O Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made I see the stars, I hear the rolling
thunder Thy power throughout The universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee, O great Thou art, O great Thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When through the world And forest
lake I wander, And hear the birds, Sing sweetly in the trees. When I look down, From lofty
mountain grandeur, And hear the brook, and feel the gentle breeze, then
thank thy soul, I pray your God to thee. How great thou art, how great
thou art, My soul, my Saviour God, to Thee, How great Thou
art! How great Thou art! you you And when I think that God, His
Son not sparing, Sent Him to die, us years can take it in. That on the cross, my burden
gladly bearing, He bled and died, to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee. How brave Thou art! How brave Thou art! Since my soul has paid your debt to thee, How great thou art! How great thou art! When Christ shall come with shout
of acclamation And take me home, what joys shall fill my heart
Then I shall bow In humble adoration, Then there proclaim, My God,
how great Thou art! Then they know my love, My Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then link my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! Wouldn't you like to hear the
gospel? To think that God his son not
spare him in such a way that you scarce could take it in. I'm so thankful he died for those who take it for granted
even. Let's turn to Colossians 1. Thank you, Jeanette, for that
hymn sharing. Look at Colossians 1, verses
20 through 22. As you know, Paul is writing
to the church at Colossae and believers, all believers, He
says concerning Christ, that he made peace, having made peace
through the blood of his cross by him, by Jesus Christ, to reconcile
all things unto himself. By him, I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven, and you, and you. They were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked work, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy, unblameable,
and unapprovable in his sight." Reconcile, the word reconcile. looking at, reconcile. The word
means bring together. It means to bring together those
that are separated. Two people, two parties are separated
and divided at odds, maybe even enemies of one another. They
won't communicate, won't talk. Something has divided them. And
to reconcile means to bring them together, bring them together
again. So if someone is reconciled,
they're brought together. That's what reconcile means. Everyone in here has heard this
term. Many times when couples get divorced,
they use this term. irreconcilable differences. And what they mean by that, what
they're saying is that neither party would admit to the blank. Neither party is willing to change. Neither party would admit to
wrong. Neither one will agree with the
other. They're not willing to forgive.
and they will not get back together. That's what that means. Irreconcilable
differences. That's what you say when you
can't think of any other reason. Reconciled. All right, this passage,
these scriptures, sometimes something really gets a hold of you. And
this has got a hold of me, and I hope it will again this morning,
and it will to you. This passage, this truth, is
not only the key to salvation, salvation of our soul, it's also
the key to the salvation of our church, of our friendships, of
our marriages. Reconciliation. What is it? There's only one thing that will
truly reconcile, bring two together. One thing. And in case something happens,
I'm going to go ahead and tell you. It's Jesus Christ. One thing. It's only that that
will bring us together. The only thing, the only one
that will bring us to God, from whom we're separated. And
the only thing that will hold this congregation together, the
only thing that will hold friendships together, the only thing, the
only one who will hold marriages together, Jesus Christ and him
crucified. I hope we can see this. May the
Lord help, help, help, help, help. We need to be reconciled,
number one, to God and, secondly, to one another. We need to be
reconciled to God, and there's one way, as it says here in verse
20, that Jesus Christ made peace, that is, with God, through the
blood of his cross, by Jesus Christ, to reconcile all things
unto himself, whether in earth or in heaven. Everything by him. And so therefore,
for him, for his glory. As I said, the word reconcile
means to bring together those that are separated. And verse
21 says, you and you. Who's he talking to? Well, this
is written to the church, to believers. But everybody is like
that. You. This is to everybody. You. Either were or are. Perhaps someone
in here right now is still an enemy. Whether we are, we were. Enemy, look at it, verse 21.
