this evening to 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, beginning
our reading in verse 11. Knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men but we are made manifest unto
God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. For we commend not ourselves
again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf,
that you may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance
and not in heart. For whether we be beside ourselves,
it is to God, or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constraineth
us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're
all dead, or then all died. And that he died for all, that
they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto
him which died for them and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know
we no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after
the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are
passed away, behold, all things are become new. And all things
are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,
and hath given to us a ministry of reconciliation, to wit that
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word
of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you,
in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. 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. We read these same verses last
Wednesday evening, and I pointed out to us the words of the Apostle
Paul in verse 12. that he was giving the believers
in Corinth, as he said, somewhat to answer them that glory in
appearance. Now, these men that he said they
would have this to answer them are men who profess to be ministers
of the gospel of Christ. They came to Corinth, and they
came to Galatia, and they came to other cities where the Apostle
Paul went preaching the gospel, and God saved sinners, and raised
up a church. And it wasn't long before these
men came, and they claimed to be ministers of Christ also. And they spent their time trying
to discredit the Apostle Paul, And telling the people, most
likely, yes, what he preaches is a good message, but there's
more. There's more that we have to offer unto you. Keep your
places here, but look back to 1 Corinthians chapter four. Chapter four and verse 15. To
the same church, but earlier. I write these things to shame
you, not to shame, I write not these things to shame you, but
as my beloved sons, I warn you, for though you have 10,000 instructors
in Christ, yet have you not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus,
I have begotten you through the gospel. In other words, other
men may come and they may preach to you. They may instruct you
in the things of God, but don't forget this, that you only have
one from whom you heard the gospel first. And God used that gospel. God used that message as an instrument
in your salvation and calling you out of darkness into his
marvelous light. Don't forget. who you first heard
the gospel from. Now, you might wonder, why would
Paul spend his time defending himself like he did? The simple
answer is, if they could belittle Paul, if they could somehow cause
the people to believe that Paul was not really an apostle, he
wasn't one of the 12 that walked with the Lord Jesus Christ when
he was here before he was crucified. He's not really an authentic
apostle. He's not equal to the other apostles
like James and John and Peter. If they could somehow discredit
him, then they would discredit his message, the gospel message,
the gospel which he didn't learn from man. He tells us that in
Galatians chapter one. You and I, if we know the gospel
tonight, we've learned the gospel through the voice of some other
man. Paul, no, he learned the gospel
from Christ. Christ taught him the gospel.
That's very clear. as he tells us in Galatians chapter
one. So if they could somehow discredit
the apostle Paul, they would discredit his message, the gospel. And like most false prophets,
most false teachers, what they were saying is, yes,
what Paul preached is good, it's true, but here's something else. It's not the entire message. We've got something more. to
add unto you, to give you. Paul reminded them in that passage
there in 1 Corinthians 4 that it was through his preaching
the gospel to them. It wasn't through him preaching
the law to them that they had been converted. It was through
the message of Christ, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Usually
these false teachers which came along, which followed Paul, they
were Jewish. By nationality, they were Jewish.
Many of them would come from Jerusalem, kind of like the Mecca
of Christianity, you know. They would come from there and
their presence just added something to their authority, to their
message. And Paul has to emphasize the
fact that The message he preached and the gospel by which they
were saved was a gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ had given
him, had taught him, had revealed unto him, and it's the only gospel. If anyone comes preaching any
other gospel, let him be accursed. That was his message. Now last
week here back in 2 Corinthians 5, last week, We looked at verses
11 through 16, and we saw how that Paul defended his conduct. Some thought he was a fanatic. They accused him of being a fanatic. He didn't defend his conduct.
