All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn with me to the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, continuing
in our study through the book of 2 Corinthians. I'd like for us to consider verses
20 and 21, a passage of scripture that is absolutely one of the
most comforting, settling, and assuring passages of Scripture
that gives a believer true hope. A passage that has been twisted
and refuted by many, but a passage that is the glorious revelation
of God's justice and His mercy. Now, to bring us back up to where
we are, last time The Apostle Paul was directed by the Spirit
of God to reveal in verse 17, therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold,
all things are become new. One, in regenerating grace, is
what he's talking about, being in Christ, in regeneration, united
by faith, by the Spirit of God to the Lord Jesus Christ, He's
a new creature, new creation. And old things, old notions of
God, old notions about salvation, old notions of Christ, old notions
of man, they're passed away. And the Scripture says, Behold,
look at these things, all things, are become new. There's a new
hungering and thirsting for Christ and His righteousness that was
not there before. There's a new awareness, a new
thankfulness for God's mercy, and now there's a grieving over
the actions of the flesh that weren't there before. Before,
man doesn't care. But now, he's a new creature. He sees things differently. And
scripture says in verse 18, all things are of God, who hath reconciled
us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry
of reconciliation. Now we said before, we know that
all things in creation, all things in providence, are truly of God. Nothing takes place. Nothing
took place in creation and nothing takes place in providence that
the Lord didn't order. But Paul is talking about the
entire change of regeneration that takes place in the new creation. That's what he's talking about
when he says all things. It means salvations of the Lord.
It's that the Lord has reconciled His people. to himself by removing
the enmity between himself and his people through the shed blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's preached, or sent preachers
to preach the glorious gospel that proclaims that truth. So
that's what he's saying. All things are of God in this
new creation. And it's reconciled us, He's
removed the enmity to Himself by the Lord Jesus Christ, and
Paul says He's called us to preach it. He's given us the ministry
of reconciliation. And the way that the Lord has
reconciled the world to Himself, the Scripture says in verse 19,
is by not imputing their trespasses unto them, not imputing their
trespasses unto them, and He's committed unto us the word of
reconciliation. So now, having stated that a
man being in Christ, being regenerated by the Spirit of God, that's
a new creature. It's a brand new creation. God created it
by the word of His power, just like when He spoke this world
into existence. And the Apostle Paul says he's committed in the
latter part of verse 19 unto us the word of reconciliation. Now here's where we're going
to start today, in verse 20. He said, now then, according
to what I just said, based upon what the Lord had revealed by
His Holy Spirit, now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as
though God did beseech you by us. Now here's what he said.
He said, we're the messengers of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
sent to deliver a message for Christ. Now, God's preachers
are not empowered to accomplish the message, to give it power. They're not able to make it effectual. But what they're called to do
is preach it. That's what we do. We preach it. An ambassador
is one that represents the dignity, the authority, and the power
of the one that sends him. That's what an ambassador is.
And he is sent to make known the will and pleasure of his
boss. An ambassador is one that represents
another. And so ambassadors, they're instructed
to set forth the exact instruction of the one in authority, and
they are to be received as though the one who sent them was actually
present. That's an ambassador. When an
ambassador goes to a foreign country, if the President of
the United States sends an ambassador over to another country, When
that ambassador, he's a man, but I'm telling you that he has
the authority and represents the President of the United States.
He is stating or is to state exactly what the President would
say if the President was there. So ambassadors for Christ That's
what Paul says, we are ambassadors for Christ and they are to make
known, they are to be clear about the way that God has declared
that reconciliation takes place. That's what we do. We don't give
our opinions. We don't give our wills and our
desires. We state exactly what God says. And we're not to alter. We're
not to deviate. We're not to negotiate on any
new terms or follow any plans or devices. We simply preach
God's Word, seeking only to honor Him. and to declare His will. We don't promote our welfare,
we don't seek our own honor or dignity, but we state the business
which the Son of God would engage in if He were actually standing
here personally, visibly on this earth. So God sends ambassadors.
