The Lord Jesus has died and risen for us.
Those of us here that belong to Christ this afternoon have been brought into a relationship with a dead and risen Christ.
And dear young people, the fact that we are in relationship.
With a dead and risen, Christ separates us.
Indeed, again from those who are unbelievers.
They do know nothing of being associated with a dead and risen Christ.
Paul is not saying here that he knew Christ after the flesh, but what he is saying, I believe, is that if if he had known or if anyone there had known.
Christ after the flesh, that is the Lord Jesus before He died as the man here on earth. They would not know Him that way anymore. He was now the risen glorified man, and it as is as related to him, as brought into relationship with the One who is the dead and risen man.
That all their relationships now would be formed.
The unbelievers still dead, still left where he was dead, but the believer, the child of God now.
Brought into a relationship of vital, precious relationship with the One who is dead and risen.
For them we find a little picture, I believe, in the 20th chapter of John's Gospel.
Where we find Mary speaking to the Lord Jesus when he had risen from the dead.
And the Lord says to her, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended unto my Father, but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my father, and your Father unto my God, and your God. It wasn't that Mary was not to know the Lord anymore, but she was not to know him in the old way anymore, but as the risen.
Precious Savior and dear young people.
This is true of you, whether you are in the enjoyment of it or not, if you belong to Christ.
You have been brought into a relationship the afternoon with that man who died and rose again for you.
The next verse, therefore, if any man be in Christ.
He is a new creature or a new creation.
All things are passed away. Behold all things.
Are become new if any man be in Christ.
He is a new creation. God has not, dear young people.
Tried to fix up that old nature.
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That old man was condemned at the Cross.
What God has done is made you and I.
A new creation if we are in Christ. A new creation, the Lord Jesus in resurrection, the head of that new creation. And you and I, beloved young people, this afternoon, notice what it says. If any man be in Christ, he is.
A new creature or a new creation?
Not he will be, or someday this will be true of him.
But we are indeed now a new creation, you and I that belong to Christ.
And new creation, those who are in Christ. God says the old thing is passed away, all things are become new. Everything that characterizes our present relationship with the Lord Jesus, our present standing in him is new.
It is part of the new creation. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the old creation at all.
But what about the unbeliever? Where have we left him? We have left him still dead. Still dead.
The next verse.
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us.
To himself.
By Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry.
Of reconciliation.
If we were to turn, take the time to turn over to Colossians, we would find that the time is going to come when all creation is going to be reconciled. But that is in the future. But you and I, dear young people that belong to Christ, the word of God tells us that you have he reconciled.
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ.
My friends notice too, it says.
Hath reconciled us to himself.
God did not have to be reconciled to the Sinner, but the Sinner had to be reconciled to God.
But dear young people, this afternoon you and I that belong to Christ, it has already taken place for us. We have been reconciled to God.
By Jesus Christ.
By all the cost that was paid of Calvary, you and I have been reconciled. There is nothing now that stands in any way.
Between your soul and God, dear young people, if you belong to Christ, all has been removed, and now you and I have been brought back, reconciled to God so perfectly that the eye of God can discern not one flaw in the child of God before Himself. Our life is hidden.
With Christ in God. And so it is that you have been reconciled. But what about the unbeliever? He remains where he is, still dead, still dead. No new relationship for him, no new creation for him. He is not reconciled. And my friends, the Sinner is never reconciled.
That dies without Christ, the one who passes into eternity, who goes beyond the mark.
He is never reconciled. He is banished, banished eternally from the presence of God. But the child of God, he's reconciled. Reconciled.
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Us to himself by Jesus Christ.
And then it says.
And hath given to us the ministry of Reconciliation.
To wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their righteousness, 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 stead be ye reconciled to God.
I suppose there is a particular way in which the apostles were ambassadors for Christ. And yet, dear young people, I believe that what is written here applies very much in principle to you and I that belong to Christ.
You notice it said first of all we have been reconciled and then it says to us has been committed the Ministry of Reconciliation.
We are ambassadors for Christ.
Everyone in this room this afternoon, that belongs to Christ. You represent Christ before this world.