He describes his conduct. And he tells them, and he tells
us the reason for his conduct. was because of the love of God,
that the love of Christ constrained him. It was God's great love
in giving his son for sinners, giving Christ to die for him
that constrained him to be what he was, to preach like he preached
and to live like he lived and travel and do what he did. It
wasn't for monetary gain. It wasn't for fame. It wasn't
for a larger crown or anything like that in eternity. No, it
was the love of Christ that constrained him. And that should be true
of all of us. It should be true of all of God's
children. Now in the verses that remain,
verses 17 through 21, the subject is clearly reconciliation. We see that several times in
these verses. Reconciliation. Charles Hodge,
he defined reconciliation in these words. To remove enmity
between parties at variance with each other. To remove enmity
between parties at variance with each other. Now, in that definition,
the parties would be, first of all, God and men. God and, as it says in these
verses, the world. Those would be the parties. God
and the world. And the enmity which caused the
variance between God and men is sin. We know that. Sin. In Isaiah 59 in verse 2,
God said, your iniquities, your iniquities have separated between
you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that
he will not hear. The enmity which existed between
God and the world is sin, man's sin. After Adam sinned in the
garden, You know, he was driven out. God drove him out of the
garden, drove him and his wife out of the garden. And the thing
that we should be aware of and should realize is he placed a
chair of him there with a flaming sword to keep the way to the
tree of life. Now, the tree of life, of course,
is a symbol or a representative of Christ. He put that that cherub
there to keep the way. In other words, to teach us that
man, as he had now fallen into sin, could never by his own actions,
by his own work, come back to God. He had to be reconciled
unto God. This showed the enmity, the separation,
that now existed between the two parties, between God and
the world. Now, here's three truths. This
is my message, this is my outline. There's three truths I want to
point out to us tonight from these verses about reconciliation. First, the method, the method
of reconciliation in verse 18, first part of verse 18. How does
God go about reconciling the world to Himself? And all things
are of God who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ. The method of reconciliation. Now, when the verse there begins,
all things are of God, we know that's true in every area. All things are of God. Creation
is all the work of God. The angels didn't help create
this world and the heavens and everything in it. God did. It's
God's world. And don't you like the way the
Lord Jesus Christ spoke about the Son? He causeth His Son. His Son. to shine upon the just
and upon the unjust. Whose sun is it? It's God's sun. Whose moon is it? Whose are the
stars? Whose is the world? Whose is
all of creation? It's God's because God created
all things. In the beginning, the scripture
tells us, the Word The eternal Word of God, without Him, was
not anything made that was made. All things are of God in creation. All things are of God in providence. God is the one who works all
things in this world after the counsel of His own will. But
in this passage here, the all things, notice in verse 18, and
all things are of God, the all things are the things which are
mentioned in verse 17. The things that are mentioned
here in verse 17 is of God. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
who put you in Christ? God did. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all blessings,
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. All things are
of God. Who put you in Christ? And if
this is speaking about our new creation, that is what we would
call conversion, regeneration, being saved, all things are of
God. Salvation is of the Lord. All things are of God. And we
know it says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new
creature. The word creature there could
be translated creation. Only God can create. Man cannot
create, man can build some things out of materials that God has
already created, but he cannot create anything with which to
build something. New creation is the work of all
things are of God. To be in Christ is the spiritual
way to express the saving union which exists between Christ and
every believer, Christ and His people. His people are in Christ
in a covenantal way, just like all men were in Adam. And when
Adam sinned and disobeyed God, we fell, we sinned in Adam. So
his people are in Christ in a covenantal way. And not only in that way, but
we are in Christ as members of his body. Everyone who is saved
is a member of the body, the mystical body of Christ. We're
one with him. He's the head and we are members
of his body. We are in him by the Holy Spirit
dwelling in us. The Holy Spirit comes to live
in us when he regenerates and gives us life. And we are in Christ by faith. And that's called a vital union.
It's just like the branch is in the vine. For the branch to
have life, it must be in the vine. And for you, for me, for
any law center to have life, we must be in Christ. We must
be in Him by faith. Now God's method of reconciliation
we see here is by Jesus Christ. God is a reconciler. It is accomplished. He accomplishes reconciliation
by what God did by Jesus Christ. Man, man never makes reconciliation. We saw that verse which said,
your iniquities have separated between you and God. And if we would think about this,
it was like a giant barrier. If we could maybe use this image,
we have God, Holy Lord God, and there's a barrier between Him
and all men. And that barrier is sin. And
it's so high, man cannot scale it. It's so deep, man cannot
go under it. It's so wide, he cannot skirt
it. It's a barrier that keeps men
from God. Sin. And God is the one who must
reconcile man unto himself. And the method he chose is by
Jesus Christ. The enmity between the two parties,
between God and man, it has to be removed, and it has to be
removed by an act of God. It was accomplished by Jesus
Christ, that is, by His death. Keep your places here, but look
with me to Romans 5. Now two verses here in Romans
5, verses 9 and 10. Much more than, Romans 5 verse
9, much more than being now justified by his blood, Now verse 10, for
if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of his son. Being justified by his blood,
being reconciled to God by the death of his son. Show that God's
method of reconciliation is by the Lord Jesus Christ satisfying
the justice of God. the Lord Jesus Christ as a sacrifice
to put away the sins of his people. Back in our text, verse 19, he
enlarges on this method of reconciliation. The world, to wit that God was
in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them. His method of reconciliation
is by Christ, and it was by not imputing the sins of those who
are reconciled. And that term, the world, we
know that doesn't include every individual in the world, because
not all men are reconciled unto God. What does it mean then?
