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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/peter-simms/the-gospel-reconciliation/
And we'll read at verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old 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 the ministry of reconciliation, to know, or to wit, or to know, 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 ye 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.
Now Romans chapter 5 and verse 10. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And the Colossian epistle, chapter 1, I'm reading from verse 20.
And having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, by Him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now is He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight.
Chapter 2 and verse 14. Well, let's read verse 13. And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross.
Hebrews chapter 9. Well, we're only interested in the term that's found in verse 26, so we'll read verse 26 only. For then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
Romans chapter 6, our last reading. Romans chapter 6 and reading verse 6. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified, or that word is should be was. It's a past tense. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, then henceforth we should not serve sin.
Now we look to the Lord to bless His word. Now tonight we're going to talk about reconciliation. We're going back to this man, Adam, and when he sinned, he brought the ruin, the moral ruin upon the human family, the human race.
He is the federal head of the human race. What he did is going to affect everybody. If he stands, we all stand. If he falls, we fall. For in Adam all die. By virtue of being a child of Adam, were born a sinner, were born spiritually dead.
Not because of something we did, but because of what he did. Now when he sinned, he brought about the ruin of the human family. And one of the things that took place, last night we looked at man being a slave, and therefore he needed to be redeemed.
He needed to be delivered from his master's sin. And God did that for him through his son who died on the cross and paid the ransom price that was demanded. He died, he was buried, and he rose again. And he is today the Redeemer.
Christ is the Savior of the world. He's the Redeemer of the world. He's man's only hope. Now, not only did this man's sin bring about a condition of slavery for the human family, but they were all turned into rebels.
Haters of God, rather than being a lover of God. Haters of God with no interest in spiritual things, no interest in the Bible, no interest in the Gospel, no interest in God. They are living their lives in opposition to all that God stands for.
They love pleasure more than they love God. Now, if this man dies a rebel, he's going to perish. He's going to die and go down to hell. There's nothing he can do to alter his position because he was born a rebel.
He was born a slave. A man cannot change or a man cannot be responsible for what he is at birth. He's not responsible for that. And God knows that. And so when God looked at the man as a wretched slave, he knew he couldn't change his position.
He knew he couldn't alter his position in life. Sin was his master and he would live and die a slave to sin unless God acted in mercy toward him. And God did that. God sent his son to pay the ransom price that this man might be delivered out of the slave market of sin.
Well, tonight it's another truth. Tonight, God's going to show that man is a rebel. That's what he is. He's a hater of God. Now, a lot of people will argue that. They'll say, I don't hate God. I love God.
But they're in Adam. They're not saved. But they say they love God. Now, what are we going to say? What are we going to say? Well, I answer that question by this. Did you read the Bible today? And they'll say, no.
No, I don't read the Bible much. I don't hate God. Did you pray today? No, I'm not a praying man. But I don't hate God. Well, if you don't hate Him, then the other side is you must love Him. And if you love God, would you not like to hear what He has to say?
And the only way you can find out what God has to say is to read His Word. But you don't want to listen to what God has to say. Don't sound to me like you love Him very much. And you never bow your knee to pray to Him, talk to Him.
Doesn't sound like a very good relationship, does it? He don't read the Word of God and he don't pray to God. He doesn't want to listen to God and he doesn't want to talk to God. And yet he wants to say he loves God.
They just don't match. Don't work. If you love somebody, you like to hear from them. And you like to talk to them. But the person you don't like, you just assume you never hear from them. You don't want to talk to them and you don't want to listen to him.
No. Alright, no. This is what God is telling us is wrong with the human family now. Because of their birth into this world in relation to this man who sinned and he brought the whole human family down with him, one of the things they became was rebels.
Haters of God. Now what do you do if you're going to try and reconcile two people and they hate each other? Just what would you do? You get two brothers and they hate each other. They can't stand the sight of each other.
They won't talk to each other. They won't listen to each other. They've been split and divided and alienated for years. Never once spoke to each other. And they don't want to listen to anything the other has to say.
