Lord willing, tonight and the
next two Wednesdays we'll be looking here at three truths
in John chapter 5. Here's the first one. Christ
is God. That's a powerful statement.
A lot of people want to string me up for that. That's why I
couldn't be too bad, Kevin. The whole budget is rigged. They sought
to kill him because he had performed this miracle on the Sabbath and
because he said he was equal with God. Christ is God. Christmas
is right around the corner. That's what I want to look at
tonight, the person and the work of Christ. Who is He? That's
preaching Christ and Him crucified. That's the person. Who He is.
Because that determines the work. That's the quality of the work.
That's how sure the work is. It matters on who the workman
was. So we need to see His person. That's what we'll focus on most
tonight and we're going to see His work at the end of it. And
hopefully next Wednesday, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the
Almighty God in human flesh, that's who He is. He came to
this earth to give life to His people. That they might have
it more abundantly, the scriptures say. He came to give life to
His people. He came to seek and to save the
lost. Plum lost. They give life because that's
dead. He came to give life. And third, this same Jesus, this
God-man, this Savior, Mediator, Priest, King, He will come again
and He will raise those that believe in Him. He's coming again. Our Lord speaks here and He gives
us three verily, verilies in this chapter. Verily, verily.
Verily means truly, firm, sure, trustworthy. Trustworthy. And
He gives it to us twice. Trustworthy, trustworthy, sure,
firm. He says in verse 19, John 5,
19. Then answered Jesus and said
unto them, Verily, verily, truly, truly, I say unto you. That's three. Truth, truth, and
I say it. You think we can pay attention
to that for 30 minutes? God Almighty in human flesh said of a truth,
of a truth, and here's why it's true. I said it. He doesn't say
what is true. What he says is true. You understand? He doesn't make it true and then
he says it. It's true because he said it.
So there's three sections here in this chapter we need to pay
close attention to. If I don't get a hold of your attention
and don't keep a hold of you, I don't know what will. It doesn't
do a man no good to say he believes God and not be prepared to receive
His Word, not be prepared to hear it. He says, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what
He seeth the Father do, for what things soever He doeth, these
also doeth the Son likewise. Four, the father loveth the son
and showeth him all things that himself doeth, and he will show
him greater works than these that ye may marvel. Four, as
the father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, gives them
life, even so the son quickeneth whom he will. Who's he gonna
make alive? Who he will. Who's the father
gonna make alive? Whoever he wills. Whoever it
pleases him to do so. Four, The Father judgeth no man,
but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." This is a man
speaking to these high-minded Pharisees. And he's saying, I
can do nothing but His. I do His will. Boy, that ain't
like us, is it? Because His will is the Son's
will. It's the same. He said, I do His will. I'm not
like you. I don't go out and do what I think is best. I honor
the Father. He's established. He's God in
flesh. He's not like us. And then the Father exalted Him
because He set Him to judgment. He said, For the Father judges
no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. Whenever
that day comes, we go to judgment. It's not going to be some friendly
old grandfather type with a bald spot and big fluffy beard and
kind. You're going to meet Jesus Christ,
the Lord. He sets you in judgment of all. That's at the end of
verse 22. There's a colon there. Here's
the reason. This is what I want to focus
on this evening. John 5, 23. That all men should
honor the Son even in the same way as they honor the Father. This statement was coming after
these religious people were angry with the Lord. They were mad
because He was making Himself equal to God. It says there in
verse 18. This made them rage. They wanted to persecute Him.
And then they wanted to kill Him. How can we kill Him? We've
got to kill Him. This happens often, doesn't it?
