Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 32 in your Spiral Gospels hymn book,
number 32, In Christ We Are Free. Let's all stand. All children of wrath in bondage
and sin we helplessly lay condemned and unclean. God's law in its
infinite justice and wrath Demanded we suffer an eternal death. But long before time had ever
begun, One stood in our place, God's glorious Son. He offered himself to go live
among men and give his own life to atone for our sin. The great substitute, behold,
he has come. The price has been paid, the
work is all done. Christ took on himself the great
load of our sin. He poured out His blood and He
put away sin. God's justice and law are now
satisfied, and all who believe have been justified. ? Through faith in the blood
of the Lamb we are free ? ? From sin's condemnation eternally
free ? Please be seated. Good evening. Let's open our Bibles together
to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. The Spirit of the Lord make you free. Free
indeed. Stand fast in the liberty where
Christ has made us free. What a glorious comfort and peace
we have in knowing that justice has been satisfied, the law has
been fulfilled. We have an advocate with the
Father. There's therefore no condemnation to them that are
in Christ Jesus. And in the new birth, everything
changes, everything. Notice in 2 Corinthians 5, We'll begin reading at verse
17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things 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. The gospel is called 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 here the Lord calls the gospel,
not the ministry of reconciliation, but 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. Come to Christ. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Lord willing, I'm gonna bring
a message Sunday on faith. Because it seems like every time
I repeat what God has said about believing on the Lord Jesus Christ,
somebody accuses me of promoting man's free will. And I hope to try to clear that
up. But here, Notice the last part
of verse 20, the Lord is saying, we pray to you in Christ's stead,
we beseech you for Christ's sake, be reconciled to God. For he,
the father, hath made him, the Lord Jesus Christ, and notice
to be as in italics, sin for us, who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. That's the double blessing. That's
the double transfer that our sin on Christ, His righteousness
imputed to us. I wanted to read that passage
and make an emphasis on what it is to be reconciled to God,
because that's going to be the message tonight from Colossians
chapter one. reconciled to God. Let's pray
together. Our Heavenly Father, You have in Your mercy and grace
and in Your good providence brought each of us here again tonight. You've put in our hearts a desire
to know Thee. You've given us the gift and
miracle of faith that we might look to Christ for all of our
reconciliation with Thee. We thank You for the forgiveness
of sin. We thank You for the liberty
that we have in Christ and the freedom from the law and from
justice and from death and hell and the grave. And Lord, we We rejoice in knowing
that the Lord Jesus Christ has conquered all our enemies. And
we ask, Lord, that you would send your spirit and power, enable
us from our hearts to look in faith to Christ and to rest all
the hope of our salvation on him. For it's in his name we
pray, amen. Number 352, 352 from the hard
back tendon. Let's stand together again. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly, while the nearer waters roll, while the
tempest still is high. Hide me, O my Savior, hide, till
the storm of life is past. Safe into the haven, God, O receive
my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on thee. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all. Support me. Sorry. All my trust on thee is stayed. All my help from thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with
the shadow of thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind. Just and holy is thy name, I
am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am, thou
art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with thee is
found, grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, make and keep me pure within. Thou of life, the fountain
heart, freely let me take of Thee. Spring Thou up within my
heart, rise to all eternity. Please be seated. Let's turn in our Bibles together
to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. We saw Sunday how the Father
has given all preeminence to the Lord Jesus Christ and that
everything, everything that God requires of us, He looks to Christ
for. all of our wisdom, all of our
righteousness, all of our sanctification, all of our redemption. Christ
is all and he is in all. And so it pleased the father
in verse 19 that in him should all fullness dwell. Now look with me in verse 20.
