The Great Exchange - [Colossians 1:21-23]

Turning your Bibles to Colossians chapter 1, the book of Colossians chapter 1, and we're going to be looking at verses 21 through 23 this evening.

And what I'm hoping to get across to you this evening is in these verses in Colossians chapter 1, 21 through 23, you're going to see a great contrast.

And my discussion here is really this contrast that each one of us faces, you, me, everyone that is alive and even those who have died will face when they stand before a thrice holy

God. There are only two contrasts and we'll be discussing those in more detail as we go through.

But not only these two contrasts am I going to discuss, I really want to ensure that you understand that there is only one means of making changes to this condition.

And we'll find out who that comes from as we go through, again, our message. So do you know that there are only two possible conditions that you have when you face a thrice holy

God? When you come before Him, as all of us will when we die, are you aware there are one of two conditions?

There's no gray area, there's no kind of, there's no sort of, there's no almost. There are two conditions and it's black and it's white.

So as you've opened to Colossians chapter 1, let me just briefly read it, I'll be reading from the ESV and we'll get into our text.

It says this, And you, and you who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,

He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless above reproach before Him.

If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which

I, Paul, became a minister. It's said that this portion of Scripture, these three verses, this small section of Scripture is unlike any other because it reveals the personal truth that Jesus Christ, through His perfect life,

His death, and the resurrection alone, permits

God's enemies to become His friend. Let me say that again, through death, through Christ's death and resurrection and the perfect life that He lived while here on earth alone allows

God's enemies to become His friend. And this isn't a friendship that we think about today as I click the little button that says

I accept you as my Facebook friend. That's not the type of friend we're talking about here.

Not only do we become God's friend through Christ Jesus, we become so much more.

And the Bible describes it as heirs to the King of Kings. We are adopted into His family.

We are called, if you are a Christian here today, you are called a child of God. If you're here today and you don't believe that there is only one way to heaven, if you believe there are multiple paths, multiple ways,

I hope today's message will change that. As we will see, it only comes through Christ and Christ alone.

Let me give you just a little bit of background on the book of Colossians and why

Paul was writing this letter. It's a little important to get some context around what's going on and then we'll dive into our text itself.

We need to understand what Paul's intended purpose was to his audience here at the Church of Colossae.

For those who have heard my previous message in Colossians, and it was actually Colossians 15,

Colossians chapter 1, 15 through 20, Paul is really talking about the issue coming from who, well,

Paul first wants to describe who Jesus Christ is and his importance and his preeminence above anything else.

And Paul talks about the various areas in that previous section about who Jesus Christ is and his relationships to various aspects.

You may have a good understanding because I did give a little bit of background detail before on the book of Colossians, but let me just give you a little bit of additional detail.

Although it's not clear, the book was actually written right around 62 AD while Paul was imprisoned in Rome.

He was having his best life now while imprisoned at Rome. The Church of Colossae was not actually founded by Paul.

Paul did not start this church. It was actually said that, or history actually writes that there was probably a convert while Paul was on his third missionary journey in Ephesus that got saved, took the gospel message, went back to Colossae and started a young body of believers there.

So the Church of Colossae was founded. There were relatively new body of believers, as I said.

And although it's not clear as to the exact issue here from our text and our text alone, and even if you read a little bit further up from that, we don't know exactly why

Paul was writing to this church that was facing various issues. But some historians and some scholars actually take and they look at the book and they've gone through it and they've essentially come up with a couple of different conclusions.

They said that Paul was probably writing to this church because the church was facing some form of pre -Gnosticism, some form of Gnosticism that started actually in the second century.

Yet this would have been some pre -form of that. And in general sense, for those who aren't aware of what Gnosticism was, it really was the understanding of the physical being evil and spiritual being good.

So Jesus Christ could not have come in the flesh because God could never have taken on evil.

That could have been one of them. Again, scholars hold to that. Another group of scholars actually hold that it was some form of Jewish mysticism, mixing and intermixing various means of worship from Judaism and Christianity and even some others from the

East. This mysticism may have been what Paul was writing about. But either way, the church was struggling with unity, unity within its own body.

And Paul wanted to ensure, as we saw even Pastor Mike preaching about in 1 Corinthians, unity is critical to the local body and to the body as a whole.

So Paul wanted to put a stop to what was going on here at the church. And he wanted to put a stop to what he calls these false gospels by false teachers.

