The following message was delivered on Sunday evening, April 10th, 1994, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I urge you to turn with me in your own Bibles to the second letter of the Apostle Paul to the church at Corinth, 2 Corinthians and chapter 5, And I shall begin reading at verse 20 and read through verse 2 of chapter 2. I'm sorry, of chapter 6. Verse 2 of chapter 6. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 20. Speaking of himself and his companions in gospel endeavors, the apostle writes, we are ambassadors, therefore, on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us we beseech you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God. Him who knew no sin, he made to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in him. and working together with him, we entreat also that you receive not the grace of God in vain. For he saith, at an acceptable time I hearkened unto you, and in a day of salvation did I succor you. Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, Now is the day of salvation. Now, most of you in this congregation knew, even prior to Pastor Barker's remarks a few moments ago, that within a few hours, I shall pass into the 60th year of my earthly pilgrimage. And in the past months, the realization of the fact that April 11th, 1994, should God bring me to it in His good providence, would mark my 60th birthday, I confess has been a constant and deeply sobering reality. Having been reared in my formative years in a time when in any Protestant church, if you said, take your Bibles, there was only one Bible, the old authorized version, deeply embedded in that place in the brain where thoughts are embedded, is the language of Psalm 90, in which the psalmist reflects upon the eternity of God on the one hand and the transitory nature of man on the other, and says that we bring our years to an end as a sigh. The days of our years are three score and ten, or even by reason of strength, fourscore years, yet is there pride but labor and sorrow, for it is soon gone, and we fly away. And in the language of the old authorized version in the 1901 as well, you see the threescore years of allotment is your basic ration of time. The 10 is added, or by reason of strength, the 20. But the basic calibration of our allotment of time in this earth is couched in this language, three score. And it has been that realization more than any other which has made these past weeks and months, I say, a most sobering experience in my own heart and life. Added to that, the homegoing of my own father this past May has underscored indeed how quickly Our years pass and we bring them to an end as a sigh. And therefore, as I have been thinking and praying about what texts I should use in this series that we have entitled Signposts to the Celestial City, texts of Scripture which in a very succinct and focused way point us to the way of life and salvation, it was inevitable that a text that focused on the subject of time would be impressed upon my mind and upon my spirit. And for a number of weeks, the text that has been deeply impressed upon my mind and spirit is found in 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Even though it is a parenthetical statement, it is nonetheless a tremendously powerful statement that constitutes one of those very clear signposts to the celestial city. It is the latter part of verse 2. Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Do you see all the words in that brief part of our text that have elements of time embedded in their very essence? Now. is the acceptable time. Now is the day. Now, time, day. These are all words that bring us into conscious acknowledgement of this reality of time. Furthermore, I cannot believe, though the calendar does not lie, that it was 42 years ago when these words were some of the words that became my constant companions in the early days of my preaching on the street corners of Stamford, Connecticut. I don't know how many times I quoted until my stomach muscles were in knots. This text along with other basic texts that call men to the great issues of sin and grace and sought to hurl my voice above the sound of buses and dual exhaust and mocking companions. Behold now! is the acceptable time. Behold now is the day of salvation. And therefore, as we turn our attention to this simple signpost of the celestial city tonight, I want you to note with me three things about this signpost. As again, we use the imagery of beholding it in a distance and drawing closer to it to make out what it says to us by way of heavenly instruction. And the first thing we note about this sign is the repeated call to attention to the signpost. The repeated call to attention to this signpost. Look at our text. Two times we have the word, behold. The part of our text upon which we focus our attention begins with the words, Behold! Now is the acceptable time. Again, behold, now is the day of salvation. Now this word, behold, is in technical terms a particle calling us to strict, concentrated, alert attention to something. It is a word that is to act like a trumpet blast in the ear of a man taking his afternoon nap. If you were taking your afternoon nap tomorrow and a trumpeter got his trumpet two feet from your ear and let out a blast, I think the most dull, drowsy, deep napper among us would probably levitate from his bed. This word is meant to act like a trumpet blast upon the sleepy and upon the drowsy. It is meant to act like a thunderclap. coming out of the clear blue sky to someone ambling through the fields with