Alienated, that means cut off, separated on the outside. Enemies,
in your mind by wicked works. But now, yet now, he reconciled. Brought you back to God. Now,
Romans 8 says this, the carnal mind is enmity against God. The
natural mind, the natural person, the natural person, every human
being born, is born an enemy of God. That's what Romans 8,
verse 7 says. And all of God's people, whom
he hath reconciled, know it so. They know. David said, I was
shapen in iniquity. In sin did my mother conceive
me. Again, Brother Coffey preached this last Sunday, that old wretched
man that I am. Every single child of God whom
God Almighty saves. That's the first thing he reveals
to us. We're far off without Christ,
without God, without hope. Alienated rebels against God. That's the first thing. We're born rebels against God.
There has been a universal conspiracy throughout the ages to disprove
God. Human beings want, since men
don't like, don't want a God to reign over them, to rule over
them. An owner, a ruler, a judge want to do, want to be in charge
of their own destiny. And believe me, you don't want
that. But men think they do, don't want anyone to own them,
want to be their own man, and believe me, you don't want that.
And yet, so there's been a universal conspiracy by man to disprove
there's a Creator. And it's ongoing today, isn't
it? We were in Barnes & Noble yesterday looking for something,
a cookbook or something. I looked down and there's a book,
the title of it was, God Is Not Great. That's the title of it. And the
caption was, How Religion Has Poisoned the Minds of All People. And it would probably be a bestseller. There's a universal conspiracy.
Man hates God. When we say that, people, only those who have been reconciled
know it so. Don't you? Unless you've been
reconciled, you don't know that. You don't believe that. Our Lord
said this, though. He said, I have nourished, in
Isaiah 1, I have nourished and brought up children that have
rebelled against me. Every single one of God's people,
not just the people of the world, but every single one of God's
people are prodigal sons until he brings them home. Rebellious. He said in chapter 45 of Isaiah,
verse 5, he said, I have girded you, though you have not known
me. He said, the ox knows his owner, the ass knows his master
crib, but my people don't know and they don't even consider.
Romans 1 says that The things of God are clearly saying that
men are without excuse, that God just gives and gives and
gives and gives rain and gives food, and they're eating the
food He gives and breathing the breath that He gives, and they
don't give Him any thanks. To the contrary, they worship
the creature more than the Creator. Not thankful? Don't give Him
a thought? God is not in their thoughts?
Do not like to retain God in their knowledge. professing themselves
to be wise, and they become utter fools. Why? They say there's
no God. And boy, it's a fool to rebel
against your Creator. What an ungrateful wretch to
not be thankful to the One who does so much for you. And that was me and you, wasn't
it? That's what you said, Barb, to
me one time, Petri. You said to me, Romans 1. I said,
that was me. Well, that was me. Wasn't it
you? Somebody says, I don't hate God. Well, why is it so hard
to worship? Why do people find it such a
hard thing? Why does it feel like a chore
to come in the house of God and just worship? Thank God. One
hour. Why do people, why is it like
pulling teeth? That's just enmity. Why are people
not thankful? Why do people get mad when you
start talking about God's sovereignty? When you talk about God reigning
and ruling and doing what He will with whom He will? God choosing
whom He will. Why do people get mad at that? That's God. Because they hate
God. Why is anybody proud? Pride is
to hate God. You know, pride is to hate God.
Why would anybody be proud of something that somebody else
gave you? How could they? Except to want
to take credit for that, and the only way you can is to get
rid of him. The natural man hates God. Why do people get angry at God's
providence? Why is this happening to me?
Why don't I have that? Why do they have that and I don't
have that? That's getting mad at God. That's saying, I deserve
that, he doesn't deserve that. Why doesn't he give me what I
deserve? Oh, we don't want what we deserve. But that's the carnal
mind. That's man. And you. And you. Right? How many years
did we go, every one of us, beginning with me, how many years did we
go without giving God a thought? Or giving Him any thanks? How
many years? How long did we hear about this
Christ crucified and didn't care? How long? And to ignore someone or something
is to want it not to exist, to don't care about that person,
want them dead. How many years? And I know there's
some listening right now who have really no interest in that. We need to reconcile. We need to reconcile. God's not
the enemy. God is not the enemy. He never
has been, never will be. One of the preachers, Brother
Bruce Crabtree, did say this, and this is so striking. He said, if God be for us, we don't need another friend.