It means both Jews and Gentiles. The world, just like for God
so loved the world, It means of his people in the world, whether
they be Jew or Gentile, we were both reconciled unto him through
God not imputing our trespasses unto us. To whom then did he
impute our trespasses? The surety, the surety, the Lord
Jesus Christ. in that covenant of grace when
he became the surety for his people, then their sins were
imputed to him, charged to him. And he became liable before the
justice of God to satisfy God's justice. And then look in verse
21, he even speaks more about this method of reconciliation,
for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. The Lord
Jesus Christ. What do we see here? We see substitution,
don't we? We see substitution. He, that
is the Lord Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, now he knew what
sin is. He knew that. He's God manifested. But he did not know sin in the
sense he never sinned. He had no sin of his own. But
he was made to be sinned. The sins of his people were charged
upon him, as it says there in Isaiah. He hath laid upon him
the iniquity of us all. And then he was punished. to
this end, that we might be reconciled unto God, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. In Christ, we are made the righteousness
of God. Now the second point I want to
make is the ministry of reconciliation. Also in verse 18, the second
part, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Now the ministry of reconciliation
was given to the apostles and was given to all men that God
calls into the ministry. We're given both the privilege
and the responsibility, the duty to announce to men that the very
God against whom we have all sinned that we may be reconciled
unto him. He may be just and the justifier
of the ungodly. Think of the way that the apostle
Paul put that, just and the justifier of the ungodly. He doesn't say
just and justifier of those who clean their lives up just and
justifier of those who are now walking on a new level, who now
have put sin out. No. Just and the justifier of
the ungodly. When he justifies those he justifies,
we are ungodly. We are sinners. But through the
reconciliation, through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, We
have this privilege to announce to men and women that God can
be just and justify all who come unto him by Jesus Christ, all
of them. You know, one of the requirements
of this ministry that he's given unto us is to be faithful. And
if you notice down in verse 20, Paul says that those who are
given this ministry of reconciliation are ambassadors. What is an ambassador? Well,
an ambassador is at least these two things. First of all, he's
a representative. You know, we have three branches
of our government. We have the executive, we have
the judicial, And we have the Congress. Sir? Legislative. That's the word I couldn't think
of. Now the ambassadors, they don't work for, they're not ambassadors,
they're not representatives of the legislative branch or the
judicial branch. They're, they are ambassadors
of the executive branch. They are representatives of the
president. They represent the president
in whichever country they are assigned to be an ambassador.
One of the things about them is that they are representatives
and they're messengers. They're messengers. They're given
a message. They're told the message that
they are to deliver to the authorities, to the leaders, to those in charge
of the country, wherever they are an ambassador. For instance,
I thought about this. Suppose, suppose, let's just
take a country, let's just take Guatemala. We have an ambassador,
the U.S., the president, he has an ambassador there in Guatemala
who represents him. But what if we have American
citizens visiting, tourists in Guatemala? What if the president
of Guatemala, if he thought, I want some information about
the United States, I'll just go down here on the street and
just ask a few of these tourists? Well, they might could tell him
some information about the US, all right. But nothing would
be official. Not anything they said would
be official. Why? Because they do not represent
the president because they do not have the message from the
president. And those that God calls and
puts into the ministry of reconciliation, we are representatives of Christ. And our message is not something
that we conjure up in our own minds and our own heart. No,
our message is this message. His message, the message which
He has given us. It's so sad, isn't it, to see
so many so-called Christian churches and places in our country today
and around the world where the Word of God is forsaken. It's
forgotten. And men make up their own message.
They're false ambassadors. And you know, to to mistreat,
to offend an ambassador of the United States is just as if you
were mistreating the president. And the same thing the Lord Jesus
Christ said. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me. And he that receiveth me Receiveth
him that sent me. Now the last thing, the message
of reconciliation. The method, the ministry, the
message of reconciliation in verse 19. The message of reconciliation
is simply the gospel. The gospel. The word. of reconciliation. You know, one of the things,
if you look in Romans chapter 3, don't turn there, but you're
familiar with that passage, when Paul is showing how that the
whole world is guilty before God, both Jew and Gentile. There's
none righteous, no, not one. There's none that seeketh after
God. He goes through that list, and one of the things that he
points out is the way of peace they have not known. Man by nature,
he doesn't know the way of peace. He thinks, he thinks the way
of peace is by his doing. That's the way I can have peace
with God, by my doing, by my suffering, by so many Hail Marys,
so many Our Fathers. That's the way I can have, no.
The message is be ye reconciled to God. And that message isn't
don't reconcile yourself to God, be reconciled. And that's passive. That's passive. Be reconciled
to God. As we trust him, believe in him, We don't reconcile ourselves
to God, we are reconciled, be reconciled. And this message
is directed to the lost, but it is also directed to the saved. As believers, we need daily to
receive the peace of God in our souls. We need to receive that
peace through the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, some of the
false teachers have taught what they call pre-baptismal sins. That when a person is baptized
and all the sins which he's committed before his baptism, they're all
washed away, they're all put away. But now, sins committed
after baptism, we've got to do that ourselves. We've got to
do penance, we've got to do There's many different ways they have
of working out our own forgiveness. No, that's a lie of Satan. All our sins. He ever lives to
make intercession for us. Ever lives. And the blood of
Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us. And that word cleanseth,
that shows it's ongoing, doesn't it? Not just past sins, present
sins. future sins, all sins, the blood
of Jesus Christ cleanses. Be reconciled. Don't reconcile
yourself. That's not the message. Be reconciled. Receive, believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ, His method of reconciliation. May the Lord bless His word to
those of us here