his mind running in a hundred directions of innocent rumination and suddenly the very earth shakes with that thunderclap and the sky has now fixed his attention. God speaks to us from this signpost and he says twice, Behold, there is something of supreme importance that demands your immediate and concentrated attention. And in case you didn't hear the trumpet the first time, God gives a second blast and says, There is the repeated call to attention to this signpost. To change the imagery of the trumpet blast or the thunderclap, we should look upon this signpost as we draw near to it, as having a word. that is set before us on the signpost in the brightest of day glow orange in a neon light and it keeps blinking off and on off and on and says behold behold Behold, behold, like those lights that you'll see on Route 80, which is forever under construction if you go any far, any distance at all in the western direction of the country, and you've been cruising along where there are two or three lanes going west, and it's suddenly going to be crowded down to one lane, and there are those bright lights that will take the driver who is closest to the land of Nod, and suddenly those lights await in him. This is what God is saying. An incident and I have not yet been able to verify it but I believe it is a true story. An incident is told in the life of Whitfield. That is that mighty man of God with such a large heart and compassionate soul for the salvation of sinners was preaching on one occasion. There was someone in the audience under the great preacher's proclamation of the gospel. Whitfield, as a true preacher, was not one who simply would drone on no matter where the people were. A man who's got anything of preacher in his spirit and a love for sinners in his heart, he's not interested in just dumping a wad of truth, whether or not it's being attended to or not. He preaches to people's faces and eyeballs to see if he has their attention and if there's engagement of mind and spirit as much as he is able to read it. And he was convinced this man was not simply in deep reflective meditation, he was sound asleep. So Whitfield stopped. And often if you do that, someone that's sleeping will suddenly wake up and look around and see if anyone's looking at them. You know, some of you kids have had that happen in the classroom, haven't you? Well, Whitfield stopped and the man dozed on. And suddenly that great preacher raised one of his legs and brought it down with full force upon the wooden platform. The man woke up with a start. Whitfield fixed his burning eye upon him, said, Sir, thou shalt not sleep when the trump of God summons thee from thy grave, and Almighty God calls thee to judgment. Needless to say, The slumbering pew occupier didn't sleep for the rest of that sermon. I trust I don't have to bring my foot down on the platform. I trust the voice of God speaking in Scripture is enough, coming through to every boy, to every girl, to every man, to every woman. Whatever God has to say in this signpost, He's saying, it's of such importance that I give you a repeated call to attention. Behold! Behold! If you miss everything else, don't miss what I've inscribed upon this signpost. It is a matter of life and death, of heaven or of hell, the repeated call to attention to this signpost. But then notice with me, secondly, the crucial issue to which our attention is repeatedly summoned. To what is God repeatedly summoning our attention? Does he want to get our attention in order to give us the present state of the stock market in Tokyo? Is He summoning us to attention in order that we might be aware of some other issue which the great ones of the world consider important? No. If you'll look at the text, you'll see there is one central issue to which God is giving us this repeated summons to pay attention. What is that issue? Look at the text. Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation." And those words of the apostle are words based upon his quotation of a passage out of the book of the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 49 and verse 8, and he followed the rendition of the working Bible of that part of the world at that time, the Septuagint. And in the Hebrew structure, as many of you know from previous studies, you will often have the second part of a verse explaining or amplifying or repeating or contrasting with the first part. Well, here you have, in the Hebrew parallelism, a further explanation of the first part of the verse. Look up at the first part of verse 2. For he says, quoting now from Isaiah 49.8, At an acceptable time I hearkened unto you, Well, what is the acceptable time in which God hearkens to his servant, who is the focus in the passage in Isaiah, or the servant and his people in him? There is a debate as to the precise sphere of reference, but it's irrelevant for our purposes tonight. But what is that acceptable time in which these words I hearkened unto you are set before us? Well, the second part of the verse explains it. And in a day of salvation, did I sucker you? Now Paul says, behold, pay attention. Now is that very acceptable time. Behold, now is that very day of salvation. Salvation. So you see, the crucial issue to which our attention is repeatedly summoned is all bound up in the word salvation. The word salvation, that precious word that means to be delivered, to be rescued, to be preserved, to be taken from a state of danger into a state of safety and of blessedness. And I want you to notice three things about that salvation in the setting to which