My name from the palms of His
hands, eternity will never erase. My. What a Savior. What a Redeemer. Here I'd like
to look at the great peacemaker. As Brother Tim was reading there
in verse 35, I noticed in the scripture says, and also the
burnt offerings were in abundance with fat of the peace offerings. The peace offerings. Let's turn to Isaiah chapter
9 and then Luke chapter 2. Isaiah chapter 9 and Luke chapter
2. And today I'd like us to look
at the Lord Jesus Christ as the Great Peacemaker. The Great Peacemaker. Our Savior and our Redeemer is the Peacemaker between God
and the elect of God. And the only way that we have
peace with God is through He who is the Great Peacemaker. If you do not have Christ, it
means you do not have peace with God. And you never will, unless
God shows mercy to you. But if you have Christ, If you're
in Christ, you have peace with God. Peace with God. And what a marvelous
truth this is. Peace with God. Turn again, if you would, to
Isaiah 9. And we'll look at verses 6 and
7. And note that the Messiah shall
be called the Prince of Peace. the Prince of Peace. For unto us a child is born,
and unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon
his shoulder, so he's sovereign, and his name shall be called
Wonderful. I ask you, who are the blood-washed
saints of God, Is he not wonderful to you? Is his name not wonderful
to you? Counselor, he's the one we go
to and pray to the mighty God. He's the one true God, the everlasting
father, the prince. A piece. of the increase of His government
and peace, there shall be no end. So the peace that He gives,
there'll be no end to it. It'll stretch on into eternity. So that means that if the believer
has peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ now, there'll
be no end to that peace, beloved. And it's not based upon us, this
peace, is it? Or anything we do. It's all based upon He who is
called the Prince of Peace. The Prince of Peace. Of the increase
of His government and peace, there shall be no end. upon the
throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish
it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever
the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this now turn to
the New Testament where is John Gilbrings forth here before us
is the proclamation of the great peacemaker being born so he who
is called the Prince of Peace the Messiah who we know to be
the Word of God, the second person of the Trinity. Here we see the
incarnation of the Word of God. God becomes a man, the God-man. Luke chapter 2, Luke chapter
2. And there were in the same country,
verse 8, shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over
their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord
came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about
them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them,
Fear not. For behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you
is born this day in the city of David a Savior. which is Christ the Lord. And
this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped
in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there
was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God
and saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill
toward men. Here is the arrival of the great
peacemaker. The great peacemaker. Now, one
thing you'll notice through time is men are constantly trying
to bring peace. Trying to bring peace about by
their own means. World leaders gather together
and they have meetings and their goal is to have peace with one
another. And sometimes they sign a treaty
or they have peace for a little while, don't they? But oftentimes those peace treaties
are broken. Or they only make peace to further
their own country, right? Which every leader would do.
Would do. But you know they'll never find
true peace. They'll never find true peace
because men are sinners. But they don't realize that,
do they? And we didn't realize that until the Lord revealed
that to us, that we're sinners. So men will never find true peace
based upon man's efforts. It just won't happen. Turn if you would to Colossians
chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. And here we see the source
of true peace. The source of true peace. And this is peace with God. And this is something that the
believer has. The believer has peace with God. through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And Lord willing, by the Holy Spirit illuminate the Scriptures
for us, we'll see this. And this is a precious truth
to God's people. Colossians 1, verses 15 to 23,
we'll read the context of it. Who is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of every creature? So Paul is writing to the Colossian
believers about Christ and what he's bringing forth is the preeminence
of Christ, the Gnostics had come in and they were teaching error
and they were teaching that there was different kinds of redeemers
or different kinds of mediators between God and man and so Paul
is contrasting that and bringing forth Christ and just saying
Christ is the one mediator. He's the one who has all the
preeminence, and we'll see that here, who is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by Him
were all things created that are in heaven and that are on
earth, visible and invisible. There's His absolute dominion
over all things, right there, very plainly stated. By inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God, it speaks of Christ's absolute sovereignty
and deity over all things, visible and invisible. That covers everything.