And he wanted to crush that and make sure that this newer body of believers was not led astray by some of these simple truths that were trying to be taught to them.

These heretical truths. It should be noted also that Paul is making sure when he's writing this letter to this younger body that he's not talking about that there is chaff among the wheat.

It's not from within the church that we see this outward, this pushing of this doctrine. It actually is an outward oppression coming down into the body and trying to break apart what

Christ has already done. Man from the outside trying to corrupt the message, the good news of Jesus Christ.

And it's a continued struggle. For those who heard my previous message, there were actually seven points

I talked about as to why Jesus Christ was preeminent. And if you look in your Bibles, you'll probably actually even see a section around 15 through 20 where it talks about Christ's supremacy and His preeminence.

And it really was focusing upon Christ's relationship in various ways. We had Christ's relationship to God.

We had Christ's relationship as head of the church. Christ's relationship to creation. Christ's relationship in the universe.

Christ's relationship to the body of believers not only as a church but as a reconciler.

And we saw many other areas where He created the material, immaterial, spiritual worlds.

But this section of about 80 words, about 80 words translated in our English, is really emphasizing the more eminent aspects.

Yes, Christ is transcendent. He is outside. He is other. He is the creator of all things.

He is outside of time, outside of everything we would think of. And yet, this portion of Scripture, this really focuses on the you in Scripture.

Paul wants to sit there and say, Colossians, wake up. This is about you. Now, I know oftentimes people say, it's not about you or it's not about me.

But Paul wants to ensure that Christ Jesus is not just this transcendent, otherly person.

He is the Son of God. And it is only by His work on the cross that we can approach a holy and just God.

Here Paul focuses, and you'll see if you look in your text, the number of verses, the number of times the word you is used in these verses.

You, you, you. And again, if you contrast that with verses 15 through 20, there are no yous.

For those of you who are grammar lovers, unlike myself.

But for those of you who love it, you may have noticed, if you look close at your

Scriptures, at how they're translated into English, Paul actually has said verses 21 through 23, it's one long verse.

It's all one sentence, tied together oftentimes just by commas in your Scripture.

Some translations will put periods after each of the various verses, train of thought, just to kind of break it up and make it easier for our minds to comprehend.

Yet, Paul wanted to use a style of writing. This is actually a stylistic aspect of Paul's writing.

He's used it elsewhere, where it's a unity of thought, it's a train of thought. And he wants to ensure that his reader understands all of this blends together.

It's not cut up into sections. It's all one train. And Paul wanted to ensure that the

Colossians received that information, and they saw that in the way that it should be.

So if you look also at your text, you're going to see pretty quickly, if I were to turn around and give you a test, I know everyone loves tests.

And I said, if you were to point out for me the key word, the one key word out of these two verses, that you would want to take away from this section of text, what would that word be?

And as you look, I'm going to give it away because we don't have time, but it's reconciliation. It's all about reconciliation.

This section, these three verses, discuss in detail reconciliation.

And you may be now asking yourself, okay, well, that's great, what's reconciliation? And you always love dictionaries that say, to be reconciled.

And you go, oh yeah, that doesn't help. But let me say, the English dictionary, Princeton English Dictionary, actually gave one of the more concise terms that I found, and that is, quote, the reestablishing of cordial relations.

The reestablishing of cordial relations. That's a great definition of what reconciliation is.

Dictionary .com defines it this way, quote, the process of making consistent or compatible.

Consistent or compatible. A few other definitions in the same vein say, to make oneself or another no longer opposed.

To become friendly with someone after estrangement. Or to reestablish friendly relations.

To settle a quarrel or a difference. To make two apparent conflicting things.

Think contrast here again. Two apparent conflicting things. Make them compatible or consistent with one another.

That's what reconciliation is. So let's dive into our text now.

Let's see why the Bible says you need reconciliation. Do you feel you are here today and you go,

I really don't need reconciliation. I don't think I need that. Well, I'm hoping by the end of today's message, you'll understand the importance of reconciliation and why you and I need it.

And we will see this great contrast as we delve into this text. So do you know that you have a position before God, whether you believe in Him or not?

Do you know that a criminal standing before a judge, if the judge says, you're going to die by the electric chair for the crime that you paid, and the criminal says, judge,

I don't believe there are no electric chairs. That doesn't mean it's not going to happen.