our attention is repeatedly summoned. When Paul says, by the guidance of the Spirit, Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. What was in the apostle's mind when he said salvation? Was he on a mission in which he was proclaiming that people could be rescued from all of the social ills that existed in the Roman Empire? And they were many. Was he proclaiming a salvation that would bring relief from all of the economic inequities that existed in the Roman Empire? Was he proclaiming a salvation that would take from off people's back the imperialistic pressure of Rome upon the nations of the earth? What was this salvation? Well, there are three things that dominate in this very setting with reference to this salvation. Notice them. Number one, it is salvation from sin. sin which has made us the enemies of God and unfit for acceptance and fellowship with God. That's the salvation to which he is calling our attention. Look at verse 18 of the previous chapter. But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation. You see, it's enemies, people who are at odds with one another who need to be reconciled. Should you kids come home from school in an unexpected time and you find your dad in the kitchen and he's got your mom in a real tight clinch and planting a big one right on her smackers? You don't come into the kitchen and say, Mom and Dad, when in the world are you gonna get reconciled? You don't say that. You say, oh boy, you two at it again. But down underneath, you kind of like it, don't you? Sure, because you know if you see mom and dad in a warm embrace, there's no enmity between them. There's no warfare. There's no hostility. You know that their hearts are bound to one another. They've kept the lines of communication open and their affection for one another warm and vibrant. But you see, our passage says God has reconciled us to himself. That assumes we were in a state of enmity. We were in a state of alienation. And what was the cause of it? Verse 19, that is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses. It was men's trespasses, men stepping over the boundaries of God's law that constituted their sin, that resulted in their alienation from God and necessitated their reconciliation. Notice further in verses 20 and 21, we are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us, we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He's assuming that men and God are at enmity, that there is distance between them. And then he goes on to say, him who knew no sin, he made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Therefore, when he says at the end of verse two, behold, Behold, pay attention, now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation. For the apostle, that salvation was nothing other than salvation from sin, sin that has made us the enemies of God, unfit for acceptance with God, and unfit for fellowship with God. Now I know in our day the word salvation is not popular, and certainly to say that at the heart of the biblical doctrine of salvation is the ugly, vicious, venomous, hell-deserving reality of human sin is to make us even less popular. But my dear friends, truth is not a nose of wax to be shaped by popular opinion. Truth is what God has revealed about reality. And we read of that reality in Genesis 3. There was a subtle creature whom God had made. And through the influence of that subtle creature, the mind of our first mother Eve was influenced and her spirit influenced. And she took of the fruit and she gave to her husband Adam. And rather than being her leader and protector, he had distanced himself from her and she from him, and he became her follower. And the Scripture makes it evident that their act of disobedience God took very seriously. God didn't come down in the cool of the day and say, Adam and Eve, you don't need to run. Boys will be boys and girls will be girls. And I never expected much of you anyway. Don't run away. Come and let's just cuddle up and start all over again. I'm a God of unconditional love. You're acting like you've got a guilt complex. Don't you know, Adam and Eve, that guilt complexes are destructive of the wholeness of your humanity? So I will come as the first super psychologist and I'll rid you of your guilt complexes. No, not so, did the living God. Adam, where are you? He came as the grand inquisitor. to get the man to stand, as it were, under the pure light of the countenance of his God, and own up to one fundamental tragic reality, the reality of his sin. His sin that it put a distance between Him and God. His sin that it caused Him to run from His God. His sin that it caused Him not only to be guilty, but defiled and unfit for communion and fellowship with God. His sin that caused Him to have a curse brought upon Him, to be banished from the garden. When we speak of sin, we're not talking of a philosophical concept. We're not talking of a religious notion concocted by theologians. We're talking of this ugly, horrible reality that smashed that beautiful setting in Eden and made it what we were reminded Matthew Henry called the saddest story ever told. But this issue to which God calls your attention and mine, to which he says, behold, pay attention, concentrate your powers. It has to do with the matter of salvation. The first thing we know about that salvation is that it is a salvation from sin. which has made us the enemies of God, unfit for acceptance and fellowship with him. My friends, listen to me tonight, and may God drive this simple little principle home to your hearts. You had better