Who can be against us? God be for us. But if He's against
us, Now, if we don't love his son, if we don't care for his
son, that's God's against us. And if he's against us, it doesn't
matter who's for him. He's the worst enemy we'll ever
have. But God's not the enemy of man. In Jeremiah, you read
Jeremiah for yourself, you'll read all the way through, especially
the first three or four chapters, he said, what fault do you find
in me? God said, what have I done to
you to cause you to rebel against me? Done nothing but good. Feed you and clothe you. See,
this is why Christ being crucified, we should scarce be able to take
it in. This is the only thing that reconciles. And as I said, every one of God's
children are prodigals. Some in here right now have prodigal
sons and daughters. And what they've done is, like
the prodigal, demand from their parents things. Take, take, take. Despise their
rule and their authority. Want out on their own. And that
parent may even give them something that they don't deserve. And
they take it. And they run as fast as they
can to get away from that evil father and mother that I have. That was me. Literally. And all of us spiritually. Because
we don't deserve anything. Our Heavenly Father is nothing
but kind to us, and like the prodigal. And now, you parents
who have children like that right now, you have tried, haven't
you, to reconcile them. You have tried everything you
know to do to bring them back to yourself. You would lay down your life
for them, wouldn't you? If it would reconcile them to
yourself, you wouldn't do anything. They don't deserve it, but you
love them. And this is exactly what God
did for us, his people. Exactly. And you know how he
did it, Kelly? Killed his son. The only one worth living to
kill Him, to bring us to Him, to make this. This is not just
a doctrine. This is incomprehensible. Love
and mercy and grace, incomprehensible. There ain't no human being worth
living, dying for. You might die for a good man,
even for a righteous man, but God commended his love toward
us while we were yet sinners. The very ones that hung him on
the cross and died for him. Does this sound like Ephesians
2? That's why Brother Luke, he read
this. Ephesians 2 says, and you that were sometime disobedient,
at one time disobedient, dead in trespasses and sin. He walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, a spirit that now works in the children
of disobedience, rebels against God, hating God, as you, wasn't
it? Had our conversation among them
in times past, fulfilling all we thought about was me. Fulfilling
the lust of my flesh, desires of my mind. I want mine, mine. This is the way we're born in
it. Mine, mine, mine. Full of hate. Full of envy and
jealousy. Our little children, we don't
have to teach them to be selfish. They're born that way. We don't
have to teach them to hate people. They're born that way. Give me.
Even their own siblings. Mine. Well, everything's given
to them. Children of wrath, even as a...
just like others. But, God. And you, yet now, hath He. Reconcile. Reconcile. Oh, my. God in love, sovereign
love, God doesn't love everybody. There's people in hell. He doesn't have to. He's not
obligated. I don't know why He loves anybody.
Do you? But He does. But thank God He
loves the people as the stars of the sky and the sands of the
sea. We say, Sherry played that, and
we're going to sing it to close. How can it be? That God should
love a soul like that. How can it be? God, in sovereign love and electing
love, chose... I don't understand why He...
When Adam and Eve rebelled like they did against Him, I don't
understand, except in light of His mercy of who He is, why He
didn't just show you ungrateful and just sniffle out like that.
Let alone, Jeanette, put up with billions of others just like
that, born just... Because he's long-suffering,
that's why. His people. I mean, how long
did he put up with us like that? Huh? A prodigal. God is sovereign, electing mercy. It's of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed. His compassions, they fail not.
They do every morning. By grace, he is saved. Yes, you
are. That's true. A doctrine? No,
it's unbelievable. Unfathomable. Grace. Gift. Undeserved favor from God. Grace. Sought God in grace, through
His Spirit, through what I'm doing right now, what people
call foolishness. But this is what God does. God
uses His earthen vessels. I know why, I see why, that the
excellency of the power might be of God, not of men. If God
does bless us through such a babbling idiot, you'll know it's God that
did it. That's why, through an unlearned man, you'll know God
did it. Nobody will get the credit for it but him. That's why. I
know that. But God uses this right here,
this preaching through an earthen vessel to break these wild asses'
coats. To bring them down. To bring
that prodigal home. This is what he uses. Right here.
