Okay, turning your Bibles to
2 Corinthians 5. With most churches of today,
it's hard to know their priority. But most of them, especially
those that profess to be Christian, are described in Colossians 2
as people that perform willed worship. They worship their own will,
because in their witness in this world, they dishonor the very
God that they claim to worship. They say the Father wishes all,
and the Son did what He can, and the Spirit wants to help
men if they let Him. Does that sound like a sovereign
God to you? What it does do is reflect the
natural disposition of all men that Genesis 3 works religion,
where what you do in this world determines where you end up in
eternity. We should be continually asking
ourselves, are we faithful to God's glory? We should also ask ourselves,
are we being faithful to men's souls? And especially, we should
ask ourselves, what does faithful look like? See, the biggest question
of all is what is the priority of the New Testament church according
to the scriptures? So is it poverty? A lot of churches
are concerned with poverty and in some senses that's a great
thing. The Lord says the poor you always
have with you in John 12. Paul tells us to remember the
poor in Galatians 2. It is a very real and serious
problem in this world. It's a consequence of sin. but it's also a great opportunity
for evangelism, isn't it? James talks about the gospel
in James 2, and he uses it as an example of food and clothing,
but he takes it further to a spiritual level, suggesting that people
are spiritually poor and in need. Our God knows people's needs. He even remembers the sparrows
in Matthew 10. one of the most insignificant
creatures in the world. Is our priority as a church poverty,
or should we be addressing a much bigger issue in everyone's life? The next one that's discussed
a lot is doctrine. I've had plenty of discussions
about doctrine over the years, And I'll tell you, discussions
and debates always seem to elevate men in their flesh, even the
faithful men. And they never, ever seem to
glorify God. God's word's clear. Doctrine
can never bring us to Christ. Only a spiritual work of God
the Holy Spirit can do that. We've been seeing it over and
over again in John's Gospel. And in John 5, the Lord says,
And they are they which testify of me. And you will not come
to me that you might have life. See the life that everyone needs
is in Christ, not in knowing doctrine, in knowing Christ.
So what we can do in these conversations is to simply declare the gospel,
which again in the hands of God the Holy Spirit is the only means,
the only means by which anyone can ever learn doctrine spiritually,
truly. Again, should our priority be
doctrine? Another one that you hear a lot
about is world issues. All those external things that
constantly hinder us. And they do seem like big issues
because they are to us. And yet our Lord says in Matthew
6, therefore, Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or
what shall we drink? Or wherewith shall we be clothed?
For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly
Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. What about the even bigger worldly
issues? Well, the Lord says in Matthew
24, and mind you, this is in spite of everything going on
around us, He says, he that shall endure unto the end, the same
shall be saved. How do we endure unto the end
in this world? It's by faith in God, isn't it?
Not in men, not in ourselves, and definitely not in our own
wisdom and activities. I mean, how big is God? How big is our God? There's a
great picture in Revelation 20, you can go and look at it in
your own time if you like, but Satan gathers Gog and Magog and
they're representing all the enemies of God and his church. They represent both pagan and
religious enemies. They're all united and they're
all surrounding the church of God. And in an instant, God destroys
them all with fire. And then he cast Satan into the
lake of fire and brimstone. So should worldly issues be our
problem, our priority? All right, the last one is Christian
morality, and surely that's important. We do, we do care about morality. But the question is, how is it
achieved? We've just seen in John 15, the
Lord say, for without me, you can do nothing. The gospel in
Colossians 1.6 is what brings forth fruit. And we're told in
Galatians 5 that these are the fruits of the spirit. Christian morality is an amazing
work of God, worked in us. Philippians 2 says, for it's
God which worketh in you both to will and to do for his good
pleasure. We can only grow spiritually