It says over in John 10, our Lord said, I and my Father are
one. We're one. And the Jews took
up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered, many good works
have I shown you from my Father. For which of those works do you
stone me? I've healed the lame. I've gave
sight to the blind. Which one of those are you going
to stone me over? Which one of those are you going
to kill me over?" And the Jews answered him, saying, for a good
work we stone thee not. We ain't mad about them miracles,
but for blasphemy. And because thou, being a man,
makest themself God. Because you said you're God,
and we don't like God. That's what they're saying. We
want to kill Him. We made ourselves God. Christ says here in verse
23, that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the
Father. He that honoreth not the Son,
what's that mean? Him that doesn't give complete
glory and total worship and complete honor to the Son honoreth not
the Father which hath sent Him. We had a look at the beginning
of this chapter back in June. I don't know if y'all remember
that. Looked at the man being healed here at the pool of Bethesda. But I want to refresh our memory
of it. It was at this pool of Bethesda. There was a certain
man lying on a bed. We just read it, but I want to
try to simplify it for you. And he'd been there, been laying
on this little portable makeshift bed for 38 years. He'd been laying
there. You imagine what kind of condition
he was in. I think I'm in pretty good shape. If I sat down to
watch TV and I took my leg up underneath my other leg, and
I sat there for 38 minutes, whenever I get up, boy, I'm hobbling.
I got to stretch a little bit. You got to kind of loosen up
something, don't you? Leg goes numb. This man had been laying
there lame for 38 years. And the Lord came to this man,
and He asked him a question. Look up here in verse 6, John
5, 6. I'm fortunate this evening. My whole text is on two pages.
I don't have to turn it. We'll stay, we'll be in two scriptures
tonight. We'll be here in John 5 and at
the end we'll turn one time. But John 5 verse 6, When Jesus
saw him lie, and he knew that he had been now a long time in
that case, he saith unto them, Wilt thou be made whole? Wilt
thou be made whole? That's what we looked at in June.
And this man replied, verse 7, the impotent man answered him,
Sir, I have no man. I have no man. What's he saying?
I have no one to help me. I have no one to help me. I can't
do it myself and there is no help. Nobody help me. Help him do what exactly? There's
this angel come down, and it troubled the waters. And whoever
was the first one to make it into those waters, whenever those
waters got stirred up and churned up, they were made whole. They
were made whole. And this man says, I'd love to
be made whole. But myself, I can't do it. And there ain't a man
alive I know that can do it. I've been here for 38 years,
and every time I try to crawl on my elbows to get down there,
before I can get to those waters, somebody's beat me to it. Somebody
else has got there. I'm unable. It's impossible with
men. That's what he said. Will you
be made whole? It ain't possible with man, and
you ain't able. Verse 8, John 5, 8 says, Jesus
saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately,
remember what I said about sitting for 38 minutes? Immediately,
the man was made whole, and he took up his bed, and he walked.
This man, lame for 38 years, stiff like a dead man. on the
word and power of the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to him. That
man heard with his ear, he heard in the heart. The Lord pierced
his heart and he popped up and he grabbed that bed and he threw
it over his shoulder and he started walking. He obeyed God immediately. He was enabled and he obeyed.
This wasn't a big point of contention. They weren't mad because the
Lord did something good, did it? But look at the end of verse
9. It says, "...and on the same day was the Sabbath." That was
the problem. This man's walking down the street.
Been there for 38 years. Everybody knew him. They said,
oh, look, there he goes. Hey, buddy, you're walking. Oh,
they were, so what happened? Oh, that's wonderful. Good for
you. Maybe I can walk soon, too. Maybe I could hear soon. Maybe
I could see soon. I'm thankful. Good on you. But some of these
religious folks, they saw him walking with his bed and instead
of being amazed, instead of being awestruck, instead of running
up to him and asking him questions, what changed in you? What happened
in you? They said, you can't carry a bed on a Sabbath day. We don't care about your health.
We don't care about you being made whole. You can't break our
religious traditions. He says in verse 10, the Jews
therefore said unto him that was cured, it's the Sabbath day.
