Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Paul's second epistle to the
Corinthians and chapter five. We read for our text verse 18. To Corinthians chapter five and
verse 18. and all things are of God who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse
18. And what is set before us here
is being reconciled to God, a people by God's sovereign grace, reconciled
to him and brought to believe in his name. And then as a believer
in all of their life, reconciled to God's plan and dealings with
them in their lives as well. Reconciled means to make, and
we're thinking of in the way of accountancy, one account consistent
with another, or to restore friendly relations and to make and show
that something is actually compatible, something that seems to be and
is not compatible and cannot be brought together that can
be brought together and can be made compatible. Many times the
people of God throughout the ages have found that those things
revealed concerning the coming Christ were hard to reconcile
with what they knew at that present time. Solomon, when he dedicated
the temple, in his prayer he says that the heaven of heavens
cannot contain thee, how much less this house that I have built,
and will God in very deed dwell upon the earth. And he found
this hard to bring together, to reconcile, that God could
be so great, could fill all things, and yet he could come to that
house, that he could actually walk upon this earth. And we
know in our Lord Jesus Christ how that was brought about, Immanuel
God with us. And that second temple especially,
that which the Jews were grieved because it was nothing like the
glory of the first, And yet the prophets, they said that the
glory of that latter house would be greater than the first. And
it was because the Lord himself was to walk there. We have dear
Job also struggling to reconcile the idea that the seed of the
woman could come and that he would be without sin. He says,
who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean. All of the sons
of Adam, as they are born into this world, they're sinners.
How could it possibly be that there should be the seed of the
woman that would be able, possible, by reason of being sinless, to
be able to redeem? And though Job knew many, many
precious truths, He knew concerning the resurrection, though after
my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God
for myself and not another. And he knew these things, but
there were some things he found hard to put them together, to
reconcile them. And we have this idea then of
things that seem irreconcilable, they can't be brought together,
and yet in the Lord Jesus Christ, they can. Paul, when he writes
to the Colossians, he says in the first chapter there, in verse
21, that the Colossians are not just them, but all of mankind,
all of fallen men, and women and children and you that were
sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works
and be blessed be God if you can go further as he could for
the Colossians and say yet now hath he reconciled and the work
of the gospel the work of our Lord Jesus Christ is to reconcile
man. And so that points to what the
state and condition of man really is. When I was young, when I
was a child, I questioned my parents regarding our hymn 76
in our books. At peace with hell, with God
at war, in sin's dark maze they wander far. And I said, hasn't
the hymn writer got that wrong? Should not that be at peace with
God and with Helladwar? And I knew nothing of my own
evil heart then. I knew nothing of the enmity,
the hatred, the distance between myself and God. But when the
Lord opens the eyes, then he sees what we are. The Word says
that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,
who can know it? And it is a believer that knows
that, one that God has opened their eyes and brought to know
what they are by nature, that they are enmity and hatred against
God. We will not have this man to
rule over us. Our original sin in Adam was
rebellion, and man is a rebel. He rebels against God. He rebels against him as his
creator, as his maker. He rebels against the laws of
God. He joins with Satan. When Satan
says, hath God said, and questions the word of God, then man would
rather believe Satan than believe God. Our Lord when he came magnified
the law and he exposed that the fallen condition that we are
in doesn't just extend to outward acts but it is in the very heart
and it is in the thoughts and intents of that heart and that
out of the heart proceed those murders, adulteries, fornications
All those evils spring forth out of the heart, so corrupt,
so alienated, so fallen from God. Made originally in God's
image, but now so fallen. We have in the Garden of Eden
how that man was banished from the Garden. The cherubims, they
kept the way to the Tree of Life, And the separation between God
and man was and would have been an eternal separation, except