reconciled to God and having made peace through the blood
of his cross by him to reconcile all things to himself by him
I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven
and you that were sometimes 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. I have three simple points to
this message tonight. There is a reason why we need
to be reconciled, and that reason is sin. Secondly, there is a
remedy for sin that we might be reconciled, and that is the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And thirdly, there is a result
to being reconciled to God, and that is to be holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in the sight of God. The gospel is called
the ministry of reconciliation. It's called, as we saw in 2 Corinthians
5, the word of reconciliation. Reconciliation implies that there
is a breach. There was a time when we walked
with God in the cool of the day. We were there in the garden with
our father Adam. We had fellowship with God. There
was no need for reconciliation at that time. We enjoyed His
presence, and yet sin entered in and created a breach in our
relationship, and we became estranged. We became alienated. we became separated from God
as a result of sin. We found ourselves at enmity
with God, as we just read. Notice on verse 21, and you that
were sometime alienated. See, that's the opposite of being
reconciled, isn't it? We were alienated because of
our sin. and enemies in our mind of wicked
works. We read that phrase, wicked works,
and we think about all the shameful things that men do, but the most
wicked work of all is to trust one's own goodness for their
acceptance before God. That's the most wicked work of
all. And we come into this world with
a works mentality. We come into this world believing
that we can earn favor with God by a decision that we make or
by a work that we perform. And so in our minds, what we
thought was the hope of our salvation, God's calling wicked works. And the works of self-righteousness
are more wicked than the things that we often think about when
it comes to the wicked works of the flesh. You remember the
parable that the Lord told about the man who had a demon and he He exercised that demon out of
his house. And when the demon was gone,
he swept the house clean, and he garnished it, and he thought
all is well. And the demon came back with
seven more demons, and they inhabited the same house. And the end of
the man was worse than the beginning. You've seen that happen time
and time again. I've seen it happen. People get
involved in a self-destructive lifestyle. until they can't suffer
the consequences of their behavior anymore. And so they reform their
lives and they get religious and they sweep the house clean
and they garnish it with all sorts of religious paraphernalia. And they think, well, you know,
we've got rid of that bad life. The seven demons of works religion,
free will religion, is much worse than the one demon of some sort
of bad habit that a person may have had. At least when they
were engaged in a bad habit. their conscience convicted them,
they would never think of presenting that bad habit to God for the
hopes of their salvation. But now, now that they've swept
the house clean, now that they've garnished it, now that they've
got something to be proud of, now they have something they
can present to God. which is just as sinful and wicked
as was the bad habit they thought they've been delivered from.
But now it's become worse and more offensive to God because
it's robbing Christ of His glory. They're reconciling themselves
to God. So that's where we all are. That's
where we all came from. Let me show you that in the scriptures.
Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 66. Isaiah 66. And it's interesting how the
Lord has given us this. You know, Isaiah is the gospel
of the Old Testament. There's so many parallels that
can be drawn from the book of Isaiah to the New Testament. One of the parallels is that
the Lord begins in Isaiah chapter one by rebuking the children
of Israel for their for their self-righteous religiosity. He
said, your new moons and your feast and your holy days, they
are a stench to me. And he closes this with the same
message. Look at verse 2 of Isaiah 66.
For all those things hath my hand made, and all those things
have been made, saith the Lord. But to this man will I look. even to him that is poor and
of a contrite spirit, and tremble at my word. He that killeth an
ox, is if he slew a man. He that sacrificeeth a lamb,
as if he cut off a dog's neck. He that offereth an oblation,
as if he offereth swine blood. He that burneth incense, as if
he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own
ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations. This is,
this is the way, whatever Whatever bad habit we may have had or
may still have, this is the wicked works of the mind that the Lord
delivers us from. You can't go back to a freewill
works gospel for the hope of your salvation. We were all there. Even if you grew up under the
gospel, there was a time when you had to hear the gospel for
the gospel. And by nature, by nature in our
minds, we are guilty of these abominations and of these wicked
works before God, because we're trusting in something that we
can do for the hope of our salvation. and we need to be reconciled
from that. That is the worst sin of all. And it is the sin. Why are we
alienated? Why are we estranged? Why are
we separated from God? Well, the scriptures are clear.
In Isaiah chapter 59, the Lord said, the Lord's hand is not
short that it cannot save, neither is his ear heavy that he cannot
hear. But your iniquities have separated
you from your God. Your sin has hid his face from
you. So, reconciliation is for sinners. It's for sinners. It's for those
who stand by themselves guilty before God. And the worst guilt
of all is their unbelief. Their not looking to the Lord
Jesus Christ for their reconciliation. They're not looking to Him for
their righteousness. They're looking to themselves
and something that they've done. These are the wicked works that
we are all guilty of. Only sinners need to be reconciled. This is the reason for reconciliation. Sin. Sin. If you have a sin problem,
then there's good news. There's a reconciler. We can't
reconcile ourselves, but He has reconciled us to God. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
2. Hebrews chapter 2. Look with me at verse 17. 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 his people. Hebrews
chapter two, verse 17. He was made in the likeness of
sinful flesh, born of a woman, born under the law. in order that he might shed his
precious blood to reconcile his people. He didn't die to reconcile
all men. He effectually reconciled his
people from their sins. What a hope that we have as sinners. God makes us to be sinful. We
realize that we have nothing that we can do to reconcile ourselves
to God. And here's the ministry of reconciliation. Here's the word of reconciliation. Has sin estranged you from God? Is that what has alienated you
from God? Sure it is. Nothing else will
alienate us from God but sin. And what is the solution for
that? It's the shed blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God comes and He
convicts us of our sin. As we've seen oftentimes, the
conscience is sufficient to convict one of bad behavior. And all
men have a conscience, and all men know right from wrong. And I would suggest that the
biggest problem that men have in this world, as far as their
mental instability, is a guilty conscience. They're trying to
salve their conscience. They don't know how to relieve
the guilt of their conscience. And so you don't have to be a
believer to have a guilty conscience. God's put that law in every man's
heart, and we know right from wrong. But you do have to have
the Spirit of God to be convicted of unbelief. The Lord said, it's expedient
for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come. But when He does come, He will
convict you of sin because you believe not on me. Isn't that
the root of all of our problems? That's still my sin problem.