God's people hear them. That's what John said in 1 John
4, 6. We are of God. He that knoweth
God, heareth us. He that is not of God, heareth
not us. Hereby know we the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error. So when you see a man standing
in a pulpit and he's been raised up as a pastor, a preacher, you
say, well, he's just a man. That's exactly right. He's just
a man. The One that He represents is Almighty God. And He is to
state exactly what the Lord has set forth and the Scripture sets
forth that they're worthy to be heard because of who called
them and the message that they were given. So their office,
though they know themselves to be nothing more in themselves
but earthen vessel. is one of great dignity and great
responsibility. And respect should be shown to
those who are the ambassadors of the King of Kings. Hebrews
13, 7 says this, Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit
yourselves. For they watch for your souls
as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy
and not with grief, for that is unprofitable For you, I've
said this many times before when I've read that passage of scripture.
Because we didn't come up with a message, and the message is
of the Lord, the scripture declares, obey them that have the rule
over you and submit yourselves, because here's what they're doing,
here's what a pastor's doing. He's watching for your soul.
And we must give account, again, All I can tell you is that I
know that obviously pastors are going to give account. They're
going to give account in the day of judgment. I read where
they give account. Brother Henry said this, they
give account first of all to themselves. They're going to
search themselves, make sure, am I saying exactly what God
has said? They give account to the people
that they preach to, who hear them, who knows the gospel, and
these people are searching the scriptures to find out if these
things are so. But they're going to give an
account to Almighty God. So whatever the depth of that
is, I would truly desire not to be found unfaithful. So the
Apostle Paul, as an ambassador for Christ, with a heavenly message,
He says in verse 20, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did
beseech you by us, as though God. Think about what he's saying. We're ambassadors for Christ
as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's
stead, be ye reconciled to God. What does that mean, be you reconciled
to God? Well, I tell you what the first
thing it means is give up your opposition. That's what reconciliation
is. Give up your opposition. Submit
to His demand. All of the change in reconciliation
must be on the part of man. Because God doesn't change. God
doesn't change at all. So if there's reconciliation,
There's got to be a change. Well, back in 17, verse 17, if
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. There was a change. It wasn't a change that the man
brought. It was a change that God did.
But God Almighty, who has wrought a change in the vessels of His
mercy, objects of His mercy, creates a brand new creature. and then commands them to be
reconciled unto Himself. Paul said in verse 20, we pray
you in Christ's dead, we pray you as though the Lord Himself
is standing here saying this, be ye reconciled to God. Now this message is from the
offended party. It's from the offended party.
This message, to be reconciled unto God, is not a message that
we came up with. It's a message that the Lord
came up, He who was offended. And He's speaking to the offending
parties. While we're considering these
words of the Lord, While we're preaching this in Christ's stead,
be ye reconciled of God, let us never forget the word of promise
to those who will be reconciled to the Lord. Psalm 110 verse
3, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. The
Lord speaking in John 6, 37, all that the Father giveth me,
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. So the command goes out. Be ye reconciled to God. Now
does that relieve the responsibility to those that the Lord has been
pleased to leave to themselves? No. None the less. No, no, doesn't
change the responsibility. What's going to happen if the
Lord leaves them to themselves? God's going to judge them. And
He's going to cast them out. Is the Lord right to do that?
Yes. But if God Almighty is pleased to create a new creature and
to reconcile, having reconciled Himself and His people back to
Himself, that's by the grace of God. But it doesn't relieve
the responsibility of someone that doesn't do it. So the messenger
of God is to declare that God is reconciled to His people. Now that's a fact that's already
accomplished. Here's what I'm going to tell
you. I'm beseeching you in Christ's
stead. This is what I'm going to say.