there be promised right there in the Garden of Eden that there
should be the seed of the woman that should bruise the serpent's
head. There would be a way of reconciliation. There would be a way back, a
way of bringing God and man together again. And remember it is man
that is alienated against God. It is man that needs his thoughts,
his life, his way, his heart, everything changed and brought
back unto God. The Lord says to his servants,
let them return unto you, but return not thou unto them. It is that thee Lord will have
not himself brought down to fallen man, but fallen man be brought
back unto God. And that work is God's work. The apostle here writing to the
Corinthians, he writes to them as believers. He writes to them
that already have this blessing that have been wrought in them. He gives and speaks at the beginning
of this chapter of that assurance that if this earthly house of
our tabernacle, this tabernacle was dissolved, we have a building
of God. There's a real assurance there
with these Corinthian believers. that when they die, their mortal
body shall be replaced with an immortal one. His first epistle
that he wrote to these Corinthians, it finished with a most beautiful
exposition of the resurrection and how that a believer shall
be given a new incorruptible body. and shall be like the Lord
and to be with him where he is. The most beautiful chapter, beautiful
prospect said before a believer. And he said this before the Corinthians
in his first epistle. And he speaks to them as being
those that had known this changing work in them. And so he speaks
of them as that they have been called, they have known what
it is to be a new creature in Christ, that they have been reconciled
unto God. And as in many cases, like here
with the Corinthians, and also with the Ephesians, he tells
believers, those that are believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, why
they believe. and what power has been put forth
into their lives to make them a believer. With the Ephesians
in the first chapter, he tells them that it is the same power
that brought the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead as what raised
them up from being dead in sin to be alive unto God and to be
a believer. And they were already in possession
of that blessing. But he tells them how it came
about and what power was put forth. A believer does not know
at first where that work came from and whose handiwork they
are, and what has gone on in their hearts and many of the
epistles of the apostle he explains and sets this forth and so we
have in the previous verse to our text that therefore if any
man be in Christ he is a new creature all things are passed
away Behold, all things are become new. And then he explains in
our text what those all things are. Those all things are of
God. It is of God that made all things
new in a believer. And so I want to Look at this
change and the explanation of it in the words of our text. And I want to consider it with
the Lord's help in three ways. Firstly, the change in a believer
is God's work. Our text clearly states this,
and all things are of God. The second thing to consider
is that the change is a reconciliation to God and it is by Jesus Christ. And lastly, the ministry of reconciliation. He says, and hath given to us
the ministry of reconciliation. The first point that I want to
look at is that the change in a believer is that which is God's
work. If we join together the last
part of verse 17, and then the first part of our text, verse
18, we have, Behold, all things are become new, and all things
are of God. The two all things, All things
are become new. All things are of God. What is he speaking about? What is he describing as of that
change? A new creature, a new man, a
real change. Of no doubt when the Apostle
wrote to the Corinthians and other churches under this vein
and speaking in this way, always had in mind his own conversion. The apostle Saul of Tarsus, as
he was before his name was changed to Paul, he went about hailing
men and women to prison those that called on the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He did not believe that Jesus
of Nazareth was the Christ and he felt that he was doing God's
work in persecuting and putting down this new belief and this
new sect as he would have viewed it. And he himself was a Pharisee
of the Pharisees, so trusting in his own righteousness and
in his own works and not needing another to die for him or to
work for him at all. And it was while in the midst
of this work against the people of God, we read the solemn account
of when Stephen, one of the deacons that was chosen to relieve the
minister's work and to serve tables. When Stephen was accosted
and Stephen was able to defend his faith and to trace right
back from and through Moses that the Lord Jesus was the promised
Christ and accused the Jews of crucifying and slaying the just
