The Ministry of Reconciliation

Listen Online:

Transcript:

The plan this morning was to continue on with our series on eternal security, which we’ve been in for a few weeks. But that’s not going to happen. As important as that is, and we will come back to it perhaps next week.

It didn’t seem quite fitting to go on with business as usual this morning when my heart is heavy. And I’m sure it’s the case for many of you in this room. Our society seems to be coming apart at the seams. And not just because of Friday’s Supreme Court ruling, although that certainly was a big part of it.

Folks, we’ve been coming apart for quite some time now. And it’s hard for me to believe that it’s entirely by accident. Any of you who saw the article that I posted online on Friday already know that I believe that the American people are being, well, there’s a game being played on us, I believe, by many in government, many in the media, who realized long ago that they can retain their wealth, they can retain their influence, they can retain their power if they just pit us against one another.

And if they can keep us as a country divided and we hate them and they hate us and they keep us not talking to each other, it doesn’t mean that we would agree anyway. But there was a time, I believe, where adults could have a civil conversation and disagree without being disagreeable. But we are being led to a time where that’s no longer the case.

It’s not been the case. I don’t believe it has to be this way. but that’s the game that’s being played on us.

If they can just get the Christians to hate the homosexuals and the homosexuals to hate the Christians, then they can keep us divided and they can pit us against each other. Somebody took issue with me saying that on Friday. They said, well, some Christians are homosexual. Okay, we have different definitions of words, but you know what I mean.

As groups of people, we are being led and taught to hate one another. Do we agree? No.

as I say we don’t have to hate each other that doesn’t mean that I agree with homosexuality it doesn’t mean that I agree with gay marriage I don’t I don’t agree with I don’t agree with anything that God’s word says is wrong but you know what I don’t hate the homosexual and shouldn’t have to hate the homosexual as a Christian any more than I hate the drunkard any more than I hate the one who’s involved in an adulterous affair any more than I hate you name it but they’re dividing us into little groups and pitting us against each other, trying to make us hate each other. And I’ve seen some of that hate come out on both sides since Friday. Some of the comments that have been made by professing Christians have just been disgusting.

Of course, many in government and in business have shown open contempt for Christianity, up to and including the rainbow floodlights at the White House. The calls for Christians to get in line with the prevailing popular culture and accept what we cannot accept or deal with the consequences. And I’m afraid that consequences will come.

But we’re being pitted against each other. And I still say, even though I don’t agree with these things, that I don’t want the government kicking down the doors of the homosexual and dragging them off in the night for the way they live their lives. any more than I want the government kicking down the doors of this church and dragging us out for preaching that it’s a sin against God.

Can we not disagree and still love one another, still be decent to one another? And the verse I quoted, one of the verses I quoted when I wrote this article was what Paul says in Galatians. And I know that he was speaking specifically to a church, but I think the principle applies to society as well.

Be careful if you, this is a paraphrase, but be careful if you bite and chew at one another that you’re not both devoured, that you’re not all consumed, and that’s where we’re headed. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s not just the gay marriage decision, although I will go out and say that that was absolutely wrong there. I did think it was ironic that Chief Justice Roberts said you can’t just invent law as the Supreme Court, although he was perfectly comfortable with doing so on Thursday.

But folks, it was not in the Constitution that marriage is a right. It was, in fact, the overruling of the constitutions of several sovereign states protected under the 9th and 10th Amendments of our Constitution. I didn’t come here this morning to talk about all that.

I still say it was an incorrect decision. I still maintain that what they validated was a sin against God. And it would be the natural human impulse.

Folks, I got so angry on Friday, not even at the homosexuals who were celebrating. I got angry at the media people as I was watching the nightly news on Friday. And they were talking about how this was a victory that the Constitution’s been up.

No, it has not. And I’m screaming and quoting the Tenth Amendment at the television. Anyway, you just don’t want to go there.

What I’m saying is it’s the natural inclination in these culture wars where we have been conditioned for decades to be emotionally invested, to be angry, to fight one side against the other. It’s the natural inclination with the emotions that you and I feel today as we believe our country has validated something that God’s word says no to. It’s the natural inclination to want to fight back.

it’s the natural inclination to want to lash out I don’t mean fight back in a physical way I don’t believe anybody in here would go harm anyone although I wouldn’t put it past some people in our country we’re at that point are we not it’s the natural inclination my deeply held beliefs are not being respected I’m going to go make somebody pay I hope it doesn’t come to that but I’m afraid it could the natural inclination is to want to lash out well I’m just going to tell so and so exactly what I think all the name calling that’s already been there. The ugliness from both sides. It’s not just on the gay marriage issue.

