Take your Bibles now and turn
with me to 2 Corinthians chapter five. 2 Corinthians chapter five. The message this morning is about
being reconciled to God. I fear there's much confusion
even among believers concerning this subject or doctrine, if
you prefer, of reconciliation. Most, I would venture to say,
will consent to the fact that reconciliation to God is necessary. It's taught in the scriptures.
The prophet said, can two walk together except they be agreed?
In order to have fellowship with God, there must be reconciliation. You cannot have fellowship with
God and walk in darkness. John tells us that. And in order
for us to understand the context of this chapter, chapter 5, very
controversial chapter, in fact. If you read the old writers and
listen to what men had to say, it's a very controversial chapter.
But in order for us to understand the context of the chapter, we've
got to go back and look what he said in his earlier chapters,
which led up to chapter 5. In chapter 3, he tells us that
God had made him and those of that common calling, apostles
and preachers and evangelists, that God had made them able ministers
of the New Testament, not in letter, but in the spirit of
the living God. God was pleased to not only ordain
the preaching of the gospel to the salvation of sinners, but
he also ordained that the spirit of God accompany these men and
perform the work. that they were unable to do.
Paul said, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything
of ourselves. People, I get this all the time. You think you're the only one
who knows the truth. Sometimes I feel that way. Sometimes
I feel that way. Sometimes Paul felt that way.
But he said, not that we're sufficient to thank anything of ourselves.
I don't think that I'm sufficient for this. But the Spirit of God,
he's made us able ministers. He made us to understand. He
made us to know. He arranged his providence for
us to preach. And he works in the hearts of
sinners. This great work of regeneration and reconciliation and revelation
is beyond our ability, but it's not beyond his. Not beyond his. And then secondly, he tells us
in chapter four, verses three and four, that because God hath
made him or them able ministers by the spirit, if his gospel
be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. in whom the God of
this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them. Chapter 4, verse 5, for we preach
not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your
servants for his sake. We just bring the message. I
have no power to make it effectual. It's my responsibility to make
it clear. He'll make it effective. And God Himself does the commanding
in both creations, in the first and the last. And in both creations,
He begins with light. And that light, I believe, is
the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,
our Lord. You want to know what creation
is all about? Learn something about Christ.
He's the creator. It's made for him. And we have
this treasure, Paul said, in earthen vessels that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not us. If we were of ourselves able
to do the work, who would get the glory? We would. But we're
not, and God purposed it that way on purpose that he gets all
the glory. Believers honor and appreciate,
support and defend ministers of the gospel knowing who they
are and what they have and who gave it to them. And then in
chapter 5, verse 12, he gives us reason to believe that some
in their midst gave the appearance to lead folks to believe that
they were able ministers of the gospel, but not in their hearts. There was something missing. There was something missing.
This message was not in their hearts. They become wise in their own
deceits, Paul said, proud knowing nothing. doting about questions
and stripes of words, perverse disputings. Disputings of men would corrupt
my destitute of the truth. I learned again, visiting with
my relatives, of the blindness of the natural man. And I listened
to them talk, and I'm telling you, they could be days from
standing before God and were so flippant in their talk and
so careless in their hopes and laughing and all of these things
and they're fixing to die. Their wives in their own deceit,
Paul said, They look like believers, they're
gloried in appearance, but they're not in their hearts. And then
Paul said, our motivation, that which is behind us, that which
drives us and keeps us going, that which suffers men's attitudes
and conduct toward us, that which suffers divisions and accusations
is the love of Christ. That's the love of Christ. That's
what was missing in these men. They didn't have Christ in their
hearts. We love him. Sometimes that's hard to say,
isn't it? But we do. We love him. Now, I don't have
a perfect love for him, but I love him, and I love him because he
first loved me. That's why I love him. We love him because he gave himself
for us. He held nothing back. We love
Him because He singled us out, called us by His grace, and taught
us the truth, turned us around. We love Him because He didn't
send us strong delusion to believe a lie, but from the beginning
chose us to salvation. It's the love of Christ that
constraineth us because, now watch this, 2 Corinthians 5 verse
14. Because we thus judge, that word
means to discern or perceive or understand, that if one died
for all, then all were dead. All were dead. He called by the apostles the
one or the one that died because there was only one who was of
himself sufficient to die for all. Christ. He called the one mediator between
God and man. He calls himself the one true
shepherd of the sheep. The one high priest who entered
into heaven itself and by his own blood obtained eternal redemption
for us. He called one in the passage
because there's only one Lord. There's just one. Well, you have your opinion and
I have mine. I have my Lord and you have yours. One of them ain't Lord. They're just one Lord. Paul said they'll come preaching
another Jesus. They'll use his name. I'm going to tell you something.