one and being a murderer of him. Then Stephen himself was stoned. And we read that those that stoned
him of those Jews, they laid their clothes at the feet of
a young man whose name was Saul. And we read that Saul was consenting
unto his death, consenting to the death of those that believed
in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul knew himself
such an enmity, hatred, against the doctrine of Christ, against
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord then met him on
the Damascus Road as he was going to Damascus with letters from
the chief priest to apprehend all that called on the name of
the Lord. And the Lord appeared to him
on that road, spoke to him from heaven, shined with a light that
was brighter than the midday sun. And Saul said, who are thou,
Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom
thou persecutest. Well, he was persecuting the
people of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the word says that whoso
toucheth you toucheth the apple of my eye. The Lord counted it
that Paul was doing it against him. And the Lord was pleased
instead of striking him dead to reveal himself to him, to
clearly say to him that that Jesus that was crucified at Calvary
was alive in heaven and was speaking to Paul on that road. and he gave him then a commission
three days he was without sight and he gave him a commission
what he should do as being an apostle to the Gentiles and said
to Ananias who was sent to Paul to have his eyes opened when
Ananias objected and he said, I've heard much of this man,
why he's come even now to apprehend the people of God. But the Lord
said, behold, he prayeth and go thy way. He is a chosen vessel
unto me. Not Paul, Saul has chosen me. I have chosen him. He is a chosen
vessel unto me. to bear my name unto the Gentiles. And this is what he's doing to
the Corinthians, bringing the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
to them. And you know, Paul immediately,
he preached that Jesus is the Christ. The difference between
Paul's life before the Damascus Road and after the Damascus Road,
would you not describe that? In the way that he speaks to
the Corinthians here, a new creature, old things passed away, behold
all things are become new. He is a very different character,
a different person. The people that once that he
hated, now he loves. And those that he once loved
and were with, He didn't keep company with them at all. In
fact, as soon as he started preaching the Lord Jesus Christ, he then
became the persecuted one and his life was sought after immediately,
instead of viewing the Lord as an imposter now. He viewed him
as the altogether lovely, the only name given among men whereby
we must be saved. His view of the Lord Jesus Christ
changed completely. His view of those things that
he had learned before at the feet of Gamaliel as a Pharisee
had completely got a new light on. You might think, well, I've
been brought up under the sound of the truth. I've heard the
Word of God. I've read the Word of God. I've
had it preached. The Apostle Paul had all of the
Old Testament scriptures. He had all of that teaching. But like the eunuch who, when
Philip came to him and said, understandest what thou readest,
when he was reading Isaiah 53, he says, how can I accept some
man guide me? Now he is reading a chapter that
we understand so clearly sets forth our Lord Jesus Christ and
he could not see him there, could not believe, speak of the prophet
of himself or some other man. And it was then that Philip began
at the same scripture and preached unto him, Jesus. Well, we might
think, well, we've had the benefit and it is a benefit and a great
blessing have been brought up under the sound of the truth.
But that alone will not be saving without the power of God and
without the Lord's blessing in our hearts and lives to make
us a new creature. Our eyes, our natural eyes, see
no beauty in the Lord. Our hearts, so hard and dry,
cannot perceive, cannot feel the things of God. Our ears,
they are unable to actually hear the word and understand what
we're actually hearing. We hear the outward words, but
don't realize what the import of them are. A dead man, an unconscious
man, does not know anything, however much is put before him,
and we are spiritually dead. And that change that God wrought
with the Apostle Paul, saw that he was, was a change from death
unto life, to give him spiritual life, to pass by him and to bid
him live, and it made him a new creature. Now, people might have,
and they did, Fester said to him when he told of what had
happened on that Damascus road, that he was mad. And there's
some of you, and maybe some that are listening tonight, and you
say, well, you're speaking of a light from heaven. Wasn't that
just, imagine that's just very fanciful. But Paul would say,
well, if that was the case, Why am I a different character now?