take sin as seriously as God does in this life or you'll have a whole eternity to regret that you didn't. You got me? You had better take sin as seriously in this life as God does, or you'll have a whole eternity to regret. So when this signpost gets our attention with the double trumpet blast, behold! Behold! It is to call our attention to the great issue of salvation. The first thing we know about that salvation is that it deals with the ugly reality of human sin. that has made us the enemies of God, unfit for fellowship with Him and acceptance by Him. But then secondly, it is a salvation from sin secured by the vicarious sin-bearing of the Son of God. It is a salvation from sin secured by the vicarious sin-bearing of the Son of God. Notice again the verses we looked at a few moments ago. Verse 18 of chapter 5, all things are of God who reconciled us to himself. Sin was the barrier. He's removed it. How? Through Christ. and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses and having committed unto us the word of reconciliation. This salvation from sin is secured by a person called in this passage, Christ. His full name is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The God-man, Christ Jesus, who was uniquely constituted, true man, as though He were no God, who was and ever had been and ever shall be God, as much God as though He had never taken humanity to Himself. That one was set apart and marked out by God and anointed. He is the Messiah to be the great and final prophet, priest, and king, appointed by God for the salvation of men. But you say, Pastor Martin, you use language, salvation from sin secured by the vicarious sin-bearing of the Son of God. I don't see that clearly taught in verses 18 and 19. I see that the barrier's been removed through Christ and in Christ. Ah, but read on. Verse 20, we are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ as though God were entreating by us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Him who knew no sin, that is Jesus Christ. He made sin on our behalf. Him who knew No sin. That is, Jesus Christ in the totality of His person had no personal acquaintance with the horrible reality of human sin. His mind never for a millisecond ever thought a jealous thought. A mean thought, a covetous thought, a lustful thought, an untruthful thought. Reared in a crowded home, in a large family, in humble peasant circumstances, that mind never for a moment was found in a little boy lying on a cot saying, I'll get even with that brother who did me in and lied to me that mom and dad never once was such a thought ever for a millisecond in his holy mind. Never once from the time he was conceived in Mary's womb until he gave up his spirit upon the cross, never once was there an emotion that was ever painted in the slightest hue with the stain of sin. His deepest joys never stepped over the boundary into carnal frivolity. His most crushing grief never stepped into the boundary of the dejection of unbelief. And all of the emotions in between that that holy soul of the Son of God felt, and how deeply he felt them, shudders! when he comes to the graveside of Lazarus with a mingled spirit of hatred and grief in the presence of death that has taken away his friend Lazarus. The spirit of anger that flashed through his eyes in Mark 3 when he looked around, it says, being angry for their hardness of heart. But in that anger at death, in that anger in the face of unbelief, not a hue of the stain of a sinful passion of anger. And when his eyes flashed and his whole body surged with strength of the man who labored with his hands and overturned the tables of the money changers and took the scourge and drove out the beasts, There was not in one breath connected with that action, not one twitch of one muscle in one stroke of the scourge that had the slightest taint of sin in it. Never in his thoughts he knew no sin. Never in his emotions he knew no sin. Never in his words, when most scathing, calling people a brood of snakes, twofold more the children of hell, whitewashed sepulchres. But some would say vitriolic language, He knew no sin, and in his most compassionate, tender language to sinners, neither do I condemn thee go, sin no more. Son, thy sins be forgiven thee, never the stain of carnal, unprincipled sentimentality. righteous compassion, just forgiveness. When our text said he knew no sin, sit and meditate sometime for 15 minutes on what that meant living as a human being in this world for 33 and a half years. He knew no sin. Yet look at our text. It says He was made sin on our behalf. And kids, that's what the word vicarious means. A vicar is one who stands in the place of another. And when we say that this salvation to which God calls our attention is not only a salvation that is rooted in the reality of human sin, which has separated us from God, made us unfit for communion, fellowship with him, but is a salvation from sin secured by the vicarious sin bearing of the Son of God. We're trying to take our words to capture what the text says. This one who knew no sin, he made to be sin on our behalf. Now what does that mean, he made him to be sin? Does it mean that He took our defilement and infused it into the Son of God? No, no. When He was bearing our sin in the most concentrated dimension of the sin-bearing work, that is, in those three hours of darkness upon the cross, Though in a sense he had been the sin-bearer from his conception, and there are biblical passages to indicate while he lived before the cross he was the lamb bearing away the