This is the power of God and the wisdom of God. To bring that
prodigal home. Like me. Service after service
after service after service. Until finally I was out on my
own despising this. Couldn't wait to get out, but God. My salvation is, but God. And you, but God. And you, if you... Brother Luke
kept praying there, don't leave us to ourselves, don't leave
us to ourselves. If he does, and you will perish,
but God. That's how we ought to pray to
him, Tammy. I know he's a rebel. I know he's a rebel. He's like
me. He's born for me. I know he is. But God... I've never thought of this scripture
like this before. The Lord taketh pleasure in them
that fear him, and them that hope in his mercy. I've always
thought of that in just strictly a personal way. That the Lord
take His pleasure in that man or that woman who fears Him and
hopes in His mercy for them. But the Lord takes pleasure in
them that hope in His mercy for others. Rahab. Remember that? Remember
when Rahab heard the Lord was going to come through, Joshua
was going to come through and destroy them all? What did Rahab do?
Save my body. Save my money. Save my children. Save my brother and sister. Everybody
first. And then her and me. So what
did he do, Jeanette? What did he do? Save them all. And her. But God. I know where you got
it. But God. You're rich in mercy. I've seen it happen so many times.
Well, how he does this, the first thing God does to reconcile us
is to show us ourselves. As the message on the radio says,
the first thing he does is show us that we need him, that we're
far off, that we're a rebel. That if God gave us, you know,
like the prodigal, when the prodigal finally By God's mercy and grace,
it was out there. And he says he came to himself. He just came to himself. How? What? He came to see himself. He came to a realization of himself.
He came to realize, look at me. I've done this to myself. You know where he was? He was
in the hog pen. Look at me. I thought I was something. Look
where I've ended up. I did this. Not my father. I did this. Oh, my. I've sinned against heaven and
against my father. I wonder if he'd have mercy on
me. That's the first step that God Almighty does to every single
one of his children. Look at me. I love it when people get under
conviction. It's such a rare thing. It's
the first step. Begin to break that prodigal
son, that wild ass's coat. God shows us who He is. Even the goodness of God leads
us to repentance. and shows us what we are. And
then the final thing, the thing that brings us back to God. We say the straw that broke the
camel's back. Well, this is the truth that
breaks the sinner's heart. Christ crucified. Hanging on the cross. Bearing
your blame. Substitute. Hanging on a cross. Your sin laid on Him. Your hell
put on Him. He gives you credit for what
He did, and He took the blame for what you did. If that doesn't
break you, nothing will. If that won't bring you back
to God, repenting, thanking Him, believing Him, praising Him,
worshiping Him, that won't make nothing well. That's the only
thing. I distinctly remember, as a young man working on the
railroad, that this was the thing that
spoke to me. I remember. I remember the first words reading,
the first words of Christ hanging on the cross, when He hung there
on that cross. The first words from his mouth, Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they did. And that was like an arrow that
pierced my heart. That was it. That was it. Father, forgive
him. He doesn't know what he's doing.
He's destroying himself. Forgive him. He made peace by the blood of
His cross, a facetizement of our peace. Scripture says it
was laid on Him. By His stripes we are healed.
Some of you may have never heard this story. Back years ago when
they had one-room schools, especially in Appalachia, It was a one-room
schoolhouse in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. There were
different age children, you know, in one room. And this little
school had a new teacher that came in. And when he came in,
he knew that he'd have to make some rules or he'd have this
chaos. told the class, he said, we're
going to have to set some rules, and he said, I'm going to let
you set the rules. And so they began to say, no stealing, no
cussing, no spitting on the floor, no this. He said, that's fine,
that's good. He said, and now you've got to
have punishment. Rules are no good without consequences,
without punishment. So somebody said, Ten stripes
across the back with a rod for stealing. A bareback. The teacher said, that's kind
of severe, isn't it? Nope. No stealing. Not steal. Ten stripes
across the bareback. Anybody caught stealing. Well,
in that one-room school, A big strapping farm boy named Big
Tom. Everybody called him Big Tom.