Why is my life so different now? See, our text speaks, and what
leads up to our text, speaks of a new creature. Old things
passed away, all things become new. We might be tried that we cannot
say much about what God has spoken to us? You might think, well,
I've heard God's people say that he's spoken to them through the
ministry, he's given them words, he's applied words to them, and
I can't say much on that. That's not the case. The important thing and what
is set forth here is the effect, the difference that has been
made in the heart It's much better to have a new creature in Christ
than to have someone that can give you a whole string of texts
and know the scriptures to quote them as much as anything. But their lives are still hand
in hand with the world. They still have no communion
with Christ and fellowship with him. There's still no real change. The Lord said that a house divided
against itself cannot stand. A natural man cannot cast out
a natural man. A believer only has two natures
within them, a new nature and an old nature. An unbeliever
only has an old nature. And that may change from being
an Arminian to a Calvinist and from changing over a leaf from
being a swearer to no swearing, and it might change from one
thought to another thought, one camp to another camp, but it
cannot reform and change that whole being from within, a new
heart, a new nature which is from above. And so this change,
Paul had his, and I can say that I had mine, that the Lord wrought
a change in me and I had been brought up under the sound of
the truth as well. And that change will be different
in each case. Some have never heard the gospel,
never heard the word. These Corinthians would have
been amongst them. Those Gentiles had just been
after idols and then presented with the gospel of the Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ and the Lord through the ministry, bringing
them to believe and embrace and to follow after the apostles. You think of how the apostle
describes the work that was done in the case of the Thessalonians. He says when he writes to them,
for our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in
power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance as ye know
what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And then he
describes the change, and ye became followers of us and of
the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with
joy of the Holy Ghost. And they became then examples
to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. The change in a believer
is God's work, and it is a change that makes a new creature, and
it makes there to be that there that was not there before. And
one thing I would say regarding this change, because a believer
still has his old nature, And there will be the conflict between
the two. And it is that which is from
above is pure and is holy and is perfect. We have here that
it is God's work. All things are of God. Thou only
has wrought all our works in us. Every change of thought,
change of affection, change of practice, change of life, change
to be conformed to the word of God and to seek the ways of the
Lord and forsake the ways of the world. Whoso will be a friend
of the world is an enemy of God. He cannot, says our Lord, serve
God and mammon. And then it becomes the sorrow,
the plague of the believer that he has that old nature. The Apostle
Paul, again, we use his experience in Romans 7, where he says that
the good that I would, I do not. The evil that I would not, that
I do. It's the conflict between the
old nature. With my flesh I serve the law
of sin, but with my mind the law of Christ. He says, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? And it is through the Lord Jesus
Christ. I thank God through Jesus Christ,
my Lord. So with the mind, I serve the
law of God, with the flesh, the law of sin. And the Lord reforms
that person so that they then, instead of a rebel, have become
a child. Instead of one that does not
want to walk in the Lord's ways, they want to walk in the Lord's
ways. Instead of one that would not
hear the Word of God, they want to hear the Word of God. Instead
of one that doesn't really realise the sinfulness of their heart,
they do realise that, and they realise more and more their need
of the precious blood of Christ. They need the Lord to save them
unto the uttermost. In the growth in grace in a believer
is a growth in a knowledge more and more of ourselves as sinners
and Christ as the saviour of sinners. More and more realising
what a difference there is between poor fallen man and a holy righteous
God and valuing that which the Lord has done in changing them
and converting them. And it is very important that
such a believer be assured and told and explained that this
is not just their work, it is God's work. That is, God will
have respect unto the work of his own hands. He which hath
begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus
Christ. But if we can't see it is the
work of God's hands, we haven't the comfort of that. If we can't
see that it is he that has begun a good work in us, we don't have
the comfort of that. And so this is why the apostle
says to these Jews, lives have been so changed and they've been
made as a new creature. that all these things, these
things that you can add, if you know these things yourself, you
can put them in that have changed in your life. And all things
are of God. It is God's work. A blessed thing
to be able to say this is the work of God is marvellous in
our eyes. know Barnabas, they'd heard of
God's work and those at Antioch that believed. So the apostle
sent him to go and see. And when he came, he saw the
grace of God and was glad. He saw the change in that people. They had turned from idols to
the true and the living God. And he was glad. It's a blessed
thing to see that change, see what has been wrought by God,
what hath God wrought. And so this first point and in
our text, and all things are of God. May the Lord speak that
to some of your hearts this evening and crown what he has done in
your heart and in your life, that which you might have come
thinking, is it the Lord's work? Or is it not? Was it yours? Was it your own hand and own
change and own deeds? But God says no. All things are
of God. It is God's work. So I want then
to look secondly at the change that is a reconciliation to God
by Jesus Christ. If in the very first place we
have this change of a new creature, old things passed away, we said
that is the work of God. All of this is the work of God.