Help thou mine unbelief, Lord. It's the cause of all my other
outward manifestations of sin are rooted in the in the bedrock of my unbelief. I can't trust God and look to
Christ as I ought. And so I'm always needing to
be reconciled. You see, this matter of reconciliation
is just like the matter of salvation. It's not a one-time event, is
it? We continue because of the the unbelief. And the Spirit
of God is so merciful and kind to convict us of our sin, show
us of our unbelief, and then show us of our self-righteousness The Spirit of God will convict
the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin because
they believe not on me. Isn't that what the Spirit of
God convicts you of? Of righteousness because I go to my Father. I
have a righteousness with God in Christ, and that's the only
righteousness I have, and it's the only righteousness I need.
Take the Spirit of God to teach you that, doesn't it? And of
judgment. Because the prince of this world
has been judged, the Lord Jesus Christ was successful in defeating
Satan and destroying death on behalf of his people when he
hung his mighty head on Calvary's cross and cried, it is finished. He succeeded in defeating the
enemy. So this is what the spirit of
God convicts us of. And he continues to deal with
us on the level of our unbelief, our self-righteousness and our
need to try to do something to improve what Christ has already
finished. Notice in verse 20, I don't know
if you have it in the margin of your Bible, I have it in mine
and I looked it up and sure enough when the the editors wrote the
margin of my Bible, they got it right. As far as I can tell,
in verse 20, it says, and having made peace through the blood
of his cross. Now that's putting that phrase
in the past tense. And it makes the death of Christ
on Calvary's cross to be the one event that that the Lord
Jesus Christ did to make peace with God and reconcile us to
God. But if you remember your English
lessons, this is a participle. A participle is a verb that's
been turned into an adjective. It's a verb that has ing at the
end of it. And, uh, it's a, it's a continual
thing. It's not a pat. This is not in
the past tense. And so on the margin of my Bible,
it says on verse 20 and having made peace, um, the word is making
peace. He is making peace for us through
the blood of the cross. You see, we look back, yes, in
faith to what the Lord Jesus accomplished on Calvary's cross,
but we continue to come to Him and continue to need Him to make
peace for us through the blood of His cross. So this is the
living word. We're not just looking to a past
tense event. He is, right now, seated at the
right hand of the majesty on high, making peace for us with
God through the blood of his cross. Right now. So that every
time you and I become alienated or estranged from God, this matter
of reconciliation is not just, well, I've been reconciled to
God, through the new birth, yes, you have. But every time sin
creates a breach between you and God, you're in need of being
reconciled again, aren't you? This matter of reconciliation
is a daily need that sinners have. It's a daily need that
sinners have. And so this verse 20 ought to
read, and making, participle, making peace with God through
the blood of His cross. We continue to have an advocate
with the Father. We continue to come to Him. Every
time sin rears its ugly head, every time we find ourselves
estranged from God and needing to be reconciled, we keep coming
to Christ and He keeps applying the same remedy. The same remedy
every time. His shed blood is that reconciling
remedy for sin. Sin's still a problem, isn't
it? still a problem. It continues to be a problem. Lord, we have sinned and that
continually and we shall be saved. What a glorious truth. This sin
problem we have, brethren, it's a It's a daily struggle at the
war of the flesh against the spirit and the spirit against
the flesh and the Lord Jesus Christ making peace for us through
the blood of his cross continues to apply the same balm of Gilead,
the same medication, the same remedy. It hasn't changed. We don't find a different solution to our sin problem.