Everything. Whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, look at this. All things were
created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and
by Him all things consist. It's very plain, isn't it? And
He is the head of the body, now He's going to bring in this here,
the head of the body of the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
of the dead, that in all things, look at this, he might have the
preeminence. So the theme of the book of Colossians,
if you read it, is the preeminence of Christ. The preeminence of
Christ. For it pleased the Father that
in him should all fullness dwell, and look at this, in having made
peace. How? Through the blood of his
cross. peace through the blood of his
cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him I
say whether they be things on earth or things in heaven. And
you, now here's our natural state, that were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he what? Reconciled. What a wonderful
word. reconciled, peace and reconciliation
we see in these two verses here. In the body of his flesh through
death to present you, look at this, now think, look what he
says, look what he says in verse 21 about our natural state. And
you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled. So our natural state was that
we were alienated from God, we were enemies in our mind, by
wicked works, which is our sins, and then it says, yet now hath
he reconciled. But look at this, in the body
of his flesh through death to present you, you who were alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, right? In the body of
his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and
unreprovable in his sight. That's a miracle of grace right
there, right before us. If you continue in the faith,
grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel. Now, remember what we looked
at on Wednesday night? That it's He who will not let
us depart from Him? God will not let His people depart
from Him? Look at this. If you continue in the faith,
grounded and settled, He keeps us. and be not moved away from
the hope of the gospel." Don't be moved away by anything or
anyone from the hope of the gospel, which is in Christ and Christ
alone and is by His work and His work alone. "...which ye
have heard..." God gave us hearing ears to hear it, didn't He? "...in
which it was preached to every creature which is under heaven,
whereof I, Paul, am made a minister." So Paul here brings forth the
preeminence of Christ before the Colossian believers in the
verse we just read, but note in verse 20, And we see the great
work of reconciliation which the Lord Jesus Christ has brought
out at Calvary's cross, all in the room and stead and place
of God's people. And heaven made peace through
the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto
Himself, by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven. Now we know that we all fell
in Adam, don't we? We all fell in Adam. We fell
in him and the result of the fall is that humans coming to
this world were absolutely dead in trespasses and sins. Now there's
people who deny that, but they're lying. Because this is what the
scripture says. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. Physically alive, but spiritually
dead. Spiritually dead. And we saw
there earlier that we were enemies in our minds with God. That was my state before the
Lord saved me. I was an enemy in my mind. I
had cooked up in my own imagination who I thought God was, and it
was not God. But that was my natural state. But I read these
verses, and I'm in wonder and awe at the great reconciliation
which has occurred, which the Lord Jesus Christ has wrought
out at Calvary's cross, again, all in the room and place of
His people. Now, some folks might say, well,
I didn't hate God. Well, your actions showed that
you did. before the Lord saved you. We may not have verbally
said that, but our actions showed that, didn't they? Our sins showed
that. Our rebellion before God showed that. Our thoughts and our deeds betrayed
us. See, the self-righteous man will say, no, no, I wasn't like
that. The believer says, yeah, that's me. That was me. And we need peace with God. We
need peace with God, beloved. But there's not one human being
in their natural state who ever seeks this peace. Because in
our natural state, Scripture says, there's none that seeketh
after God. None. There's non-righteous. No, not
one. There's not one of us who can
bring about peace with God by our own works. Not one of us.
Not one of us. And I don't care whether they're
works, people think, or religious works. Not one thing can gain
us merit and favor with God in anything we do. God must be the one who brings
about this great reconciliation between Himself and His elect. And it is all by His authority
and all by the appointment of God the Father. Look at verse
19. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness
dwell. This reconciliation, beloved, this great peace that was wrought
out by the Lord Jesus Christ, was all planned and all purposed
by God in eternity. And it is executed by Him as
well. It's executed by Him. He's the
one who has put it into execution. Turn if you would to 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. Paul speaks of this wondrous
work of reconciliation which the Lord Jesus Christ wrought
out at Calvary's Cross in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter
5. Look at verse 18, and all things
are of God who hath reconciled us to himself. See who's doing
the reconciliation? It's God. He's reconciled us
to himself. How? By Jesus Christ. And hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. This is what Brother Gary and
I were talking about. Gospel preachers have wonderful
news. We proclaim the ministry of reconciliation. We're ambassadors
for Christ. It's wonderful. Reconciliation
with God through Christ and Christ alone. Not by anything you do. Praise His mighty name. Look
at 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." This is what
Gospel preachers proclaim. The Lord's ordained preachers
are our ambassadors. And again, we have wonderful
news. Wonderful news. Look at this in verse 20, now
then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did besiege you
by us. We pray you and God be reconciled to God. So the work
of reconciliation he committed to his son. And the word of reconciliation
he committed to we believers in Christ. And every believer
is an ambassador for Christ. We're ambassadors for Christ.