We now have in the second point, the second part of this text,
another description, a clarification of what actually has happened
and what is the case with this person who hath reconciled us
to himself by Jesus Christ. This really is the test of a
real work of grace, the relationship between a sinner and God. And here in the Lord Jesus Christ
is the bringing of them both together. And writing to believers,
he says here, as something that is already done. For there to be a reconciling,
there must be a removing of those things that are in the way. You
imagine if there was two friends, And one of them did some work
for the other one, and they gave them the bill, a lot of work. And that friend said, no, I'm
not going to pay that bill. I'm not going to pay that debt.
And he put then a real division and a strain between them, a
great debt that needed to be paid, And the other one said,
well, let's be friends again. Let's get together. And the first
one would say, but what about the debt? What about that? You put that right first, and
then we can be friends again together. And what about the debt? The law of God demands that without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission. that we have
sinned and come short of the glory of God and the sentence
is already passed upon us as a sentence of death, if that
sentence is to be then revoked and taken away and life given
instead of death, then that debt must be paid. It cannot be that
God just decides, well, don't worry about that debt, I will
just give eternal life to these debtors, to these ones that have
sinned, ones that have broken my law, ones that I pronounce
the judgment of that they should die eternally. But the Lord Jesus
Christ was then made of a woman, made under the law to redeem
them that were under the law. Those that cannot pay that debt,
the Lord came to pay that debt. God's justice must stand. And yet to save a sinner, he
must show mercy. So God's justice must say that
one must be punished instead of the people that are to be
shown mercy. So he sends his beloved son,
spotless, sinless, as a real man, soul, and body. upon this
earth and he freely, willingly offers himself a sacrifice for
sin. Bears in his body on the tree
the sins of his people. He has laid on him the iniquity
of us all. And God then obtains that satisfaction. It's like with our illustration. Another coming and saying, well,
I know your friend cannot pay that bill. In fact, the way it
is with God, God himself provides the payer. And the bill is settled. It is completely settled. It
is reconciled. The books are looked at. Instead
of a great big debt, that debt is cleared and there is no debt.
All of you that have done business and know business in that way,
you know what it is when the books are not balancing. When
there is a debt, there is something to be paid. But when that is
paid, and then it balances, then nothing is due at all. There's
no claim on you anymore. You know what the feeling of
that is when you realize you owe this and this, and you've
got to pay this and this and this. and you wonder where your
money's going to come from and how it's going to be done and
the relief when that actually is paid and you look at the accounts
and you think it is all settled and it is all done. And that
is how it is with the Lord. For his people he has settled
that debt. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. And it is in that settling of
the debt that the Lord has brought about in one aspect, that reconciliation. He's made that possible that
God and man can be reconciled. The other aspect of it is that
man by his own works is so unfit for presence with God. He has
fallen, his whole life, his whole works All his righteousness is
his good works and his filthy rags. So God says in the Lord
Jesus Christ, I will give them a righteousness that is wrought
out by Christ, but is made theirs by imputation. And therefore
they can be reconciled because they are made the righteousness
of God. in the Lord Jesus Christ. So
the things that stand in the way of bringing two together
are taken out of the way. They are clothed, they are made
fit, they are made to be brought to, able to be brought to be
with God. How can two walk together except
they be agreed? And that is what our Lord has
done at Calvary. But when the Lord works a work
of grace, when he passes by a sinner and bids them spiritually live,
those that he has died for, and that time comes like the Apostle
Paul, like with myself, and the Lord gives eternal life, it is
a gift, and we live, and we first begin to see and feel our state
and condition and seek after Christ and learn of him and realise
our need of Christ. Give me Christ or else I die. And the work then of that reconciliation
is done in the believer, in their lives, so that their very minds
are reconciled to Christ. They accept God's verdict of
their condition by nature. One of our hymns says, nor are
men willing to have the truth told. The sight is too killing
for pride to behold. Man does not like to be told
that he is a sinner, that he hates God, that his works are