sin of the world. But when that sin-bearing came to its culminating expression, and when all the vials of all All of the wrath of God were poured out upon him in concentrated, undiluted form, until he cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? In that moment or those hours, moments of most concentrated sin bearing, there was not one ten millionth of a gram of sin's defilement. that touched his soul. He still knew no sin when he was being made sin. Well, in what sense was he being made sin? Well, in this sense, he was legally charged in the court of heaven with all the guilt and all the hell-deservingness of all the sins of all the men and all the women and all the boys and all the girls From the garden of Eden onward to the last one who will believe upon him in penitent faith, he was charged with the full measure of all of the guilt and all of the hell-deservingness of their sins. and then once legally charged with all the guilt and hell-deservingness of their sins, he was really and truly punished by God in all the fury of his righteous wrath and anger. It says in Isaiah 53, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. It pleased the Lord to bruise him, Isaiah 53, 6. The Lord hath made to strike upon him the iniquity of us all. Galatians 3, 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made what? A curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangs upon the tree. All that our sin as law-breaking deserved was not only legally charged to his account in the court of heaven, coming to its culminating expression in those dark hours upon the cross, But there was the total exhaustion of every demand of God's righteous law and his holy justice, until under the imagery of the cup which the father himself chose to use in presenting the reality to his son, The cup presented in a new dimension in the garden, the cup before which he staggered, before which he cried, O my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. O my father, if this cup cannot pass, except I drink it, thy will be done. Not thy will be done upon me passively, but thy will be done by me. me, I will take the cup, and I will, in the strength that you give that I seek in the medium of prayer, I will drain the last dark drop." Death and the curse were in our cup. O Christ was full for thee, but thou hast rained the last dark drop. It is empty now for me. That bitter cup, love drank it up. Now blessings draft for me. Old Rabbi Duncan, the great Scottish theologian, brilliant linguist sitting in one of his very unpredictable classes in Hebrew exegesis one day at the college there in Edinburgh. The incident is so vividly described that he sat at his desk, handkerchief in one hand, snuff box in the other. They didn't know in those days the effect of snuff and the absorption of the nicotine through the mucous membrane of the mouth or he'd have been the first to get rid of his snuff box. But as he was sitting, they said often his classes were like a man having his devotions out loud. And he had before him his Hebrew Bible, and he was seeking to plumb the depths of the mystery of Isaiah 53, which sets forth the vicarious sin bearing of the suffering servant of Jehovah. And after opening up the various dimensions of the Hebrew and the significance of this word and that, it is said, that suddenly with tears streaming down his face, his hands went out, the handkerchief went one way and the snuff box another while the tears poured down in copious measures and he said, it was damnation. It was damnation! And he bore it lovingly. He who knew no sin was made sin for us. Whatever sin would do to us, he bore. Sin will take us to damnation. It took him to damnation for us. When Paul says in our text, this oh so vital signpost, behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. What salvation is Paul talking about? He's talking about a salvation we have seen, first of all, a salvation from sin, sin that has made us enemies of God and unfit for acceptance with and fellowship with God. But secondly, a salvation from sin secured by the vicarious sin bearing of the Son of God. But then thirdly, And oh, may God help me to preach this passage. As I have seen in fresh light, I haven't gotten any new revelation. My dull heart has finally caught up with what lies right on the face of the text. It is a salvation from sin which has been authoritatively, now listen carefully, authoritatively, vicariously, and passionately proclaimed by Christ's ambassadors. Look at the text, verse 20. We are ambassadors, therefore, on behalf of Christ. As though God were entreating by us, we beseech you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Behold, now is the day of salvation. What marks this day of salvation? What marks it is that it's a salvation from sin that has been authoritatively, vicariously, and passionately proclaimed by His ambassadors. I say authoritatively. Paul says, we are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ. We have a due commission to proclaim from Christ and in the name of Christ this marvelous truth that those sin has put God at enmity with man and man at enmity with God. God has done something in the person of His Son, righteously and justly, to remove that enmity, so that God and the sinner may once again be at amity and peace, that a ground of just pardon and righteous forgiveness and full acceptance has been wrought in the vicarious work of the Son of God. But, you see, God didn't stop there. That salvation from sin He has authorized to be proclaimed. And Paul says it has been