What are you going to do? When it comes to a situation like that, the only hope there is of these two being reconciled is that the cause of the alienation be identified. Why are you not talking to each other?
That's the first thing. The second thing is what it is that's alienated the two, it's identified, now it must be effectively removed, dealt with and removed. Apart from that, they'll never be reconciled.
There's no point to go to Bill and say to Bill, now look, you're acting like a child. Go to John and just bury the hatchet. No point. There's something between those two brothers and they're not going to forget it.
If they're going to be reconciled, the cause must be identified and then effectively dealt with before reconciliation can ever take place. Now I know reconciliation like redemption is a big subject and we're trying to keep it as simple as we can so that new believers, young people, everyone can get a hold of what it means.
Some of you fellas, you're theologians, okay, you know all these things. And so I didn't really come, I wasn't invited to come to teach you theologians. No, we have an interest in younger people who don't really understand these things yet.
It's for them, we're here. Now man is alienated from God. Something's come between man and God and whatever that is must be identified, then it must be effectively dealt with before God and man can ever be reconciled.
So what is it? What is it that's come between God and man and drove them apart? Well, there's three things. The first thing is that must be identified is sin. The second thing is the law and the third thing is my base human nature flesh.
Those three things have droven a wedge between man and God. Now it's not just like the two brothers we said, we used that as an illustration, but God has never been alienated from mankind. God did nothing to bring about the alienation.
The problem all lies on man's side. It's man must be reconciled to God, not God to man. God's never hated man. God's never refused to talk to man. God has never refused to listen to him. If he'll come to him on the proper conditions, God's ready, willing and able to save and help.
But God won't bring him into that relationship without first of all identifying the problem and then dealing with the problem. And the problem is sin, the law and my flesh, my base nature, what I inherited from him.
Now there's no point to go to the sinner and tell the sinner, now listen, you see, this should help the young gospel preacher. This should help you to understand the sinner's position and then what you must do to help him intelligently.
You can't ask the sinner to deal with his own sin. He can't do it. No way. You cannot, no man can take away or forgive or remove his own sin. He's stuck with them. Neither can you tell any man that he must keep the law.
That's hopeless. That's already been tried and proven can't work. So no point telling that. And there's no point to tell him to subdue his flesh and bring that evil nature under control. Subdue it. No point telling that.
He cannot do any one of the three. He just can't. So now once again, just like the slave, God looks at him, God sees his position in slavery to this master's sin and recognizes God knows he cannot do anything to free himself.
So God does it for him. God sends the Lord Jesus to pay that ransom that that slave might be set free from the slave market of sin. Just like God looked at him at the judgment bar. There the poor wretch stood condemned, his mouth shut, standing at the bar, his hands empty, nothing to pay.
He's going to hell. He can't do a thing about it. But God did something. And now tonight, God's going to do something for the rebel. He's going to do for the rebel what the rebel cannot do for himself.
So when we look at it this way, we constantly got to emphasize to the sinner, he's finished. He stands at the judgment bar condemned. He can't do anything. He's finished. The case is closed. Guilty. Now pay up.
He's got to die. Well, God came to his aid. And just like the slave, his master is sin. He's done. God has to come to his aid. Now tonight he's a rebel and he'll die a rebel unless somebody else deals with that sin and that law and that flesh.
And that's what God does. That's what makes a Christian love the Lord. Can you remember when before you were saved and there you were before God, a rebel, a slave, standing before God condemned, absolutely exposed to the wrath of God and not being able to do anything about it.
You're finished. See, that's what we got to bring the sinner. And there's no point to try and preach the gospel to him until you get him in the place where he's going to appreciate what the Lord Jesus has done.
You see, there's not much point in starting here to start talking to the sinner. Because I've had them in the prison in the Caribbean. I had the whole crowd like this, maybe a hundred prisoners there.
And I'd preach to them until I wised up a bit about the Lord Jesus loved them and died for them. They all said, Hallelujah, bless Jesus. They were so happy. Yeah, they didn't have a clue. As soon as I told them, I got the wise, you know, you guys have to learn that the Lord Jesus is not only a savior, he's a master and he's a shepherd.