I don’t understand why. I don’t understand why 40 plus years after the work of Martin Luther King and so many others, why all of a sudden racial tensions are at such an inflamed level in this country. It shouldn’t be that way.

When I say I don’t understand why, I’m not saying there’s no reason for anybody to be upset. You know what? Some things have happened.

Some things have happened in the last few years that shouldn’t have happened. And sometimes, sometimes it’s been the police who’ve been in the wrong. Sometimes it’s been those that they’ve been dealing with who’ve been in the wrong.

But different communities and different races in our country are being pitted against each other. And the inclination is, if I don’t feel I’m getting the respect I deserve, that I’m going to just lash out. We’ve seen it time and again.

We’ve seen it with the rioters who nearly destroyed parts of Ferguson, Missouri. We saw it with the lunatic who walked in a couple weeks ago to a church house in Charleston, South Carolina, and shot unarmed people just because of the color of their skin while they were trying to have a church service. And I can’t remember where I read this exactly, but I did read a quote from the gunman where he said he almost didn’t go through with it because the people were so kind to him when he came into the church.

but he still did it. These people did nothing to him except existed as black people in America. What’s wrong with our country today?

What is wrong that we can’t be different? Understand when I say be different, I am not saying I approve of things God doesn’t approve of. But what’s wrong when we can’t be different or think differently without hating each other?

And as I’ve said, and this is the point, this is really where I’m going this morning. The natural inclination, the human flesh rears up and says, I’m not being respected. My point of view is not being respected.

I’m going to take matters into my own hands. Sometimes that means people resort to physical violence. Sometimes that means they resort to ugly words that benefit no one.

The problem is we’re torn further and further apart for no other reason than we want to make a point. Ladies and gentlemen, as Christians, we have to fight against the flesh. We have to fight against this natural inclination.

I’m not saying that we don’t stand up for right and wrong. Of course we do. I still believe that black and white are black and white.

I still believe that truth and lies are truth and lies. I still believe that what God’s word says, God means, and it applies to all of us. But at the same time, at the same time, I as a Christian cannot be concerned foremost. I cannot be concerned foremost with shutting down everybody who disagrees with me.

I can’t be concerned foremost with winning the argument. What a shame, ladies and gentlemen, if we as believers win the argument and lose the soul of the person we’re dealing with. We’re going to look at 2 Corinthians 5 today and what Paul calls the ministry of reconciliation.

You know what? There is something. These are not unimportant issues, some of them.

Some of them I look at it on the news and I think, who cares? Some of these are important issues and I’m not saying they’re not, but there’s something more important, ladies and gentlemen, even than what the government decides marriage is. By the way, let me just say here that it doesn’t matter what any court says.

It matters what God’s Word says. You can call marriage whatever you want. You can call marriage the union of a man and a woman.

You can call it the union of three men and two. but you can call it whatever you want to call it. God’s word hasn’t changed.

You can call yourself married. Change is nothing for me. But even more important, even more important than what the government has decided they want marriage to be, even more important than who’s right or who’s wrong or who’s better off in racial strife, more important than whether or not some flag from 150 years ago flies over the South Carolina state house.

More important than any other issue that we face today is the issue of mankind standing before God. If we forget that, if we forget that, it doesn’t matter what else we’re right about. There are already too many people in our churches all over this country who have morality but not salvation.

There is a difference. Jesus didn’t come to earth with a message of be good. Jesus came to earth with a message of you have not been good and you need salvation and forgiveness of sins.

Our message to the world, ladies and gentlemen, as a result of that cannot be be good. Yes, we want people to be good and do the right thing, but that’s not the utmost importance. That will not get them to heaven.

The only thing that will get them to heaven is the message that Jesus came with, which was reconciliation to God, this ministry of reconciliation. And so as we look at the chaos that’s enveloping our country, and we want to fight and we want to win and we want to be right, we’ve got to remember that victory does not matter nearly as much as reconciliation. Reconciliation between us and others, reconciliation of others, of mankind to God.

And folks, the reason reconciliation between us and others matters is because we carry a message of reconciliation to God. And if we see people as the enemy instead of people that Jesus Christ loved and died for while they were yet sinners, just as He died for us while we were yet sinners, then we will never take them that message of reconciliation. We will continue to hate them and fight them over things that will not make a difference in eternity.

2 Corinthians 5, starting in verse 10, says, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Ladies and gentlemen, there is a judgment day coming. Whether we believe it or not, there’s a judgment day coming.