And just because you may be thinking in your mind, well, I don't want to believe there's a God, I don't believe there's a God, I don't believe there's a God, I don't believe there's a

God, I don't believe there's a God. Just because you believe it doesn't mean it's true. The Bible says each and every one of us will stand before a holy

God and we will be judged. Do you know how you will be judged on that day?

Do you know which group you belong to, which of the two groups or the two categories of people you belong to?

I want to say up front, this message is not about boosting one's self -esteem. It's not about just life and death.

It's actually about eternal life and eternal separation from God Himself.

If you don't know if you've been reconciled by God today, if you haven't been made right, as we talked about briefly as to what the definition of reconciliation is,

I beg you to talk to the leaders here at the church. I beg you to talk to myself after this message.

I beg you to talk to anyone. But before you leave this place tonight, know for sure which category you belong to.

It's the difference between your eternal life and your eternal outcome.

So for the Christian, you may be going, great, I can now tune out. I don't need to listen to this. I've heard this all before.

This is the gospel message. This is the quote -unquote good news. You may be saying the message isn't for me anymore.

Remember, Paul was writing to a church. The text that we're going through was written to a church.

A church of believers who are struggling. And Paul wanted to show them the importance of Jesus Christ.

Do you tire of hearing the good news? Are you tired of hearing what Jesus Christ has done on your behalf?

If so, I would say, please examine yourself tonight. If the gospel message is something that is tiring to you, we should love it.

We should love to hear it each and every day. We should be preaching it to ourselves each and every day. It is the good news.

We should never tire of the good news. So Paul jumps in in v.

21. If you look with me in v. 21, Paul jumps into what he calls the former condition. He's talking to Christians.

The message is to Christians. And he says, Christians, here is your former condition. This is what you were.

This is why you need reconciliation. We look at a few passages laid out here in the pages of Scripture and we're going to take a look at the unregenerate nature of man.

I'm going to go through some of these. And again, you may turn around and say this isn't for me. I'm already a Christian.

Why do I need to hear this? Paul thought it important to preach, and I do too.

So why do we need reconciliation? You may be sitting there and asking yourself. You may be sitting there right now listening to me and say, why do

I need a reconciliation preacher? It's a great question. Each and every one of us should be asking ourselves each and every day.

We should wake up and wonder the same question. But do you have an answer for it?

Do you have an answer? Until you understand your condition that you are either currently in today or the condition that you were in at one time, you can't fully understand the need or the desire for what

Jesus Christ has done in reconciling us to God. You don't understand it if we don't first know that we have a need.

Paul wanted to give the church at Colossae a contrast between the old self and the new self once saved by Jesus Christ.

That's the great contrast we're going to look at. That's the great exchange that takes place. The first few words in our text here says this, and you, and you who once were alienated and hostile in mind.

We see the same word alienated here. If you don't always know what a word means, it's great to look up the same word elsewhere in Scriptures.

And we see the same Greek word here that Paul used for alienated used in Ephesians 2, 11 and 12.

You can turn there if you want. I'm just going to quickly read it for you. It's a small portion of Scripture, but listen for the word alienated here.

Paul wanted to make sure that he taught that in the former self, those at Colossae were alienated from God.

And he wanted to ensure that we understood we are also alienated from God if we have not put our faith and trust in Him.

Ephesians 2, 11 and 12 says this, Therefore remember that at one time you

Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision which is made in the flesh by hands.

Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

We see in Ephesians here in our text, Paul is speaking in regards to Gentiles.

And in those days, if you are uncertain, there were two classes of people. You had the Jews that were under God's covenant.

You had everyone else which were the Gentiles. Now you may say there was a third portion which were the proselytites, those who were everything else that wanted to become

Jews that weren't born into Judaism were considered proselytites, those who wanted to worship this

God. But here we see that the Gentiles in their flesh, or as Paul calls them, the uncircumcised, were separated from Christ.

They were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. They were alienated from the blessings that God was pouring out among these people.

And he's talking about with these blessings removed, with God's grace and His mercy and God's power in your life being removed, what do we see?

We see the pagan quickly saying, eat, drink, and be married, for tomorrow you die. When you don't believe that you are going to be accountable to a holy and just God, you'll do whatever pleases yourself.

You will be selfish, pride -filled, and yet one day you will face the

King of kings, the Lord of lords, the One who cannot face sin.

Ephesians 4 .18, another portion of Scripture where the word alienated is used, says this, they, talking about the unsaved, are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart.