And as soon as I begin to tell them that the Lord Jesus is the Lord, you know what they told me? Not ready to give up my life yet. You see, I was preaching from a wrong point of view. I wasn't getting those boys to the place where they recognized I'm finished.
I'm doomed. There's nothing I can do for myself. I'm going to hell and that's where I deserve to go. Then, like the publican, they'll stand and smite themselves on their breath and say, God be merciful to me, a sinner.
There's where we have to get them. If we don't get them there and he makes some profession and that's a lot of times, you know, people tell me they get saved in my meeting, but then I go back a year later, they're gone.
Where are they? What happened? And there's a day coming I got to stand before the Lord and give account. Did you tell those boys and those people the truth? And so it's serious business that we're dealing with here.
Now, we've got to bring the man as a rebel before God finished. That's what he is. He cannot deal with the cause of the alienation that exists between him and God. He just can't do it. Now, some people come to this position, some gospel preachers and they mess the whole thing up because they say, well, go and tell God you're sorry.
Well, that's not what the Bible says. Go and tell God you're sorry. That's not going to do any good. That's not going to remove the cause of the alienation, telling God you're sorry. Some say open up your heart and let Jesus in.
Well, what's that going to do? That's not what the Bible says. We got to talk to the sinner. If we want the Spirit of God to use our preaching, then we must preach what the Word says and the Spirit of God will use His Word.
But He won't use my ideas. He didn't say you go and tell your own experience and tell it your way you like and then the Spirit's going to use what I say. No, that's not the way it works. The Spirit of God uses the Word of God.
So it's my responsibility and the preacher's responsibility to tell the people what the Word of God says. And man is alienated from God by wicked works. And we've identified the problem. Now, this is what God's going to do for the rebel.
You can't put away your own sin. You can't deal with it. But God says, I'll deal with it for you. You just can't beat God, can you? So gracious, so kind. We're so wicked. Our sin has driven us so far from God.
Why should He ever come to our aid? And yet He says, our sins and iniquities, He has the power and the ability to remove. Your sins and iniquities will I remember no more. He'll wash them away. Psalm 103, and I don't know what verse, but it says, He'll remove them as far as the east is from the west.
So the Lord Jesus came as we read in Hebrews 9 and 26. He came to do what? To put away sin. That's the first thing that stands between me and God. My sin. God will never accept me with my sin. He makes provision as to how that sin can be removed.
If I accept it, good. But if I won't comply, if I won't agree that Jesus Christ put away my sin upon the cross, then that sin remains and I remain a rebel. But He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
How far did He put it? Did He leave it in such a way that it can come back to haunt me again? No. Your sins, He puts so far away, they can never come back to haunt you again. Never. They're gone. You know, there's no, when you say from the east to the west, see that cycle goes on, there is no point where it stops.
It goes on and on and on. Our sins are gone as far as the east is from the west. They're gone. Who did that? The Lord Jesus put away my sins. Did He put yours away? Yeah. Well, not only did He come to put away sin, which stood between us, between me and God, but God also recognized that that law, as long as that law stays there, man will never be reconciled to God.
God's realistic and God looks at things as they are. And as long as that law remains, there will be an alienation between man and God. Because man cannot keep that law. They cannot. And if they break that law, that law condemns them as guilty.
So God has to figure out a way, and God did, how He can remove that law. He's got to get rid of it. As long as it stands, no reconciliation, because it keeps condemning. Thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt, thou shalt, thou shalt.
They're at thunders loud and clear condemning us. So God's going to remove it. How's He do that? Well, the Lord Jesus came to our world. And in our world, this man Jesus lived. He was born of a woman and born under the law.
And He kept that law perfectly. Never missed a step. Absolute perfection on every phase of His life. He honored God, He honored the law, and He kept it perfectly. He did that as a man, as our representative.
He didn't come to this world just to show God and everybody else that He could keep the law. No. He come to do for us what we could not do. There's a lovely verse in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 2 that I've been enjoying the last year.