Dear young people.
It searches my own heart when I have heard my older brethren mention time and again that very often the only thing, the only bit of Christ.
That this world ever sees.
That which they see in the children of God. And so it says, we are ambassadors.
Christ, we represent him here. We have been made.
A part of new creation. We have been reconciled.
And then are given this precious oneness privilege of representing him here, representing the precious Savior who died and rose again for you and I, that blessed man, who was the means by which we were reconciled to God. And so it says, ambassadors for Christ.
But dear young people, where is the unbeliever?
Is there any possible way that a dead man can be an ambassador? Is there any way that a dead man can represent one who lives?
No, my friends, not so.
No way.
Ambassadors for Christ demands that we be alive.
That we be associated with the risen man whom we represent.
Let we be part of a new creation, representing a man and the scene to which we belong, and which is foreign to this scene in which we are.
And.
That we be reconciled to God.
And so it is, ambassadors for Christ, you and I.
And then it tells us in the 21St verse, 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 God hath made his Son to be sin. Think of it, the one who was holy, and harmless, and undefiled, and separate from sinners.
The one upon whom the heavens could open to declare this is my beloved Son.
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In whom I am well pleased. The one who at his birth could indeed be described as that holy thing, my friends, this one.
Whose every act, and whose every word, and whose every step was in complete harmony, indeed at the direction of God the Father, and we find.
That it is God the Father who hath made him, God the Son, to be sin for us.
At Calvary's cross he was made sin, but the result that flows from that work is that you and I that belong to Christ.
Are made the righteousness of God, the one, my friends, whose righteousness was perfect.
The one who indeed?
Displayed in everything the righteousness of God. He was made sin.
And you and I, who deserved all condemnation, we have been made the righteousness of God in him, The unbeliever, he stays where he is unless he comes to Christ. Steal that. No righteousness for him. He stands before the great white throne in a coming day in all his sins.
No righteousness for him unless he comes to Christ in time, but for you and I that belong to Christ.
We are made the righteousness of God in Him.
Well, then you notice.
In the 6th chapter.
We find that there are a variety of characteristics.
That are brought out in connection with the apostle, in connection with his ministry.
And in connection, in principle, dear young people, with that which is and should be true of those who belong to Christ.
We won't have the time or take the time this afternoon to read them all or go into the mall, but I would point out a few you notice it says.
The third verse giving no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed, but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities and distresses. Or the sixth verse, by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost.
Dear young people, could you see these things being written?
Upon the unbeliever can you see him sorrowful, yet always rejoicing? Can you conceive of any way in which the man who is characterized as death, the unbeliever, the one outside of Christ, dead in his sins, dead by nature?
To describe him as poor, yet making many rich.
As having nothing, and yet possessing all things. No, dear young people, it cannot be. It cannot be. These things could be seen in the apostle because he was a child of God. These things could be seen in the other apostles, because they belong to Christ. These things hopefully can be seen in his people.
Because they belong to Christ, these things can characterize where the heart and soul are walking with God. They can characterize the child of God. But the unbeliever? Never They cannot be. They cannot in any way characterize the one who is outside of Christ.
You'll turn over to the next to the 16th verse.
It says, Ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
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Those who have been made alive, Those who have.
As we have been considering this afternoon.
Been brought into a precious relationship with a risen Christ. Have been brought into new creation. Reconcile. Been made the righteousness of God in him. Now we find the Spirit of God telling us that ye are the temple of the living God.
Yes, dear young people, you and I that belong to Christ, Those who belong to Christ, they are the temple.
Of the living God.
As God hath said, I will dwell in them.
And walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Can you conceive of any way?
Apart from coming to Christ.
Any way that a dead man can form part of the temple of the living God, you say? No, that's impossible. God is indeed a living God.
All this foolishness that we hear about today, that God is dead. Here we have him saying, you and I are the temple of the living God.
For God dwells in the midst of his people. I will dwell with them, in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God.
And they shall be my people. Now, dear young people, I ask you in all love to your soul, and I trust in all honesty, can you conceive of any way, Can you conceive of any manner in which God has failed, and I say it reverently, failed to so graphically and with such love to your soul and mind?