I may not believe the consequences of sin are real, but that doesn’t make them any less real. I’ve moved my daughter to a toddler bed out of her baby bed, and now with her newfound freedom, she doesn’t understand the importance of staying in bed. And she’ll get up and she’ll rummage around her room, or she’ll get up and go to Benjamin’s room, or she’ll come to sneak down the hallway or into the living room. Finally, I told her, I’m going to put her back in her baby bed.

She didn’t believe me. Told her, I’m going to put you back in your baby bed. She didn’t believe me.

Finally, every time I caught her out of bed the other night, I started going and getting a piece of that baby bed and putting it in there around her still. Finally, she was, I didn’t put the baby bed back together, but she was surrounded by that baby bed. She didn’t believe the consequences were real, but they were real regardless of what she believed.

Ladies and gentlemen, the judgment of God is real regardless of whether or not we believe it. And the Bible teaches that we will all stand before Him in judgment. We are all going to stand before Him in judgment.

And I don’t think, not only, well let me rephrase this, not only do I know that all the excuses in the world will not matter. all the excuses for sin in the world that we could ever come up with. Well, I did it because of this.

I did it because of that. The devil made me do it. All the excuses for sin will not change the judgment of God.

I know that to be the case. But I also think, this is my opinion, that nobody’s going to dare to offer an excuse. Because I look at Isaiah.

I look at Isaiah who in chapter 6 had a vision of God and his holiness in the temple. And Isaiah fell to pieces and said, Woe is me, I’m undone, for I’m a man of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Isaiah, at the sight of the holiness of God, trembled.

And I think today that mouths that mock will one day be silenced before the holiness of God. And the sinful, wicked world will stand in judgment before God. And He will call to account all that’s been done.

We as believers will give an account to God as well. Judgment day comes for all of us. That everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

We need to remember that there is a judgment coming. We need to remember that not just to make us afraid and keep us in line, but to remind us because judgment day is coming, we need to be concerned about the souls of the people around us. Because the judgment of God is very real and the eternity of hell is very real. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.

The Bible says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And I’ve told you before, I would not want to stand before a holy God at the day of judgment with just my own righteousness to offer Him because there’s not much there. What a terrifying prospect to fall before the judgment of God without the righteousness of Christ. You and I are not that good.

The world looks at us and thinks that we think we’re amazing. that we’re the best people on earth. Can I say this on behalf of all of us?

We know we’re not. We have to be reminded of that from time to time, but we know we’re not. The only difference between us and the wicked world outside is the grace of God and the righteousness of Christ. And when we stand before God at the day of judgment, it’s not going to be, oh, I was so good.

I was a pastor. I was against gay marriage. Those things are not going to cut any ice with God.

Did you throw yourself on the mercy of God that he offered through Jesus Christ? That’s all that makes a difference. And because of this, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.

They were out there, Paul said, trying, pleading with people, trying to persuade them, trying to convince them. I don’t believe this is talking about arguing people into heaven. I’ve never yet seen that work.

That used to be my approach. I never saw it work once. I’m going to twist your arm and tell you all the 57 reasons why you’re wrong.

No, talking about pleading with people. Trying to get them to understand, trying to help them. I remember years ago, Brother Poirier, who’s a missionary in Quebec, preaching and talking about the one who went forth sowing with tears, would come again reaping with joy.

I don’t remember the exact quote, but it’s from the book of Psalms. And saying, if the harvest is puny, try tears. Have we been on our faces pleading with God for the people that we’re dealing with? Have we pled with them?

As the writer Richard Baxter said, as a dying man to dying men, have we pled with them? Paul says, because we know the terror of the Lord, because we know the fearsomeness of His judgment, and I’d submit to you knowing in contrast the goodness of His mercy, we go therefore and we plead with those around us. We try to persuade them.

But we are made manifest unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. We’ve got to remember, ladies and gentlemen, that the people we face across these culture wars, and that’s not a term I made up, that’s a term that they’ve been using since the late 80s. The people that we face in these culture wars are not enemies.

If they bleed, they are not your enemy. The homosexual is not my enemy. We may be political opponents, but they are not my enemy.

The atheist is not my enemy.

anybody on either side of the flag debate in South Carolina they’re not my enemy black white they’re not my enemy Muslim now they may think they’re my enemy but they’re not God says we we do not war against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers spiritual wickedness in high places if they bleed they’re not our enemy we’ve got to be reminded of that they are people who sinned against God just as we have there are people that while they were yet sinners Christ died for them there are people that he loved and died for there are people that we need to persuade and plead with they are souls that we should love I’m getting ahead of myself here with the points point one of this morning’s message is that there’s a problem and it’s the people need to be reconciled to god doesn’t matter gay straight it doesn’t matter christian atheist when I say christian black white it doesn’t matter all men need reconciliation to god we commend not ourselves again unto you.

