2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. We'll
begin to study this subject of reconciliation
in this passage where reconciliation is most clearly established and
taught. I try to encourage you and I
try myself when studying any doctrine Go to the text where
that doctrine is taught in Scripture and build your doctrine from
that text of Scripture. For example, if you want to study
about divorce and remarriage, go to 1 Corinthians 7. That's
where it's dealt with. It's dealt with many places in
Scripture, but that's where the subject is dealt with and explained.
You want to understand the believer's relationship to the law, go to
Romans chapter 7. That's where it's dealt with.
That's where it's explained. You want to understand what the
scriptures teach about baptism, you go to Romans chapter 6, where
baptism is dealt with and explained. If you want to understand what
the scriptures teach concerning reconciliation, you go to 2 Corinthians
chapter 5, and here the Apostle Paul explains by divine inspiration
how reconciliation is accomplished. who is reconciled to God and
when we are reconciled to God by the work of his almighty grace.
Like every other aspect of salvation, reconciliation is the work of
God's free grace brought in us by the power of his spirit upon
the merit and because of the merit of the blood of his dear
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's begin in verse 17. Here
is a glorious, glorious promise. I've repeated it so many times
in the last several weeks, but how it needs to be rung from
the housetops throughout the world. As I look at this 17th
verse, I don't really know whether it's best to call it a promise
or a statement of fact. Really, it's both. And whichever
way you take it, it is a glorious promise, a glorious statement
of fact. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
now that's the key. If any man be in Christ, and
I realize we live in this generation where everything's supposed to
be politically correct. The scriptures never were. But when he uses
the word man, he's talking about it in a generic sense. He's talking
about the whole human race or all of mankind. And he's saying,
if anyone is in Christ. if you're in Christ by God's
decree, by God's election, but particularly in Christ by the
experience of his grace through the new birth. Brought to be
in Christ, joined to Christ as the vine and the branches are
joined together as one, joined to Christ as the body and the
head are joined together as one. If any man be in Christ, believing
on the son of God, Trust in Christ, drawing the sap of life from
Jesus Christ as the branches draw the sap of life from the
root. So we believing in Christ, being
graft into Christ, draw the sap of life from him by faith. If
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Now the word, Bobby,
is creation. You remember our Lord said, behold,
I make all things new. The new creation begins with
the new birth. Now understand that. The new
creation begins with the new birth. We look forward to a day
when the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and melt away
and the heavens and earth being dissolved, the Lord God will
make a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
But that new creation begins in the new birth. He says, if
you're in Christ, you're a new creation, a totally new creation. The old man is not repaired and
men didn't sent to the hospital to get healed. The old man must
die. But in the new birth, God creates
men and women new. He doesn't create them anew. He creates them new. He doesn't
just regenerate that which was dead so that we are brought back
to life again, but rather he puts life in us and we're given
an entirely new life, a new heart, a new will, a new nature, new
principle of life. That which is born of God is
holy. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit is the
language of our Lord. He's a new creature, a new creation. Now, this, however, is talking
principally about our being reconciled to God. He says old things are
passed away. Now, that doesn't mean that when
a person is born again, his old lusts die. They don't. Because of poor teaching and
preaching, because of self-righteous notions concerning religion,
The most shocking thing I discovered after God saved me, most shocking thing I discovered
was that the old lust didn't die. The old corruptions, the
old man didn't die. He didn't even get any weaker.
He didn't even improve. But rather those old lusts, the
flesh, the old corruptions of nature are just exactly what
they ever were, and they will never get better. They no longer
reign. The flesh no longer rules, but
the flesh will never bow. But God puts in you a new creature,
a new creation. When he says old things are passed
away, he's talking about the old record of our sin in heaven. and reconciliation principally
has to do with this matter of our record before God and then
our attitude before God. And when we are in Christ, we
come to understand that this old record of sin has been put
away by Jesus Christ. Our believing Him does not do
anything to put away the old record of sin. But our believing
Him is the declaration of God in our consciences that sin has
been put away. Now look at this. Behold, all
things are become new, so that those who are in Christ are forgiven
of all their sins in the court of heaven. forgiven of all their
sins, so that in the books, in the ledger books of the court
of heaven, God Almighty has expunged the record of our sin. And He
stamped upon us, as Mark prayed a little bit ago, perfect righteousness. That's what imputed means. To