Bring before our hearts and consciences in his word, that His people, those who belong to Christ, are in a class by themselves. They are a peculiar people. They belong to Him. He has separated them. He has separated you and I.
From all that is around us, not only from the dead. By making us alive.
Not only from this creation, by bringing us into new creation. Not only.
By separating us from the people.
But making us the temple of God, the temple of God. And now for the conscience, for my conscience and yours, dear young people, comes the exhortation.
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers? Dear young people, how is it possible? How can we reconcile? How can we, you and I that belong to Christ, how can we even imagine that there can be any possible linking up?
The child of God with the unbelievers. Think of what this means. We are talking about an association.
Of a living man with a dead one.
Are you saved by nature? That's impossible. How can it be? Oh dear young people, I have thought about this.
I trust I won't offend anyone when I say it this way, but you and I know that if we are in the presence.
Of one that is dead for any length of time at all.
As far as the things of nature are concerned.
The effect becomes most obnoxious.
Beloved young people, there is no way that the child of God can be linked up with an unbeliever without him finding out to his sorrow that the dead.
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Are linked up with the living.
We find it says Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers. If we were to turn back to the 22nd chapter of Deuteronomy, we would find there that it tells us the ox and the *** were not to be yoked together.
The ox, a clean animal according to Jewish instructions, according to God's word. They asked An unclean animal according to God's Word.
And the clean and the unclean were not to be yoked together.
We find it says, For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness. You dear young people that belong to Christ, you have been made the righteousness of God in Christ.
Is that to be yoked up?
With unrighteousness. Unrighteousness.
For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? The unbeliever in darkness, indeed he's dead. The believer made light in the Lord. How do you reconcile?
Light with darkness. It cannot be.
It cannot be.
And what Communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belium?
Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? What part? How can it be that one who has been reconciled to God in Christ?
Would dare, would even conceive of linking up in any kind of association in this world with one who is an infidel?
With one who has no love for Christ.
As one who is identified.
With Satan as one who is darkness, as one who is an unbeliever. Beloved young people.
May God open your heart and mind to receive His precious Word and to see that He has in faithfulness and love separated between the child of God and the one who is an unbeliever so graphically.
That we are without excuse.
If we don't acknowledge it.
What part of he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? The temple of God?
With idols. Yes, dear young people, you and I have been made the temple of God. We are the temple of God. All those who belong to Christ form that temple.
God dwells in them. They are his people.
The unbeliever, he has still all his idols. How often all beloved young people, how often to their sorrow dear young people have acted hastily.
Have listened to a glib explanation that yes, I'm really am a Christian and they have got into an unequal yoke to their sorrow and heartbreak.
Only to find.
That the partner, the unbelieving partner still has all his idols, he still has all the things that.
Command his heart and the child of God.
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The temple of God.
Is brought into an association with idols.
You notice that we considered earlier.
That if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.
Dear young people, the unbeliever in his sins, the one who is dead, he possesses one nature, just one. An old nature, a fallen nature, a nature that responds to evil.
To sin the Christian, the child of God, you and I that belong to Christ.
We are a new creation, but we have at the present time 2 natures, one that delights in God and the things of God, one that finds Christ as the living food for its nourishment and nature that finds its delight in the things of God. And at the same time we have still with us an old nature. Now, dear young people, I ask you.
If there is to be any contact, if there is to be any kind of an association between the believer and the unbeliever, the only basis that they have for contact is the old nature, the old nature, because the unbeliever does not have a new nature, he doesn't have that new nature that comes from knowing Christ.
And so it is that in the history where of the people of God, where there has been the linking up of the believer with the unbeliever, it is the old natures, the old natures that are drawn together. It's the old natures that find the response one in another. And the result is that the dear child of God, the dear beloved child of God.
Is dragged down to the level of the unbeliever as far as practice is concerned so often.
So often they find that what they thought was impossible.
Has become.
Sad, sad history.
You know.
I heard the other day, and I trust my brethren will understand the way I put this, but I heard the other day about a young lady.