And it's our privilege to tell the wondrous things that God
has done for us, isn't it? It's a privilege when the Lord
opens the door for us just to tell people about the wondrous
works that He's done. It's amazing. It's amazing. The fact that God has reconciled
His people, the people of His own choosing, without any violation
of His own justice, He can have mercy upon those who have offended
Him, those who have broken His law, Those whom His justice has
a rightful claim, and His justice had a rightful claim upon us,
didn't it? It did. He can have mercy upon His chosen
people in Christ. Because only in Christ, and only
in Christ alone, is His law and justice fully satisfied. Only
in Christ, nowhere else. Then look at verse 21, 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. All our sins were
imputed to Christ, and his spotless righteousness is imputed to us.
It's wonderful. Wonderful. Now think of this
too. This mercy, this redemption,
this reconciliation, it all flows from the free grace of God in
Christ. It all flows from the sovereign, God the Father's sovereign
hand. And again, it all comes to us
in and through Christ and Christ alone. The only way we are reconciled
to God is through Christ. Nowhere else. Not even a pinprick of our works.
Nothing. It's all what He's done. It's
all what He's done. That's a blow to self-righteousness
for man, isn't it? But God's people rejoice. We
rejoice. Oh, this is precious. My salvation is not dependent
on anything I do. It's wholly dependent upon He
who has reconciled me to God. Wonderful. Turn, if you would,
to Romans chapter 5. We'll look at verses 8 and 9. And just marvel. Marvel at this
redemption, marvel at this reconciliation, beloved, because again, it all
flowed out of the free grace of God to us through Christ. And think of the love behind
that. Think of the love, this everlasting
love that God the Father has for his people. And he would
send his son to die in our place to reconcile us to him. We who were enemies in our mind, Would we do anything like that
for our enemies? We wouldn't, would we? To see how His thoughts
are so far above ours, and His ways are not our ways, beloved?
Oh my, oh my. Look at this in Romans 5, verses
8 and 9. But God commandeth His love toward
us. Toward who? Towards His people.
in that while we were yet sinners, we were enemies in our minds,
Christ died for us, much more than being now justified by His
blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. through him,
saved from wrath. We are saved from the wrath of
God, beloved, because that wrath that was justly due you and I
who believe fell upon our savior, fell upon our substitute. See,
God's law has to be satisfied, doesn't it? I mentioned this
out west. God's law has to be satisfied either in the sinner
or in the substitute. We'll praise God for his people.
God's law and his wrath has been satisfied in the substitute. Oh, what mercy we've received.
What mercy we've received. Then look at verse 10. The Lord
Jesus Christ, He's the great peacemaker between God and His
people. For if when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more
being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. His life. And He gave His life for His
people, didn't He? He gave His life for us. He's
loved us with an everlasting love. And think of this, that
everlasting love that God has for His people was fully manifested
at Calvary's cross. It was on display. Just look
to the cross as a manifestation of God's love to you who are
His people. When you read what He went through
on the cross, what He died and what He bore even before that,
Read that as Christ, the love of God being manifested for every
one of his people. Because who did he die for? Who
did he give his life for? His sheep. His sheep. And every one of God's people
can say, he did that for me. Wonder of wonders. Wonder of
wonders. So may we just rest and repose
in this precious truth as we go through each day that we are
reconciled to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn if you
would to Ephesians chapter 2. He's the great mediator, the
great reconciler between God and man. He's God incarnate in
the flesh. And all the fullness of the Godhead
dwells in him bodily. And Paul, all through Paul's
writings, he's continuously pointing the believer to Christ. Continuously. Pointing you away from self and
the false teachers that are trying to bring works in, and pointing
you right to Christ. God's preachers still do that
today, don't we? We just tell you, look to Christ.