not acceptable to God. But when the Lord opens the eyes
of a sinner and blesses them with life, then they agree with
what God says about man. You think of the publican in
the temple God be merciful to me, a sinner, and he beat upon
his breast. He agreed with God's verdict
that he was a sinner and that he needed mercy. And so that
reconciliation to God by Jesus Christ, there is an embracing
the Lord Jesus Christ as our only hope, a sheltering beneath
his blood, a pleading his name, a looking to him for salvation. God has given this wonderful
provision. He has given him as the only
mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Our Lord
has ascended into heaven after settling the debt and sits on
the right hand of God to appear in the presence of God for us. He says, I will pray the Father
he shall give you another comforter, a spirit that shall abide with
you forever. And that work of the Spirit of
God is to bring about a reconciliation. It brings a sinner far off from
God back to God. It brings him to walk in the
ways of the Lord, to walk in the ways of grace, a change. is a reconciliation to God by
Jesus Christ. No man, says our Lord, can come
unto me except the Father which sent me. Draw him, and I will
raise him up at the last day. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. There is no other way of salvation,
no other way to God, but the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's
a reconciliation to that. When he writes to the Romans
in Romans 10, he says of his own countrymen, they weren't
reconciled to that. They were still wanting a salvation
by their own works. They couldn't accept it by grace. They couldn't accept it as a
free gift. They wanted to earn it. They
wanted to merit their own salvation. But you and I can never, ever
do that. receive it by grace. By grace
you're saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is
the gift of God. So our text says, who has reconciled
us to himself by Jesus Christ. True religion is a relationship,
a relationship between the soul and through the Lord Jesus Christ. What is the Lord Jesus Christ
to us? It's the real test of all of
our religion. The hymn writer says, I could
from all things parted be, but never, never Lord from thee,
a realisation of what Christ is to us and how vital, how needful
he is to us to quicken us, keep our souls alive, and to present
us at the last faultless before the throne of God. We have the last point as the
ministry of reconciliation. Now I do emphasize that the apostle
here is writing to believers. And in one sense, the message
in this chapter is very similar to that which the apostle writes
to the Romans in chapter five. Romans chapter five, he says
this, that if when we were yet without strength, for when we
were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the
ungodly. And he says in verse eight of
that chapter, but God commendeth his love toward us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died for us and
for us as believers today 2,000 years ago upon the cross at Calvary. And it was while we were yet
sinners, before we even came into this world, the Lord did
that. He did it by his eternal love
to us. and lay down his life for us. And there came a time that that
was made known to us, a time to call us by grace, to change
our hearts, renew our minds, and to turn our feet unto God. And he uses this argument. He
says, if this happened, if God passed by us and bid us live,
if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, by the death
of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And so he's using the, going
from what God did when they were passive, as it were, They didn't
know what was going on. The Lord worked that work in
their hearts to now that they do know what is going on, they
do know the Lord and they know his ways, and he's saying, if
the Lord blessed you when you didn't know him, how much more
now? And the ministry that is here
of reconciliation is to the people of God that they be reconciled
to the Lord in their lives. When the Lord spoke to those
that believed on him in John 8, he said, if ye continue in
my word, you shall be my disciples indeed. We must remember many
of the epistles here that are written to believers, they're
being instructed and taught in the ways of the Lord. And what
is being taught is here, to reconciled sinners, is that in their lives
that they be reconciled. And there's some things we find
very hard to reconcile, aren't there? The Lord's dealings in
providence sometimes. We can say, why does God allow
this? You think of Psalm 73 and other
psalms of which believers struggle with how is it that unbelievers
prosper in this world and yet believers have troubles and trials. And it's been reconciled to the
sovereign work of God in this life and remembering that death
is like a veil and beyond that is the judgment and this is why
The Apostle says here, we labour, whether present or absent, we
may be accepted of him. We must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things
done in his body according to that he had done, whether it