impute something means to lay to their charge. And it's a legal
term. When the believer is said to
have righteousness imputed to him, made to be the righteousness
of God in Christ, it means that God, having imputed our sins
to His Son, has now imputed His righteousness to us. And we come
to understand that only as we're given life and faith in Jesus
Christ. Oh, but oh, the blessed privilege
of having God speak peace to your soul and declare to you,
old things are passed away. I just, I can't express this
like it ought to be expressed. And I never get over the thrill
of it. God Almighty, will never deal
with any man, any woman, any sinner in Christ on the basis
of his sin. But he deals with us in Christ
on the basis of perfect righteousness. insofar as law and justice is
concerned. He chastens us for sin because
he loves us, but he doesn't punish us. He does not impute sin to
those to whom righteousness has been imputed. Now look at verse
18. Here is a gospel proclamation.
In preaching the gospel, we do not offer reconciliation to sinners. We do not set before me in terms
and conditions they must meet in order to be reconciled, but
rather we proclaim reconciliation accomplished. And all things
are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ.
So as Paul explains this matter of reconciliation, he says this,
like all other things, but particularly this matter of a sinner who is
naturally the enemy of God being brought into union and fellowship
with God in Christ, this is of God. and he hath given to us
the ministry of reconciliation. All things are of God, who hath
reconciled us, notice the language, who hath not who shall, who hath
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and he's going to explain
when that took place in the next verse, and hath given to us the
ministry of reconciliation. That is, he's given to us the
word of reconciliation. I come to you speaking for God
as God's messenger, preaching the gospel of God's grace, proclaiming
reconciliation finished by Jesus Christ the Lord. Reconciliation
done by His blood atonement. Look at verse 19. To wit, that
is to say, that God was in Christ when the Lord Jesus died at Calvary,
when the Son of God laid down His life for us, a ransom for
many, when the Son of God was made to be sin for us and slain
for us upon the cursed tree as our substitute. God was in Christ
Reconciling the world. And you don't need me to explain
this to you again. I've explained it to you in the
previous weeks. When he says reconciling the world unto himself,
obviously, obviously to anyone whose mind has not been perverted
by religious nonsense, he is not talking about every person
in the world. Cannot be. There were multitudes
already in hell when Christ died. There are multitudes born since
Christ died who shall yet perish under the wrath of God. So he
did not reconcile everyone in the world to himself. What he's
saying is this. God was in Christ when he made his son to be sin
for us and punished his son in the room instead of sinners,
reconciling the world of his elect or his elect scattered
Through all the world, every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue,
out of every people, out of every rank and clime in society, God's
elect are found. But they were all reconciled
to him in Christ, back yonder at Calvary. You see that? He
was in Christ, reconciling the word of his elect unto himself. How? As I said a moment ago,
not imputing their trespasses unto them. What? Not charging their sins to them.
Not charging their sins to them. Now, please do not take this
in any way as a matter of trivializing what took place at Calvary. But
if I go out to dinner, I ask you to go out to dinner with
me, and I reach over and pick up the tab, and you walk on out
the door once that tab is paid, You can do so legally and never
have to look over your shoulder. You never have to look over,
well, I wonder if they're going to catch me. Oh, well, that's foolish.