Look to Him and live. Look at this in Ephesians 2,
verses 14 and 17. For He is our what? Peace. Who's our peace? The Lord Jesus
Christ. He's our peace, beloved. who
hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of
partition between us." This is speaking of the Jews and the
Gentiles. There was a wall of partition in the temple where
the Gentiles could only enter certain points. Look at this,
"...having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one
new man, so making peace." Peace. And that he might reconcile both
unto God, both Jews and Gentiles, in one body, by the cross, having
slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you."
I look at this and say, that was me. Which were far off. And to them that were nigh. And
we know that we've been bought nigh by the blood of Christ.
Oh my. And we ought to always give the
glory to God for this wondrous salvation, for this wondrous
reconciliation. You know, He's made us meet or
qualified to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
and light. And the Lord Jesus Christ needed and needs no assistance
or help to save souls. Boy, you listen to the The Savior, supposed Savior that
some men proclaim, He can't do nothing. But our Savior can do
all things. He don't need no assistance from
anyone to save His people. He went to Calvary's cross and
He purchased every one of them by the shedding of His own precious
blood. And He, by the power of the Holy Spirit going forth,
draws them. They come to Christ, every single
one of them. And they don't need no help.
Don't need no help. That's why when you talk to someone
about the gospel, just leave them alone. Don't, don't, just
leave them alone. Let God deal with them. Let God
deal with them. I heard about a preacher who
was converted one time, and one of the old prime preachers, somebody
came up to him and said, I think the Lord's working on such and
such. And you know, the preacher said, just leave him alone. Just leave him
alone. Let God deal with him. And the
Lord saved him. That's what we ought to do too.
We just tell people the wondrous things that God has done for
us. We leave them alone. It's God's work. It's God's work.
And the Lord Jesus Christ, He doesn't need any help from anyone.
He's God Almighty in the flesh. He's God Almighty in the flesh.
And we were reconciled to God by the shedding of His precious
blood. We can't make the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ effectual to ourselves or anybody else. That's
God's work. That's God's work. The blood
of Christ must be sprinkled on our hearts by the power of God,
the Holy Spirit, before our consciousness can be purged from dead works
to serve the living God. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
accomplished salvation for his people. It's finished. It's an
accomplished salvation, beloved. And you know that we're complete
in Him. In Colossians chapter 2 verse 10 it says, and ye are
complete in Him. I was talking to a friend of
mine who reads and writes Greek when I was out west and I bought
this verse up to him because it's a verse for me that I just
absolutely love. To me it's one of the most spectacular
verses in the Bible. And ye are complete in Him. And
I asked him, because he, as I said, he knows Greek. And he, before
I could even, when I mentioned the word, he goes, oh, that's
the Greek word for, and I looked it up, and I said, yeah, that's
the one. And he said, Wayne, when Paul penned that, and when
the Colossians would read that Greek word, they would know exactly
what he was saying. Because that Greek word supposedly
means that you can't, and it was used for when people filled
their water pots. and they were filled to the top
and you could not get anything else in there. It was completely
full. And he said, so just the common
people like you and I would understand that. They'd be, well, you can't
add anything to it. Oh, isn't that marvelous? And
ye are complete in him, in Christ. Complete. Complete. Look at verse 20. And here's
evidence of that. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto
himself, by him I say whether they be things on earth or things
in heaven. Here before us in verse 20 we have the method of
how God's people are reconciled to God through the work of the
great peacemaker, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at this. And having
made peace. It's past tense, isn't it? Heaven made peace. Made peace
in the Greek is defined as to be a peacemaker, that is, to
harmonize figuratively, to make peace. So the false teachers
here at Kloss were trying to bring about, or were falsely
teaching a partial reconciliation between God and man through the
intercession of angelic mediators. And they were saying, well Christ
is just one of those mediators. Now Paul, see how Paul battles
that error? He just puts it right forth before
them that we are complete in Christ. He speaks of an absolute
