Be Reconciled To God

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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Please remain standing for the reading of the word from 2nd

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Corinthians chapter 5. This is

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God's authoritative, sufficient, inerrant, and infallible word.

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2nd Corinthians chapter 5. For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

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For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven.

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If indeed having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.

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For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

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Now he who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the spirit as a guarantee.

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So we are always confident knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the

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Lord. For we walk by faith and not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased, rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the

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Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to him.

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I want you to pay closer attention now because this verse figures prominently into the message.

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For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

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Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are well known to God.

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And I also trust are well known in your consciences. For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart.

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For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God, or if we are of sound mind, it's for you.

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For the love of Christ compels us because we judge thus, that if one died for all, then all died and he died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again.

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Therefore, from now on, we will regard no one according to the flesh, even though we have known

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Christ according to the flesh, yet we have known him thus no longer.

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Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away.

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Behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

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That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

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Now, then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us.

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We implore you on Christ's behalf. Be reconciled to God.

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For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God and him.

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Please pray with me now. Oh, Lord, we thank you for this great day.

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We ask, oh, Holy Spirit, that you would illumine our understanding.

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That you would turn sinners back to yourself, both believing today the ones who believe already and unbelieving.

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That we might enjoy and bask and revel in the reconciliation that you have supplied in our

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Lord Jesus Christ. We ask this all in his name. Amen. Please be seated.

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Chapter five would require about five to seven sermons to cover it.

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So we're not going to be covering all of that material. And I'd like us to focus on just one idea.

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There are many precious jewels that we could examine in the treasury of Christ.

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One of them is reconciliation to God. If you could imagine that I had a bag of diamonds in a black velvet arrangement and I and I pulled one of those diamonds up and and picked it up and held it before you and held it up to the light.

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Many facets and many glorious emissions are three questions that I'd like to answer, at least partially.

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The first is very basically, what is reconciliation? The second would be, how are we reconciled to God?

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And the third would be, what should we do as those who have been reconciled?

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The first thing I'd like us to consider today are a couple of certainties.

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I have in my life experience, as you know, some death because a friend of mine has recently died with his two children.

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I heard from a lady on Friday of a young man in his 40s who was never sick, who got sick and was dead within a couple of days.

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His wife and young children. Death is certain.

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Death is coming for us. We are going to die. We have no promise of tomorrow.

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Any of us. There is a certainty of death. It is coming.

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That should give us some pause and live in a sober, circumspect life about the time that we have for the

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Lord here. But the second thing that's outlined and it's touched on in our text today, that's that's really halting.

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It is a terror to consider is that we are all going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

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There is a certainty of death and a certainty of judgment. The third thing to consider is the certainty of eternity.

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After church, I asked my son Jameson about eternity. I'll give you a good answer about and explain it very well.

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I joke because who can put their arms around eternity?

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We live but a short time. We learned recently that life is but a vapor.

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And James. Death is certain. Judgment is certain.

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Eternity. Every one of us in our hearts. It's it's ingrained in who we are in the created order of things.

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We know the little babies know there is an eternity. God has written it on our hearts.

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The most compelling and burning question is, how can I escape the judgment of God?

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How can I face eternity? How can

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I look at death and smile because of what's on the other side of that event of death?

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We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

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Brethren. This book. Is God's holy word.

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And it's funny, the the God that is revealed in this book. And this

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God alone is the the God that the atheists do not believe in.

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I think that's very interesting. They're OK with the other gods. This is the

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God that they are so adamant about not believing in. And one of the reasons for that is in their natural mind.

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They know there is accountability for everything that happens on this earth.

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Children. You get away with transgressing. The law of your parents.

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My mother and dad are here and they don't know all the bad things that I did. And I hear reports.

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My children have done lots of bad things that we didn't know about. But the scrolls are laid open.

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Our God keeps perfect records and all of our lives, our thoughts, our actions, our inactions, all of them are well documented.

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He knows it all. One of the things that happens when people come to church who are not part of church, they think that we're looking down on them and we're judging them.

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I have news for you. The people of God of all people know the desperate nature of their condition.

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We are a bunch of sinners. The only difference between us and you, if you're unbelieving, is that we have run to the

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Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. That is it. That's the difference.

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Now we hopefully are walking in newness of life, but there's no difference between us for all have sinned.

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The scripture says short of the glory of God, Jew, Gentile, black, white woman, man, child.

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Sinners are first parents in the garden.

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This is very important. You may not like the economy of God. You've already seen it.