as God the Holy Spirit applies the gospel to our hearts. and as he applies the love of
Christ, which he works in us, to constrain us. 2 Corinthians
5, verse 14 of this passage. So as it's completely out of
our ability, should Christian morality be
the church's priority? Today in our passage, Paul gives
us a very clear and a very simple explanation of the mission or
the priority of God's church in this world. He also tells
us how that's achieved. So let's just consider God's
word on it. Our passage is 2 Corinthians 5, 17 to 21. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. 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 there's way too much in this
passage, these few verses to deal with in the time that we
have today. But my hope is the Lord will allow us to see something
of what the priority of the church is and to where that priority
actually comes from. Paul's words here are primarily
written to the relationship between the apostles and the church,
but as I pray we'll see, in all the ages that follow, these words
are relevant to the relationship between those who declare the
gospel and those given grace to hear the gospel. So he begins
with, therefore, and context is a big issue, please don't
ever address any passage or any verse on its
own or any word on its own in the scriptures without looking
first at the context. So context is important. Therefore basically is meaning
because of what's just said or on that basis. So I want us to
just look back at a passage or at the chapter first. Verses
1 to 4, Paul speaks of the groaning and the burden of living in this
world as a Christian. But he also speaks of the hope
in a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens. He talks about believers now
walking by faith in verse 7. He talks about the love of Christ
constraining us, or restraining us, constraining us, sorry, in
verse 14. And because of his work in us,
we now live unto him, verse 15. So on that basis, if any man
being Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things have become new. So this is a new creature of
spiritual birth, John 3. Paul's just called it the inward
man in 2 Corinthians 4 and in Ephesians 4 he calls it the new
man. The apostle John tells us in
1 John 3 that whosoever is born of God, there's that new creature,
doth not commit sin, for his, God's seed, remaineth in him. and he cannot sin because he's
born of God. For those in Christ, those believers in Christ, we now have new life from God. That's what this new creature
is. And it's there because of a union that we have with our
God in our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet still our
old sinful nature remains. Believers are the only people
in this world that have two natures to deal with. Once they become
a believer and God works this new creature in them, a war begins. You can read about it in the
Song of Solomon 6, you can read about it in Romans 7, Galatians
5, and many, many other places throughout the scripture. See, so if in our daily experience
our sin remains and is active, if in our daily experience this
world continues to harass us from every angle, What then is it that's actually
passed away? It's that old fleshly thinking.
It's the old fleshly attitudes, the old poison of Satan, that
great I will from Isaiah 14. The deception and the spiritual
blindness of Satan's influence upon us. Not just in the garden,
but throughout our whole lives. What's passed away? The creature
confidences that we naturally have in ourselves. All these
things have in a spiritual sense passed away regarding their continual
influence and control upon both us and our eternal destiny. See now in this new creature, Within us, we have the mind of
Christ, 1 Corinthians 2. We're led of the Spirit, Galatians
5. And for the believer, the sin
that's plagued us all our life, Romans 6, shall not have dominion
over you. This is the good news of the
gospel, isn't it? God doing everything necessary in his Son, our Lord
Jesus Christ. And this is also man's only hope
of salvation. And now to the believer, all things have become new. We
now have new eyes. We now see everything in this
world, every experience, every circumstance through the lens
of the gospel. And by all the powerful work,
sorry, and all by the powerful work of God the Holy Spirit within
us. Paul says in Romans 12 to be
not conformed to this world. What he's saying is don't take
on that Genesis three fleshly mentality, seeing everything
as achievable in man. But he goes on to say, be transformed
by the renewing of your mind. What is it the believers first
see and experience as a reality with this new life within us?