The tab's been paid. Here's the receipt. It was done
by me. The charge that you incurred
because you ate dinner was imputed to me because I willingly took
the charge. Listen to me. The Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, paid our debt at Calvary when God,
refusing to impute sins to us, imputed our sins to His Son. And as you believe on the Son
of God, you never have to look over your
shoulder. Oh, I would to God, I could believe
Him just that way. so that I just quit looking over my shoulder,
fearful somehow, somewhere, somewhere down the road, somehow he's going
to after all get me. Oh, that's such a shameful ingratitude,
such a base act of unbelief, to look at God Almighty who has
given us his son as though somehow later on he will someway impute
sin to us. He was not imputing our trespasses
unto us, but unto his son. and hath committed to us the
word of reconciliation. Reconciliation began back in
eternity when the Lord God Almighty in his purpose of grace resolved
in eternity to have mercy upon us. Now, I know that's language
that doesn't suit God. But I'm not God and you're not
either. And the only way I can understand Him is put it in human
terms. There never was a time when God decided to save us. He always did. There was a time
when He decided to love us. He always did. There was a time
when He decided to be gracious to us. He always did. But it
is revealed in Scripture. as a covenant made between the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit from eternity, so that
the Father, Son, and Spirit contracted together in that covenant of
peace and of grace to make peace and reconcile us to Himself by
the sacrifice of His dear Son. And when it was done, it was
done. Let me show you. In Romans chapter
8, the scripture tells us that whom He did predestinate, then
He also justified. Whom He justified, then He also
glorified. already, before the world began,
done in God's purpose. In Ephesians 1 verse 6, we were
accepted in the beloved according to that covenant wherewith he
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
It is a covenant of grace and a covenant of peace by which
we who now had been made to see and experience God's grace, were
from eternity, even before we became his enemies, reconciled
to him in his purpose of grace. This reconciliation, which was
purposed from eternity, was actually executed in time and accomplished
by the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary, who reconciled us to God by his
precious blood. In this 19th verse, Paul explains
to us what was going on at Calvary. When God sacrificed his dear
son in our place, he reconciled us to himself. Now this reconciliation
accomplished by the shed blood of the Lamb of God was a reconciliation
made for sin and made for sinners to make atonement for sin and
to bring chosen sinners into the blessed union of fellowship
and communion with God, which could never be disrupted at all.
Let me show you this in a couple of passages. Look in Romans chapter
5. Romans chapter 5 and verse 10. In Daniel 9, the prophet Daniel
speaks of the accomplishment of redemption by Christ. wherein
he would, by his obedience to God as our substitute, bring
in everlasting righteousness, he would also make reconciliation
for iniquity. Here in Romans 5 and verse 10,
the apostle says, for if, now look at it, when we were enemies,
this didn't take place whenever we decided to believe. This didn't
take place whenever we, by an act of our will, decided we would
turn to God and become his friends, oh no. No, this took place back
when we were enemies, enemies at law. Not enemies in experience,
for we hadn't yet been born, but enemies at law, so that in
our father Adam, we were considered as sinners. Now, considered in
Jesus Christ, we are now reconciled to God. Look at it. When we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.
Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved through his life.
Look in Ephesians 2, verse 16. You see, reconciliation is both
a thing done and a thing to be done. It is a thing done insofar
as the law of God is concerned. And yet for some of you sitting
here, I hope, some of you are God's elect who yet shall be
reconciled to God in your hearts. Many of us have been made reconciled
to God in our hearts, but it was done in eternity and done
at Calvary and then executed in time in our hearts, applied
effectually to us by God's spirit. Here in Ephesians 2 verse 16,
and that he might reconcile both, that is Jew and Gentile unto
God, in one body by the cross. Do you see that? He reconciles
his elect, Jew and Gentile, at the cross, having slain the enmity
thereby. Look in Colossians chapter 1.
Here the Apostle Paul, like he does in 2 Corinthians 5, explains
this matter of reconciliation. He's explaining what God does
for sinners in Christ. In Colossians 1 verse 20. And
having made peace. Having made peace. This book never, never once says
you make peace with God. You can't make peace with God.
But this book declares that Christ has made peace. Having made peace. Look at it. Through the blood
of his cross. There was enmity, something standing
between God and man. That's something called sin.
That's something called a broken law. So that God and His justice
could not look favorably even upon a people whom He loved and
embrace them. Because His justice must be satisfied. His law must be honored. His
holiness must be vindicated. And now Jesus Christ has taken
away that barrier between God and his elect, having made peace
through the blood of his cross by him, by Jesus Christ, to reconcile
all things to himself. By him, I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven, and you, you, that were
sometime alienated, look at it now, and enemies in your mind
by wicked works, You see, back in eternity, God set his heart
on me. He loved me with everlasting
love. There never was a time when he hated me. Oh, no. No,
no. There are no passions with God.
He doesn't love one day and hate the next, or hate one day and
love the next. Oh, no, no, no. He changes not. But God, having
loved me from eternity, set his heart upon me and purposed to
reconcile me through the blood of his son and through the sacrifice
of his son at Calvary. But having purpose to love me
and purpose to be gracious to me and purpose to receive me,
he could not do so except his justice and law be satisfied.