Who was married? Who married an unconverted man?
And that unconverted man later got saved.
Now, dear young people, again I trust I will offend no one when I say it this way.
But when I heard that, it frightened me.
I marvel. I truly and wonderfully marveled at the grace of God. But what I fear is for other young people to see a case like that and feel it's possible. I can associate. I can yoke up. I can enter into an unequal yoke with an unbeliever because see, brother so and so or sister so and so did it. And God save them.
And what it means, dear young people, I say it reverend, what it means is that we end up using the grace of God against God. We end up using his marvelous matchless grace against himself. God has in faithfulness, dear young people warned us, warned you and I that it is cannot be that there will be any any kind.
Of concord, any kind of communion of fellowship between the believer and the unbeliever. And how many beloved young people have ignored the clear, explicit, faithful warnings of the Word of God to their sorrow and to their heartache?
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To the grief of their children. To the grief of their parents.
And above all.
To the grief of their blessed Savior, who gave himself one.
You notice it says, wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean things. Dear young people, can I and love to your soul ask you to consider that in the presence of God touch not?
Touch not.
The unclean thing. The unclean, Yes, the unclean. Don't talk about what a nice person he is or she is, or what a fine partner they might make in life or in business or in any kind of association. Recognize that God says he's dead.
He's unclean outside of Christ. He's unclean regardless of what his practices are, regardless of what his conversation is.
Regardless of what a fine person he is, the word of God says he's unclean or she's unclean and the one who loves your soul and has every right to command the obedience of your heart because he died for you. He says he or she, the unbeliever, is unclean and touch not.
It's.
Dear young people.
We see from time to time.
Those who belong to Christ.
And we find them keeping company. Or those who are not the Lords.
And they do it, saying I realize that he's not saved or she's not saved, but I have no intention of letting it go too far. I have no intention of entering into an unequal yoke. Oh my friend, defiance of the word of God.
Confident of our own strength. How often it has ended up in sorrow.
Hear the Lord who loves your precious soul, dear young people, says touch not.
Not a question of marrying. Not a question of entering into business with don't touch. Don't even get close enough to touch.
I remember reading a while ago.
I believe I can quote it from memory. The verse in Proverbs where Mr. Darby translates it in the King James Version, it says keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. But I believe in the new translation it is given as keep thy heart more than anything that is guarded, for out of it are the issues of life.
Now, dear young people, to walk this path of separation, God has separated you. Make no mistake about that. God has separated you by the death and resurrection of Christ. But as a practical separation we have the exhortation. Come out from among them and be a separate. Set the Lord and touch not the unclean things, and I will receive you.
And will be a father unto you.
And ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Oh dear young people, we hear it said. You don't understand how often, how many parents have heard that said. You don't understand. You don't understand that it's lonely where we are, that there aren't many young people. Perhaps it's a lonely life. And if I have to walk that kind of path of separation, it's going to be a lonely path.
Here's the blessed Lord saying, you come out and be separate, and I'll be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters. And you parents said that's a difficult path. That's a hard path. I don't know how I can do it. Walk in separation in that way. There are so many temptations around. Here's the blessed Lord saying that I'm the one, if I could put it this way. He says I'm the one who called out Abraham and preserved him, the Lord Almighty, the title by which he made himself known to Abraham.
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And dear young people, he says to you, and I, you walked in this path of separation, and I'll be a father unto you. I'll be your company, You'll be my sons and daughters. And I, the Lord Almighty, will provide the strength and the grace for that path. Well, the first part that we started with the love of Christ constrains us all. Beloved young people, notice that.
The love of Christ.
Not the love for Christ, it's not our love for Him that constrains us, but it's the enjoyment in the soul of his love for us that constrains us to walk practically, in a practical way, as those who have been separated by the death and resurrection of Christ, who have been part of a new creation.
And beloved young people, may you and I, through grace from himself, walk that path of separation and avoid. Avoid, dear young people, I plead when you avoid in every way.
The yoking up.
With the people of this world, with the unbelievers for in that pathway.
There only Lysol the new creation. The new creation cannot.
They brought into harmony with the old creep.