proclaimed authoritatively. We are ambassadors on behalf of Christ. But it has been proclaimed vicariously. This is what struck me with tremendous force. Look at the text. As though God were entreating by us, we beseech you, look at this now, on the behalf of Christ, you Greek students, You know the significance of the word, whopear, when it's used with reference to Christ dying on behalf of His people. It takes us into the very taproots of the doctrine of vicarious sin-bearing. Paul says, now, whopear Christu. We now on the behalf of Christ, as Christ in our stead and on our behalf was made sin, so we now in Christ's stead and on Christ's behalf, we beseech you to be reconciled to God. To put it bluntly, Christ will never come and proclaim to you personally. the salvation that He personally wrought for sinners. He will never do it. Just as surely as no man could take our place and be our sin-bearer, but Christ, Christ has ordained that He will not be His own spokesman directly, but vicariously. through his ambassadors. And those ambassadors come with the authority of the God of heaven in the place of the God of heaven and the Christ of the gospel. But now look at the language and the message they proclaim, if they are his true ambassadors, is proclaimed passionately. Two words are used. The first, look at it, Verse 20, as though God were entreating, parakaleo, God were exhorting, the etymology of the word, God were calling himself alongside. And unfolding to us the way of life and salvation, he says, we entreat, or God entreats by us. And then he uses a word that can be literally translated to beg. We beseech you, we beg you, we entreat. We don't simply say there's a salvation, take it or leave it. Paul says, as though the God himself, whose heart was so large to man, the alienated, tight-fisted deserving sinner who clenches his fist in the face of the God he's offended for the carnal mind is enmity against God it is not subject to the law of God that God that so loved the world is to give his only begotten son that God now by his ambassadors entreats He exhorts. He encourages. He entreats through his ambassadors. And one of those ambassadors, from writing an epistle to a Christian church, is so enamored with the wonder of it, he suddenly becomes an evangelist in the midst of the assembly, saying, we beg you, on the very behalf of Christ, in the very room instead of Christ, we beg you to be reconciled to God. My friends, how earnestly would Christ beg when you seek to answer that question against the backdrop of Gethsemane and Golgotha? How passionate was he to secure our salvation? Go to Gethsemane. Behold his sweat drops. Behold his cries. Behold his tears. Go to Gabbatha. See him standing, not answering his false accusers. Go and see him stand before Pilate and on to Herod and back to Pilate and out to Golgotha. Behold the gory, sickening scene. Behold the blackened heavens. Listen to the cry of dereliction. See the spit in the blood mingled in his face. And ask the question, how earnest was Christ to save a people? Paul said, As though God were entreating by us, we beg, Hupere Christu, in the place of Christ. And there are few times when any sensitive minister wants to run from his task, but this is one of the times he would. How? How can we even convey the one millionth part of how Christ would beg in his own name? But do it we must, do it we must, we beseech you, we beg you on the behalf of the Christ, who though knowing no sin as to his own experience, every motion of mind and thought and emotion and word and deed, every act and action, he knew no sin yet. He came into such proximity to that sin in the courtroom of heaven and in the dealings of God that without being tainted by it, he so identified with it as to bear all of its just guilt away until he could cry, Tetelestai, it stands accomplished. And in the imagery of old Bunyan, that great burden rolls down into a tomb, and he sees it no more. Delivered up for our offenses, raised for our justification. And now in the name and in the stead of that Christ, we beg you to do what? We don't beg you to walk an aisle. We don't beg you to raise a hand. We don't beg you to go into an inquiry room. We don't beg you to go home and sit in front of a mirror and say, I'm a pretty good guy. I'm a pretty good gal. I'm a pretty good kid. I'm a pretty good man. I've got to get rid of these guilt feelings, and I've got to think of the cross as the affirmation of my self-worth. No, my friends, that's not gospel! That's damnable pop psych! That's all it is. We beg you in Christ's name, be reconciled to God. Have dealings with the living God. Have direct dealings with God. Have real dealings with God. Have heart dealings with God. And have them in the only way sinners can have them and not be consumed. Have them as God has revealed himself in Christ in the gospel. Go to God and say, Oh God, if you think of my sin, what the cross says you think of. It's so ugly, so heinous, so rotten, so stinking, so vile and offensive that you'd let men spit on your son. You'd let men buffet him with their fist, beat him with rods, lie about him, strip him naked, hang him on a cross. And then God, you yourself, in a way that I can't understand, you would pour into his sensitive holy soul the felt venom of your pure and righteous wrath and anger until he cried out of a bursting soul, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I tell you, A little child of three who says, my disobedience to mommy and daddy caused all that to Jesus. God takes my sin seriously. My bad