It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. Verse 11 says,
and he answered them. This man had a work done in the
heart. The Lord gave him some boldness. He's back talking these
theologians. He knew God. I wouldn't give
you 10 cents for a theologian. That means theology is the study
of God. You've got to know God to study
Him. People do biographies all the time. You can go find a hundred
biographies on Abraham Lincoln, and ain't no one of them ever
met him. But there's a man that met God. He knew something, and
he was emboldened, and here's what he said. He answered them,
he that made me whole, the same said unto me, take up thy bed
and walk. Here's what I know. God spoke
to me. He said, you take your bed and walk. And I got to walking.
And I took my bed with me. I didn't leave it. Why didn't
you leave it? He said, take it. I don't know. I don't know what
he's doing. I don't know what the purpose is. I'm going to
do what he says. What's he mean by that? That's so simple, isn't
it? That's so short, such a short answer. Here's what the man's
getting at. That man that loved me and cared
for me when no one else would, in my weakness, in my lameness,
he told me to carry my bed. That man came to me in the very
hour of need. No other man was there. He told
me to carry my bed. That man spoke to me in mercy.
He spoke to me in grace. I didn't do anything to deserve
this. I didn't seek him out. He found me. He came to me. He
could have walked right on by like everybody else and been
justified in doing so. He told me to. That's why I'm
carrying this bed. He's that spoke the words of
power. He said it and I instantly have the ability to do it. I
stood up for the first time in 38 years and I'm going to get
up and walk and I intend to do just exactly what he tells me
to do. I'm going to obey his word. What
that means is if, if what he says, what the Lord says conflicts
with what you say or your bylaws say or what somebody thinks,
what anybody else says or thinks, too bad. I don't care. He gave me the power to stand.
He made me whole. And you're going to have to get
over it. I'm going to take this bed and walk. Where are you going?
I don't know. I'm just walking. I'm going to pick a direction
and go with it. I believe that He's the Son of God and His Word
is my law. That's what He's saying. What's
my point? Honor the Son. Honor the Son. No matter the cost. No matter
the difference of opinion. No matter what family member
or whatever is at stake. If you see Him, if you've heard
Him, if in power He's come to you, honor Him. Honor Him. You won't be ashamed. You still
have verse 11? Look at the end of it. He that
made me whole, the same said unto me, take up thy bed and
walk. He said, and that's God. I told
a man one time, he said, what do they preach down there where
you go to church? And I said, they preach Christ. They preach
His person and His work. what he came to do, where he
is now, what he accomplished, what's finished. Finished, what
are you going to add to it? Nothing, it's finished. They
preach Christ and Him crucified, not sometimes. There's some people
experiencing that right now. A friend of mine preaches and
he says, what do you preach? Christ all the time. And some
fella showed up and started going. And he thought this was a good
reformed church. Boy, he's finding out they preach Christ every
time. They really did mean it. Not sometimes, every time. And
that man looked at me and he said, you're taking glory from
the Father. I come off guard. What kind of
nonsense? Dude, you studied the Bible. I thought about Christ speaking
in Nicodemus. Aren't you a master of Israel? And you don't know
these things? It took me a second. I was taken
aback. It took me a second to gather my thoughts. It seemed
like ten minutes. It was probably a second or two.