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There's there's a representative nature. There's a federal covenant federalism in our

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God and his dealings with people. And you and I, our our sinfulness is tied to our first father,

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Adam. And Adam fell in the garden.

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And you have that working against you. And I have that working against me. And then you couple that with all of our actual transgressions that we have to take responsibility for.

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We have ourselves committed these sins. How can we escape?

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The righteous judge knows. Well, today, all of you,

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I want you to pay close attention. And I want you to have one word bouncing around in your head for the rest of today.

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And I hope the Lord brings it to remembrance many days into the future. One word alone.

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The whole of the message is this reconciliation. I want reconciliation to be the thought, the only thought you take away from us.

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So the first question that has to be answered is what is reconciliation?

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I have a couple of definitions somewhere. Reconciliation is the act of reconciling parties at variance.

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The parties at variance before us are the triune

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God, the father, the son and the Holy Spirit. Their perfect holiness and righteousness, the perfect objective standard of the law of God as revealed in Scripture in us.

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To reconcile in the Greek literal sense is to call back into union.

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You and I were created for communion with God. So the reconciliation that has to happen has to reunite us to God that we might commune with him.

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This is the very purpose for which we were created. This is a reconciliation that creates a calling back into this union and friendship.

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Those affections which have been alienated to restore to us friendship or favor after this estrangement.

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And to reconcile men or parties that have been at variance.

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In Romans chapter five, it says, therefore, justice through one man.

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This is referring to Adam. That representation is very important. If there's going to be reconciliation, there has to be a representation.

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You're not going to be able to do this on your own. You have to have a representative. Adam, our first father, every one of us, our first parents,

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Adam fell into sin and sin entered the world. And death was introduced in the world through sin.

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And death spread to all men. The certainty of death is caused by Adam's sin.

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The reason we struggle to labor and to get along. It's so funny. All of the societal ills are because of sin.

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Which politician ever talks about that? Every problem in your marriage, in your family, in this community, in this nation is attributable to sin.

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Don't ever talk about it. Later in that same chapter, it says,

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Adam. Who is a type of him referring to Christ who was to come.

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Christ brings something, a free gift.

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It's not like the offense. For this is the language of Scripture.

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If by one man's offense, many died. Much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man.

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Jesus Christ abounded. To many. Therefore, as through one man's offense, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation.

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Even so, through one man's righteous act. The free gift came to all men.

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Resulting in justification of life. Now listen carefully, children.

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For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. Here it is.

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So also by one man's obedience, many will be made righteous.

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We are dead in Adam. But we can be alive in Christ. God has set up a system of representation and we have a glorious representative, the

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Lord Jesus Christ. To take away our sins. Go back to our text now and.

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Want to skip down to the latter portion of the chapter. So encouragement for you who are in Christ today, some things for you to.

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To hang on to. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

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How wonderful it is that the creator of all things can refashion and remake.

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The crowning achievement of his created order, man. If you are in Christ, there has been an entire renovation of your life.

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Imperfectly as it may be applied. And we don't see it in its fullness.

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But if you be. To bring at peace those who were at odds.

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And if you're a Christian. He has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

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We have the obligation to tell every man, woman and child. About this glorious salvation in Christ.

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Many years ago, there was a guy who had a job and he was. The town crier.

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The town crier would run to the city square and he would say, you've seen it on the movies.

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Hear ye, hear ye. And then give a message of some important news many times from the king.

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The church of Jesus Christ is the town crier to this lost world. Hear ye, hear ye.

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Salvation has come in Christ. Was that the with my family?

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Some of them, I don't know if all the kids were born. We went to a friend who was getting sworn in to the

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Supreme Court. It's a great thing. He can prosecute litigate cases before the

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Supreme Court. And we went there. And I saw a guy who actually is the sergeant at arms for the

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House of Representatives. And he does all the security and organizing for the Supreme Court justices and everyone else there in the capital.

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At the State of the Union address, he bursts forth through the doors.

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There's clamoring and there's talking. All the senators and the Supreme Court justices, the cabinet, they're all in session.

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They're all there. The door bursts open and the sergeant at arms comes out and he says, ladies and gentlemen, the president of the

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United States. And this is the grand entrance. And the president comes in and the people clap. The church.

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Is the town crier. The church is the sergeant at arms.

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We burst the doors open and say, I present to you, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the king of glory who takes away the sins of the world.

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That's what we do. We announce the good news of Jesus Christ.

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We have been given this privilege that we can tell men, women, children, boys and girls that they can be reconciled to God.

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But the question has to be asked, how is this reconciliation accomplished?