God has been reconciled to His people by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. God has been reconciled. And
He is to declare, that preacher is to declare that that reconciliation
took place by the Lord Jesus Christ dying for his people,
and now we declare that peace has been established by the blood
for the sheep. And by faith, I'm going to declare
this. The vessels of God's mercy are
going to know it. They will know it. So they will
bow to him. And we are to tell men this,
this is what we're saying. God has a people. God has been
pleased to reconcile sinners to Himself. He's been pleased
to do it through the blood of His precious Son. That Christ
has paid their debt and that they have eternally been justified. What does that mean? There has
been at no time that God was going to charge them with their
guilt. God never purposed that. Never. God doesn't change. If
He doesn't charge them with it now, He never charged it with
them then. So therefore, we exhort sinners,
I'm telling everybody, I'm telling everybody, kiss the Son, lest
He be angry. Kiss the Son, be reconciled to
God. Quit the opposition. Bow to Him. Come to Christ. Cast yourself
upon His mercy. I'm telling you, God's people
are going to do it. And all that God has everlastingly
loved has been redeemed by the blood of Christ. They will come. So here's the question. How was
God pleased to reconcile His people unto Himself? How was
He pleased to do it? Now, He's a just God. and He's
a Savior. He delights to show mercy. So
how did He do it? Well, verse 21. For He, that
is the Father, hath made Him, the Lord Jesus, to be sin. To be is in italics. You've heard
that so many times. So it's not necessary. But it
was added, and this is one of those that really the addition
of to be It really didn't add to, I don't think. Here's what
it says, For He hath made Him sin for us, who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He hath made Him
sin. God the Father hath made. That word made, right there,
according to Vine's concordance, which is a very good concordance.
It means, it actually means to make. To actually to make. It means to produce. It means
to cause to be. That is to adopt a way of expressing
by an action. the thoughts and feelings of
God's good pleasure. To actually do something. To
do something. To produce it. He hath made Him,
the Lord Jesus Christ, sin. Now, when He was made sin, He
was actually made sin. He was actually made to be sin. Now, the word sin, right there,
it made him sin. I don't speak Greek, but I do
read, I can read a concordance, I can read a Bible dictionary. And the word sin, right here,
is actually the word hamartia. Again, I don't speak Greek, but
I can read what the word is. And here's what it means. It
means missing the mark. It means it's the word that sets
forth the source of man's fallen, depraved actions. For me to do
something, it's got to have a source for me to do it. It's got to
be something that produces something else. and the source of what
I do is called hamartia. He hath made him hamartia. He made him the source. Now, there's a word for sins,
or trespasses, sins, and that word is hamartino, and it's the
word that sets forth the actions. So there's two different words.
One of them is hamartia, it's the source, and one is hamarteno,
and it's the actions that are produced. So hamartia, the source
of iniquity, produces Hamartino, the actions, or the sins, but
to deal with our sins, our actions, what we do. The Father made Christ
to be Hamartia. He made Him to be the very source
of our sins. It's a word, Paul refers to it
as a body, a body. He said, who shall deliver me
from the body of this death? So he speaks of it almost as
if it's personified. The Lord was made the hamartia. He made the source. He was made
what causes us to rebel against God. The rebellion against God
is but an action because of what we are. Christ Jesus For God
to reconcile his people unto himself was made, he was caused
to be sin. He was caused to be the very
governing principle, the source or that inward element that produces
inward and outward acts of rebellion. And he was made sin, he was made
sin, the source of it. Sin entered the world. I read that and it was like, where did it come from? When
Satan came and seduced by temptation, Eve, Adam, sin, sin entered the
world. And death by sin. That hamartia,
it entered into this world, that which God had made, and God said
it was good. He looked at everything He had
made and said, it's very good. And sin entered this world. And death by sin. And that sin,
when Adam disobeyed God, and he died spiritually, that hamartia,
It's in us, it's in us. It just, it consumes us. And from the crown of our head,
sole of our foot, there's nothing. It has defiled everything. There's nothing, there's no good
thing. God looked to see if there was
any, and there was nothing good, nothing good. Every thought of
the imagination of our hearts was evil, evil. That's all there
is. It's just rebellion, rebellion,
rebellion because of Hamartia, the source of it. So he was made
sin for us, the scripture says. He didn't become sin for the
whole world. He didn't even pray for the whole