And I thought of this scripture. I thought of this verse, our
text here, verse 23. That all men should honor the
Son even as they honor the Father. If you honor the Son, you honor
the Father. They go hand in hand. They're
one. If you don't honor the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, you are
not honoring the Father. When you honor the Son as you
do the Father, you're not robbing God. You're not robbing the Father
of honor and glory. You're giving Him honor and glory
when you honor His Son. Man cannot praise and they cannot
honor Christ too much. Don't you worry about that. You
ain't going to do it. You ain't going to do it too
much. Our lips and this earthen vessel and this body of death
that we were born into of Adam, you ain't ever honor him too
much. Not in this world. Man can't
think too highly of Christ. You can't exalt his name too
highly. It's impossible. That's what
Paul wrote to the church at Philippi. He said, Wherefore God also hath
highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and things
in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth. That's
everything. That every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord. Why? To the glory of God the
Father. You praise Him, you're praising
the Father. And if you honor not the Son, you are not honoring
the Father. It goes hand in hand. John told
us in John 15, or sorry, Christ spoke in John 15. He that hateth
me, hateth my Father also. You can't disregard Christ and
still love God the Father. They go hand in hand. John wrote
to us in 1 John 2, Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath
not the Father. If you deny Christ, you're denying
the Father. You don't have the Father. He
said in 1 John 5, He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness
in himself. If you believe on the Son, you
have a witness in you. What's that witness? The earnest
of our inheritance. We read in Ephesians 1. The Spirit's
with you. God the Holy Spirit abides in
you. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because
he believeth not the record that God gave of his son." God gave the record. When we
deny or we put doubt on Christ, me or any other preacher, you
go turn on TV, if there's a shadow of doubt in anything put on Christ,
we're calling God a liar. Now those things are important,
aren't they? I'll give you four examples. Four examples of putting
doubt on Christ. Redemption. I made the decision
for Jesus. You're calling God a liar. Well,
I contributed. I helped out. I believed. I had faith. I had something.
I, I, I. Isn't that what that Pharisee
prayed in the temple? You're calling God a liar. Sanctification. Well, He saved me, but I've got
to be more separated now. Oh, now I've got to be holy.
I've got to make myself holy. You're calling God a liar. Righteousness. He saved me. He gave me His nature,
but now I've got to produce more fruit. We've got to be fruit
inspectors. We ought not do these things.
It's not holy. This is fruit. It's a little
different. Wisdom. The Lord saved me. Now I've got to earn a higher
degree of knowledge. I have to become a scholar in
these things. My big brains want to get me
through it. I'm a mental giant and by me studying, I'm going
to gain some wisdom. That's calling God a liar. Here's
what Paul wrote to us, but of him, that's of the Father. are
ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us." Christ is made
unto us of God. The Father did this. Made unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. What can you
add to any of that? If you add any of that to it,
you're not honoring the Son. You're saying, I need to put
my two cents in. That according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. Why is it set up that way? He
gets all the glory, man doesn't. If you're lame for 38 years and
the Lord saves you, you wouldn't have it any other way. If you
did surgery on your own leg, you'll say, well, I had a little
help. I had a co-pilot. I had some assistance. John wrote
to us in 2 John 1-9, Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not
in the doctrine of Christ, what's that? His teaching, His person,
His life, His accomplished work on the cross, Him. Hath not God. If they forsake, if they transgress
that doctrine of Christ, they don't have God. If someone preaches
God, I've heard that a whole lot. Well, my preacher, they
preach a lot of truths. They tell us a lot about God.
They don't say much about Christ, though. They're preaching a little
G-God. They don't believe the record
that the Father gave of His Son. They're calling God a liar. Kevin,
that's rough. That's rough. Go read it. 2 John
verse 9. It's only one chapter. God said
so. He goes on to say, He that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ, he that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If you believe on
Christ, what do you have? You have the Father and you have
the Son. That's called eternal life. You have it. The way to
know God. People say, I want to know God.
You've got to know Christ. I want to worship God. How are
you going to worship God? Worship His Son. Honor His Son. I want to believe God. Believe
Christ. They are one. The Father and
the Son are one. This time of year, many people,
they will hear this text I'm about to read, and I pray that
it doesn't go in one ear, not the other. Because you're going
to be judged by the words that come out of your mouth. You know
what we looked at the other day? He said, I'll judge you out of
your own mouth. People quote this all the time. Here's what
the Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, the
Lord Jehovah, the self-existent one, the Lord of hosts, here's
what he said to Isaiah. For unto us a child is born,
What's that mean? That's man-child. That's human
flesh, isn't it? Unto us, there's a child born.
We know what that means. Unto us a Son is given. God the Father gave His Son,
the eternal God from heaven, who always is and always will
be. Gave us a Son. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He told Nicodemus, He who descended is the only one that can ascend.