and a complete reconciliation accomplished by the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Word incarnate, thus showing that the false teachers
teaching of other mediators was ineffective because they were
neither human nor divine, but the Lord Jesus Christ is God
incarnate in the flesh. And it was necessary for the
great peacemaker to be born into the world, that he as the God-man
should suffer for all of God's elect in their place, the sinless
one dying for sinners. And note the words in having,
there's no doubt. There's no doubt. Again, in this
verbiage, it's something that's being accomplished by the one
who is spoken of and having made peace. And this is all one word in the
Greek. It means to make peace, reconciliation,
also concerning itself with bringing about a cessation of hostilities. And this is wonderful. It means
to reconcile fully. To reconcile fully. We see here
before us that the Lord Jesus Christ is our only peace with
God. He is every believer's peace with God. Again, we have no peace,
no redemption, no salvation. without Christ, but in Him and
through Him we have reconciliation and peace with God. And having
made peace through the blood of His cross by Him to reconcile
all things unto Himself, by Him I say whether they be things
in earth or things in heaven, our text says through the blood
of His cross The Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, purchased peace
and redemption and reconciliation and salvation on the cross for
His people, all by the shedding of His own precious blood. He
did it all alone, didn't He? He did it all alone. Scripture
says this, Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the
flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers
to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own
blood. Acts 2028 to feed the church of God, which he hath
purchased with his own blood. God himself has purchased his
church. The God man. We are redeemed,
we are bought and paid for our beloved. by the precious blood
of Christ. So let us ponder that this peace
was made through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that was
shed at Calvary's cross 2,000 years ago. It is then that he
died on the cross as our substitute. And we didn't know Jesus Christ
in our natural state, did we? We had no idea that He was our
peace until we're delivered from the power of darkness. Until
we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God. Until He gives
us true saving faith, all by the regenerating power of the
Holy Spirit of God. You see, salvation is of the
Lord. It's all His doing. We're simply receivers of this
wondrous grace. Scripture says this, who was
delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. The Lord Jesus Christ was delivered
for our offenses, for our sins. The sinless one died in the place
of sinners. And then he was raised again
for our justification to show that God was absolutely satisfied
with that sacrifice. Therefore being justified by
faith, Romans 5.1. Therefore being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. How? Through the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Great Peacemaker. Only through Him. Only through
Him. Note in verse 20, the verse brings
forth two words here too. By Him. By Him. And having made
peace through the blood of His cross, by Him, to reconcile all
things unto Himself, by Him I say, whether they be things in earth
or things in heaven. This mercy, this redemption,
This reconciliation all flowed again from the free grace of
God to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. There is salvation in
no other. One must believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ as salvation in our text is only by Him. Only by Him. Now this destroys
the error of man trying to bring about reconciliation with God
by their own works. There's a lot of folks out there.
who try to bring about their own reconciliation with God by
their works. And there's all kinds of religious
works out there, isn't there? All kinds. Now after the believer's
saved, the love of Christ constrains us, doesn't it? We don't go crazy. He keeps us. He keeps us. But these two words here destroy
and rebuke the false religions of our day. And they show that
anyone who is trying to gain merit and favor by God, anyone
who is putting their trust in their sacrifices or penance,
or that they pray a certain length of time, or how much of the Bible
they read, or how many times they knock on doors, It's all stuff I used to think
was gaining me merit and favor with God before the Lord saved
me, beloved. Oh, He's so gracious. God is so gracious. Those were
all refuge of lies because salvation is by Him, by the Lord Jesus
Christ. And anything we do after, we
do out of love for this wondrous salvation that God has done for
us. And we know it don't gain us any merit with God at all.
