I want you to turn, first of
all, to Luke's Gospel. Luke chapter 14. That is not our main text, but
I want us to begin there. When I was a child, My family
was traveling somewhere, I think, on a vacation in the western
part of the state. And I remember driving by a cross
that was on the side of the road made out of granite. It was a
solid, firm cross. And on that sign, on that cross,
were these words, Make peace with God. And since that time
over the years, I've heard a number of times a reference such as
that. Most often when somebody has
died, they'll say of that individual, that they, before they died,
made their peace with God. But the truth of the matter is,
the Bible clearly again and again shows us and tells us that no
sinner ever has or ever could make peace with God. In Luke's Gospel, the Lord Jesus
Christ says some words that ought to be taken to heart by every
person. Look with me in Luke 14 and verse
31. This is not only biblical, It's
very logical. He says, "...what king, going
to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth
whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against
him with twenty thousand?" In other words, one of lesser strength
ought to consider a conflict with one of greater strength. And we've seen that many times
in this world. But the worst odds that have
ever been on this earth between one army and another army They
are nowhere to be compared with the difference between the sinner
and the thrice holy Almighty God. Men and women talk flippantly
and loosely about God in this hour, but when they meet Him,
their mouths will be silenced. But look at verse 32. He says,
"...or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth
an ambassadge." He sends messengers and desires conditions of peace. That's what I want to talk to
you about this morning. the conditions of peace. And I know that in order for
there to be peace between God and men, there must be reconciliation. We have to be reconciled to God. If you would turn over to the
book of 2 Corinthians and that fifth chapter, let me read to
you, and you look with me, beginning in verse 17. 2 Corinthians 5
and verse 17. where Paul says, therefore, if
any man be in Christ, that is a position that we have need
of being in this very day, in Christ, he is a new creature
or creation Old 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's stead, be ye 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." Now, as we can see here, in light of this peace
that we need, that reconciliation is not only a Bible word, it
is a Bible doctrine. And in light of these verses,
as well as the first we read, the word reconciled here means
to change from enmity to friendship. To change from enmity to friendship. In other words, it is to bring
about this peace or this reconciliation between parties. But we have a warning in Scripture
from God. We have a warning concerning
many that he says will go out, false shepherds he calls them,
And they will be those who say, peace, peace, when there is no
peace. They will offer to men, they
will try to give to men, peace with God. outside of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and in that case, there is no peace. We are commanded in Scripture
to be reconciled to each other. And every effort on the part
of both parties involved is to be made because we are all the
same in that we are all sinners and we are to be reconciled,
especially among the Lord's people. He says this, That is, before
you even give a gift. He says, "...leave there thy
gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled
to thy brother, and then come and give your gift." But what I want you to realize
this morning is that nowhere in the Bible does it speak of
God being reconciled. And the reason is, God is unchanging. And the enmity and the hostility
is always on our part. He has not changed toward his
people, but we changed toward him. And we are described by the apostle
as being enemies and alienated from God in our minds. Men are spoken of in this way,
having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life
of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the
blindness of their heart. We act as enemies toward God. We are hostile toward God as
He is, even in the way that He tells us He
saves sinners. And you could say, you could
describe us all by nature in saying that we are in this way
enmity toward God representatively. That is, we became that way,
all of us, in our father Adam. When Adam rebelled against God,
When he rose up and shook his fist in the face of God, defied
the throne of God and the command of God, it says that he fell,
but the consequence was that we in him, since he was a representative
man, we all fell with him and in him. That's what Paul is saying
in Romans 5. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned," or all sinned in Adam. And what happened? The last scene
that we see that has anything to do with that garden paradise
is our father Adam and our mother Eve being led out, cast out of
that garden, and the way to that garden shut by flaming swords. And when he went out of that
garden, We went out of that garden in Him, out of the presence,
out of that fellowship with God, and that is what we've been by
nature every one since then. But not only that, not only representatively
in Adam, we are this same way by nature. He says, because the carnal mind,
our natural mind, is enmity. That means hostility and hatred. We are by nature haters of God. And someone always says in their
mind, I don't hate God. But the truth is, you don't hate
the God that you imagine. You don't hate the God of your
own invention, or the God that man has set before you, giving
you this false peace. But God as He is, and God especially
as He is revealed in His Word, we by nature find that repulsive. For the carnal mind is enmity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be." He says, to us by nature, the things of God are foolishness
to the natural man. And this enmity, this hatred
natural to us is against God Himself, against His holy character,
against His decrees, against to the Lord Jesus Christ, His
rule and reign over us, against His person and all of His offices. You say, how do you know that?
