Alright brethren, let's open
our Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. We'll wait just a minute,
let everybody get in. Both our messages this morning
will be from 2 Corinthians 5. And these are very, very important
messages. The Apostle Paul here is dealing
with giving his brethren a word to defend him with. And he said
to defend him before those who glory in appearance and not in
heart. And so we come now to this verses
18 through 21. He talked about being made a
new creature, and all things being made new. And he says,
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, to wit, And this is our ministry, this is
the message, that God was in Christ reconciling the world
unto Himself. And because they were glorying
in appearance, they thought it was only the Jews who were God's
elect. So He uses the word world here
to say it's not only His elect from among the Jews, but also
His elect from among the Gentiles. He was reconciling the world
of His elect unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto
them. Now this is our main subject
in this message, not imputing their trespasses. Why not? Verse 21, Because He hath made
Him, Christ, sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. Now back to verse 19, the second
half, and he hath committed unto us, the margin says he hath put
in us, he hath put in us the word of reconciliation. Before
he talked about us being put in trust with the ministry, the
preaching of reconciliation. Here He says, and He put in us
this 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. Now, this text tells us plainly
that God has by Himself reconciled His people unto Himself in Christ. God has done that. He has reconciled
His people unto Himself in Christ. And it says because He has reconciled
His people, it says because of that fact, He will not impute sin to us. because of the fact that we have
no sin. His people have no sin before
God, before His law, by what Christ accomplished. Because
of that fact, God will not impute sin to His people. Now the fact
that God's people needed to be reconciled, the very fact we
needed to be reconciled declares that we are enemies by nature. We would not need to be reconciled
and be made friends with God and be brought into peace with
God if we were not enemies of God. That's the truth of the
Scriptures. The law that we broke in Adam
in the garden is called in Scripture enmity. It was the enmity that
divided, that separated God and His people. It's called enmity. And that law had to be honored.
That law had to be honored. Justice had to be satisfied before
God could be at peace with us. This is the gospel. This is the essence, the critical,
most important aspect of this gospel. God's righteousness. God's holy. He's holy and His
righteousness is manifest by Christ. That's why He sent Him
forth. Now God's thoughts toward us, toward His elect, have always
been thoughts of peace. They never were thoughts of enmity
from God towards His elect. He said in Jeremiah 31.3, I have
loved thee with an everlasting love. And because that love is
everlasting, because it does not change at all, He said, I
am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. That's the one thing that kept
you and I from perishing in the garden when Adam sinned and we
fell in sin. It's because God changes not. He loved the people before the
foundation of the world in Christ, and that love didn't change when
we fell in Adam. That love is in Christ. God commendeth
His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. That shows you that God's love
never changed. His thoughts were thoughts of
peace towards His people. And yet we were made sin by Adam's
disobedience. Go to Romans 5. We were made
sin by Adam's disobedience. Now I want you to pay close attention
to this scripture. This is so important. Romans
5 and verse 12. Now watch what it says here.
Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world. By one man, sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men. For that, it means because in
Adam all have sin. You see your margin there? It
says for that, and it says in Adam, in whom we all have sin. Now God made Adam the legal head. Somebody might say, well how
is it right that we send in Adam? Because God made Adam the legal
head. He made him the federal head
and father of all his children that would be born of him. And
all Adam's children were in Adam. You remember, we saw the illustration
of how Levi paid tithes in Abraham because he was in Abraham's loins.
Way back there when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek. Well,
we were in Adam's loins, all his children were. And he was
our federal head. And so, by Adam's disobedience,
we were made sinners. By Adam's disobedience we were
made sinners. And so, God imputed sin to Adam's
race. He imputed sin to us because
for that all have sinned. Because in Adam all have sinned. Now understand that order. Look
at Romans 5.18. It says, Romans 5.18 says, By the offense
of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. You see
that? This is by Adam's offense that
the judgment came upon us, that God imputed sin to us was because
by Adam's offense. Look at verse 19, As by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners. Now, Adam made a sin by his offense
and due to that fact, due to the fact that we were made sin
by Adam, by his offense, God imputed sin to us. He imputed
sin to us. So the enmity that had to be
removed, that had to be taken away was that law enmity. It
was that fact we had broken the law of God and that enmity had
to be taken away. You know in Ephesians 2.14, He
said, Christ is our peace. That's reconciliation. He's our
peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle
wall of partition. It separated us from God, having
abolished in His flesh the enmity. And then He tells us what He
means. Even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that
He did it to make in Himself of two one new man, so making
peace. So the law was the enmity that
separated us from God. But there was another enmity
that separated us from God. Now this is not the enmity that
Christ put away on the cross. That law enmity is the enmity
Christ put away on the cross. But this other enmity is what
has to be subdued whenever He creates a new man within us.