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. So the first thing we see when
we're born again that all things are of God. All things have their
origin in God. We see our God sovereign. We
have to experience the gospel in us first. John 16, we're going
to get to that very soon as we work our way through John. But
basically God reveals himself. He reveals himself as he is,
as a sovereign, holy God. ruling and reigning over every
single event in this world, every atom, every molecule, every cell,
every thought and even every feeling that has ever been in
all history and all perfectly by his infinite wisdom. We open our eyes in this new
birth and spiritually, we see our great God ordering every
single thing, both for his glory and for our good. Also, we now have the saving
knowledge that in spite of our sin, we're reconciled to our
God by Jesus Christ. To reconcile is to re-establish,
it's to rescue, to restore or to reunite, it's to redeem something
that was, but for whatever reason is not. In Genesis 3, man was actually
in relationship with God before the fall. And then by Satan's influence,
we fell out of that relationship with our God when we rejected
our God for Satan's life. And every other time in our lives
that we turn to our own wisdom, our own strength, we do exactly
the same thing. And how often is that really,
when you think about it? So the saints, both in the conversion
and continuing on throughout their lives, they desperately
need to experience personally this reconciliation in our hearts
with our God. It's that ongoing peace with
God in Ephesians 2, isn't it? We have to experience that all
the time. We need to be reminded all the time. We need to be reminded that we're
dead and our lives are hid with Christ in God. We need to be reminded that God
is that refuge for our souls, that spiritual cleft in the rock. And as we continue in this life,
believers are very, very graciously made to know through their everyday
experiences, both the good ones and the bad ones, that all our salvation lies in
just one place, in a person, in our King, in our Saviour,
our Lord Jesus Christ. So when we experience saving
grace, what is it that happens next? Let's look back at our
text. God has given to us a ministry
of reconciliation. So this us there is faithful
witnesses at the church. It's God's testimony in this
world, faithful testimony. And this is how God prepares
a testimony for himself in this world. It's God that's given
this to us, remember. He does it by revealing himself
in us first, by convincing us of the gospel of Christ, secondly,
and then by moving us within our hearts with an urgency and
a gravity, because remember, this is eternal life and death
we're talking about. So in this gravity, with this
gravity that he moves us with, we go and proclaim, we witness,
we testify of that same gospel that our gracious God taught
us in our own conversions, the same grace of God that we've
experienced in our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul put it this way
in Galatians 1, 15 and 16. But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace
to reveal His Son in me. Again, that's that new creature
that we were talking about. And what was the purpose? He
goes on, that I might preach Him among the heathen. Immediately
he says then, I conferred not with flesh and blood. Now he's
specific, flesh and blood, any man. But he didn't need to, did he?
Because this is the work of God. He was taught by God. John 7, 38 says, He that believeth
in me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. That's a testimony to God. What happens then? We do exactly
what our Lord said that the Apostles and every other truly converted
saint will do, whether on a large scale or on a small scale. Acts 1.8 You shall be witnesses
unto me, not unto Satan's lie from the Garden of Eden, but
unto me, unto Christ, as he is presented in the Scriptures. both in Jerusalem, in Judea,
and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. See, this has a spiritual ripple
effect over all kingdoms and throughout all time. Even for all eternity, it's the
same song that they sing in heaven. Worthy is the Lamb. That's our
gospel. in a sense. So ministries to
administer, to provide, and even more it can mean to apply. Here's
our priority as a church of God in the world. It's the ministry
of the gospel. It's the continuation of gospel
advancement in the world. We don't control it. It's the
work of the Holy Spirit. And he, in John 3, is likened
to the wind. He does whatever he wants, which
is good. We also don't need to practice
or rehearse evangelism as much as people think we do. There's
a clear word from the Lord in regard to our evangelism. And
it's in Matthew 10, I think. Yeah, Matthew 10. He says, now listen to this,
for it's not you that speak, but the spirit of your father
which speaketh in you. Anyone representing God will
speak according to this word, the scriptures, and if they don't,
then God's clear there's no light in them. Which is why we also don't need
to change the gospel, we don't need to add to it or pervert
it, as Galatians 1 says, as if somehow it's inadequate. Romans 1 is clear, the gospel
is the power of God under salvation to them that believe. So the last thing to remember
here is now we really know. We really know. We're really
convinced within ourselves. Believers are really convinced
within themselves that this is the reality of how God retrieves
his lost sheep. Of how he draws them to himself
in loving kindness. And he does so by the power of
his gospel. revealing a true spiritual peace
of reconciliation with God. 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. To wit's an
old saying, it means, that is to say, it's to repeat, to make
something more clear, more simple, or even more specific. And that's good because this
is the heart and the substance of our gospel. God was in Christ. This is a work of the union of
the triune God, the work of a sovereign God. It's a joint venture. And it's God's purpose and his
outworkings of the everlasting covenant that was made in eternity. See, that's a covenant where
God chose people for himself. even before time, before there
was a world. It's a covenant where God chose
those people in Christ, before the foundation of the world,
before they ever existed, before they ever sinned, God loved them
with that everlasting love. And it's through the cross of
his son, Jesus Christ and him crucified, that our gracious
God was reconciling the world unto himself. Now, most importantly
here, this is speaking of a very real and a very eternal transaction
in the holy courts of heaven. It isn't speaking of a possibility. It's not speaking of some sort
of figurative display of justice. This is the most important issue
in all the world, for all the world. Now just before we move too far
on, I have to deal with this word world. The scriptures and
even ourselves use the word world in a heap of different ways.