It says this, we're to love each other as Christ loved us and gave Himself to God for us for a sacrifice and an offering. For a sweet-smelling Savior. He gave Himself to God for us. What did He give?
He gave Himself. Doesn't say His death, although that's involved. But He gave Himself for us for a sacrifice and an offering for a sweet-smelling Savior. Now, the Lord Jesus lived His life here and honored that law perfectly.
And then He took that law which He had honored and kept and He went to the cross and on the cross here, He's going to compensate God for our every infringement of that law. For every time you and I broke that law and doing that sin, He's going to take that and He's going to take it out of the way or put it away or remove it.
And in Himself He's going to compensate God and spike to that cross that whole law system. What does that mean to you and I? Many, many times we meet people and they say, well, I'm trying to keep the Ten Commandments.
I'm doing the best I can. I'm trying to honor God. Yeah. Well, you see, God never asked them to keep the Ten Commandments. Not in this dispensation. We never find favor with God on the basis of keeping the law.
Why? Because He took the law out of the way. Put it on the road. Spiked it to His cross. It's gone. Done for. It's removed. The Lord Jesus honored it by keeping it and then died on the cross and gave to God a sacrifice for every infringement of that law by you and I.
And now the second thing that stood between the sinner and God is gone. Sin has been put away. The law has been taken out of the way. The law stood in the way. You understand that? The law was standing in the road.
Sinners can't be reconciled as long as that thing's there. It's in the road. So God has to remove it. Take it out of the way. That He did at the cross. When the Lord Jesus, as it were, spiked it to the cross in His own personal being.
Now the other one was the flesh. You. You, a man and Adam. We're going to deal more with this on the night we talk about regeneration. But it's before us tonight. You, as a child of Adam, you're standing in the road.
You can't be reconciled to God as you are, a child of Adam. Because your flesh, that nature within you, it's base, it's dark, it's evil. Every one of us know that. All we need is a few circumstances in life that go against us.
A few things happen that aggravate us. It's not very long until we know we got something inside that's evil. Can't be reconciled to God with that. It's got to be done away. And so Romans chapter 6 and verse 6 says, we were crucified with Christ.
Knowing this that our old man, or everything that we were in Adam. And in Adam we possess this here base, fallen nature called flesh. It must be removed. And so it must be replaced. So we die with Christ on the cross and the old man is crucified.
And in association with his death, burial and resurrection, we find new life in Christ. We got a new nature now. We got the life of God in us. We have the Spirit of God in us. The flesh is a condemned thing.
It's gone. Now are you following it well now? You're going to tell your friend, you know what you're doing, it's evident you're a rebel. You know what God says about drunkards. You know what God says about people who commit fornication.
And you know what God says about people who do all these kind of things, evil things. God says that's an evidence that you're a rebel. So we got to explain to him, he's my buddy and I want him to understand.
I don't want him to go to hell. I want him to understand that he can't help himself. He is what he is, a rebel. He's a slave. And there's only one person going to help. There's only one person can help.
And that's the God he don't like. They tell you, I can't go to church. I can't go to church. This Jesus business, I just can't follow that. Well now you know your buddy and you got to be able to understand a way to convince him.
Listen, the reason you're saying that because you're a rebel. You don't like God. If you like God, you'd want to get close to God. And the only way you can get close to God is not by stopping smoking, stop drinking, stop swearing, stop all this.
No, that's not the way. You have to understand what God is going to do for you. So your sin, buddy. God sent his son into this world to put away your sin. He died for your sin. He died to put it away.
You can't put it away. But the Lord Jesus put it away. And you can't keep that law. There's no point in saying I'm trying my best. When people start talking about trying to do their best and keep the law and this, you have to squash that.
You have to make them understand. There's no such a thing as keeping the law. That's finished. That was for a time in the past. But at the cross, God spiked that law to his cross. The Lord Jesus did. Nailed it to his cross.