Ephesians 4 .18 The word alienated here, the word alienated, apolytrial, alienated, the

Greek word here in our text, actually indicates not just a slight separation, it's actually a desperate state of complete separation.

It's not a kind of separate, a sort of separated, this is a desperate, a wailing, a gnashing of teeth separation, a complete severed relationship.

And this separation is actually a complete isolation from God. There is no intermingling here.

They're talking about complete separation. Better defined, the word could be called, as we would translate it today, as estranged.

Estranged. No longer close to or affectionate to somebody. Estranged. We hear this word often talked about spouses, husbands and wives who no longer live together, who have been separated, are estranged from one another.

No longer close, no longer affectionate. And yet the Bible says, for the unbeliever, that's exactly how we are before God.

It's strong language. It's very strong language, being outside of God and His blessings because of the necessary imposed barrier between a holy creator and a sinful mankind.

God's perfect justice has to be fulfilled. In its simplest sense, if I were to boil this word down, in its simplest sense, this alienated actually means belonging to another.

If you are outside of Jesus Christ, you belong to another. And Scripture actually says who that other is.

You're not a child of God. You're a child of the devil.

Scripture is clear that apart from Jesus Christ and His work, you are a child of the devil because you are estranged from God Himself.

Not only are you estranged from God, as Scripture says, but apart from a sovereign creator of the universe making you alive, we are dead.

We are dead. We are spiritually dead. It takes a work of Jesus Christ, His resurrection, apart from anything else,

His death, His resurrection made you alive. Take a quick look with me as we just look at a few

Bible verses that describe this dead state. Again, most of you have already heard this text. Most of you know this message, but I beg you to listen still.

The Bible says that apart from Jesus Christ, apart from His work, we are all spiritually dead.

You and I are fallen and sinful because of what

Adam did in the garden. Adam who was our federal headship, he was the one that represented all of mankind.

One man who disobeyed God. One man because of his falling impacted more than just two people in the garden.

It impacted all of mankind with sin. It separated all of us from God.

So you may be asking, well, how wicked are we? The Bible is pretty clear.

Genesis 6 -5. Genesis 6 -5 was around the time of Noah. God was talking about the people of Noah's day before the ark was released.

But let me ask you this question. How different is our day from the time of Noah's?

It says this, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of His heart was only evil continuously.

Again, another verse that most of you are familiar with. Jeremiah 17 -9. I'm going to read Jeremiah 17 -9 and 10.

We often only hear the first part. But 10 flows very well within it and it says this, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.

Who can understand it? In verse 10 says, I, the Lord, search the heart and I test the mind to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.

The heart, Scripture says, is deceitful. It's wicked. And apart from God's act of making you a new creature through salvation, you are wicked.

If you have not put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ today, you are wicked, the

Bible says. Today, we're often told to believe that we're either neutral in our stance or we're good.

We're good people. Again, if you ask the majority of people outside of these walls, are you a good person?

I think you would see that probably 90 -95 % of the people out there would say, yes, I'm good.

We hear it all the time from parents. We hear it from teachers. We hear it from psychologists.

And sadly, we hear it from preachers all too often. How good you are. How spanky we are before God.

Instead, the Scripture is clear that you are wicked to the core apart from Jesus Christ, what

He has done. And it's not important to understand or it's not important to know what man thinks of you, it's important to think of what

God thinks of you. It doesn't matter if you're told you're good.

God says, apart from Him, you are not. And oftentimes, when asked this question, the first thing that pops in your mind, am

I good? Let me see, compared to Hitler, Stalin, Dahmer, Genghis Khan.

Yeah, I'm pretty good, right? That's what most of us do. We compare ourselves to others, man to man, people to people.

And we can always find people who are more wicked in our own eyes compared to others.

We may even say, boy, but we are not as good as some of these more, quote unquote, holy people. But let me ask you the question.

How many of you here have had to teach your child to become a good liar?

How many of you here have had to teach your child to steal because they were selfish and wanted something for themselves?

How many people here had to teach a child just to be selfish?

These aren't learned behaviors. These aren't things that they observe and just begin doing.

No. This is an outward display of what the Scripture says is our wicked inward hearts.

It's our disposition before God. And Paul here, Paul definitely wants to remind the

Christians at Colossae of what they once were before God had made them new.

Paul wanted to show this great contrast. Paul wanted to say, look Colossae, church at Colossae, you were this.

And because of Jesus Christ, not because of how spank you are or how good you are, you were this, and now you're this.