We didn't descend. We came to be here. He always
was. The Eternal God-Man. And the
government shall be upon His shoulder. He's going to be Lord
of all. All of it. And His name shall be called
Wonderful. Counselor. The Mighty God. The Everlasting Father. The Prince
of Peace. Kevin, you can't say that. I
didn't. The Lord told Isaiah that. Emmanuel, God with us. That's who He is. Hebrews 1.8
says, but unto the Son He saith. The Father says this
to the Son. Thy throne, O God, is forever
and ever. The Father speaking to the Son.
On that Mount of Transfiguration, we can learn a lot from that.
Christ took Peter, James, and John. He took Peter and those
sons of thunder up that mountain. And Moses and Elijah, who had
been dead for a long time gone, appeared with him. Here's Moses,
a picture of the Law. He wrote the first five books
of the Bible. There's the Law. There's Elijah. That's the Prophet. The Prophet. All the Prophets
wrapped up in him. Moses, the Law, Elijah, the Prophet, and
right between them, the God-man, the Son of God. And those apostles,
they watched Moses and they watched Elijah speak with Christ. And
they bore him witness. Both of them did. The law bore
him witness. The prophets bore him witness. And you know what
they talked about? The death of Christ. His work. They knew who he was. They'd
been with him in glory for a couple hundred years. And they talked
about his death, that he was to accomplish. That's what they
spoke of. Eventually Moses was gone. Peter,
James, and John's there. Eventually Elijah's gone, and
Christ is there. Christ's along with him, and
God's glory landed on him, and he glistened. He glistened. And Peter said, let's make three
tabernacles. We're going to make it here to
honor the law, Moses. We're going to make a tabernacle
to honor Elijah, the prophets, the men, the tools that God used,
the voice, the mouthpiece that God used. And we're going to
make one for you." And right when he said that, as he spoke,
the heavens opened, and the God the Father spoke. And he said,
this is my Son. How are you going to please God? In whom? In Him. I am well pleased,
hear ye Him. Man's so quick to hear the law.
Boy, our nature eats that up. What can I do? Gospel ain't do,
the gospel's done. That's the good news. Ain't something
to do, it's what's done. And they're so fast to hear what
a man said. hurts me so bad sometimes. Arthur
Pink, I love the man. Oh, he's got some good writings.
But you know, if he was to come here and preach for us, he would
get up here and he'd tongue lash you all for about five or ten
minutes before he preached. You know why? You women ain't
got your heads covered. He's just a man, isn't he? He's
just a man. Man, our nature is so fast to
run to the law, run to prophets, run to somebody else, consult
with flesh and blood. That ain't what Samuel did, was
it? When he didn't know God, it says so, he went to Eli and
said, hey, I heard you calling for me. He said, I didn't call
for you, son, go back to bed. I'll try not to get in next week's
message too much. He went a second time. He said, I heard Samuel,
Samuel, you said something to me. Eli said, son, I didn't.
He said, the Lord's speaking to you. He said, whenever you
hear him say that, you say, speak, Lord, thy servant heareth. He didn't consult with flesh
and blood after he heard the Lord, after he knew the Lord. Paul
didn't either. The Father says, hear my son. Don't you worry
about that law. Don't you worry about them prophets.
You hear my son. Law won't do. We read there in Romans. Let me turn over there. I wrote
it down real quick at the end. Romans 8 tells us Paul was writing
to us. And he says, for what the law could not do. in that
it was weak in the flesh. God sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the
flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. The
law is fulfilled in Him. What about the prophets? It's
not a prophet either. In Hebrews 1 it says, God who
at sundry times and divers manners spake in times past unto the
fathers by the prophets, hath in his last days spoken to us
by his Son. That's who he will speak through.
To honor the Son even as the Father. Christ taught his disciples.