Big strapping boy worked the farm all his life and everybody
loved him. He was a gentle, big gentle giant,
little fella. He came up to the teacher one
day and he said, Teacher, somebody's stolen my lunch. And so the teacher took it in
hand to find out who did it. Come to find out, a little fella
named Billy. They'd taken Big Tom's lunch.
One of the smallest fellas in the school. Poor. Always wore
a big old coat to clap. They found out that little Billy
took Big Tom's lunch. So the teacher said in front
of everybody, you made the rules and you made the punishment.
So Billy, come up here and take your licking. He came up there. The teacher took a rod. He said,
take your coat off. He said, don't make me take my
coat off. He said, take your coat off. That's the rule. Cross the bare back. So he took
it off. He didn't have any shirt on underneath.
Poor. In rags. You see his bones. And so the teacher took that
rod. and drew it back, and a voice
cried, Wait! It's Big Tom. Big Tom said, Teacher,
can I take Billy's flicking for him? Teacher said, Well, I guess. So Big Tom came up off his coat,
the muscles rippling, and the teacher started beating him.
Once, twice, nine times, ten times, and the rod broke across
his back. And little Billy come running
up and said, Big Tom, I'll love you forever for taking my God hath laid on him the iniquity
of us all, and he could bear it. And the rod broke. The rod of God's justice and
right broke. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. God hath laid on him the iniquity
of us all, and he bore it to Calvary's tree, John, and it's
gone. Will you love him forever for
that? How could you not? How could
you not meet together and thank Him? Thank you, Lord. How could
you not? I haven't seen it yet. The only
thing will reconcile us, bring us back to God. Our sins have
separated us between our God. There's only one person that
can bring us back, Jesus Christ, that atonement, that blood. We need to reconcile to God and
we need to reconcile to one another. We get at odds with one another,
don't we? Over what? Anything, everything. Mostly
things. Sad, isn't it? We're a pitiful
lot, aren't we? Pitiful lot. I remember the four of us siblings,
you know. We'd get in arguments and fights
and, you know, we would. And looking back, I see now it's,
you know, mostly my fault. Danny and I split. We just made
life miserable for your mother. But we'd get in fights over the
ridiculous things. Childish things. All childish.
But things didn't amount to nothing. Get our feelings hurt. We hadn't
changed much. Hadn't changed much. We need to reconcile to one another.
And you know there's only one thing that'll do that? The same
thing that reconciles us to God. Right, Pastor? The only thing
that'll reconcile us to God is seeing God didn't do to me what
I deserve. He did it to Christ. And that's
what will reconcile me to my brother or sister whom I think
has offended me. I will think, how could I give
him? Look, I hadn't done to them. She hadn't
done to me. That's the only thing. You know,
and we're born, once again, we need reconcile. We're born loving
self. And a lot of that's still in
us. That's why we get offended. You
know what she said to me? You know what he said about me? Who are you? You know, chief
of sinners can't, shouldn't get offended, shouldn't. And the
only thing that will make us peaceable and peacemakers and
forgivable, forgiving and forbearing and long-suffering, the only
thing, the only thing, are you listening to me? It's the only
thing that will make us forgive our brother at all costs is seeing
how he forgave us at such great cost. That's it. Nothing else
will. The law won't do it. You need
to forgive. Yes, we do, but that won't do
it. That will. Look how he's forgiven. The disciples
came one time and said to him, Peter said, if my brother offended
me, sinned against me, how shall I forgive him? Seven times? And the Lord said to him, no,
I say unto thee, verily I say unto thee, not seven times, but
seventy times seven. Why? Because that's how he forgives
everyone. All day long. every day. And
we haven't done to our brother, or they haven't done to us, a
fraction of what we've done to our Lord. And seeing Christ,
this will reconcile us to one another. We've got to see ourselves.