All the merit we have and all the merit we need with God is
in Christ Jesus. It's all by him. It's all by
him. By him. By the Lord Jesus Christ. So
these two small words destroy and rebuke the false religions
of our day. And also during the Colossians
time. Because many people say there's many ways. Oh, there's
many ways to God. No, there isn't. By him. By him. And it's not by him and something
you do. It's by him. It's not by him and in baptism,
like the Church of Christ is. No, it's by him. So this these
two words, two little words. Help us identify. False religions. Because it's by him. By him. Turn, if you would, to Acts chapter
16. I want to show you something here. Acts chapter 16. Now, if
there was anything that we could do, right, for our salvation,
Paul would have told this man. I love, I absolutely love this
little portion right here. And I know it's familiar to us,
but I want to read this in light of, by him, by him. Acts 16,
verses 27 to 31. In the keeper of the prison,
awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open,
he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing
that the prisoners had been fled. Remember, they cast Paul and
Silas into prison, and a great earthquake occurred. And back
then, if prisoners got out, man, whoever was the keeper of the
prison, they'd be dead. They're gone. They're going to
get killed. because it's their responsibility
to keep the prisoners. But look at how God's sovereign
hand is at work here. This is wonderful. But Paul cried
with a loud voice saying, do thyself no harm for we are all
here. Then he called for a light and
sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and
Silas and brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to
be saved? By him. Right? Think of that. By Him. Look at
this. And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved. By Him. By Him, beloved. Salvation is only in and through
the great peacemaker, the Lord Jesus Christ. We must cease from our labors
and our works and flee to Christ. And may God make you willing. If He hasn't made you willing
to do so, may He make you willing to do so. To just cease from
your labors. Just flee to Christ. And Christ
alone. This is what every believer's
done, eh? It's all by the power of God. He made us willing in
the day of His power to flee to Christ. So we see in our text
the great work of reconciliation is God's work. It's not man's
work. It's God's work. It's all by Him, by the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. And this was all purposed and
planned out by God the Father. All purposed by God in eternity
and executed at Calvary's cross. We are reconciled to God. We
have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Holy Spirit gives faith
and repentance to his people and they trust Christ. And it shall be for a sign, for
a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt, for they
shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors and he shall
send them a Savior. And a great one. A great one. And he shall deliver them. Isaiah
19, 20. God sent us a Savior, didn't
he? By Him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. And He's a great one, isn't He? And He's delivered us, hasn't
He? He's delivered us from all our sins, beloved. That's found
in Isaiah 19.20. And it shall be for a sign, for
a witness, for the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. For they
shall cry unto the Lord. And God's people, we cry unto
the Lord, don't we? When He reveals Himself to us,
when we're born again of the Holy Spirit of God, oh, we cry
out to the Lord. Because of the oppressors, and
He shall send them a Savior, and a great one. And He shall
deliver them. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's all, salvation is all
by Him, and through Him, and in Him. And again notice in Colossians
1.20, by Him is stressed twice in this verse. This is another
blow again to the false Gnostic teaching. Paul showing that reconciliation
with God is only through Christ, by Him, in Him alone. And having
made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile
all things unto Himself, by Him I say, whether they be things
in earth or things in heaven. By Him, by Him, by Him. By Christ
alone, neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. By Him beloved, by the Lord Jesus
Christ and Him alone. By him to reconcile, it says
here, our text continues, by him to reconcile all things unto
himself, by him I say whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven. And now the word reconcile here
in the Greek is defined as to reconcile completely. Isn't that
wonderful? If we are reconciled completely
to God, by and in and through Him, the Lord Jesus Christ. That takes us right out of the
equation, doesn't it? We're simply receivers of this
wonderful, marvelous grace. It also means to reconcile back
again. Remember, we were enemies in
our minds. to reconcile back in, to bring
back a former state of harmony. Remember Adam before he fell?