He said, I and my Father are one. And Philip spoke up and
said, just show us the Father and we'll be satisfied. And the
Lord replied, have I been with you so long? And ye hast not
known Me, Philip. He that seen Me hath seen the
Father, the One. Jesus born in Bethlehem, the
One that walked this earth, the One that hung on that cross in
Calvary as a substitute for His people is Almighty God. That's
who He is. He came to this earth to redeem
a people for His glory for His kingdom. That's what He came
to do. That's what the Bible teaches. And it's true. It's barely, barely. Why? He said so. He said so. That's
who He is. There's no way for any man, woman,
or child to know God apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
only revelation of God in human flesh. In Him dwells the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. That means in a body. There's
an appointed day that God's going to judge this world. by the man,
Christ Jesus. He's going to be the one that
sets in judgment. And so many talk about judgment, don't they?
There's flyers all over the place, these crazy people sitting on
the sides of the road with cardboard signs. Judgment's coming. Here's
what the judgment's going to be. You're going to be compared
to the holiness and perfection of Christ Jesus as he walked
this earth. And the question's going to be,
what thank ye of Christ? Whose son is he? Do you honor
him or do you honor yourself? Do you want to try to keep that
law, or He keep it for you? Do you want to try to honor those
prophets, or He honor and fulfill them? Him or another. Do you have a mediator? Do you
have a high priest, a go-between? Do you have an offering for sin? The blood of man ain't going
to work. The blood of bulls and goats,
the Lord won't have it. He won't take our sacrifices. Do you have
someone to put away your guilt? Do you have a substitute? Those
born of Adam, cannot stand in front of a holy God. They can't
remove their own guilt. Brother Todd was preaching out
in Danville Tuesday night about substitution. I'd encourage you
to go listen to it. That was wonderful. What we see
is substitution. We try to use man's words to
describe it. You have a substitute teacher or a pitch hitter at
baseball or something like that. It goes beyond that. That exchanges
it. I can take a beating for you,
but you still committed a crime. The Lord took our guilt, took
our guilt, the act of it. Why was He silent like a sheep
before the shearers was done? Whenever they accused Him, whenever
they took Him up there, He didn't have anything to say. It was
guilt. We had been put in Him, and He
had been put in us. That's what took place. Our hope
of eternal life is to believe on Him, to honor Him alone, to
bow to Him alone, to confess Him alone. What did you do? I
didn't do nothing. Like that parable of the talents. Lord,
here's your talents. Here's your silver. It's yours,
and any increase is yours. And to believe Him alone. There
in Romans 10 it says, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus and shalt believe him in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead. That means if God has made him
Lord and Christ, he shall be saved. Thou shalt be saved. That's who does the work. That's
the person. He's in the business of salvation.
And that's the one that does all the work in that business.
Turn over to 2 Corinthians and I'll close. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17
says, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. What becomes new? All things. I was talking to one of God's
saints today, and he noticed some things that were different.
He said, this just started happening. And I said, no, it always has
happened. Something's new in you. Something's new in you. What else is new? All things.
Salvation's new. Well, I used to always think
it was this. That's what Grandma and Grandpa always told me. That's
what somebody else told me. Well, I see Him now. He's salvation.