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Look at verse 19. It says that God.

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Was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.

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Now, this is a very powerful statement. What's happened on the cross is this the king of glory, an exemplary king, he himself has gone to the front of the battle and he has vanquished the enemies of sin and death and Satan.

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And he there on the cross reconciles the world to himself, taking on the sins of all who would believe in him.

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You see, God's justice must be executed. Remember all those sins I told you. He knows them all.

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There's going to be an accounting for them. This is the most loving message there in the world.

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It's funny that we're called the most intolerant and all those things we have. The most loving message in the world is that God reconciles sinners to himself in Christ.

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You don't clean your life up. Christ cleans your life up. He does it out of his love and his mercy and grace.

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We contribute nothing. He does it to the church.

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He's committed this word of reconciliation. Verse 21 said, this is how it's accomplished.

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He made him who knew no sin. To be sin for us.

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That we might become the righteousness of God and him. The sinner comes to Christ clothed in filthy rags.

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Inwardly and outwardly, he is profane and unholy. And Christ there says, come here, my child, and let me clothe you in my righteousness.

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Come here, my child, and let me take away all of your sin.

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Come here, my child, come into my arms. Come be a part of my body.

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I take you to be my bride. This is how men, women, and children are reconciled to God.

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Well, church, if we are to be sergeant at arms in the king's army, and if we are the town crier, then verse 20 is very important to us.

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And we have to recognize that we are ambassadors for Christ.

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We have to live in such a way that our our life reflects this ambassadorship.

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We speak on behalf of the king. And our message is simple. And as Paul says,

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God, we're pleading through us. We implore you today. I implore you, if you'd be not a believer in the

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Lord Jesus Christ, be reconciled to God. Come to Christ now.

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Be reconciled to him. Your sins will be paid for. You will be washed. It's either true or it's not.

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I don't like this as a line of reasoning, but I want to appeal to something for you.

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I don't know why I felt led to do this, but I feel led. If I'm wrong about this,

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I've wasted some time, but I've had a really wonderful life. If I'm wrong, there's no way

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I'm wrong. But if I was wrong, if you're wrong about this, the certainty of death, the certainty of judgment, the certainty of eternity, that's a costly mistake.

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That is a willfully ignorant and even rebellious tragedy that you would reject.

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This salvation. How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

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Of how much sorer punishment, suppose you, shall he be thought worthy? Who's trodden underfoot, the son of God.

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It's counted the blood of the covenant. Wherein with he was sanctified in unholy thing.

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For we know that he has said, Vengeance belongs unto me. I will recompense, saith the

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Lord. The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living

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God. Hebrews chapter 10. I want to take you back one verse.

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We'll close here. This question of reconciliation.

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How does it work? Verse 10. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

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Now, what you may not know. You may know about the man,

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Jesus Christ, but do you know that he is the creator God himself? Do you know that he is the righteous judge?

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So we're appearing before the judgment seat of the one who came to rescue humanity from its sin and its death.

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How are we reconciled to God when you get there? If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you smile and you rejoice and you say,

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I've been reconciled to God because of you. You are the righteous judge.

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You have decided to take away all of my sin. Therefore, I can come and stand in your judgment because you have taken the guilt of my sin.

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I don't know about you, but I would not want to go into eternity unsure about where I stood regarding my sin.

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I don't know if you've ever seen a defendant try to defend himself in court, but he looks like an idiot.

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He needs an advocate. He needs a mediator. He needs a savior.

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And you and I, if we believe in Christ, we enter into the presence of God in judgment and we smile because Christ has done it.

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He's reconciled us to God, and therefore we can be reconciled to everyone and everything else in this world.

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I implore you, if you do not know Jesus Christ, believe on him today that you might be reconciled to God.

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Reconciliation is possible. Forgiveness is possible. It's only found in him.

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What glorious news we have to share. Take this news out into the streets of Longwood, into your neighborhood, into your workplace and tell everyone the best news that have ever been cried about or heralded in this world that Jesus Christ came in the world to reconcile sinners.

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Amen. Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for a simple message.

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We thank you for the reconciliation we enjoy in Christ. Lord, I pray that you would move in the hearts of those who do not know you.

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And they would see the beauty and the love and the winsomeness of your gospel and they would come running. Take delight to be a part of your family.

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Oh, Lord, we ask you to move and to grant this gift. Lord, we ask that you would make the church take serious their need to be ambassadors, to wear the proper attire of Christ's righteousness and tell the truth to the world about sin and salvation in Christ.