And it's the enmity of our heart. Go to Romans 8 and verse 6 and
you'll see there To be carnally minded is death. To be carnally
minded. That's how we're born the first
time. And that's the opposite of being spiritually minded.
He says, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace because
of reconciliation. Verse 7, but to be carnally minded
is death because the carnal mind is enmity against God. That means
the moment we're conceived and come into this world, our nature
is hatred against God. That's what enmity means. We
hate God by nature. And the carnal mind is not subject
to the law of God, not subject to the law of commandments, and
not subject to the gospel, the word of God. Neither indeed can
be. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. at all. Colossians 1.21, go there
with me, Colossians 1.21. I got quite a bit of scripture
I want you to see this morning. Colossians 1.21, it says, you that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, Yet now
hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death. And
when you have an enemy in your mind, what does that cause you
to do? When you are an enemy in your nature's enmity against
God and you consider God your enemy, what will that cause you
to do? Well, Christ said this is the condemnation. Light has
come into the world and men loved darkness. They loved darkness
rather than light because their deeds were evil. You see, He
said we were enemy in our minds by wicked works. And men hate
light and love darkness because our deeds by nature are evil. For everyone that doeth evil
hates the light. Neither comes to the light lest
his deeds should be reproved. You see, sinners use all these
different kinds of arguments why they don't believe on Christ
and why they won't make any sacrifice necessary to gather with God's
people under the sound of the gospel. They make all different
kinds of excuses. God takes all those excuses out
of the way right here. And He tells us this. He says
that the reason they don't come to Christ is their very best
deeds. are wicked. Their very best deeds
are evil. Their very best religious deeds
are evil. And they will not come to Christ
and confess and have Him to reprove all their very best righteousnesses
as evil. They won't do it. They won't
do it. So, they hate God, they hate
His Christ, they hate His gospel, and they hate His saints. That's
all the natural heart is. And never forget this, that's
all you and I who believe on Christ, that's all we are by
nature. That's all we are. We're talking
about us. So that fact that God's elect had to be reconciled and
brought back into a state of peace with God, that declares
we're enemies of God by nature. Now here's the second thing.
And so therefore, since we're enemies by nature, all things
in reconciliation, all things in salvation are of God. He says there in verse 18, all
things are of God who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ
to which God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. God's
elect. Those He chose freely by His
grace, because He would. Those He chose scattered throughout
the four corners of this world, considered God our enemy. That's
what we, by nature, we consider God our enemy. Now I'm not talking
about the God of vain religion. I'm not talking about the God
of our imagination. We didn't call that God an enemy. The God that we carved out in
our minds saying, you know, making him to be like us and not able
to do anything what we allowed him to do. We didn't hate that
God. It's the God of this Bible, we
hate it. We hate this God. So, for that fact, reconciliation
couldn't be of us. It didn't originate with us and
it would never be of us because all we left in that state would
have been nothing but an enemy. which state an enemy. But God
said, I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the
Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected
end. You see, this is the difference
between true religion and false religion. True religion puts
everything in God's hand and begins with God and shows how
He comes forth and accomplishes everything He purposed and He
does it for a particular people. Religion starts with you and
puts it all in your hands and you have to make God be God. Now God's eternal counsel and
covenant was a counsel and covenant of peace. He entered into covenant
with Christ before the foundation of the world and gave the whole
work of reconciliation into Christ's hand. So this was all settled
beforehand. He said, I know my thoughts towards
you to give you an expected end. An end that I've already determined
from the beginning. And so the Son of God made flesh. When He was made flesh, that's
God in Christ. God come down. God in Christ. Abraham said, my son, God will
provide what? Himself. God will provide Himself. a lamb. And that lamb is God
Himself. That's God providing Himself.