Verse 12. 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. And he talks about their appearance and he talks about what they’ve what they’ve done and the sense that I get from this is that he’s talking as he talked in other places in his letters to the churches, that he didn’t want to be a stumbling block to them. He wanted to have pure motives, and his motive was to minister the gospel to them.

And ladies and gentlemen, I’d submit to you, anything that is not, anything that offends the world outside, that is not from God’s word, is a stumbling block that needs to be removed. Now that sounds good when it comes to putting aside things that we hold very near and dear. It may be a little harder.

It may be a little harder to do. For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we’re all dead. He’s talking here again about the fact that we’re all dead in sins and trespasses.

We’re all lost before God. We’re all in danger of judgment. 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.

He said, one died for all, that’s Jesus Christ, one died for the sins of all because all were dead. And if he died, then he that died, and if he died, he died so that those who live would not live for themselves anymore, but live for him who died for them and rose again. That because he died for us, We no longer are supposed to live for ourselves and whatever we want out of this life and whatever we want to do, but to devote our lives to his service.

This comes in in just a minute in talking about this ministry of reconciliation. 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. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away.

Behold, all things are become new. we’re not supposed to be the same that we used to be. Something’s supposed to change within us.

And He has the power to do it. I love, I can’t remember all the words to it, but I love an old song that a friend of mine used to sing in Fayetteville where he’d sing, thanks to Calvary, I don’t live there anymore. Folks, if we are different sitting in this church house today than what we used to be, the world needs to understand it’s not because we’re so wonderful or we come to church and we judge each other so that we behave better, it’s because Jesus Christ has made all the difference in the world.

We’re just old wicked sinners that He changed from the inside out. And because of that, we’re a new creature. And whatever the depths of sin and wickedness this world runs to, we’ve never seen anything that’s so drastic that God can’t save somebody out of it.

Look at the Apostle Paul, the very man who’s writing this. He was not only a murderer, but he was a murderer of Christians. He was a terrorist. God plucked him up out of that life and saved him radically.

The old things were passed away. The world needs to know we don’t hate them, we don’t condemn them, that it doesn’t matter what they’ve done in the past, that they haven’t sinned so bad that God is incapable of saving them or loving them. The blood of Christ, the blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sin, as the Bible says, doesn’t have a limit on how effective it is for how many sins, doesn’t have an expiration date.

The Bible says He’s the propitiation for our sins and not ours only, but for the entire world. And that it doesn’t matter how far they run from God, He can make them too a new creation in Christ. And all things are of God. Now this is referring back to these new things.

Old things are passed away, all things are become new, and all things are of God. This work that He’s done, it’s of God. who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. He’s reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. There was reconciliation needed.

The Bible talks at the very beginning of the passage where we looked in verses 10 and 11 about the judgment. Because we’d sinned against God, we had basically, he’s our king, and we declared war on him in the garden and said, no, we’re going to do our own thing. And there’s this rebellion that’s been going on for 6,000 years.

Normally, when we talk about being reconciled, we talk about two sides reconciling to each other. The Bible says we need to be reconciled to God. Folks, this is not a situation where the blame is equal. Well, God was at fault and we’re at fault.

No, no, no, no. God has never been at fault. God never did anything but love us and provide for us, created us, and even set the parameters that we rebel against so forcefully, knowing that they were there for our good and our protection, just like a parent who says, don’t touch that stove because sin would hurt us. We’re the ones who rebel.

We’re the ones who spit in his face. We’re the ones who said, I don’t care what you say, I’m going to do what I want to do. Ladies and gentlemen, there’s reconciliation that’s needed, but the sides don’t need to be reconciled to each other.

We need to be reconciled to God. And even at that though, even at that, We couldn’t do anything about it. We can’t do anything about it.

Because the problem that causes us to need this reconciliation is our sin. I can’t do anything to undo the fact that I’ve sinned. Neither can you.

You’re probably tired of hearing this example. But it’s the best one I’ve found so far. If I were to kill somebody, if I killed Brother Shank this morning after church, you may be armed.

I should use a different example. But if I were to kill Brother Shank this morning after church, and the sheriff came and hauled me down to Paul’s Valley, and I stand before the judge maybe tomorrow, and he said, what do you have to say for yourself? Well, look at all the other people in this room I didn’t kill.