because we try to replace ourselves in His offices. We think we can
stand before God as our own priest or some man-made priest. We think rather than His work,
we'll take our works. We think rather than His blood
shed for our sins, we'll take our own ideas and doing. in order to restore favor with
God, and especially against His gospel, against the doctrines
of His grace and the way of salvation that the gospel sets forth, and
against the Spirit of God always resisting His work and His revelations. And then surely we are in this
way enmity against Him by every word and every deed and every
motive. He says, your sins have separated
you from God. And we have this tendency to
compare ourselves with someone else just like us. But God's
standard is not a sinner like yourself. God's standard is His
holy Son, the man Christ Jesus. And all our words are wicked,
all our deeds, all our motives, they are against His nature,
His law, and His will. Everything. He looked at some
people and he said, you will not come to me that you might
have life. And since this is the case with
all, and all are separated from God, that is, at a distance from
Him, afar off, having no fellowship with Him, in rebellion against
Him, and as the Scriptures describe us by nature. without God, without
Christ, and without hope in this world. No hope. No solid ground based on anything
we might think or do or seek to be. No hope for such as we
are in this world. and not able in any way to reconcile
ourselves to God. We cannot make peace with God. How can the natural enemy, And
you see this going on all the time in the world when you appeal
to logic and say, why cannot these people get along? But the
truth is, there is a natural entity that did not start today,
but yet has been perpetuated through the ages. And so as far as it is with us. Between you and between me and
the eternal God, you can say, as far as we're concerned, there
are irreconcilable differences. And if we are to have peace with
God, if we are to be reconciled to God, God Himself must do it. He alone can do it, and He must
do it in a way that is consistent with who He is. This may come as a shocker to
you. But God will not save you. I don't care who you are. I don't
care what you think you are in yourself. God will not save you. There will not be peace between
you and God at the expense of who He is. He's not going to
change in order to save your wretched soul or mine either.
He's not going to cease from being God He's not going to act
in a manner contrary to Himself, even unglorious to Himself, just
to save your precious soul. He's not going to do it. He's not going to save you in
a way that's not consistent with His Word. And He most definitely,
And I think that this is the attribute of God that false prophets
sacrifice the most in order to have their so-called gospel. He will not save one sinner at
the expense of his justice. He's going to be just. But this is the good news of
the gospel. This is the good news of the
gospel. And Paul says it right here in
2 Corinthians 5 and verse 18. Look at those first words in
that first phrase there. He says, "...and all things are
of God." What has he just got through saying? that there are
some who are in Christ Jesus. How did they get in Christ Jesus? All things are of God. He as God in His great grace
and mercy put them in Christ. He put them in Christ in that
everlasting covenant. He made Christ their surety and
their Savior. They're in Christ because He
put them in union with Christ before the world began. And then
He says, old things are passed away. How'd that happen? All
things are of God. And one of the things that he's
talking about here, and mainly I believe it is, he's talking
about all those old things that we became and are in Adam. If we are in Christ, we're no
longer in Adam. How did we get in Christ? All
things are of God. How did we get out of Adam? All
things are of God. And then he says, and behold,
all things are become new. We're out of an old creation,
which is represented in Adam. We're in a new creation, which
is represented in Christ. How did we get in there? He's
writing to these believers at Corinth. How does he say we got
into that? All things are of God. All things
are of God in creation. We know that, don't we? All things
are of God in providence. He works all things after the
counsel of His own will. But remember this, especially
this, in reconciliation, all things are of God. And when you look in verse 18,
he says, all things are of God who hath reconciled us. to himself." Now, did you notice
that that is in the past tense? You see, I can't help but believe
if we miss that, we will miss the good news of the gospel. But the good news of the gospel
is not only that God alone can reconcile us to Himself, but
what the apostle is saying here is, the message of God is, He's
done it for some folks. These Corinthians, they were
a wicked bunch. Corinth was noted for being one
of those places on earth, one of those cities on earth, where
there was the most blatant immorality, idolatry, and ungodliness of
any place on the earth. And even these letters that are
being written here are written to these believers at Corinth
who are having to be corrected in some things. But the message was, All things
are of God who hath reconciled us. Now what I find out in our
day is a constant message of what God can and will do for
you if you do something. But my friend, if it depends
on you and I as sinners who are alienated from God, whose minds
are enmity against God, who views the things of God as foolishness,
if it depends on such creatures as that to do the reconciling,
we have no hope. But you can look at that 18th
verse and it says, "...all things are of God who hath reconciled
us." Now you know that this book is written to the believer. It's
written to the people of God. There'll be a multitude of people
who may even read this very verse, and it'll go over them just like
anything else that might be stated on a printed page or spoken.
