2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and
I am glad I've had a little more time actually this time to visit
than last time I had to run out of here last time to catch my
flight so it's been nice to be able to visit just a little bit
2nd Corinthians 5 beginning in 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, 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
sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him." When I was in 6th or 7th grade,
in school and I'd get to feeling sick and possibly miss, hopefully
miss a couple of days of school. My mom would eventually take
me to a clinic near the house to see a doctor there. And I
learned to hate going to this doctor. Every time we went, he
gave me the same diagnosis. Sinus infection, go back to school,
you're not sick. I didn't want to hear that. At
the time, I was certain that this doctor only knew how to
diagnose one thing. He knew sinus infections, and
he threw medicine at it, and that's what everybody had. But my mother trusted the doctor,
and she was probably the wiser of the two of us, and continued
to take me there. As we age and we get to know
our bodies better, We begin to learn when something isn't quite
right. We can't put our finger on it,
but I just don't feel right. And we go to the doctor. We need
them to take a closer look. We need them to examine us. And
we go, hoping that they won't find anything. But almost always,
we're dreading they're going to find something. Something's
just not right. And that sometimes puts that
doctor into a tough spot. Sometimes we've become friends
with our family doctor, and this doctor has now been put into
a situation where he might have to give some bad news. You don't
want to hear it. He doesn't want to tell it. But
if he's a doctor worth his salt, he's going to give you the truth. That's a doctor that we're going
to trust. A doctor that will be truthful and honest with us. We're going to go back to them.
We're going to trust them to treat us as they should. Now,
a doctor who tells you it's all in your head, just go home, you'll
be fine. and continues to tell you that
as you get worse and worse and your symptoms get worse, you're
eventually going to have no confidence in that doctor and you're going
to look for someone else, right? I'm fearful that many who are
standing in a position similar to me this morning are like those
men, those doctors who say, all is well. God's not angry at you. God is love. He loves you, and
eternal life is yours for the taking. All you have to do is
make your decision for Jesus. They cry, peace, peace, when
there is no peace. They are worse than that doctor
that's not truthful to the patient, for that doctor is only dealing
with our bodies today. These false ministers are dealing
with men and women heading for eternity and tell them they have
no reason to fear or to bow down to God after all their own equal
terms with God. All the remedy they require is
to cast their vote for Jesus. That's not what these scriptures
say. And it does not bring honor and
glory to God. The truth of the scriptures declare
that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And
God is angry with the wicked every day. This is a hard truth. But unless we know our true condition,
we can't, we won't look for a remedy. In this message, I want to start
with our condition. What is our ailment? And what
is our remedy? How is that remedy obtained and
is that remedy for me? Will it cure my disease? When
we go to our doctors, often they'll use some equipment to look us
over that we don't have access to ourselves. They'll take what
we say and they'll use their test to confirm or rebuke what
we say. Our God sees what we cannot see,
and He has revealed our ailment to us through His Word. In a
word, our ailment is sin. Let's look at what God said of
our condition, and I so enjoyed your reading. Turn with me to
Romans 3 again. been very gracious to us today. Mr. Bob's lesson this morning
and my message tied together so well and then what Mike read
from Romans 3 was just perfect for this message. Romans 3 verse
23, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Turn over to Romans 5, verse
12. Romans 5, verse 12. Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Sinned. Past tense. It's done. Accomplished. You can't travel in time and
reverse it. Nothing we can do. It's completed. All have sinned. Turn back over to chapter 3 here
in Romans and verse 10. As it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the
way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Notice the tense of those verbs.