The same solution that we found that God showed us when He called
us out of darkness into His marvelous light. As you receive Christ
Jesus the Lord, soul walk-y in Him. It doesn't change. It's
from faith to faith. We keep coming. Keep coming. Fresh and anew and his mercies
are fresh every day. His goodness is is is renewed
every day Listen to You see what I'm saying
is that this is our need for reconciliation Yes, we had a
need in that we were dead in our trespasses and sins, and
by the wicked works of our mind, we were looking to our will and
our good works for our acceptance with God, and the Lord has made
all things new now that we're in Christ. Everything's become
new. We realize that that was such a lie, and such a damning
lie. Notice that we weren't We were
enemies in our mind, but we were never at enmity with God in His
mind and His heart. He's loved us with an everlasting
love. And even when we were unwilling
to be reconciled, we were reconciled. We were reconciled in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We listen to Romans chapter 5
verse 10 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 The Living Christ right now is
continuing to reconcile His people. It is the one need that you and
I have to be reconciled to God. And every day we are alienating
ourselves by our unbelief and by our sin. And here we have
the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Living Word, making reconciliation
for us by His shed blood. And that's the remedy. Turn with
me to Leviticus chapter 6. Leviticus chapter 6. I always
like, when I'm looking at a word in the scriptures, I always like
to go back to the very first place where that word is found
in the Word of God because the meaning generally in that location
carries through all of Scripture. And that's true with this word
reconcile. Look at Leviticus chapter 6 at
verse 30. And no sin offering That's what we're talking about.
Here's the reason why we need to be reconciled because of sin.
And it continues to be the reason why we have to be reconciled
is because of sin. And no sin offering. Now what
is the sin offering? The Lord Jesus Christ is a sin
offering. He's the sin offering. In the
Old Testament, it was typified by the blood of bulls and goats,
but we know that the blood of bulls and goats never put away
sin. Those Old Testament offerings were just a type, they were picture,
they were shadow pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. So we
apply this Old Testament truth in light of the New Testament
revelation of Christ. And no sin offering whereof any
of the blood is brought into the tabernacle of the congregation
to reconcile with all in the holy place shall be eaten. It shall be burnt with fire. The Lord said, when you bring
a sin offering into the tabernacle, The sin offering is not to be.
Some of the offerings the priests could divide up and take home
with them, parts of the animal. That was their part, but not
the sin offering. The sin offerings brought the
whole thing had to be burned with fire. Now we know what that's
a picture of. It's the fiery wrath of God's
justice falling on our sin bearer, our substitute, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who bore the full wrath of God's fury in order to reconcile
us to God. You see the word reconcile there?
Brought into the tabernacle of the congregation to reconcile
with all in the holy place. None of it shall be eaten and
shall all be burnt with fire. The sin offering was the purpose
of reconciling. Now turn with me over just a
couple of pages to Leviticus chapter eight. And look with
me at verse 14. Leviticus eight at verse 14. And he brought the bullock for
the sin offering. And Aaron and his sons laid their
hands upon the head of the bullock for the sin offering. Here's
Christ being made sin. We just read that. In 2 Corinthians
chapter 5, Christ was made sin. God made him sin for us. This is the transfer of sin on
the Lord Jesus. The scapegoat. He put his hand
on him. And verse 15, and he slew it. And Moses took
the blood and put it upon the horns of the altar round about
with his finger and purify the altar and poured the blood at
the bottom of the altar and sanctified it and made reconciliation upon
it. The people had to be reconciled.
Why? Because they were alienated.
They were estranged from God. They were at enmity with God
and their web by their wicked works in their minds. And he
took all the fat that was upon the inward and the call upon
the liver and the two kidneys and their fat and Moses burned
it upon the altar. But the Bullock and his hide
and his flesh and his dung, he burnt with fire without the camp
as the Lord commanded Moses in order for reconciliation to be
made. The Bullock had to be taken outside
the camp. The Lord Jesus Christ was taken
outside. And we follow Him outside the
camp. And He was offered up as a burnt
offering, a sin offering to reconcile us to God. Here's the remedy. The reason why we need to be
reconciled is sin. The remedy for sin is the shed
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. One more passage, turn with me
to Daniel chapter 9. Daniel chapter 9. This is a prophecy
of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, fulfilling all these
Old Testament types of reconciliation for sin. And verse 24, we're
not going to get into details about the prophecy, but the 70
weeks is the period of time between the time Daniel got the prophecy
and the time it would be fulfilled at Calvary's cross. So 70 weeks
are determined upon my people, upon thy people and upon thy
holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, 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. To make reconciliation for sin. That's what the Lord did. And
He continues to do that. Making reconciliation by His
shed blood. Sinners still come to Him. We do, don't we, brethren? We
come every day. And the older serves the younger. Esau, the man of the flesh, we
still have that old man. And he's serving the new man
in that he's the one that commits the sin and causes the new man
to see his need for reconciliation and for the shed blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so we keep coming and he
keeps making reconciliation. keeps making it, and He'll keep
making it. And what's the... If the reason why we need to
be reconciled is because we're alienated and separated from
God due to our sin, and the remedy of our reconciliation is the
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the continual work
of the Lord Jesus Christ in applying His blood to our sin, what's
the result? What is the result of being reconciled
to God? Turn back with me to our text.