mouthing my teacher, my dirty words spoken in the playground. My looking at that thing on the television that I know I shouldn't have. The teenager who has let his eyes be defiled with pornography and his ears with the vile music that goes as so-called popular music in which four-letter words come out in such profuseness that we almost have forgotten that they are vile words. If God thinks about those things, what he did to his son, then I better get serious about those things. Because if I don't, I'll have a whole eternity to wish I did. I'll have a whole eternity to wish I did. We beseech you in Christ's name. We beseech you in Christ's name. To do what? Be reconciled to God. Go to the God against whom you've sinned and say, You sent your Son for sinners, all kinds of sinners, the worst of sinners. And there is in your Son a virtue in His perfect life and in His death that is adequate for all of my sins, that I might come back into fellowship with you, that I might have righteous forgiveness and just pardon, that you might welcome me into your heart and into your presence, into your fellowship, and one day into your home in heaven. Dear people, that's the salvation Paul's talking about in our text when he said, now is the day of salvation. This business about saying to people, well, salvation has to do with your fractured humanity and you don't have your act together, come to Jesus and he'll patch it up. My friends, that's not the salvation Paul's talking about. Christ didn't go to the cross just to help you get your act together. Your problem's a lot deeper than the fact that you ain't got your act together. Your problem is you've offended a holy God, and you'll burn in hell forever unless his controversy with you is resolved in the way of his appointment. Well, we've seen from our text the repeated call to attention, behold! Behold, we've considered the fact that our attention is drawn to one issue, salvation. Salvation, which focuses on the problem of human sin. A salvation in which Christ became the vicarious sin bearer. A salvation which has been authoritative vicariously and passionately proclaimed by his ambassadors. I close tonight and this will be my briefest head. Thirdly, note from our text, the pressing concern of this attention to this crucial issue is a matter of time. the pressing concern of calling our attention to this crucial issue. When we look at that signpost, time, time, time is written all over it. Notice, not only are there two beholds, but there are two nows. Behold now is the acceptable time. Behold now is the day of salvation Children God is saying now pre-adolescence God is saying now Teenagers, looking at the signpost that's called your attention, called it to salvation, salvation that deals with sin in Christ and is proclaimed to you, it says, now, now, now, now is the acceptable time. Now is the day of salvation. And why this pressing concern to this matter of time? Two simple reasons. The only time of certainty for you to have dealings with God in Christ is now. It's the only time of certainty is right now. You're alive. You're breathing. You have your rationality now, right now, in this moment. The scripture says, boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. And the pediatric wards of our hospitals are little children, hooked up to life support systems, who one moment were happy-go-lucky, little children bringing joy to all around them, like my little grandson ambling through our home on Meadowbrook Lane. And they stumble on the end of a toe, and they bang their head on the corner of a coffee table, and in three hours, they lie in the intensive care unit on life support systems. And some of them go to their graves. Some of them are in a vegetative state for the rest of their earthly pilgrimage. You say, trying to scare us? No, that's reality. That's why God says, now, children, now is the acceptable time. Now is the day of salvation, because now is the only time of certainty God has given you rationality. He's given you the strength of mind to understand. And though pastors use some words that you haven't grasped, the basic heart of what I've said is clear to you. You're a sinner. Christ died in the room of sinners, and God proclaims to His servants that He wants you to come to Him through Christ to get rid of your sin. Now is the time to lay that to heart. Now is the time, teenager. Now is the time, young man, young woman, middle-aged, old, gray-haired man or woman, tottering to your grave. Now is the only time of certainty. Who among you can produce a bona fide document sent down by an angel from heaven saying you will live to see the setting sun tomorrow? Are you going to play in such a trifling way with your never-dying soul? Now is the only time of certainty, and secondly, now is the best time of opportunity. Where are you as you hear the words, now is the day of salvation? You're here in a place where God's special presence has been promised and known and felt among us. There's no television with its images, filling your mind with thoughts that most of them in a thousand years would never turn you to the ugliness of your sin and the beauty of Christ. In the reality of your never-dying soul, the best of the television programs, almost without exception, if we say nothing else, we have to say this, they are wasters of time! that dull the mind to the issues of eternity. Five minutes spent in silence with no headphones on and no images in your eyes, thinking of where you'll be a hundred years from now might result in the salvation of some of