Someone must come between me and God. Let me see if I can
illustrate it for you. You remember back in Was it 1
Samuel? No, 2 Samuel, where Absalom had
rebelled against David, and he had killed his brother, and Absalom,
in fear from his father this time, he runs off and he's in
hiding, because he knew David would kill him. The law required
it. Though David loved him, he'd
have killed him. Now, after a while, David's passions
began to assuage, and Absalom called Joab, and he said, Why don't you intercede for me?
And Joab went to David, and he said, David, Absalom's been gone
long enough. Let him come home. And David
said, all right, you can let him come back to Israel, but
he'll never see my face. You can let him come back to Jerusalem,
but he shall not see my face. And so Absalom came back to Jerusalem
and dwelt in Jerusalem for two years. Never spoke to his daddy. His daddy never spoke to him.
Never looked on the king's face. The king never looked on his
face. And finally Absalom called Joab again. He said, he should
go intercede for me again. And Joab went and interceded
for him again. And David called for Absalom. Now listen to me. David loved Absalom, but the
law had been broken. Justice had been violated. And
it must be obvious to all in Israel that David will not tolerate
the violation of law and justice, not even for Absalom, until at
last one intercedes for him who represents law and justice. And
Joab represents our Lord Jesus Christ who intercedes for us.
God Almighty, though he loved us with an everlasting love,
could never speak favorably to us. or look favorably upon us,
or be gracious to us, or receive us unto himself. He could never
show his face, nor let his face be seen by us in favor until
Christ the intercessor, on the basis of law and justice satisfied,
calls for God to be appeased with us. And that's exactly what
happened to Calvary. Now, God was in Christ reconciling
us to himself and now he has reconciled us. But we were still
enemies in our minds by wicked works. Forget it now. Yet now
hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh to present you holy
and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. The time came. when God the Holy Spirit, according
to the purpose of God from eternity, comes and effectually, graciously,
with omnipotent power, speaks peace to the hearts of chosen
sinners, causing us to be reconciled to God. Now, what does that mean?
We were enemies to God in our minds, children of wrath, just
like everybody else by our wicked works, until the Spirit of God
comes and He sprinkles our hearts with the blood of Christ. That
is, He applies to us effectually what Christ has done at Calvary,
and when He does, He causes us to look to Christ in faith. He
gives us life and faith in Him, and we hear Him speak peace to
our souls. Now, I'm telling you, on the
basis of the revealed gospel of Christ in this book, as soon
as a sinner looks to Christ in faith, God the Spirit speaks
peace to his soul. I spoke to Brother Bruce Crabtree
last night. Young man in the congregation
up there in Indiana. I've preached to him for years.
Bruce has preached to him for years. Brother Glenn Whitehead's
son came to Bruce last week and told him, he said, I believe
God's done something for me. He said, I couldn't understand
why you wouldn't tell me God had saved me. He said, now I
understand he had to tell me. And I'm telling you, he's the
only one who can. He's the only one who can speak peace to your
soul, and he does it as soon as you look to his son. And if
you look to his son, he's the one who gives you grace to look.
Faith's the gift of God. Now, here's a gracious persuasion. Children of God, let me remind
you one more time how God the Spirit conquered your spirit,
how he brought you to your knees and reconciled you to himself
by the blood of Christ. Here in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse
20, now then, now, since God was in Christ reconciling the
world to himself, since he has committed to us the word of reconciliation,
now then, we, We are ambassadors for Christ. Messengers sent to represent
the King of glory. What a task, what a privilege. Ambassadors for Christ, as though
God did beseech you by us, as though God himself stood here
tonight in this body of flesh and spoke to you by my lips. Somebody says preachers take
themselves too seriously. I haven't met one yet that takes
himself seriously enough. As though God did beseech you by
us. As though God spoke to you by
us as we speak his word. We pray you in Christ's name. The Lord Jesus is not going to
come down here and speak to you in an audible voice. He's not
going to come down here and knock you on the head and give you
a vision. He's not going to come down here and sit on the end
of your bedpost and speak to you by an angel. If he speaks
to you, he'll speak to you through these lips or somebody else's
just like him. The lips of a sinful man, redeemed
by his blood, saved by his grace, called by his spirit. And we
pray you in Christ's name, be reconciled to God. What's that
mean? Quit fighting God. You see, that's
the problem. Unbelief is not a matter of fighting
law, fighting mama, fighting daddy, fighting brothers and