It means absolutely nothing. But to those that God gives faith,
they believe what God says. I always love what Paul says
when he's on that ship and he's trying to calm all those people
down in the midst of that wind that's blowing so ferociously,
scaring even these sea-hardened veterans of the sea. He said,
I believe God. But he didn't just stop there.
He said, I believe God that it shall be as He hath said, as
He hath told me. Do we believe God who He says
hath reconciled us? He's reconciled us. Paul writes
to these Corinthian believers that he describes as saints. And he's talking about his people,
that is, all among Jew or Gentile who believe on Christ. He has
reconciled us. How many people is he talking
about there? Well, on the one hand, compared
to the masses of humanity, he describes them, Christ does in
one place, as few. But don't ever think that the
salvation of Christ, upon which His glory is, will be just two
or three, four or five, a hundred, even a hundred and forty-four
thousand people. It's that number which no man
can number. Us. And the us here is simply
those who have been brought from acting like and believing like
them. He hath reconciled us to Himself. He hadn't changed. But we fell
in Adam. We acted like the sinners that
we are. We do the things that we do because
we are what we are. But it says, "...he hath reconciled
us to himself." You see, reconciliation, this
making peace with God, is the work of God Himself, which He
does in His grace for His people. He is longsuffering to usward. Peter says, not willing that
any should perish, but that each and every one of these usward
should come to repentance. And He has done so according
to this same 18th verse. He has reconciled us, past tense,
done, finished. He has reconciled us to Himself
by Jesus Christ. No other way. No other priest. No other work. No other righteousness. No other blood. No other anything
or anybody. He hath reconciled us unto Himself
by Jesus Christ. And then God reveals how He has
reconciled His people to Himself, and He declares it through the
gospel of Christ. Remember Paul's writing to these
believers at Corinth. And he says, "...and He hath
given to us the ministry of reconciliation." He's going to describe it in
a minute, what this ministry of reconciliation is all about. He has given us the ministry
of reconciliation, verse 19, 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. He has put in us The word of
reconciliation which is simply described in another place here
in the Scriptures as the gospel of peace. If you want to do an
interesting search sometime, just take that phrase, the gospel
of, and do a search and see what it says. It's the gospel of God. It's the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It's the gospel of grace. It's
the gospel of glory. It's the gospel of peace. You
see, the only way that God speaks peace to a sinner's heart is
by the truth, by the gospel, by the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. But how does God say in the word
of reconciliation that He reconciles? There it is again, that God was
in Christ. Well, we know, if we believe
the rest of Scripture, that Christ is God Himself. God manifests
in the flesh. But more aptly here is that the
Godhead is in this second person of the Godhead, Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, reconciling. That's what He was doing coming
into this world. He had a work to do. He had a
ministry to perform. He had a service as Jehovah's
servant to do. And that's exactly what He did. He reconciled every person in
Him, every person given to Him by the Father, every person that
makes up that church which is His body, that bride which is
His bride, that kingdom which is His kingdom over which He
is the King, He reconciled them to God. God was in Christ reconciling. He says, reconciling the world.
And that simply means, not every person in the world. If He was
in Christ reconciling every person in the world, then every person
in the world would be reconciled to God. We know that's not true. But in Paul's day there was still
that barrier. He writes to the Jew and he reminds
them of this very same thing. He speaks of the world showing
them that God has a people among the Gentiles. And he writes to
these Gentiles reminding them that he also has a people of
the Jews of which Paul himself was. This world in Christ he
reconciled. unto himself." Unto himself,
and this is in the emphatic, he was in Christ reconciling
unto himself because he's the offended one. God never has done anything to
offend one of the sons of Adam anywhere, much less his people. God was in Christ reconciling. And that means not simply in
the person of Christ. Though, without a doubt, His
being God in the flesh, perfectly sinless and holy, enabled Christ
to be the one who actually accomplishes the work but also the work that
he perfectly, obediently, and satisfactorily finished." Right at the heart of this matter
of reconciliation. This making peace with God. Right
at the heart of it. The central part of it. Which means right at the heart
of the gospel of peace is the work of Christ. Particularly
His work on the cross. His death on the cross. Now I want to look at a few verses
of Scripture. Turn back to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. You know we
find that it is by Adam that we fell and came to this position. But look in verse 8. Paul says, "...but God commendeth
His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us." When did Christ die? Something like 2,000 plus years
ago. You mean we were sinners then?