Paul called the church the church of God which He hath purchased
with His own blood. God purchased the church with
His own blood. 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. The third thing I want you to
see here, and this is the most comforting thing, if we can bow
to the Scriptures. All I ever ask you to do is look
at the Scriptures, and let me show you these Scriptures, and
bow to what the Scriptures declare. That means sometimes the way
we always thought it was may not be the way it is. And we
have to drop the way we thought it was and bow to God's Word. Now, this is most comforting
to believers if we can bow to this scripture. And here's what
I want you to see. Since God in Christ accomplished
reconciliation, since He accomplished reconciliation for His people,
God will not impute trespasses to the believer. He won't impute
trespasses to His people. Look at verse 19 again. God was
in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them. Now brethren, my desire in preaching
this passage. I have one desire in preaching
this passage. I want to see Christ glorified.
And I want to see His people comforted and assured in Christ. That's my motive. That's what
I want. That's all I'm desiring. And
if you can see this, if you hear this, it'll bring you the utmost
comfort and assurance. Now, according to every word
in Scripture, according to every place, imputation, and all its
various forms are used in Scripture, God only imputes what is fact. That is the true definition of
imputation. Imputation is the imputing of
fact, not supposition. It's not treating somebody as
if they're something. It's not making somebody something. It is imputing what somebody
really is. That's what imputation is. I
hear men correctly say imputation is an accounting term, and it
is an accounting term. And if you just take an accountant
for an example, when an accountant figures up how much money you
have, say, in your savings account, he accounts that's how much money
you have. By accounting, that's the figure
you have in your savings account. He's not putting money in your
savings account. He's accounting what's fact.
That's what you have in your savings account. That's what
an accountant does. If he doesn't do that, we get
another one. Now, Leviticus 7, 18, I want
to show you this. It's always imputation of fact. Leviticus 7, 18. And then I'll
bring it to a conclusion and show you why this is such good
news. Leviticus 7, verse 18. We're
just taking some phrases here where imputation is used, but
I want you to see how it's used. Verse 18, Leviticus 7, 18. And
if any, this is the Lord speaking, if any of the flesh of the sacrifice
of His peace offerings be eaten at all on the third day. Now
there's the sin. God forbid for somebody to eat
the peace offering that was left over on the third day. So when
a man did it, it was sin. If a man did that, it was sin.
And due to that fact, look what God says, His sacrifice shall
not be accepted, neither shall righteousness be imputed unto
him that offereth it, it shall be an abomination. Now see what
he said, due to the fact that it is abomination, that it is
sin, abomination shall be imputed to him. You see that? Due to
the very fact that his sacrifice is abomination, abomination shall
be imputed to him. And due to the fact that his
sacrifice is not righteousness, righteousness shall not be imputed
to him. And then the punishment, the soul that eateth of it shall
bear his iniquity, his punishment. Go to Leviticus 17.3. Leviticus
17.3. What man, soever there be of
the house of Israel, that killeth an ox, or a lamb, or a goat in
the camp, or that killeth it out of the camp, and bringeth
it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer
an offering unto the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord? Now
there's the prior act that made this person sin. If he killed
this beast and didn't bring it and offer it to the Lord, he
shed blood. As God said, he shed blood. And
due to that fact, look, blood shall be imputed unto that man. Why? He hath shed blood. You see that? You see that? Blood should be imputed because
it's a fact. He has shed blood and then the
punishment. And that man should be cut off
from among his people. Imputation is never imputing
punishment. That comes after the imputation.