sisters, fighting neighbors, fighting the system, no. Unbelief
is fighting God. Every one of us by nature hates
God. Now I'm calling on you to quit
hating God. I'm calling on you to bow to the rule and dominion
of Jesus Christ the Lord. The issue is not whether or not
you want to go to heaven when you die. I've got better sense than
that and you do too. The issue is you don't want to
give up the rule of your life. And that's what faith is. Faith
in Christ is submitting to His dominion over everything as your
rightful Lord. And the only way you can do that
is if you believe Him. You cannot submit to Him if you don't believe
Him, and you cannot believe Him without submitting to Him. The
two things go hand in hand. We pray you in Christ's stead,
be you reconciled to God. For He, God Almighty in His holiness,
hath made Him, His darling Son, to be sin for us, who knew no
sin, that we, we who are the objects of his love, mercy and
grace, we who are redeemed by his blood, we who are called
by his spirit, we who look to him for everything, might be
made the righteousness of God in him. Now let me show you three
things and I'll wrap this up. First, we are all by nature, all of
us, since the sin and fall of our father Adam, enemies of God. Look in Romans chapter 8. You recall what Paul said, we
were in our minds alienated, enemies in our minds by our wicked
works. Here in Romans 8 verse 7, The
Apostle says the carnal mind is enmity against God. Enmity against God. Not just the enemy of God, but
the carnal mind. That's the natural mind of all
human beings. The natural heart of all humanity
hates God. Hates it. We despise the fact
that He is God. His character, His attributes
are odious to us. His purposes, His providences,
we look at them and we consider them to be unequal. We consider
them to be matters of inequity and injustice as though we might
be the judges of God. How often have you heard men
speak and yourself spoken before God saved you by His grace and
fought often afterwards? That's not right. That's not
right. Because the carnal mind hates
God. We hate the fact that God is. By nature, all men despise
God being God, God being absolute God, and having absolutely his
word everywhere. Absolutely. We despise his attributes. We despise his works. We despise
his character. We despise God's son. If we could
do so, we would do exactly as the Jews and Romans did, we'd
nail them to the tree. Now everybody has their notion
of God, and they like what they think God ought to be. They have their imaginary gods
and they frame God in their minds so that he is such a one as themselves.
Kindly weak, kindly helpless, kindly pitiful, like we are.
Kindly frustrated at times, like we are. And that God they like,
but God revealed in scripture man despises. God who requires
and demands absolute surrender and is in absolute control everywhere,
who always does his will, all men despise. God who will not
accept man's sinful deeds, all men despise. God who demands
satisfaction, all men despise. Everybody hates God's Son. Everybody. Everybody. Now, I recognize everybody
loves little baby Jesus lying in a manger. Everybody does.
But they despise Christ crucified, the gospel of Christ crucified.
Everybody loves the risen Jesus on Resurrection morning when
they celebrate Easter. You know, you put your Easter
bonnet on, you come to church, and you sing of the resurrection,
have pictures in your mind of an angelic spirit with a halo
rising from the dead, and everybody just loves that. It looks so
good and sweet. Everybody despises the enthroned Christ. who requires
and demands that you surrender to him, who sets in rule and
judgment over you, and will by no means clear the guilty, and
you cannot by any way make up to God except by trusting him,
his blood, and his righteousness. Everybody hates the Spirit of
God. No man by nature is in any way disinterested or in any way
neutral with regard to God. Every man by nature hates God
Almighty. And I realize we live in this
age and generation of religious nonsense, so foolish, so abhorrently
unbiblical, that Pentecostalism has become the norm of Christianity
in our day. That ought to tell you something
about it. It's become the norm. Everybody's in favor with that
foolishness everybody used to laugh at. I mean, man, when I
was a boy, Oral Roberts come to town, everybody in town laughed
at it. Everybody. Today, the lawyers
go listen to it. That foolishness has become accepted. But the fact is, all men love
the spirit of Antichrist, Larry. It's the spirit of Christ they
despise. That spirit that speaks of Christ, directs you to Christ,
requires that you believe on Christ, that teaches you of your
sin, of your guilt, of your corruption, of your depravity. That spirit
that insists and demands that you must be robed in the righteousness
of God's dear son, washed in his blood, or you cannot be accepted
of him. We are all, by nature, haters
of God and haters of one another, hating and despising one another. That's the nature of man. It's
the nature of man. Say, well, don't you think men
naturally love their families? Yeah, as long as they don't cost
them too much. That's the way it is, isn't it?