world. But he was made sin for those given him in electing grace
before the foundation of the world. The Lord said in John
10, 15, I lay down my life for the sheep. He died for the sheep. He died. The scripture says husbands
love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave
himself for it. That he might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the word that he might present
it to himself. A glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and
without blemish. That's Ephesians 5. For he hath
made him sin. The source of rebellion against
God, against God's word, against God's law, and hanging upon the
cross, as I said before, was the holy, harmless Lamb of God
who knew no sin. That's what Scripture. He hath
made him to be sin, who knew no sin personally. He was not, I've said this before,
I know I have and other men have, they have said, I cannot agree
that Christ was made a sinner. He didn't say he was made a sinner. A sinner is a disobedient one. That's a sinner. by one man's
disobedience. Many were made sinners. He was
made sin obediently. He bore in his own body and actually
that hamartia was made to be his own. He said, mine iniquities He hath made Him the source for
us who knew no sin. Peace Himself. The one who never
knew sin personally. Who never knew the beginning
of a fault. Listen to this. The one who could
not sin. He could not sin. The Scripture
says in 1 John 3.9, Whosoever is born of God doth not sin,
for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin. He cannot sin because he is born
of God. 1 John 3.9. This is 1 Peter 1.23. Talking about us. Being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. Now let
me tell you what incorruptible means according to the definitions
that I've looked up. Undecaying. It's from a root word that means
not able to spoil, to ruin, or to deprave. Being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word
of God which liveth and abideth forever. So here's the way it
is. Christ, who never sinned and
could not sin, was made sin. It's not that he died as a martyr. or an example to be accepted
or rejected, but was there in obedience, accomplishing the
work of the Father. He hath made Him sin for us who
knew no sin, that we, the elect of God, might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Now that word made that I just
read, you know, is a different word than the word made. He hath
made Him sin. He hath made, that means He was
produced. He actually was made. He was produced to be sin. The source for us. Who knew no
sin that we might be made. That word means that we might
become. the righteousness of God in Him. He was made to be what we are. We were made to be His righteousness
in Him. So to be reconciled to God, we
must have one who could actually truly, really, completely, and
totally be made what we are by nature. He who knew no sin, that
we might become that which we could not become by our own works,
the righteousness of God. God was made what we are truly. that we might be made what He
is in Him. So God, who everlastingly loved
His people, chose them in Christ before the foundation of the
world, that they should be holy and without blame before Him,
in love, in time, the surety of the sheep, with all of His
people divinely and mysteriously and marvelously in Him, in Him,
represented by Him, came to this world that He might save us from
our sins. And he, as our representative
and great high priest, obeyed God as the man Christ Jesus on
their behalf, earning the righteousness that God would accept. And when
the time was at hand, Christ willingly, in submission to the
Father's good pleasure to have him forever settle the issue
of salvation and finish the work given him to redeem the elect,
laid down his life for the sheep being made sin. He died justly. He died justly. When the law beheld sin, that
very source of enmity between God and His people, when the
law beheld that which was the source of separation, Between
God and his people, the law demanded justice be served and God forsook
him. He died for his own being made
sin for them three days later. God raised him from the dead
for or because of our justification by his grace. And when those
who are the Lord's are called out of the darkness of sin and
unbelief, they're born from above. They're reborn. And God gives
them a new nature. And He teaches them this through
the preaching of the Gospel. That's how He instructs them.
He gives them a new willingness, a new heart, a new mind. Now
they see themselves for what they are. And the Lord who sends
His ambassadors He comes and they are to tell God's people
exactly what God has done. And that's what we do in the
preaching of the gospel. We tell them that salvation is
by grace. It's through faith. We tell them,
we say, it's not of ourselves. It's the gift of God. So what
do we do? We preach the gospel. And we
wait on the Lord and pray that God bless it. And call out His
people, which we know He will. But He told us, He said, you
asked me. You asked me to. And so we do. We ask and say,
Lord, bless the word today. Lord, have mercy on us today
and forgive us for Christ's sake. Amen.