You may be saying, well, does it get much worse? Does it get much worse?

And Paul wants to make sure it's clear just how angry is God with us?

Is God kind of angry that my daughter didn't clean her room? She disobeyed me. I get maybe a little bit annoyed at that.

Does God get just a little bit annoyed with us? When at the core of ourselves, apart from Christ, we are at war with God?

The Bible says we are enemies of God. We are hostile towards Him. And you know what? Apart from Christ, apart from His mercy, apart from His grace, if we could, we would kill

God if given the chance. We're His enemy.

And it's got to be made clear that this enemy nature is not just one way.

It's not that we are God's warring enemy and God just loves us.

God's all about love. The Bible says God is love, love, love, love, love.

Yes, God loves His creation. Don't get me wrong. Don't get me wrong there. God loves what

He has made. God loves His creation. But God cannot stand sin. And apart from the work that Jesus Christ has done on the cross for you and for me,

God is your enemy. You are hostile towards Him and He is hostile towards you.

The Bible says, even in verse 21, if we continue a little bit further, it talks about the mind.

The Bible says in verse 21 to the Colossians that they were enemies in their minds.

If you're not a born -again believer here today, you are still God's enemy. You are sitting here and you are

God's enemy. So what does the word mind mean here?

What does this word mean? Is it just some kind of intellectual warning against God?

God, in my mind, I'm fighting against you? No, that's not what

Paul is talking about here. The word here is actually a word that encompasses much more.

Today we may say something like this, I love you with all my heart. Or I may get cut off by somebody in the road and go,

I hate you. I don't ever say that, but I'm making a point.

Right? I hate you with all my heart is how we would express it today.

It's who we are. It's what we are. It's our disposition. It's our completeness.

It describes us. Mind was used in that same way. Paul wants to show it's the encompassing of the entire person.

And if you want to know before you were a Christian, I don't have time to read it today, but if you want to know what you were like before God saved you, read

Romans 1, verses 21 -25. That'll get your self -esteem boosted.

Bible's clear. Evil, behavior, disposition. Paul wants to ensure that he understands, that those in Colossae clearly understand from this text who we were.

What was our former condition? And until you know what your former condition was, until you really see that,

Pastor Mike I know has talked about it, and you've heard other analogies of it, where the jeweler who holds up the black velvet or the black felt to show you a diamond under the glistening light, right?

They're going to show you the sin first because you don't see the glory of Christ apart from the sin being there and knowing what

He's done. If He hasn't done anything, if it hasn't cost Him anything, then why do we need

Jesus Christ in the first place? Why are we here today if that's the case? And if you're feeling pressure today, if you're going, whew, wow,

I've got to get out of here. If you're feeling the pressure today, amen. That may be just the working of God in your own heart to say, wow, at one time

I signed a pledge card, threw a pine cone into the fire, and met a guy in the street who said, you must be a

Christian. Ah, I must be a Christian. But today, what I'm hearing, that might not be the case.

I never put my hope and my faith and my trust in the work of Jesus Christ. I put it in myself because I walked an aisle, prayed a prayer, signed a card.

It has nothing to do with the work that you've done. Nothing to do with the work that you've done. Paul wants the

Colossians to see in verses 21 the form of condition. And then he moves into verses 22 and 23.

And I'm only going to get to verse 22. If I get the opportunity to get up here, if they don't pull me off,

I'll probably be preaching from 23, which is the perseverance of the saints. But 22,

Paul now wants to talk to the Colossians and go, Colossians, this has been pretty heavy stuff. Been pretty heavy stuff.

I want to give you a little bit of a breather. Come up for air now. And guess what? Here's your present condition. Paul wants to show them, here's the gospel message.

Here's the good news. If you're sitting there and you're going, wait a minute, what you're telling me in my present state apart from Jesus Christ, I deserve hell.

And guess what? Everybody in this room deserves hell. Wow. And Paul wants that to be the case.

Paul wants everyone to understand that's the case. Not one of us deserves heaven. Every one of us here today deserves eternal punishment for the sins that we have committed against a holy

God. But Paul wants to quickly move into verse 22. And Paul wants to make sure, he says in this transition, but wait, but wait, there's a present condition.

Here's the complete opposite contrast. Here is what I want you to see. Here's the black velvet.

But I want to show you the diamond now. Are you ready? Are you ready to see?