you. And the devil knows it! That's why he's got images constantly coming in on your eyeballs and sounds upon your ears! What better time of opportunity than within these walls when all that influence is shut out. The special presence of God is here in the midst of his gathered people. And you have a people sitting here praying as I preach. And if we could have their prayers materialize into audible voices, most of us would right now have to stick our fingers in our ears because I'm convinced dozens of God's people have been praying as I've been preaching. Oh, God. Make the gospel effective. Make the preaching effective. Reveal Christ to men and women, boys and girls. Is that what you're going to have when you go into that school tomorrow? A bunch of peers that want you to go to heaven? No. They're going to kind of drag you into hell with them. They're going to drive out of your mind every thought of holiness and righteousness and God and sin and heaven and hell. And all they want to talk about is somebody's bodies, and somebody's bums, and somebody else's cute face, and somebody else made it with this one. Listen, you kids, in God's name, in God's name, I beg you, don't barter your soul at so cheap a price. Now is the day of salvation. You're surrounded with people who really love you. because they want to take you to heaven with them. Now is the most opportune time, the special presence of God, the praying people of God, the gracious providence of God that has put his truth before you. Now, now, now is the day of salvation. And if someone wanted to question and say, well, Pastor, doesn't the text really technically refer to the whole gospel age, that in fulfillment of the promise to the... Listen, my friend, I know something about the meaning of the passage in its context. But the great day of salvation, the gospel age, may well as never have dawned unless there is a day for you which is the now when you take your salvation seriously. The fact that we live in the day, the epoch, the period of an accomplished redemption will mean nothing to you unless now, this day, you lay hold of the offered Savior and the salvation that is in Him. As some of you, many of you know, Friday night, in that most moving time, there were many tributes that, as I said this morning, I wondered who many people were talking about as I sat there. I then went home. And the next morning, took a folder handed to me by Pastor Barker that had a lot of other letters and cards. And in it was a letter from a 15-year-old girl who has been helped by our ministry over the years. And she was writing to express her thanks for pointing her to Christ, encouraging her, encouraging her parents. Then in it, she enclosed a poem that she wrote this year. And I want you to listen to this, kids. This is a 15-year-old girl pleading with her fellow teenagers. I want her to be the final ambassador who pleads with you tonight. Listen to her. Based on the words of Agrippa, who said to Paul, almost, almost, thou persuadest me to be a Christian, Acts 26, 28. This 15-year-old girl writes to her peers, and she says, almost a Christian, almost, not quite, almost persuaded by what is right, almost, just, almost, what a mistake. How can you dawdle? Your soul is at stake. Almost escaped from judgment and wrath. Almost you'd joy on the only straight path. Almost you'd taste of the bliss of His will. Almost won't save you. Condemned you are still. Christ, He has come. The price has been paid. He lived perfection. To death He obeyed. Salvation, redemption, the way was paved. God can forgive you, and you can be saved. What here is keeping? What makes you stay? Stay not just almost, but go all the way. What sin is worth the torture of hell? For earthly treasure would heaven you sell? Would you, for quote, friends in this fickle world, into blackness forever be hurled? Hear me, teenagers, the peer pressure that you know you'll have to spit out if you're going to become a Christian. Would you, for friends in this fickle world, out into blackness forever be hurled? Would you, for seconds of trifling fun, be damned forever without anyone almost persuaded Thus stayed the king. Agrippa was lost over some little thing. Left out in darkness, in agony great. Almost, just almost, but now it's too late. How can you linger? How can you wait? How can you dare risk that horrible fate. Behold, now is the acceptable time. That's what the signpost says. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Let us pray. Oh God, our Heavenly Father, you know how our own hearts condemn us that we can seek consciously to draw so near to these great issues and yet feel them so little. God have mercy upon our poor, cold, lifeless hearts. Do come this night, O God our Father, and by the Holy Spirit lay hold of boys and girls and men and women of all ages and backgrounds, and grant that this day will be for not a few the day of their salvation. Oh God, do not mock our yearnings. Do not be deaf to our cries. Have mercy upon sinners, not for our sake primarily, but all for the sake of your Son, who became sin for us. that he might have a vast host of redeemed ones, fully reflecting his glorious image, the fruit of his sufferings forever with you in the presence of all of the redeemed of all ages. Gracious God, make your word effectual, we pray, and may the language of this signpost be so embedded in the hearts of many. that there will be no rest until they obey its directions and lay hold of Christ and the offered salvation in him. Seal your word, O God, we beg of you, in Jesus' name. Amen.