The Christ of God is never prophesied in the plural. You ever notice
that? Just one. When he, it didn't
say when them, it said when he, when he come. He never prophesied in the plural,
always in the singular. John said there cometh one after
me. Now Christ said they're gonna
start crying, Christ is over here, low Christ is over here,
all kind of Christ, Christ is everywhere. No, just one. Just one. And this one appointed
by God, chosen and ordained of God, died in the room instead
of dead sinners. Dead sinners, all for whom he
died were dead in trespasses and sins. without hope, without
ability, without life. And the all here is talking about
all his elect, his sheep, his chosen, his church, his body. Nowhere, I hope you'll hear me,
nowhere in the scripture is his sacrificial death set forth in
a universal scope. I know Armenians love to run
and grab that word, world. I've got that word, world. Here
it is. It says that, "...is taken from
every tribe and kindred and tongue and people under heaven, and
so he sets forth Christ as reconciling the world unto himself. In the light of the Jewish prejudice
up to that time from the from ancient days all the way up to
the appearance of Christ, everybody looked at Israel as God's elect.
But all along the way, he was saving Gentiles, wasn't he? Saving
them. Our Lord said there's many widows
in the land of Israel back in those days. God didn't save any
of them. Just this one Gentile widow. The world is opposed to Israel
alone. And we know this is so because
he tells us in the second half of verse 19. Look at it there
in your Bible. He tells us in the second half
of verse 19, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Now if
this was true universally, there'd be no need for judgment. There'd be no need for hell.
because he wouldn't impute their trespasses to them. Is that right?
But it is true of God's elect and God's elect alone. It's obvious
that he still imputes trespasses to some, otherwise there'd be
no need of hell or judgment. All right. We reason from this
well-known fact that Christ died for all his elect, and they were
all dead when he died, But he didn't just die for them to put
away their sins. He did put away their sins through
his death, but that was not the only reason. He died, look at
it here, 2 Corinthians 5 verse 15. He died for all that they
which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto
him which died for them and rose again. He died that we might
live. There was more that took place
on Calvary's cross than a mere legal transfer. He died that we might live, that
we might be raised from the curse and the reign of sin to walk
in newness of life with Him. He redeemed us from our sins
and therefore we belong to him. He died for us in our room instead,
took our place before the awful wrath of God, bore our sins,
the scripture said, in his own body on the tree. And he rose
from the dead, he rose for us, rose from the dead declaring
our justification before God. and ascended into glory with
us in union with Him and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies. And there He sits for us presently,
interceding for us, arranging all things for us, preserving
us. You know you're being preserved? My wife used to can jelly and
I'd sit there and listen for them lids. Pop. Pop. Every time you hear one
pop, that's a good one. That's a good one. We're being
preserved by Christ. Interceding for us, arranging
all things for us, preserving us, feeding us, giving to us
the great privilege of actually taking part in the ministry of
His elect. Are you with me so far? All right. Now I want to have your undivided
attention for this next little bit. Are you listening? There is in this chapter a two-fold
reconciliation set forth. Set forth by the Holy Spirit
of God. First of all, there's one of
the sinner being reconciled to God. And the other of the sinner being
reconciled to God's reconciliation. Now let's look at these two things,
and I want you to see this as it's set forth in the scripture.
Now let's look first of all at the sinners being reconciled
to God. 2 Corinthians 5.18. And all things are of God who
hath, see that word hath, that's past tense, who hath reconciled
us to himself by Jesus Christ. What causes most of the misery
of our souls is a misunderstanding of our reconciliation to God.
We think We're in just a continual disagreement
with God over our old nature and our conduct and our unbelief
and disobedience for God, and we stay upset all the time. My friend, our reconciliation
to God took place before we were born, better than 2,000 years
ago. took place on Calvary's cross.
If you wanna know the truth of it, it took place in eternity
past when God purposed it and chose his son to accomplish it. Turn with me to Colossians chapter
one. We got nothing to do with this
work. We have nothing to do with this
work of reconciling ourselves to God. Nothing. I want you to get a hold of that
because there's peace in that. There's something here to be
rejoiced in. There's something in here that is a solid foundation,
something on which to build. We've got nothing to do with
this work of reconciliation. This work was accomplished by
the God-man 2,000 years ago. And that's why works religion.
And works religionists can never have any peace or assurance before
God. It's an ongoing work with them.
They're continually, continually, continually trying to gain God's
favor. Colossians 1 verse 21, now watch
this. And you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
Men and women steeped in idolatry, pagans, ceremonialists, legalists,
false free wheelers, and ritualists, and owl walkers, and card signers,
and on and on the list goes. Yet now hath he reconciled. How did he do it? Verse 22. in
the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Now if you're in
Christ, that's how God sees you. That's how he sees you. And he
did this while you were still dancing around totem poles. He did this while we were still
dancing naked around an idol. He did this while we were still
participating in Armenian religion. He did this when we were blind
and naked and ignorant and walking in darkness and walking in the
vanity of our minds. He did this before we knew him. He accomplished this. He accomplished this while we
were still exercising our so-called free will and making our decisions
for Jesus. Listen to this one, Romans 5
verse 6. For when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. God commendeth
his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. while our imaginations were practicing
idolatry, God was justifying us in the resurrection of His
Son and seating us with Him in the heavenlies. In verse 10 of
Romans 5, 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, that is, His life in glory, His resurrected
life. is glorified life. All right, go back to 2 Corinthians
5 and look at verse 18 again. All things are of God who hath
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. Not one sin remaining. Nothing against us. Not any man
or woman for whom Christ died. Won't have he appeared in the
end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. We had nothing to do with that. I didn't participate in his death,
I didn't make it effectual by believing it, and I didn't put
myself in the mix by choosing or making some decision. He did
all this in Christ long before you and I were ever born. All
right, preacher. How do I know who Christ died
for? How do I know who he reconciled? Who are those in those white
robes? Isn't that what John said? Who
are those? Who are these elect? Who are
these ones in his company in white apparel? Who are these?