The scriptures use them to represent the world of creation, the unbelieving
world, the Roman world, the Roman Empire. And many professing Christian
religion would readily say that this also means all people that
have ever been. They'd say that it even proves
that God loves everyone. But just look at it a little
bit more closely before you make that judgment. Remember, this is speaking of
a people whose sins were actually forgiven in Christ forever. forgiven even before they were
born. For all of us in this room, we're
not 2,000 years old. These are people who shall never,
ever see hell. These people have been forgiven. They have been reconciled. They
have been saved and they are free. We don't know who the elect
are in this world. We're not given to know. We don't even know who the tares
in the church are according to Matthew 13. And you know what?
It's a blessing. Brothers and sisters, do yourself
a really, really, really big favour. Don't anyone let you
get drawn into judging who's the Lords and who isn't. We don't
read men's hearts. And we don't need to worry. We
just proclaim the King's message, the word of the kingdom, Matthew
13. And by this gospel, By his gospel,
our God will eventually expose the heart and intents of men. He will protect his sheep by
the same gospel, and he will get glory for himself in all
things in this gospel. The gospel speaks of the infinite
and eternal wrath of God against every single sin committed by
those being reconciled. It's there clear in our passage.
It's also speaking of an infinite and eternal satisfaction for
each one of those particular sins in the all-seeing eyes of
a holy God. And it talks of him, God himself,
providing that sacrifice in his son, Jesus Christ. And somehow,
in his son, not imputing the trespasses against him. This
is amazing. We all need to realise that the
God described in the scriptures is a holy God, in whom there
is no sin, with whom is no variableness according to James, neither shadow
of turning. Our God dwells in the holy hill
of Zion between the cherubim and is also that consuming fire
of Hebrews 12. So our sin is in fact infinitely
offensive to our infinitely holy God. So what hope do men have in and
of themselves Romans 3.23 says all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. And in fact, Isaiah 64.6 makes
it even clearer. Forget about our works for a
minute. He says we are all as an unclean
thing. So we're all unclean in our flesh,
all of us, every one of us. And then we get to our works
and he says, and all our righteousness is like filthy rags. So it's
no wonder that David says in Psalm 15, Lord, who shall abide
in your tabernacle, in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? Our holy God just can't excuse
sin. He has to punish it. He's holy. Yet in a miracle of grace at
the cross, our sin's not imputed to us.
Now there's just one way that the sins of God's people can
be forgiven. Just one way for a real reconciliation between
a holy God and sinners. It's only in Christ. Romans 6.23
says the wages of sin is death. But, amazing but, the gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is where
all the grace of God lies and this is the church's testimony
in this world. How men respond to the work of
God in their hearts, whether for eternal blessing or eternal
condemnation, is our sovereign God's business. We just say what Abraham, the
father of faith, says in Genesis 18, shall not the judge of the
whole earth do right? We simply trust that our God
has revealed the gospel in us and is now revealing that same
gospel through us. Because it's God that's committed
unto us this word of reconciliation, isn't it? And that's the gospel.
Do you notice in verse 18, Paul uses the word given, but now
he uses the word committed. This ministry is God's work. It's God's ministry. To commit something to another
can mean to transfer it to them. But here, God goes even further. He assures us of the reception
and the application of this ministry, making his people willing in
the day of his power. Brothers and sisters, the gospel
of Christ is very, very, very serious business. It's God's
business. It's his gospel. It's the only
real good news. It's the only really, truly effective
and complete salvation. And it's the greatest issue to
men's souls. We need to remember. This word
of reconciliation, it's not our word. It's God's word. You see, believers, we're made
the messengers of our King. It's God's work in us. Verse 20, 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. It's God speaking through his
people to his people. Look at it there, as though God
did beseech you. In Psalm 22, we're told that
God actually inhabits the praises of Israel. Our praises are our
testimony and somehow God actually manifests himself in a genuine
testimony of the gospel. What a great comfort that is
for believers, it should be. Knowing that all that's required
of us has been graciously provided for us in Christ. Knowing that it's actually God
speaking his word through us, a word he produces in us. See ambassadors just means representatives,
which is why Paul can also go on to say, we pray to you in
Christ's stead, be reconciled to God. I said it before, our holy God
can't just excuse sin. He has to punish it. And this
is the greatest issue for men in the world, isn't it? It's
an issue of eternal life and death. I said it before. Again,
what men do with this gospel, it's God's business. But for
those chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world,
This is both the basis and the means by which our God retrieves
his lost sheep. Believers desperately want to
administer the gospel to people, hoping to see our God glorified
as he works salvation in another soul, hoping to see that precious
reconciliation take place again in this world. which is why the greatest priority
of the church is the further declaration of the message of
our King, our gospel. So let's have a look at that
gospel one more time. Verse 21. For he hath made him
to be sin for us, and you know sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. And this is the heart and substance
of our gospel proclamation in the world. It's the clear priority
of the church and it's essential for real eternal salvation. We're actually declaring the
fulfilment of that everlasting covenant that we spoke of earlier.