Put it out of the way. No such a thing as keeping the law now if he gained favor with God. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I. But the life which I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
That was a lot in that verse. But anyway, you get a hold of it. Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20. Think about it. I kind of got that habit now. I had a series of meetings with Jerry Jennings. And every time he'd say something important, he'd say, think about it.
And I kind of got it in myself now when I hear it. I say, think about it. Oh, that's good. Think about it. Yeah. Okay. Now, the conclusion of the whole matter is this. Well, I'm going to read it again so we can say it right.
Okay? This is the conclusion. Verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, any man be there, he is a new creation. All things that he was in Adam are gone. They're finished. Passed. Done. Dead. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.
All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself. You see that? He reconciled us where? To himself. He wants us. That's rebel.
That lousy rebel. He's no good for anything. As he is a rebel. But God wants to reconcile him to himself. God says, I want you as my friend. And you can never be my friend the way you are. So, I will arrange things so that you can be my friend and be reconciled to me.
Reconciled to himself by Jesus Christ and have given unto us the ministry of reconciliation. So, that's what I'm trying to do tonight. And that's what the brothers in here try and do when they preach the gospel.
They want to see you reconcile to Christ. They are servants of this reconciling message. To know that God was in Christ reconciling the world. See here? Reconciling the world unto himself. Not imputing their trespasses unto them and have committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
God was not imputing unto us what we deserve. As a rebel, what do I deserve? Huh? What do you do to a rebel? Well, you generally put them away behind bars or if they're in our family, we give them a spanking or whatever it is.
But the rebel cannot get away with being a rebel. You don't want rebels near you. Try and stay away from them. But God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself and not giving them what they deserve.
No. And not only that, but he's committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation. He's told us Christians, all of us who were saved, this is the work now I want you to do. Take this message of reconciliation and go to the sinner and say to him, be ye reconciled to God.
Be reconciled. Because God has made reconciliation for the whole world. The whole of humanity has been reconciled to God in that he now has a chance to be God's friend because God removed the sin, God removed the commandment, and God removed the old man.
There's nothing stands in the way now of a sinner being reconciled to God but one thing. You know what it is? Going back to Sunday night, his will. God gave him a free will. And God says to the rebel, listen, I've removed everything, all the cause of the alienation.
I've dealt with it effectively. I've taken it out of the road. As it were, God says, do you want to be my friend? Do you want to come? Be reconciled to me. Be my friend. Now, the sinner, your buddy, must respond.
By his free will that God gave him, he can say no. I don't want that church business. I don't want that God. I don't want that Jesus business. And so they say no. And you did your best. You told him how God removed everything that stood between him and God.
He doesn't have to do a thing. Just receive the reconciliation that God's provided in his son. Or he can say yes. Yes. I want reconciliation with God. And I receive for myself by faith what God did for me through his son when he reconciled the world unto himself through the Lord Jesus.
God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself and not giving them what they deserve. And so we went on to say to know 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 ye reconciled unto God. Be reconciled. Now, you can't go further than that. If your friend, your buddy, the sinner won't respond positively.
You've did all you can do. You can't change him. But God wants us to tell him faithfully what he is before God and what God has done for him. And now it's all up to him. He that believeth on the Son will have everlasting life, a promise from God.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you're saved. A promise from God. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Or you are saved. It's all up to the man's mind now, his will. Listen to the last verse. For he hath made him, that is for God hath made him to be sin for us. He who knew not sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
That's the basis of reconciliation. If you're not reconciled tonight, friend, you don't have to go out of this building an enemy of God. God wants you as his friend. Why don't you come? Just believe. Receive the reconciliation.
He's worked out for you through his Son at the cross. Let us pray. Our Father, we ask thy blessing upon thy word. Thy word is alive and it's living, powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword. And we really do not need to add anything to it.
It has its own power. We pray tonight that everyone in this company, those who may not have understood before, have understood tonight. And those who try to reach their friends might understand where their friend stands and what they must present to and show that God really loves them.
Even though they don't love God, God loves them and gave his Son to be a propitiation for their sins. So part us with thy blessing now we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.