Here's the result. In verse 22, He reconciled us
in the body of His flesh through death in order to present you
holy and unblameable and unreprovable to God. Holy. If we're going to stand
in the presence of God, we've got to be holy. No man can see
God without holiness. And yet holiness is a divine
attribute. It's the character of God. It's
the otherness of God. And it defines every aspect of
His nature. He's holy in His power. He's
holy in His love. He's holy in His wrath. He's
holy in His justice. And here, He says, to present
you holy? How are creatures like us going
to be made holy? Ought to be found in Him. You
see, here's how He reconciles. He stands in our stead. We stand
before a holy God in Christ. And everything that the Lord
Jesus Christ is stands for us. Stands for us. That's the only
way to be reconciled. You can't be reconciled to God
any other way. Yet we're holy. Unblameable. You know, the Old Testament lamb
that was offered up as the Passover lamb had to be inspected so that
it had no blemishes. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
called the Lamb without spot or blemish. That's the word here.
Unblameable is the word blemish, blot, or spot with the alpha
in front of it. So the literal translation is
without blemish, without spot, without disgrace, no imperfections,
perfectly righteous. The all seeing eye of the law
can find nothing in those who have been reconciled to condemn
them. Here's the result of being reconciled
before God. The Lord Jesus Christ reconciles
us and we are holy, unblameable and unreprovable. Now here we
have the word accused with the alpha in front of it. So not
only is the believer presented to God by Christ and in Christ
as holy and without spot, but there's nothing that to be accused,
there's no accusation that could be made. Oh, we live with accusations,
don't we? We've got the accuser of the
brethren who is hot on our heels all the time, trying to get us
to look away from Christ and look to our works and look to
our flesh. Accuser of the brethren. We have our own conscience that
accuses us. People that accuse us. You get
accused of things, don't you? I know I do. Accusations are not... Here,
when the Lord presents us before God, He's unreprovable. He can't even be accused of anything. Why? Because He's been reconciled. by the shed blood of Christ.
His sin's been put away. Holy, unblameable, unreprovable. We might justify ourselves and
present ourselves as being innocent, but to be unblameable and unreprovable
and holy in the sight of God, who knows and sees everything.
There's the glory of being reconciled in Christ. There's the glory
of it. God sees His Son, and we are
accepted in the blood. Our Heavenly Father, we confess to You of our need
to be reconciled. We thank You for having been
reconciled. We pray, Lord, that you would
continue to convict us of our sin and cause us to keep coming
to Christ who is making reconciliation for us by his shed blood. Lord, that you would affirm to
our hearts through faith that in Christ we are holy. unblameable
and unreprovable in Thy sight." Oh, what perfect reconciliation. We ask it in His name. Amen. 235. Let's stand together. 235. ? Pass me not, O gentle Savior
? ? Hear my humble cry ? ? While on others Thou art calling ?
? Do not pass me by ? ? Savior, Savior ? ? Hear my humble cry
? ? While on others thou art calling ? ? Do not pass me by
? ? Let me at the throne of mercy ? ? Find a sweet relief ? ? Kneeling
there in deep contrition ? ? Help my unbelief ? ? Savior, Savior,
hear my humble cry ? ? While on others Thou art calling, do
not pass me by ? Trusting only in thy merit would I seek thy
face. ? Heal my wounded, broken spirit
? ? Save me by thy grace ? ? Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry ?
? While on others thou art falling ? not pass me by thou the spring
of all my comforts more than life to me whom have i on earth
beside thee whom in heaven but thee Savior, Savior, hear my
humble cry. While on others Thou art calling,
do not pass me by. you.