be good or bad. Another thing we may find hard
to reconcile, why are we still sinners? Have you had those arguments
with the Lord? Why has thou made me thus? Why
do I have these corrupt thoughts? Why do I have these base lusts
and desires? Why can't they all be just taken
away? Why do I have these to trouble
me? I remember one part in the road
over in Australia thinking, how much better a Christian I would
be if I didn't be troubled with all these sins. Why doesn't the
Lord just take them all away and just enable me to serve him
here below? As fallen creatures, if we were
like that, you know, we would so easy just completely depart
from the Lord, we wouldn't need him. The Lord's plan of salvation
is, I pray not that thou hast take them out of the world, but
that thou keep them from the evil. And what the Lord said
to the apostle, my grace is sufficient for thee. The Lord says to each
poor sinner, it is called by grace, and as the Buryton said,
they are called to do a daily battle with the corruptions of
their own heart. And it is by the Lord's grace
that they are given strength to stand and to resist that within
and without, live in an ungodly world and seeking to serve the
Lord by His grace. And that is the Lord's determining
of that. Many a fall, many a slip, many
a time we need to prove it again and again that the Lord shows
mercy, that the Lord restores, that His grace is a bottomless
pit. He giveth more grace, He giveth
restoring grace, He giveth keeping grace, The Lord gives everything
for his people suited to them as those that while in the body
are, as the apostle says, are in a body of death. And we may
struggle with that, but it's a good thing to be reconciled
unto God's way and to God's plan, God's direction through life,
the direction through the word. Reconciled to the institution
of the Church of God, to the appointing of His servants, and
the diaconate, and of the Church gathering. Reconciled to the
Lord's plan in salvation in every aspect of it. If we profess to be the Lord's
people, but we start to unpick the Word of God, and we start
to change what God's appointment is. And whereas Paul says to
Timothy that thou mightest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself
in the Church of God. And people say, we'll change
that, we'll do it some different, some other way. Is that being
reconciled to God? Is that being reconciled to God's
plan and God's way? No. What a solemn witness to
the world. If the world could look on to
a people who profess to be believers, and those believers are at odds
with the Word of God. Very solemn thing. Dear brother,
in Australia, when the Lord first called him by grace, and he was
brought by invitation into a church, and they gave him a Bible, and
he sat at the back, and he heard the preaching, compared it with
the Word of God and he realized what was being preached was different
than the Word of God. And the way that they were living
was different to that. Thankfully the Lord so blessed
him by the Word of God and brought him out from them and brought
him to the right way. But it should be that the people
of God glorify him and magnify his word and are reconciled to
that, and not say, oh, we'd rather be reconciled to evolution than
the word of God. What a solemn thing. Those professing
the word of God and yet would unpick Genesis and pull apart
the different parts of the word of God just to make it so that
it fits in with the teaching of an ungodly world is a blessed
thing to be fully at one with the Lord. reconciled in every
way, to walk together and not in friendship with the world. And so the ministry of reconciliation,
yes, it is to go into all the world and to set forth before
men what they are as sinners before God, that they are at
enmity and hatred to God, their need of being reconciled, that
there is a judgment to come, but those that are brought to
really feel their state and tremble at their own state as a sinner. The Ministry of Reconciliation
points to God's provision in the Lord Jesus Christ to bring
together those that were warring parties and to reconcile in one
and to make those to be friends that were enemies. The Lord says
of his people, I call you friends. Ye are my friends if ye do all
things that I command you. And there is a reconciled soul. Is that with us this evening?
Are we reconciled to the Lord's way, to the ordinances of the
house of God, to the Lord's will, to the Lord's purpose for believers? or has the Lord reconciled us
and we stand as the Corinthians reconciled to God, thankful for
the blessing and work of God, but in the way that we're walking,
we're not walking as reconciled to what the Lord would have us
to do. No, we won't have peace of conscience. We will not have. that answer
of a good conscience, if that is the way that we are walking,
but it is a sweet blessed way to walk as reconciled to God
in every aspect, completely one and walking together. May the
Lord add his blessing to this word and all things are of God,
who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. Amen.