I do not get extra credit for that. I’m just doing what the law requires in those cases. It’s not extra credit.

Any good I do on top of anything else doesn’t change the fact that I’ve sinned. I can’t do anything to reconcile myself to God. So the Bible says that God didn’t move and compromise and say, well, I’ll just come down to where you are.

God reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ. I know we’re familiar with that idea, but that’s an amazing truth that’s taught in that scripture. The reconciliation needed to take place. We needed to be reconciled to God, but couldn’t make a single move in that direction, so God did all the work for us.

not to change his position. Folks, God’s position, God’s standards have never changed and never will. But God, through Jesus Christ, reconciled us.

He moved us back to him. And all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. It was only because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross when he came and shed his blood and died to pay for our sins that we could be reconciled. And hath given to us.

. . Okay, there’s something else here after salvation.

And have given to us the ministry of reconciliation. It’s our job, ladies and gentlemen. Once we’ve been reconciled to God, once you have been reconciled to God, He has given you.

Everybody take your finger, stick it in the air, point it at yourself. You. He has given you the ministry of reconciliation.

Oh, but there are. . .

He’s given you the ministry of reconciliation. I know that doesn’t sound like a lot of fun. We want victory.

We want to win. You know what? Reconciliation is better than winning.

To wit. We don’t use that phrase a lot anymore. It’s a good phrase.

It just means, and here’s how. To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. Okay, here we have a second explanation of what He’s done.

In Christ, because of what Christ did, shedding His blood and dying on the cross, God reconciled the world to himself. God moved the world to himself. God made it possible for the world to come back to his standards, not because they’re good now, not because we’re good, but because of the righteousness of Christ, if we’re going to get to in just a second.

He says, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Now this terminology here is referring to things that we would think about in banking. That trespass, that negative, that sin, he’s not charging that to your account.

Every time I go spend money, every time I go swipe that debit card, it comes right out of my checking account. Every time. It would be nice if one of these times there would be a computer glitch and it never happens.

That negative, that $5 here, that $15 here, it always comes out of my account faithfully. You know what? I’ve been overdrawn before.

I will point out not my fault. But I have been overdrawn before, and sometimes the bank doesn’t always stop that debit card from being used. One time a debit card got stolen, they emptied the account, unbeknownst to me, and that debit card’s still being used.

And those negatives were just accruing in my account. They were just being imputed. There’s that biblical word to my account.

They were counting against me. So not only $2. 50 here, $3 there, $5 there, but also $35, $35, $35.

and it just, all that gets imputed to your account. If you’ve ever made a banking error, you understand. These trespasses are negatives in our spiritual account.

And we’re already, ladies and gentlemen, so far in the hole with no righteousness of our own that really we’re just frosting the cake here. It’s just extra. But all these negatives, all this sin that we commit could be negatives that come out of this account that we’re already overdrawn on righteousness.

But it says he does not impute the trespasses to our account. Instead, for believers, God has placed the righteousness of Christ in our account. It’s an infinite amount of righteousness.

I’m not saying go out there and swipe that debit card and sin as much as you can because your account never runs out. Not what I’m saying at all. If that’s our attitude, as I’ve said many times before, if our attitude is I can go and sin as much as I want because of the grace of God, we might want to check and make sure we’ve got the grace of God because he’s supposed to change us.

The Bible calls it conversion for a reason. But he doesn’t impute our sin to our account. It’s not counted against us.

God looks in our account and what does he see there? The righteousness of Christ. And he’s committed unto us the word of reconciliation. He says then go forth in freedom and serve me without this fear and go preach the word of reconciliation.

What is the word of reconciliation? Exactly what he did for us. That God looked at us and could have very easily held against us all of our sins.

Could have made us endure the consequences that we deserve. The consequences were separation from him and eternity in hell separated from him. And God could have very easily made us endure those consequences.

We still can if we want to. But he’s offered us a way out of that. By reconciling us to himself through Jesus Christ. Jesus shed his blood and died on the cross to pay for our sins.

So that if we would look on that and realize that we needed a Savior, that we could not save ourselves, that only Jesus could do it. Not Jesus plus our religion, not Jesus plus our good works, not Jesus plus our effort, not Jesus plus giving money, going to church, anything. Only Jesus was able to forgive those sins.

And that’s God’s forgiveness because of what Christ did. We can be saved. We can have eternal life with him.

That’s the word of reconciliation. that there is a God who is just, and there is a God who is holy. There is a God who looks at the things that are going on in our world right now, and I know it sounds harsh.

You won’t hear this from a lot of TV preachers, but