Understandeth, seeketh, become, doeth. They're all present tense,
right now, active. There is none that doeth good. That means you and me right now,
as we sit in a worship service, are unable to do good. God is good. The law is good. And we cannot and will not do
good. That is sin. And that is what
God declares we are. Our ailment is sin. Sin. one might say. That's such a
little word. The situation can't really be
all that bad, can it? One three-letter word? Paul,
writing to the Romans, could not come up with an adjective
more atrocious for sin than to say, But sin, that it might appear
sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the
commandment might become exceeding sinful. Sin is active in us and
it is deceitful. It causes us to bristle with
pride and to declare ourselves to be holier than thou. When in truth your iniquities
have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid
His face from you that He will not hear. When our daughter was
born, the doctor came by to see us and he said something to the
effect, we think Audrey has Down syndrome. He then started pointing
out some of the features that caused him to suspect her to
have Down syndrome. He showed us some of the symptoms
or the characteristics of a person with Down syndrome to support
his diagnosis. The Word of God declares we have
a deadly ailment called sin. What are the characteristics
of this disease? Turn with me to Genesis chapter
3. Sin is the transgression of God's
law, a rebellion against that which God has declared just and
good. Genesis chapter 3 verse 9. And the Lord God called unto
Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard
thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked,
and I hid myself." What are the characteristics
of sin? Fear. Adam said, I was afraid. Adam had never feared being in
God's presence before. When he was naming the animals
that God brought to him, when God brought Eve to Adam and presented
her to him, there was no fear between Adam and God. But after
Adam fell, he feared being in God's presence. Why? Because I was naked. Adam had
lost the righteousness that allowed him to be in God's presence without
shame. Now he had no covering and his
rebellion was on full display. And finally, we see the enmity
of the fallen man against God. God caused Adam to reveal what
he had done. Look at verse 11. And he said, Who told thee that
thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof
I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The
woman. whom thou gavest to be with me,
she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." Adam, in his sin,
turned on the woman he loved. The woman who, in chapter 2,
he said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and mother, and cleave unto his wife, and they shall
be one flesh. Adam turned on her, threw her
under the bus, as we might say. And not only her, but he accused
God of causing him to sin. And we haven't moved far from
our Father's original complaint. We, in our natural man, believe
we have every right to waltz into God's presence and demand
that He accept us. After all, we've done the best
we can, and if my best isn't good enough, it's God's fault. That's the argument we use after
all these years. Do you recognize any of these
characteristics within yourself? Or do you think within yourself,
I'm not like Adam. I'm not at enmity against God. Me and my God, we have this all
worked out. We're in agreement with one another. Turn over to Matthew chapter
5. Matthew chapter 5. Our Lord speaking here says,
"...Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou
shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger
of the judgment." You want to trust in your works of doing
or not doing to present yourself before God as righteous? And
one of those righteous works that you'll use when you stand
in His presence is Hey, I haven't killed anybody. Listen to what God says in verse
22. But I say unto you, that whosoever
is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of
the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his
brother Rekha shall be in danger of the counsel. But whosoever
shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." Try
to illustrate what he's saying here in today's terms. You've gone into, I'm guessing
y'all have Walmart's here? Okay. You've gone into Walmart. And you quickly get, miracle
of miracles, you go into Walmart for one thing, you go and grab
it because you're in a great hurry, you get your one thing
and you head to the cash register. In and out, right? And you get
into the line with the shortest line, one person in front of
you, they're finishing up. person in front of you has just
a few items and the cashier is ringing them up but as you watch
them they're busy on their phone they're just gabbing away talking
on their phone cashier finishes gives the person the total person stays on their phone They've
got their purse or their wallet or whatever. They bring it out
and they're digging through it to find the exact change. They know that they have to pay.
They know it was coming. They don't even have their credit
card out. They're standing there digging for cash. And you've watched all this transpire. And you're losing your patience. Why wasn't this person paying
more attention? Why weren't they getting off
the phone? They're being rude to that cashier. She can't do her job. But in
truth, you're aggravated because they've held you up for 30 seconds
longer than you needed to be. You've just demonstrated being
angry with your brother without a cause. I can't do it justice. I can't
convince you or myself that we have this sinful, exceeding sinful
disease. I am trying to show you that
absolutely everything we do attending church, singing songs of praise. The best prayer that we've ever
prayed is ruined and defiled, corrupt with sin. Only God can
convince us of what we are. But should you be found trusting
in something, some supposed good work you performed on that day
when you were called to stand before the Holy God, you will
be found in your sin, and you will hear, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity." This is our ailment. Through and through we are full
of sin. Is there any remedy to be found? Let's go back to our text in
2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5.20. 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. The remedy for our ailment, for
our sin, is to be reconciled to God. What is reconciliation? What is it to be reconciled?
At the end of World War II, the United States government made
certain demands of the Japanese government for peace to be obtained
between the two nations. History considers Japan to have
been the offender of the peace between the two nations, and
as the offended, the United States made the terms required for peace
to be restored between our nations. In our father Adam, we declared
war upon God. We declared, we will not have
you to reign over us. God has declared the terms for
us to have peace with Him. We must be holy, righteous, without
blame. We must be as He is. for any
reconciliation to occur. Can you or I obtain that standing
in ourselves? Can I obtain the standing on
my own will, on my own accord? No. Not even if I were to start
from this very moment, from right now, live the rest of my life
without offending in word, thought, or deed. It's still not good
enough. I have sinned. It's done. I'm guilty. And I can't change
what happened. A payment that must be given
for that sin is death. And as I said earlier, no man
born of Adam has life to give. When a God created Adam, he breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life. And when Adam sinned
against God, the life he had received died. I inherited from
my Father a soul that is dead. It's a soul that has no merit
before God, no desire toward God, and is an abomination in
His sight. Kill this body, and not a single
sin can be paid for, because there's no life to be given to pay the debt that I owe. We are in a horrible condition.