And imputation is not imputing somebody something that they're
not. And it's not making somebody
something by imputation. 1 Samuel 22.15, go there with
me. 1 Samuel 22 15. Now look here, let me give you a
little background on this. King Saul thought it was a fact
that Elimelech had committed treason. Saul thought it was
a fact that Elimelech had committed treason because he thought that
Elimelech knew David was his enemy. And even though he knew
David was his enemy, he still inquired of God for him. And
so he imputed treason to him. But Elimelech said this in verse
15. He said, Did I then begin to
inquire of God for him? Be it far from me. He said, In
fact, I did not commit treason because I didn't inquire of God
for David, knowing that David was your enemy. He said, that's
not the fact, I did not do that. Now look at this, let not the
king impute anything unto his servant, nor to all the house
of my father, for thy servant knew nothing of all this, less
or more. Both of those men knew that to
impute is to impute fact. Saul wasn't imputing this to
him to try to make him a traitor. He was imputing this to him because
he thought it was a fact that he was a traitor. And Elimelech
said, don't impute it to me because the fact is I haven't committed
treason. You see this in each of these
scriptures? Imputation is the imputation of what is fact. Go
to Psalm 106. I can't go through every single
place in the Scriptures, but I'm just going to give you as
many as I can in the time we have. Psalm 106, and look at verse 30. Then stood up Phinehas, and executed
judgment. He was a type of Christ and when
nobody else would stand up and do it, Phinehas stood up and
he killed two people of noble birth who were in the act of
fornication. And so the plague was stayed. It was an act of judgment. And
that was counted, that word is imputed, that was imputed unto
him for righteousness unto all generations forevermore. Due to the fact that it was a
righteous act. This doesn't have a thing to
do with his righteousness before God. But due to the fact that
this was a righteous act, every generation afterward, when they
would talk about that, they would impute to Phinehas what that
act was, a righteous act. You get it? Because it was a
fact. That's why they would count it. So, go to Romans 2. Let's
look at some New Testament examples. Romans 2. This is one that somebody
tried to use to show me that imputation is God just supposing.
Well, let's see it. Romans 2.26. If the uncircumcision,
if a Gentile who is uncircumcised outwardly in his flesh, if the
uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, He's kept it. It says, shall not his uncircumcision
be counted for circumcision? Shall it not be imputed for circumcision? Paul's declaring in this context
that it's not our outward works of the flesh that makes one righteous. but it's the circumcision of
the heart by God by which we're brought then to believe on Christ
by whose obedience we're made righteous. That's what he's declaring
in the context. And so if a Gentile is regenerated
by God, circumcised in his heart by God and brought to believe
on Christ, God imputes righteousness to him because he's somebody
Christ has made righteous. And so God imputes righteousness
to him. God imputes and counts him to be a true Jew, an Israelite
indeed. He counts him to be the true
circumcision. Because he is. He is. God has not treated him as if.
God is imputing to him what he is by Christ's work on the cross
and by the Spirit's work in the heart that brought him to believe.
Look at Romans 2.28, that's exactly what he says. For he is not a
Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is
outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, this is why
he counts him circumcision, why he counts him a Jew. He is a
Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart
in the Spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of
men but of God. You see that over in Romans 9,
He said, what shall we say then about the Gentiles? They weren't
seeking after righteousness and yet they have attained to righteousness. How? Through faith. Through believing
on Christ. So you see what He is saying
there? He is saying, yeah, if He keeps the righteousness of the
law by believing on Christ, His righteousness, then it will be
imputed to Him that He is the circumcision. He is a true Jew.
He is a true Jew. And there are so many other examples
of this. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4, let a man so account of us. There is imputation. Let a man
account of us as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the
mysteries of God. He is saying let a man account
of us what God has really and truly made us. Account that the
longsuffering of God is salvation. He is saying account God's longsuffering
to be what it is. in salvation. Let me show you
one more place in Romans 5.13. I'm out of time. Romans 5.13.
And I'll wrap this up. Romans 5.13. After He declared
that due to the fact that all have sinned in Adam, and so God
imputed sin to us. After He declared that, He's
going to support this now with a very, very good argument. Verse 13. For until the law So
God gave the law at Mount Sinai. Sin was in the world, but sin
is not imputed where there is no law. Sin is the transgression
of a known law. That's what it is. But from Adam
until Moses, God didn't give a law. Did you know that? He didn't give a law from Adam
until Moses. And yet, and God will not impute
sin where there is no law. And yet, It says, nevertheless
death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned
after the similitude of Adam's transgression. It means even
to them that had not sinned by breaking a known law as did Adam. Even though they didn't have
a law to break like Adam did, God still imputed sin to them
and death reigned. Well, how could God justly do
that? He's saying, for that in Adam all have sinned. We really
did sin in Adam. And that's why God was just to
impute sin to us because we have sinned in Adam. Adam made us
sin by his disobedience. God did impute sin to us and
treat us as if we were sin. Is that what imputation is? Did
God just treat us as if we were sin? No. God's imputation was
fact. Adam had made us sin. That's
right. And so it says God imputed to
us because by that one man's disobedience we were made sin.
Now here's the joy for the believer. Here's the joy for the believer.