We're declaring that God has, in past tense, reconciled for
the sinners to himself in the cross of his son, Jesus Christ. And in this, we're declaring
an actual exchange. It's not just figurative. It's
a very real transfer of sin. A transaction at the cross where
every sin of every chosen child of God was both imputed, that
means it was done legally, and imparted, it was received into
himself. He was made sin. imputed and imparted to our sinless
Lord Jesus Christ. Just picture it, our great substitute,
our pure, holy representative, suffering the infinite wrath
of God and giving his life on behalf of his church. Look at
it again, it says, for or because He, that's the triune God. Remember verse nine, God was
in Christ. He hath made him, that's Christ,
to be sin for us. God imputing our sin to him. Again, verse 19. Who knew no
sin. Hebrews 4 is very clear. He was
tempted at every point like we were, but he was without sin. And what was God's purpose in
all this? that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Amazing grace. So there's one
question we need to finish with asking, and it is how can a God,
a holy God, impute sin from one to another? Proverbs 17, we've
read it before in this church, 1715 says, that he that justifieth
the wicked, it's he that lets the guilty go free. And he that
condemneth the just, that's he that punishes innocent people. Even they are both an abomination
to the Lord. It's sinful. Our God can't sin. He can't do it. You have to ask, how can he transfer
sin from one to another? Well, such is the union between
the Lord Jesus Christ and His Church. They're described in the scriptures
as one flesh in Ephesians 5, as one body in 1 Corinthians
12. But it's more than that. It's
no wonder in Ephesians 5, Paul says, this is a great mystery. But the Lord and his church are
so much one, that when he walked this earth completely fulfilling
God's holy law, his church did so in him. When he went to the
cross fulfilling the same holy law against our sin, his church
did so in him. When he resurrected and ascended
to the right hand of his father, his church resurrected and ascended
in him. You can read about it in Ephesians
2. Which means on the basis of this
eternal union between Christ and his people, Our sin really
was transferred to our Saviour. And even more amazing is that
God's righteousness really was transferred to us in Him. In this and this alone are the
Lord's lost sheep saved. Not will be saved, but are saved. not will be reconciled, are reconciled. And in this, our great God is
both the just and the justifier. See, through God's testimony
of himself in this world, Christ and him crucified, the church
is restored to a relationship with the existed in Christ before
time, says 2 Timothy 1. before the foundation of the
world, Romans 8. This truly is that sweet savour
of Christ in them that are saved, 2 Corinthians 2. And by the will
and the power of God Almighty, this is the priority of His church
in the world. Now we've just finished the chapter.
Divisions are a bit funky here again, but if you read on in
the next first two verses of 2 Corinthians 6, Paul ties it
all up. He says, when we, that's the
church, that's faithful witnesses for God in this world. Sorry,
we then. We then as workers together with
Him. That's God. God in Christ, Christ
in us, us in Christ, Christ in God. It's that union. We beseech
you that you receive not the grace of God in vain. For he saith, I have heard thee
in a time accepted. In the day of salvation I have
succoured thee. Behold, now is the acceptable
time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Today's the day of salvation
for everyone. Hebrews 4 makes it clear. It's
a priority now in every one of our lives. And if you've been
saved, if you've been converted, you need salvation every moment
of your life. If you haven't, you need every
salvation every moment of your life. Paul finishes here, he's finishing
here by reminding us that the same gospel that we declare is
also a continued necessity in the life of every believer and
every church. Lord willing, we'll get to speak
about it more next week, but I trust the Lord would just cause
us to rest in the finished work of his son and to trust the power for everything we could possibly
need, both in this world and in the world to come. Amen. Let's pray.