Our ailment of sin has separated us from our God, and the remedy
of the ailment, be ye reconciled to God, is out of our reach. We can't change our nature, our
ways, that we can be reconciled to God. What about God? Can He reconcile Himself to us
as we are? Thank God His nature cannot change,
for it is our only hope that He doesn't change. Malachi 3.6
says, For I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, because I change
not, Ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. For God to accept us
in our rebellion and sin would require He change His nature
to be willing for light to dwell with darkness, and He can't change. Is then our exhortation, Be ye
reconciled to God, in vain? All cries in Christ's stead,
Be ye reconciled to God, Yet we cannot change our nature nor
provide the payment for the sins. We've committed to purchase the
peace that we must have with God. And God cannot change His
nature so that we might approach Him and be reconciled without
our nature changing. He has presented an impossible
solution. And again I say, rejoice that
our Lord said with men, Things which are impossible with men
are possible with God. Paul, you call upon us to be
reconciled with God. How? How can my sins be put away? How can my nature be changed?
How can I be made holy, righteous, and undefiled? Verse 21, hath made Him sin for us, who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him." God is able to save to the uttermost. Salvation is
of the Lord. And I'd like to read that first
sentence in a couple of ways, replacing He and Him. For God
hath made Christ sin for us. For God hath made God sin for
us. For Christ hath made Christ sin
for us. For God the Father hath made
God the Son sin for us. For He hath made Him sin for
us. In order that we might be reconciled
to God, He hath made Him sin for us." Seven words. The Holy Spirit laid upon the
Apostle Paul to reveal God's purpose in salvation in seven
single syllable words. What does it take to remedy my
ailment of sin? The very power and wisdom of
God. These seven words are so deep
and full of meaning and purpose that we will spend all of eternity
basking in the delight of their fulfillment. Christ was made
sin to accomplish our reconciliation to God. What are some of the
things that Christ was made for us? Galatians 4.4 says, But when
the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law. God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, into this world, made of a woman. He was born of the
Virgin, made in the likeness of men, to be their representative,
to be made like unto His brethren. Yet to have none of the sin we
inherit from our father Adam. He came in our likeness to accomplish
that which we cannot do for ourselves. He, a man, fulfilled the law
of God. Turn with me, if you would, to
Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 14. Our Lord entered within the veil
for us, maid and high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 4.14 Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of
God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the filling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted, like as we are, yet without sin. And then over to Galatians chapter
3. Galatians 3 verse 13. The Son of God was made of a woman,
made under the law, and made a high priest for us. In Galatians
3 verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written,
Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." Our sin must be paid for. The wages of sin is death and
justice demands that payment. We having nothing to pay The
price with? Need one who is willing and able
to take our debt. Not only take the debt, but able
to pay the debt. Our Lord, coming in the flesh,
took upon Himself our curse, the curse resulting from our
sin, and He paid our sin debt by being nailed to the cross.
He was made a curse for us and hung upon the cross, but still
the wages of sin must be paid. He who knew no sin, who committed
no sin, who inherited no sin, being made sin for us, must also
pay for that sin. He must die. Hebrews 2.9 says,
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels
for the suffering of death. Our sin must be paid in blood. And He, hanging upon the cross,
shed His precious blood for us. And when He had accomplished
all that was written of Him, He cried out and gave up. His life was not taken from Him,
but He freely laid it down. He gave up the ghost. To reconcile
us to God, our Lord was made the seed of woman, made under
the law, made an high priest for us, made a curse for us,
suffered the wrath of God for us, and He has made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that according
as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Having
freely laid down his life, he revealed that he has reconciled
us to God. He took his life up again on
the third day. And having freely redeemed us,
he now presents us faultless, clothed in his righteousness
before our Father in heaven. Is the Lord's remedy for sin
effectual for me? Will it put away my sin? Am I one of the us referred to
in our text? Is my only trust for salvation
the Lord Jesus Christ? Have I ceased from trying to
please God through my doing? And now say, He did it all. All to Him I owe. He alone is
my salvation and my all in all. Do I confess to God I am a sinner
and nothing at all? Look to Christ. Oh, may my soul look to Christ. And when God looks upon me, May
he see Christ alone. Lord our God has made peace. He has paid the debt of sin we
owe, and He declares, Be ye reconciled to God. Come to Christ. Call upon Him. Oh, let us sue
Him for mercy. He delighteth to show mercy.
Trust Him. Believe on Him. O Lord, increase
our faith. May we see Him, oh, to see Him
high and lifted up and put me in the dust where I belong. May
He be glorified. He laid down His life to redeem
those who believe on Him, and He will in no wise cast us out
if we're found in Him. But if you won't bow, if you
declare, I don't need a Redeemer. I'm righteous. I've kept the
law. Cass, I think you told me last
night, there was a bulletin article in a Methodist church, We not only declare the law,
but we keep the law, or something like that. You'll be cast out in your sin.
It is impossible for us to do good. We cannot please God and
of ourselves, but thank God we have a mighty Redeemer. We have a deadly disease. God Himself has provided the
cure. O soul, lay down your arms. Fall before Him. Say, Lord, have
mercy upon me. He's able to save us through
and through. May the Lord bless His Word to
our hearts. Thank you again for having me. for your attention.
Lord bless you.