It's exciting. And we see the main theme in this portion of scripture here where Paul uses the word of reconciliation and where it comes from.

And it doesn't say it comes from you because you're so spanky and God loves you.

Right? It doesn't come from there. It says it comes from Him. He is the reconciler.

And if you look at the context, if you read down a little bit, you read up a little bit, you look at that big verse that says, the title of your section of scripture, it says the preeminence of Jesus Christ.

That's who the He is. It's not about you. It's not about me. Reconciliation is not a work that we can do.

It's Jesus Christ and the work He's done. And look with me now at verse 22. You'll see

Paul uses the word here now. Depending on your translation that you have, it may say something like yet now,

He has now, but now, etc. There's a couple different ones there, but most of them will say now.

And the word Paul is using here, this now, you may say, wow, it's now.

But it's actually extremely sharp contrast. It's in the emphatic.

And it's in the emphatic from previous condition to current position. And we would normally think of now,

I walked the dog, now I'm going to go to bed. We normally think of it as a chronological thing, but how

Paul uses it here and in the Greek, the emphatic, the contrast is complete separation. This, now this.

It has nothing to do with over a progression of time. Your former condition, belief in Jesus Christ, immediate, an instant.

When we put our faith and trust in Him, we are granted entrance into heaven.

What a great contrast. And because of His work, as we know, that God has a ledger of all of our sins.

He sees when we're alone in the room and the computer's turned on. He sees when we're by ourselves and we may be doing things that are inappropriate.

He sees all things. We can't fool God. We can't trick Him. But apart from the work of Jesus Christ being applied to your ledger, to what you have, your sins accounted against you when you face

God, Jesus Christ covers those sins and He removes them completely.

It isn't just a basic covering as it was in the Old Testament. No. This was a complete forgiveness of those sins.

Your ledger is wiped clean. It's not just a, let's scratch it down and start at zero again and every sin it works its way back up.

No, Scripture's clear that the reconciliation that Jesus Christ has done now is for past, present and future sins.

All sins are forgiven. Wow, so I can go and sin now, right? Paul says, may it never be.

And we'll see why that is not the case as we work a little bit more into this section of being a new believer.

If you've truly believed that you yourself have put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, let me ask you this, are you a new creature?

I'm not saying are you completely a new creature or are you now a cat, which I know Pastor Mike would love. Or are you a dog?

Or are you something else? No, that's not the type of creature. It is, are you new? Are you completely made new?

Paul wants to make sure that the reader understands that. And some people would say, well how new do

I have to be? How new do I have to be? That's a good question to ask yourself, right?

And what you run into often times is an analogy I've heard before. It may have even come from this pulpit.

But it's very similar to, I'm wandering out and I get hit by a truck in the street. And I go, huh, that was different.

And I walk back into the house. No, that's not how it's going to be. You should have a completely new person.

Your disposition, your desires, your wants, your needs.

You are here, and it's hopefully for a desire to hear God's Word. I hope you weren't tricked to come here today.

If you were, I pray that the message would enter into your heart and you would see the power of Jesus Christ and what

He can do. But Paul spoke here of this new creature, this new creation.

And what happens when one gets saved from their wicked nature, their wicked state?

Well, as a Christian, these are some of the things you get. You gave nothing.

And these are some of the things you get. You become a friend of God. Scripture says you become a child of God.

You are an heir to the throne. You have new values. You have new dispositions.

Do you? Do you have new values and new dispositions? Do you desire to read God's Word?

Do you desire to feed your own belly before reading God's Word? Do you desire to pray?

Do you desire anything different than before you were saved?

You have new motivations. You have new outlooks. You have hope. Do you?

Do you possess these various things in your life today?

I've run out of time. But I want to say, because oftentimes people will say, good,

I just have to put my faith and trust in, okay, Jesus, here, let's go.

Right? You need to understand the importance of the work that Jesus Christ has done.

You may be saying, great, it's the year 2013, and eh, you know, Bible, it's old, 2 ,000 years,

Jesus died, XYZ, whatever it might be. But let me just give you some quick purposes here and what it meant for reconciliation.

What it meant, what did it cost? Let me ask you again, what did it cost you for your reconciliation?

What did you have to give up to be reconciled before Jesus Christ or before God? Kind of gave it away.

But what did you have to give up? You had to give up your sin. That's the only thing you have.

Apart from God's grace, you are dead in your sin. And all we can do is offer up our sin to God, covered and forgiven by Christ's righteousness.