Oh my, Christ is the second Adam, beloved. He's the second Adam. So the question comes up, who
are we reconciled to? Well, we're reconciled to God,
through Christ Jesus our Lord. Oh, He's reconciled us completely
to God. Completely to God. God's people
have been fully redeemed. Fully redeemed. And all our salvation
is in Christ. And all our salvation is by Him. By Him. It's wonderful, isn't
it? This is wonderful news. Again, God's preachers proclaim
the reconciliation, the ministry of reconciliation. He offered Himself up in our
place before God. Turn, if you would, to Hebrews
chapter 2, verse 17. And then put your finger in Romans
chapter 5. He offered Himself up in the
place of His people before God. Why? To make reconciliation. To make reconciliation for His
people. Hebrews 2.17 Wherefore in all things that
behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, He might be
a merciful and faithful High Priest in all things pertaining
to God. And verse 17 ends with like this, to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people. Our Savior made peace through
the blood of His cross. Peace for His people through
the blood of His cross. Now the Greek word for reconciliation
also means to reconcile back again, again to bring back a
former state of harmony. Again, we fell on Adam, who was
our federal head. But we who believe are reconciled
back to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And He has redeemed
and reconciled every single one of His people. Turn, if you would, to Romans
chapter 5. Romans chapter 5 and he he's reconciled us by the
shedding of his precious blood. Romans chapter 5. We look at
verses 12. To 15. 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. When Adam fell, there's our fall
right there in Adam. Very, very clearly and very plainly
stated. For until the law, sin was in
the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from
Adam to Moses, even over them. that had not sinned after the
simmetude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that
was to come." So, we are children of Adam, so we come into this
world dead in trespasses and sins. But not as the offense,
so also is the free gift. For through the offense of one,
many be dead, So through the fall of Adam, many be born dead
in trespasses and sins. Much more the grace of God and
the gift by grace, which is by one man, remember, by him, by
him, Jesus Christ abounded unto many. And that many is all the
elect of God from all the ages. Note it doesn't say all, but
it does say many. Aren't you thankful if you are
one of God's blood-bought saints that you're included in that
many? My. We're reconciled back to
God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, and God the Son, all
through the Lord Jesus Christ, because they're all God. Our sin was against divine majesty,
and against divine judgment, and divine justice, and it was
against divine law. And this great reconciliation
has been accomplished for the elect of God by the great peacemaker,
the Lord Jesus Christ. All by the shedding of His precious
blood upon Calvary's cross, so that we who were far off We who
were enemies in our minds are bought nigh by the blood of Christ. And it's God who's done this.
He sought us out, didn't he? He brought us to a place where
we hear the gospel. He continues to bring us to a
place where we hear the gospel. And we love to hear it, don't
we? Tell me the old, old story. Tell
me about what Christ has done for me. Tell me that my salvation
is complete in Christ. And just keep telling me, and
just keep telling me. Oh, it's wonderful. Reconciled to God by and in and
through the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore we glorify Him,
don't we? We give Him all the praise. This wondrous salvation,
this wondrous reconciliation has been accomplished by Him. By Him. For us, who are His people. By Him, though. Just let those
words burn in your heart. By Him. By Him. By the Lord Jesus Christ. By
His sovereign life-given power. The Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
one mediator between God and man. And so Paul's bringing this
forth that there's only one mediator by him to combat the error that
the Gnostics are bringing forth, saying there's multiple mediators
between God. And you know that stuff's still
out there, right? There's one of the largest churches
in the world. What do they say? They say somebody's
a co-redeemer. They say you're supposed to pray
to her. That's a false mediator. By Him. And by Him alone. The Lord Jesus
Christ. Only by Him are we reconciled
to God. In the sacrifice made by Christ. In His death. The atonement which He accomplishes in and through the shedding of
His precious blood by Him are we reconciled to God. The blood of the cross signifies
not merely the fact that Christ died on the cross, but also the
value of His death in the shedding of His precious blood. for the sins of His people. And
He has accomplished a complete salvation. And there is a divine satisfaction
in that work that He's wrought out for His people. He's redeemed His people from
their sins. And God's people say, it is finished. Praise His mighty name. Praise
His mighty name. Heavenly Father, we thank Thee
for Your goodness and mercy and grace. Oh Lord Jesus, what a wondrous
salvation You have brought out for Your people. How the fact that we who were
alienated in our minds by wicked works. We hated thee
by our deeds and our actions and our words. But yet you've loved your people
with an everlasting love. And may we who are your blood-bought
people leave here just rejoicing in this wondrous truth that we
have been reconciled to the Father by Thee, Lord Jesus, and by the
shedding of Thy precious blood, You who are our Savior, our Redeemer,
and our Lord. Lord, we look forward to the
day when we will see You face to face, and we will join with the other
blood-washed saints who have been glorified to be in Thy presence
forever. and we will sing with them, worthy
is the lamb that was slain. Worthy are you, Lord Jesus, to
receive glory and honor and power. We love you because you first
loved us. In Jesus' name, amen.