This ain't a systematic theology. It's a person. What about creation? Big bangs or whatever kind of
nonsense people want to think, all that stuff. And a lot of
people say, I know God created the heavens and the earth. Boy,
now you start looking different, don't you? Because you know who
created it. I know a whole lot of country songs, but I know
a few songs that one of my friends wrote. I know who wrote that
song. Boy, it's more precious than
the other ones, isn't it? What about providence? Well,
everything happens for a reason. Hooey. Everything happens on
the will of God. That's what happens. Every molecule
that's ever moved throughout time, He's controlled in His
creation for His salvation of His people. That's new. That's new. He didn't know those
things before. Paul, go read 1 Thessalonians 1. Paul, you
want to know if somebody's God's elect? He tells you plainly,
doesn't he? You leave them idols. You knock it off, because it's
sickening to you, and you want Him. You don't want stuff, things,
and ideas, and, oh, this is how we do things. You bow to a person. That's what His elect do. That's
what His children do. He says, all things become new,
verse 18, and all things are of God, the creation, the providence,
the salvation. That's everything. There ain't
nothing else you can think of that doesn't fall in one of the
three things. Who hath reconciled us to Himself. That means made
atonement. We left. We went astray. All
like sheep have gone astray. We forsook God. We couldn't stand
Him. We were just like them Jews. We wanted to stone Him to death
as fast as we could get our hands on Him. God says the heart's
at enmity with Him. You're at war with Him. It is
enmity. It is war with Him. And He has
reconciled us. He did the work to Himself. Brought us to a person. How'd
He do that? By Jesus Christ. How's a man
reconciled to God by Jesus Christ? You ain't reconciled to God by
baptism, by sprinkling a water and getting somebody wet. You
ain't reconciled to God by signing a pledge card. You ain't reconciled
to God by walking an aisle. You're not reconciled to God
by an experience or a warm, fuzzy, ooey-gooey feeling on the inside.
You're reconciled to God by a person. And hath given to us the ministry
of reconciliation. He's given us this good news,
this gospel. to tell people about, just like
that lame man. What did he talk about? Did he
talk about all the stuff he did? He said, there's one that made
me whole. He told me to do something, I'm doing it. He made me whole. That's what he told. That was
his profession, wasn't it? But what's this gospel of, this
ministry of reconciliation? Verse 19, here's part of it,
to wit, that God was in Christ. Isn't that what we've been looking
at all evening? They're one. He's God. God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto Himself. God was doing His own will. He
was satisfying His own law, glorifying His own name for a people. Not
imputing their trespasses unto them. He didn't count. People try to over explain the
Lord's words until they're blue in the face and they talk away
the gospel. They'll spend two and a half
hours saying something. Here's what imputation means. It's an accounting
term. You go to the grocery store and
you want to buy pasta and you look at the shelf and there's
10 boxes of pasta on the shelf and you go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
7, 8, 9, 10. You impute 10 boxes to that shelf. Why? There's 10
boxes on the shelf. You go up and there's 5. You
impute 5 because that's what's there. You take account. You reckon. It all means the
same. He didn't reckon your sins there.
He didn't impute your sins to you, your trespasses. Why? They
weren't there. Where did they go? To His Son. That's where
they went. And hath committed unto us this
word of reconciliation. Now then, we are the ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We'll look
at this next time, but hear the Word of the Lord. He speaks to
men. How is He going to speak to them?
He doesn't audibly speak to them. At last times on the Mount of
Transfiguration, He used my mouth. But me talking is only half of
it. Hear His Word. He uses His people, His preachers,
to preach the Gospel to people. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. It's by Him, isn't it? We pray
you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God. What's that mean? Come
to Him. Come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Honor Him. Surrender
to Him. Stack arms. Lay your shotguns
down. Quit fighting, quit trying, quit
doing, and bow. Quit butting and bow. That's
what His Word says. Honor the Son, you honor the
Father. You have life. This last verse, three people
was mentioned. Now here's the gospel. Here's the gospel. Verse
21, for he, that's the Father, hath made him, that's Christ
the Son, to be sin for us, that's those he was made sin for, his
people, whom he didn't know any sin, who knew no sin, that we,
he was innocent, innocent sacrifice, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Being God's presence, you've
got to be holy. How's that going to happen? Christ is going to
have to take your sin from you, bear the wrath, bear the judgment,
bear the punishment, bear the guilt, bear the shame for you. He puts in you because it's there. Imputed righteousness means righteousness
is there. Puts it in Him. May the righteousness of God
in Him. He that honors the Son honors the Father. That's a God
worth honoring, isn't it? I pray we can honor him here
forevermore.