Sad as it can be, that's the way it is. Maybe he's sitting back there
on Sammy's lap. He dotes over that child, loves that child
to death. But by nature, that can soon end. Just let it grow
up in Carson. Carson's the right place. Man
and wife lived together for 40 years. Seemed to get along all
right. And then they start to feud.
You think they love each other? Go to the court hearing. Man's love is, man's love more
fickle than water, more fickle than blowing dust in the air.
Men by nature love themselves and hate God and hate one another
and hate everything except themselves. That's the nature of man. Even
of God's elect, we're just like children of wrath, even as others,
until God by his spirit comes and subdues us. You see, the natural man doesn't
need to be coerced. He doesn't need to be coddled.
He doesn't need to be somehow tricked into getting religious. He got to be subdued. He got
to be subdued. And Jesus Christ is going to
subdue you one way or the other, either by his grace or by his
wrath. He's going to subdue you. He said, unto me shall all men
come, every knee shall bow, every tongue confess. Judgment is subduing
by force. Reconciliation, Rex, is subduing
by grace when it makes you willing in the day of Oh, thank God for grace that
sweetly forced us in. Reconciliation is the restoration
of fellowship and communion, peace between those who were
once enemies. Now, reconciliation implies that
there was once friendship. There was a time when I met Lindsey
Campbell. I never will forget the first time I met him. I came
down here and preached. I was over in Lexington and meeting
his back. My soul, this is a long time ago, longer than either
of us want to remember. Lindsay gave me a copy of George Whitefield's
biography by Dallimore, volume one. Still got it back here in
my library. We visited a little bit together, and we'd been friends. Got to be better friends over
the years. But we weren't reconciled because we never were enemies.
Never knew him before that. We never had been friends, parted,
and then come back together. But reconciliation implies that
there was a friendship. that by some means has been broken
and now must be restored. You see, Adam was created in
the image and likeness of God. We were created like God in character. And then sin enters and we become
the enemies of God and by nature, every man lives despising Every
thought of God is odious to him. Everything that he knows to be
true of God, he despises. Until God comes in grace and
reconciles your heart to the fact that he is and causes you
to like it, causes you to rejoice in it. Oh, he who is Our God
is God indeed and we rejoice in him. We are by nature God's
enemies. Reconciliation is the restoration
of fellowship and it can only be done one way. Our repentance would never do
the job because our repentance won't make up for our sin. Our
believing in Christ would never reconcile us to God because our
believing would never take away the barrier of our corruption
and sin, which God can never tolerate. Our good works certainly
would never reconcile us to God because we can do nothing good
in God's sight. Well, how then can sinners, enemies
against God by nature, be reconciled to God? Only by the blood of
his dear son. And every time reconciliation
is spoken of in scripture, spoken of as being through blood. Every
time, every time. Represented in that mercy seat
was all last week. God said, I'll meet you on the
mercy seat. Where blood, the blood of the
Paschal Lamb covers my broken law to make atonement for your
sins. That's where I'll meet you. And
Christ is the mercy seat. Now God will meet you on the
mercy seat, nowhere else. And he will reconcile you to
himself through the blood of his dear son. But how on this
earth will you ever come to God, to that throne of grace and that
mercy seat? only by His grace. That's all. That's all. I know it's not popular in our
day. We have no trouble with it in this place, but some of
you probably do. Certainly you who are yet without
Christ have trouble with it. But I'm telling you, if God leaves
you alone, you're going to hell. If God lets you have your way, You'll play games with yourself
until you wake up one day in hell under the wrath of God.
You will not bow to Christ. You will not believe on Christ.
You will not seek Christ. You will not come to Christ.
You will continue all your life with your fists just squaring
God's face. Unless God comes in your heart
and breaks your arms of rebellion and makes you willing to do this. And if he ever will, if he'll do that for you, you
will spend eternity in overwhelming gratitude because he would not
leave you to himself, but reconcile you to him by the power of his
grace and the blood of his dear son. I pray that he will. Christ's sake amen Lindsay you
come lead us in him if you will