Whenever our text says that God will not impute sin, He will
not impute our trespasses to the believer who trusts and rests
in Christ, He won't impute our trespasses unto us. It's because it is a fact that
we have no sin no iniquities, no trespasses to impute. Do you get that? How can that
be? He said, ìHow shall we that are
dead to sin?î This is how God views it. You say, ìWell, I donít
view it that way.î It doesnít matter how you view it. God says,
ìHow shall we that are dead live any longer in sin?î He says to
you, Reckon ye also, impute ye also yourselves to be dead indeed
unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Colossians 3.3 says, For you are dead, and your life is hid
with Christ in God. Jeremiah 50.20, He said, In those
days and that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel
shall be sought for, and there shall be none. He said, the sins of Judah and
they shall not be found. Psalm 103.12, as far as the east
is from the west, so forth, He removed our transgressions from
us. Not just our guilt, not just
our punishment, our transgressions themselves. Isaiah 44, 22, I
have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a
cloud thy sins. Return unto Me, for I have redeemed
thee. If I paid a man's debts, or say
a criminal goes to prison and he serves all the time that he
is supposed to serve, when he gets out, he is clear from that
debt. The debt has been paid. He doesn't
owe that anymore. But he can't blot out the crime. The crime is still there. And
if I paid his debt, I took his place and just paid his debt,
I still haven't done anything to blot out the crime. But what
Christ did for His people made it so God said, the crime is
gone. Not just the punishment, not just the guilt, the crime
itself. I have no record, past, present
or future, of any sin whatsoever. And He said, and I am He that
blotted out your transgression for my own sake, and I will not
remember thy sin. Now believer, when God refuses
to impute sin, trespass, and transgressions to you, it's fact. It's because there is none to
impute to us. It's because He's removed them
so thoroughly before the all-seeing eye of God that there are none. There are none. That goes right
along with every other place and how God imputes. And how
could God do all that? Look at verse 21. because He
hath made him sin for us who knew no sin. Why did it say He
imputed because He imputed sin to Him? Because it says He knew
no sin. If we go right along with what
the Scriptures say, you can't impute sin to somebody who don't
have sin. And Christ knew no sin. He could impute sin to us
because we had sin. But he didn't impute sin to Christ
because he had none. So what did he do? He made him sin. He
made him sin. So that he could factually, in
fact, have sin imputed to him and be numbered with the transgressors.
Now brethren, I know that's not how a lot of people, most people
talk about imputation, but that's how the Scriptures do. As real
as Christ was made sin, That's as real as His people are made
the righteousness of God in Him. So that when God, just like when
He will not impute sin, it's because you have none. When He
imputes righteousness, it's because that's what Christ made us, righteous. We're going to look more at that
next time. Now, I pray that God will give you the grace now to
hear this and bow to it because it's joy, brethren. We wouldn't
be able to say God will not impute sin to us because we have no
sin unless Christ was made sin. Unless Christ made us the righteousness
of God in Him. Does it say by imputation many
shall be made righteous? It says by one man's obedience.
We are not worshiping imputation. We are not bowing to imputation.
Our gospel is not imputed righteousness that we are bowing to and throwing
around every breath It's not, it is Christ who obeyed God and
made us righteous. And that's the fact, and that's
the reason God imputes righteousness to the believer. It's not an
as if, nowhere in the scripture. It's real. It's done. Alright, we'll come back and
look at the rest of this next hour. Let's stand together. Father, pray that You would make
us to forget everything and just come to Your Word and receive
it by Your grace and see what it really means and bow to it.
Lord, make us see how so thoroughly just You are that this thing
had to be had to be executed in strict, perfect righteousness. And it was. Make us see this,
Lord. Make us to see this so that we
can rejoice in how perfected and how real our righteousness
is in Christ. Make us see that we really truly
have no sin. Lord, we pray for our brethren
here, pray for our visitors, and pray for our friends in other
places are not with us and ones that are in other places worshiping
today. Pray you give the pastors their
liberty to speak your word and give your hearers liberty to
hear it. And Lord, make us all bow before
your feet this day and truly have all eyes on Christ our Redeemer
and rejoice in Him. We thank you, Lord, for being
and what you've done in his heart, bringing him to Christ, to trust
him alone for all salvation. We pray you'll be with us today
as we baptize him and be with him as he goes forth and faces
the trials that you'll send his way for his good. And Lord, we
pray you'll make us an example to him, make us to lead by example
and by word as well. Forgive us our sins, Lord. We
ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.