Absolutely. In ourselves, in Adam, that's
exactly what we were. While we were yet sinners though,
Christ died for us, much more than being now justified or declared
righteous by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. That young boy and I saw that
sign that said, made peace with God, it brought fear to my heart. And I had that fear. That fear
of death, that fear of the inevitable judgment meeting God, until God
revealed the truth to my heart. We shall be saved from wrath
through Him. Why? We've been reconciled to
God. For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, you see
that? Much more, being reconciled,
we shall be saved by His life. And not only so, but we also
joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received
the atonement. Except that word elsewhere in
the New Testament that is here translated, atonement, is reconciliation. We've been reconciled to God
by the death of His Son. And therefore, we shall be saved
from wrath. Therefore, having been reconciled,
we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we can joy
in God. We joy in God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Here we are once, enemies and
aliens from God, and fearing God in a non-biblical sense,
but fearing God as far as His wrath and His judgment and all
these things. He said, now we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. by whom we have now received
the atonement." The reconciliation. Alright, look at another verse
in Colossians. Colossians chapter 1 and verse
20. After having said that it pleased
the Father that in Christ all the fullness should dwell. Look
in verse 20. and having made peace." Is that
not past tense also? And having made peace through
the blood of His cross. by Him to reconcile all things
unto Himself. By Him, I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to
present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight."
Want to just highlight those few verses, circle them, read
them every day, because they speak of a peace and reconciliation
that's already made, which is the only thing that can bring
peace to your heart. Having made peace. Peace with God. Peace on the
behalf of those He represents, having made peace with God through
the blood of His cross by Him to reconcile. Reconcile. And being reconciled in the body
of His flesh through His death to present you, you believers
in Colossae, you believers in Corinth, You believers in Jerusalem,
you believers in wherever, Jacksonville, to present you holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in His sight. Look over in Hebrews chapter
2 and verse 17. Talking about Christ and the
reason why He became incarnate. Why did He become a man? In order
to die. In order to accomplish that which
was necessary to reconcile us to God. Verse 17, Hebrews 2,
Wherefore in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His
brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things
pertaining to God. to make reconciliation for the
sins of the people." You see, reconciliation is all about his
dealing with our sins before God. All about his dealing with our
sins. Daniel had given in his prophecy
of the Messiah, saying, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people
and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression, and to make
an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in
everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy,
and to anoint the Most Holy." Christ's reconciliation. was
for our sins. But how does His death, how does
the blood of His cross reconcile us to God? Well, look back in
2 Corinthians 5 at that last verse, verse 21, because he's talking about how
this was all brought about by God. He begins that last verse
with 4, "...because He hath made Him
to be sin for us who knew no sin." Well, he said God was in Christ,
not imputing the sins of His people to them. But if they don't
pay, somebody's got to pay. If God is in His justice not
going to hold them responsible, somebody had to be responsible. And therefore, we have the first
imputation. And that was the sins of all
God's people. All those sins laid on Christ. Actually, the first imputation
is Adam's sin charged to us or imputed to us, making us accountable
for them. But what he's emphasizing here
is that second one, and that is all the sins of all God's
elect, since He did not impute or charge them with sin, being
charged to their substitute. The Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody
might say, how can He do that? Because He's God. And He can
do anything that does not violate His holy justice. So He appoints the substitute.
He made this one who knew no sin to be accountable for all
the sins of his people. That we, and this is the third
imputation, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him. Not just made righteous. made the righteousness of God. And not just made the righteousness
of God, but made the righteousness of God in Him. Paul goes right back to this
blessing of grace whereby we are in Christ Jesus. And God, having made us to be
in Him, has therefore imputed His righteousness to us, and
we are made the righteousness of God in Him. Therefore, having
no sin, and having the righteousness of God in Christ, we have peace
with God. We are reconciled to God. God
is not angry at His people. does not look upon us with a
frown. Just take a quick glimpse over
the artifacts of archeology and various
civilizations past. Dig up the statues of their God. Most every one of them has a
scowling frown on his face. Because even in the consciences
of those who have not heard the gospel, man knows that God is
angry with the wicked every day. But not in Christ. The Lord uses so many what theologians call anthropomorphisms. That's when he uses things about
men to describe himself. That's how he condescends to
us in grace. The eyes of the Lord are upon
you. His ears are open to hear. But to that believer in Christ,
If we can look beyond the clouds and the sky and every hindrance
and barrier of our own finite existence as well as the distance
and all that's involved, if we could look at the face of Him
who sits at the right hand of the majesty on high, the man
Christ Jesus, we'd see a smile because He's
reconciled us to Himself. He made peace by the blood of
His cross. And we are through Him not only
able to rejoice in Him, if you can believe this, He says, He
rejoices over us. We smile to think that mercy
And grace has been to us such as this, that God in flesh would
come down and die in our stead in order to put away our sins
and reconcile us to Himself. And he looks. Paul says, but
of Him that is of God, Are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is
made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption?"