But did God just forgive it? God just turn around and say, okay, I'm the judge,

I'll forget it. No, that would be wickedness. That would be wickedness on God's part. And we know God isn't evil. God would not work evil.

So someone, something, somehow penalty had to be paid.

The penalty that you deserve, the penalty that I deserve for every single sin that we've committed.

How many sins do you think you've committed? How many times do you think, as Pastor Mike had talked about, even the two commandments that are boiled down in the

New Testament of love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

How many times do you think you failed God even today? How many times do you think you failed God even in this worship time now?

And the second commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. And how many times daily do you think you also have failed at that?

It cost Christ everything. Jesus Christ had to shed His blood.

Scripture says, for the forgiveness of sin, blood had to be shed. And He did that on the cross.

He hung on the cross for you and for me. Those who were His enemies. Enemies of God.

He hung on the cross and He had to physically sacrifice

Himself by shedding His blood. And not only did He shed His blood, not only did it trickle out of His side, while He hung there naked and beaten, but He died.

It had to be a total sacrifice. A total sacrifice. He gave up everything.

He gave up His life for you. He gave up His life for me.

God sent His Son willingly into this world to take the punishment that you and I deserve, so that judgment could be fulfilled.

You need to put your faith and your trust in Jesus Christ and understand how supreme

He is. Is He preeminent to you today? What are our responses to this reconciliation?

I'm going to just quickly mention five things. Five quick things and our time is done. What do we get from this reconciliation?

Apart from, well, I get to go to heaven and be with God for eternity. That sounds pretty good to me in and of itself.

And yet, the Scripture says here that we are made holy in God's sight.

We can approach the throne as long as we have been cleansed by Christ's blood and His sacrifice.

We are seen without blemish as the Lamb who was laid on the altar and slain. The perfect Lamb.

Jesus Christ. We too are seen without blemish before God. You and I are free from accusation.

We can no longer be accused. Satan oftentimes will say, yeah, but remember when you...

God completely forgives that. Most of all, it brings glory to God Himself.

It doesn't bring glory to us. There's nothing that you or I can boast in. It brings glory to God and God alone.

And lastly is the perseverance of the faith. Those who have been made new creatures will persevere in the faith.

As I close, I'd like to just read briefly. It's a short song and as I led worship or led music up here today,

I'm not going to sing it for you. I'm going to read it. But it's a song many of you are probably aware of.

It's by a group called Sovereign Grace. And it's entitled Thank You Jesus.

Thank You Jesus. And I'll say that you've sat through about 45 minutes of a message and I could boil down just about everything

I said from this song. Thank You Jesus. Let me briefly read it and then we will finish.

It says this. The mystery of the cross. I cannot comprehend the agonies of Calvary.

You, the perfect Holy One, Jesus, crushed Your Son who drank the bitter cup reserved for me.

Your blood has washed away my sin. Jesus, thank

You. The Father's wrath, the Father's wrath, completely satisfied.

Jesus, Jesus, thank You. Once Your enemy, once Your enemy now seated at Your table.

Jesus, thank You. By Your perfect sacrifice, I've been brought near.

Your enemy, You've made Your friend, pouring out the riches of Your glorious grace.

Your mercy and Your kindness know no end. Lover of my soul,

I want to live for You. Do you today want to live for Jesus Christ?

Do you see the importance of who Christ is and what He has done in your life today?

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank

You. We praise You. Lord, we understand You are preeminent. And so often it's easy to separate the individual from what

You have done, what You have created. That You have become the creator of the universe.

You are in the image of God. You are the head of the church. All these great things, and yet Lord, You loved even us.

Lord, You loved us when we were Your enemies. Lord, You loved us.

You sacrificed Yourself knowing that we hated You. That we hated the

Father. And Lord, we would continue to go on sinning.

We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the message that You have given to us through Your Word to show how great

Jesus Christ is. And the importance He should have in our lives. And Lord, we would pray for anyone today who may not have been one who has accepted

You, Lord, through putting their faith and trust in You as a

Savior from God's wrath. Lord, I would pray that they would not leave this place without knowing for sure that if they were to die, if they left, that they would have eternity with Christ.

Lord, we thank You now for those who have attended this evening. Lord, we thank You and we praise You for Pastor Mike and Pastor Steve as they travel back.

them traveling mercies. We ask all this in Your holy and precious name. Amen.