Unreprovable in his sight. How can I determine if I'm one
whose sins have been put away and stands before God without
any sin accepted in the blood? Well, that brings me to the second
doctrine of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5, the last part
of verse 18. He'd given to us the ministry
of reconciliation. Too wit. Here it is. God was
in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not charging their
trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of
reconciliation, and so, verse 20, We are ambassadors for Christ,
as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you, and Christ
did, be ye reconciled to God. That is, be you reconciled to
his reconciliation. We were reconciled in Christ.
Be reconciled to that. Believe on that. Rest on that,
because that's all you're going to get. Reconciliation is not paying
your tithes on time. Reconciliation is coming into
agreement with God's reconciliation. That's what it is. Turn from
your old ways and concepts and be reconciled to God's reconciliation
in Christ. Quit walking down aisles and
quit trying to speak in tongues and quit trying to make yourself
acceptable to God. Confess your sin. I'm a sinner. God have mercy on me, the sinner.
Who got his favor that day? Huh? Oh, he sat in the back,
couldn't even lift his head up. He said, God have mercy on me,
the sinner. Take your place with the cursed
sons of Adam and look to Christ alone for reconciliation. Listen
to the text again. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. He's a new creature. How so? Does that mean he don't have
any sin? Oh, he's got that old man's sins present. You won't
have to go long to find him either, will you? Just rub him the wrong
way. You'll find out. Sin's still
in him. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. What's that mean? Old things
are passed away. Our old standing. You know what
a child of Adam has as a standing? He fell. That's it. That's it. He's got no reconciliation. He's
got no ability. He's got no light. He's a fallen
sinner. That's all he's ever going to
be. There's none righteous. God himself looked down from
heaven to see if there was any good or any righteous or any
that sought after him and there was none. Read Romans chapter three. It
describes our nature in detail. The poison of ash is under our
lip. No fear of God before our eyes. But we don't have that same standing
in Christ, do we? God put us in Christ before Adam
fell. And that's why he didn't destroy
the world when Adam fell. Because his elect were in Christ.
and he'll suffer the fallen for his elect sake. He's a new creature, old things.
His old standing has passed away. His old cursed life in this world
has passed away. Your old concepts of God have
passed away. Your old righteousness, we don't
cling to that anymore. We cling to the righteousness
of Christ. Our old wisdom, our old ideas and ways, old things
are passed away and behold, all things have become new. A new
standing in Christ, the second Adam. A new and right knowledge
of God. That's eternal life, isn't it?
A perfect righteousness sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. Old things are passed away and
behold, all things have become new. New limitations. Now I know everybody thinks they
can pray, but I'm gonna tell you something, only believers
can pray. Not just so. They looked at the Apostle Paul
and said, behold, he prayeth. You mean all that words he uttered
That's what I mean, all them old self-righteous words he uttered
before. I didn't hear that. I did not
pray it. Believers pray. Believers worship. Believers
know and understand the gospel of God's sovereign grace. It
makes perfect sense to me, don't it? Huh? It don't to the natural
man. You've got new limitations, new
understanding. We're new creatures. Be reconciled
to God. Let go of this cursed world and
its empty promises and ignorant reasoning and lay hold of Christ.
Look to Christ. Believe on Christ. For in Him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you're
complete in Him. Look to Him. Be reconciled to
God. For, now listen to this, he hath
made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. And no other gospel,
no other hope, no other reconciliation, you'll look to the sinner substitute
or you'll die in your sins. Paul knew this so well, he said,
when I come into your presence, he said, I'm determined to know
nothing else among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And all those for whom Christ
died shall be reconciled to God's reconciliation. He's gonna call
you, he's gonna teach you. He's gonna show you how God put
away your sins. He put them away in his son,
he put them away in a substitute. You're not gonna call on him
until you see him as the all-sufficient one. Then you're gonna call on
him. You see yourself a helpless, empty, fallen sinner. Can't do
anything but sin. Just sin, sin, sin. That's all
you can do. But he can do more. He can reconcile
you. He can open your heart and mind,
and He can show you His love in the Savior. He can show you
your reconciliation in the Savior. And I tell you, when He does,
you're going to put all these piddly religious toys, you're
going to lay them down. And you're going to lay hold
of Him. Lay hold of Him. May the Lord ever remind us that
there's nothing else to preach. Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
and we're reconciled in him. And through the preaching of
the gospel, he reconciles us to that reconciliation. That's
what it means to know the Lord. To know the Lord. All right.
Lord bless his word for Christ's sake.