And I got a feeling if we had a lot more sense than we do,
a lot more light than we do, we would know that those four
words sum up all that's necessary for God to save us. and accept us." And he says,
it's all in Christ Jesus. And now God declares this all
through this gospel of reconciliation. The word of reconciliation declares
all in Christ to be reconciled to God. God the Spirit giving
faith to all for whom Christ died to believe it. And faith,
though it does not reconcile us to God, Christ did, but by
it, by this God-given faith, we are enabled to see it, realize
it, believe it, rely on it, trust in it, and rejoice in it. You
see, Christ met all the conditions for peace for His people. All the conditions of peace.
Actually, conditions don't really even apply to the Lord Jesus.
We say that sometimes. Salvation is conditioned on Christ
alone. But the truth is, there was never
any possibility of Him failing to save His people. It was as
much a done deal in eternity past as it was when He hung on
that cross, as it is when we believe on Him. But if you look back at that
20th verse, now I want to be sure that you understand this
too, because I'm satisfied there are a whole lot that don't. He
says, "...now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did
beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled
to God." Paul says, as an ambassador for Christ, as though God Himself
was beseeching in Christ's place, be ye reconciled to God. Now
think just a minute. Is he urging men and women to
make this reconciliation effectual for them as so many have said
and seem to believe? God has in Christ reconciling
us unto Himself, but you need to be reconciled to Him. Is there something to be done
or to be added to Christ's work? Whatever he says at this point,
it does not undo what he has just said, which is that God
hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ. And being reconciled,
you don't have to reconcile friends. Who was he writing this letter
to? Believers at Corinth. So what is he saying there? Well,
you might remember that I said that these two epistles especially
were epistles or letters that were written to these churches,
these believers in Corinth. They had some problems. They
had some problems with each other sometimes. Some thought they
had more gifts than the others and all these various things.
They had some problems with some immorality in their midst. We know from verse 1 that he
is writing to those that are called saints. But look back at verse 15. He says, "...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."
You see, in this flesh, even as believers in Christ, we still
struggle with this business of living for ourselves rather than
for Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. And in this context, which is
one of correction on the basis of reminding these believers
what Christ had done for them. He is saying, live in a way that
is consistent to what you believe. Live as those who are thankful
for this grace in Christ to you. Live not for yourselves, but
for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Live not for the gratification
of your flesh, but for the welfare of your souls. Now, there was
an old preacher. I'm not even going to tell his
name, but he had something wonderful to say about this, and what I
believe is the truth about this. He gives this comment that Paul
is saying, we pray you in Christ's stead, representing Him as if
He was present before you, Be ye reconciled to God, you who
are new creatures for whom Christ has died and peace is made, you
the members of the church at Corinth who upon a profession
of faith have been taken into such a relation. Be ye reconciled
to all the dispensations of divine providence toward you. Let your
wills bow. and be resigned to His, since
He is the God of peace to you. And as you are reconciled by
Christ as a priest, be reconciled to Him as your King and your
God, to all His ordinances and appointments, to all the orders
and laws of His house. Conform in all things to His
pleasure and will, which we, as his ambassadors in his name
instead have made known unto you, you ought to be in all obedience
to him and never dispute anything he says or orders." As those
whom God in Christ has reconciled to himself live as such. seeking to live
unto yourselves, but to Him. Not squabbling among yourselves,
but together praising Him, doing all to the glory of His name. This is the peace God gives,
and it is the peace that passes understanding. It's the peace
that Christ made by the blood of His cross. He met all the
conditions of peace. And that's why His people have
peace. They're like that Japanese soldier I read about many years
ago who was out on an island, living there by himself, still
in a war, still in a conflict in his mind. He didn't know that
the war had ended. He didn't know that the peace
had been established. That's the way we are in this
world. Until He comes to us with the gospel of peace and speaks
peace to our hearts by it. Peace in Him who is the Prince
of Peace. He reconciled us to Himself. Father, this day we give thanks
and praise and honor and glory to your name for such a wonderful
truth, such a wonderful Redeemer and Lord, such a glorious God
of all grace, the God of peace. We thank you for that peace you
give as a gift that truly brings peace in our hearts. We know
that there will never be peace in this world. but that there
already is peace with and to those in Christ. Bless your word
to our hearts this day, for we pray in the name of Christ. Amen.