To reconcile to our brother, we've got to see ourselves for
what we really are. Right? That only will make us
esteem them better than ourselves. That's the only thing. And the
only way we will see ourselves is see Him. The only way we'll
see ourselves for what we are is see, look at He's altogether
lovely. I'm not anything like that. Look
at Him, He's altogether merciful. I haven't been merciful. Look
at Him, how He loves me. I don't love like that. Look
at Him, a friend that's sticking closer than a brother when He
should have left me a long time ago. I don't do that. Huh? There's only one thing. Look
at how He's forgiven me. Died for me. And he says, you do the same.
You lay down your life for your brother. Isn't it? That's not
a request. He says, it's a command. Why?
We owe it to Him. Why should we forgive our brother?
We owe it to Him. They're His children. They're
not our enemy. They're His children. Are you with me? This was a revelation
to me. We must forgive. Why? They're
His children. We owe it to Him. We owe it to
Him. Such great forgiveness to us.
Besides, you know, we say things like
this. Well, do you know what He did to me? Do you know what
You've done to Him? We say things like this. I've never done that. Not yet. Not yet. Huh? There's a lot of
time left. You say, and we say, well, I
would never do that. Oh, I give you two words. If we ever think that, I would
never do that. Simon Peter. And Peter, that's what converted
him. He reverted back to the cussing
sailor that he was by nature, didn't he? Denied the Lord and
denied everybody else. Got separated from his brother.
Thought he was better than them when he was worse. He was worse. What brought him back, John?
He was over there sitting, cussing with the world, with his friends,
and he looked and Jesus Christ was looking at him. And it broke his heart. And he
wept bitterly. And from then on, he thought
to his brothers, if y'all won't let me back in, if you all will
have mercy upon me, I'm less than a lead. I'm not dead. This
is why Peter concluded his letter by saying this, it's the long-suffering
of the Lord is salvation. I know. Peter said, I know. He's
put up with me all my life, even when I didn't put up with others.
Even when I exalted myself above my brethren. Greater love that
no man knew. This is the only thing that will
reconcile us to one another. Nothing else will. Right? Right. In light of such mercy, you know,
love... You know, I've got to quit. I've got a lot more to say. The word reconcile also means
this. It also means to bring to an agreement. To bring to
an agreement. Okay? A mutual agreement. It's for us to agree with God.
God doesn't change. He doesn't need to be brought
to see our side. Oh, no, no. It's who's on the
Lord's side. And you know what? Here's what God has to do to
us. He has to reconcile us. He has
to make us take sides with Him against ourselves. Against ourselves. He has to make us justify Him
in condemning ourselves. He has to make us come to realize
everything about me is wrong. Not was. It's. Everything I do,
the Lord is well pleased for Jesus Christ's righteousness.
He's the only one. There's none righteous. No, not
one, Scripture says, but Jesus Christ. Everything about Him
is right. Everything about me is wrong. And this is my whole problem
with other people. It's my problem with God. It's
my problem with others. It's me. I'm the problem. That's what each of us got to
be to see. And the only thing that will
do that, look, that's how you're supposed to be. And you're not. Did that make, did that hit home
to anybody? We need to reconcile to God.
One thing will do it. Christ crucified. We need to
reconcile to one another. Not let anything or even people
come between us. Why? For one, in Christ. The only thing that will do that
is looking to Him. All right. May the Lord bless
that. John, if you'll come. What was that number? That's all. Thank you. Thank you. I just can't believe it. I just can't believe it. I just
can't believe it. I just can't believe it. I just can't believe it. I just
can't believe it. I just can't believe it. I just can't believe it. I just can't believe it. And here is the bread you've
been waiting for, I promise I'll give it more. But when my suffering
was over, Please be free, my child, I'll give it to you. How can it be? How can it be? That love of yours was real? Oh, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be?