Lord Jesus Christ, the Means of Reconciliation – Romans5:11 (Pastor Josiah)

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Now I want you to pay attention. It wasn't anything in Israel. It wasn't their military size.
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It wasn't the type of people. Would you please open your
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Bibles to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. Please open your
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Bibles to Romans chapter 5. The title of this sermon is
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The Lord Jesus Christ The Means of Reconciliation. You've heard me argue before that I believe the number one most misinterpreted, misapplied word in the
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Christian language is the word struggle. On Wednesday night I talked about a close second would be free will.
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But these three words are up there as well. Or maybe not misinterpreted, maybe used in vain.
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And that is the words the Lord Jesus Christ. So today we're going to talk about what those three words mean.
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So let's read if we will in Romans chapter 5 verse 10 and 11. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.
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More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation.
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Let's pray. God, let the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight,
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O Yahweh, our rock and our redeemer. Alright, a couple, amen. Excuse me.
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Y 'all thought I was still praying. A couple definitions to start off with. I put these up at the top of your paper.
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Try your nature. Now, we've talked about this before. The Trinity, if you will, the triune nature of God is just that.
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Triune. Three in one. Meaning that God is one being in three persons.
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God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And by the way, when you see a pastor, when you see me on this handout, which
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I hope all of you have, put these little verses next to it. That's not just to show you that I know what
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I'm talking about. That's so that when you take this little piece of paper that took me several hours to make, you can look that up and see for yourself the
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Bible teaches that. Not just because I told you, because the Bible says that. Does that make sense? So maybe instead of leaving them out here for April and Rebecca to clean up tomorrow, maybe let's try this.
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Take them to the house and maybe read and study a little bit on your own. Just an idea.
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Take it or leave it. On that note, on the back of this paper, I made homework questions again. I know how excited
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Dylan and Ryder and Sean all are excited because I made homework questions again for this week. They are on the back ready for you to ignore them again.
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If you so choose, might be an excellent way, gentlemen, might be an excellent way to help breed some study habits for you and your family.
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A thought. At any rate, and it's all based on Romans 5, so you can get half the answers today if you pay attention, right?
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So another definition, and this one is key, is the word reconciliation.
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Let's all say it together. Ready? One, two, three. Reconciliation. Now, that word means to be brought back in right relation with somebody else.
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To be restored. To have a relationship restored back to where it was before. This is the acting out of God's plan in history to bring man back in right stead with Him.
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See, let me help you. Let me summarize this book for you. I often ask people, how much of this book do you know?
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And they might answer with some adjectives. They might answer with percentages. They might tell me on a scale of 1 to 10.
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Sometimes they'll use a letter grade. But often, they're like, okay, just try to summarize it for me.
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So I'll do that now. Chapter 1 and 2, the first two pages of this book are about creation.
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The rest of the entire book from Genesis chapter 3 through Revelation 22 is about reconciliation.
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It's about God restoring the relationship He had with man in His garden. That is what this book's about.
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If I were to put that, the first two chapters about the creation, everything else is about reconciliation. That's what this book is about.
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See, let me paint the picture for you maybe if you don't know. God created this planet, this world, this universe perfectly.
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And man rebelled against that. Many times, you will be asked in your life, how could such a loving
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God allow so much evil? Dear friends, I am here to tell you that question is backwards.
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You see, the holy and righteous God told man, on the day you eat from that tree, you will die. The next chapter says
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He lived 930 years after that day. The question is not how could such a loving
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God. The question is how can a just, righteous, and holy God allow people to defy
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His orders? How is He not a cosmic pushover? See, that's the real question of the
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Bible. That's the real question. How can a righteous judge simply pardon sin and still be just?
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Think about a judge who has the evidence to convict the criminal and says, yeah, you're guilty, but you go free, you go free, you go free, you go free.
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What kind of judge would that be? Wouldn't we as a society say that is a bad judge?
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Because it's unjust. People get away with whatever they want. Well, the question is how can
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God forgive sin? That is the central question of the Bible. How can
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God forgive sin? The answer is in those three words.
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Lord, Jesus, Christ. Look again in our text. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, that's we are brought back in right step with God.
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Now that we're reconciled, shall we be saved by His life? More than that, we rejoice in God.
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How? How could a sinner possibly rejoice in God? That's the judge.
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Exactly. That's the judge. How can the sinner rejoice in God?
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These next words. Through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Let's break down those three words, shall we? Lord, kurios, ruler and master.
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In the New Testament, that's the right side of your Bible. In the New Testament, that word is used 716 times.
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Almost all of them are in reference to Jesus. Almost all of them are in reference to Jesus. There's a handful in reference to the
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Father. There's a few in reference to earthly rulers. But in the majority, the overwhelming majority, that word is applied to Jesus.
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He is Lord. He is master. He is ruler. Now my question for you today is not, is
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Jesus Lord? The answer to that is yes. It's really not, is
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He your Lord? The answer to that is also yes, whether you acknowledge that or not. My question is, do you acknowledge
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Him as Lord? I don't care what your answer is to, is He Lord? That answer is universally a yes.
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My question to you, to every person in this room, is do you acknowledge Him as Lord? Do you submit to Him as Lord?
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Is He, like it says right here, on our definition, is He the ruler, the master of your life?
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Now what is amazing is the New Testament writers don't simply use that word to apply to Jesus as a ruler or a master.
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But there are times in the New Testament where the writers use that word to identify
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Jesus as Yahweh, that is, as the one true God Himself.
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And I wrote three examples here for you to see where the New Testament writers actually apply a passage of Scripture that was originally written addressed to Yahweh and apply it to Jesus, who is
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God the Son. And there's three there, we won't look at all three, I just want to look at one. I just want to look at one, okay?
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And you don't need to have to turn there, I'll do it for you. And that's the second one, the one that says Isaiah 45, 23.
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Let me just read for you Isaiah chapter 45, just these two verses, okay? Now stay with me.
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You ready? Declare and present your case, let them take counsel together.
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Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not
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I, Yahweh? Now, if you have been here long enough, you know
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Yahweh is the divine name of God. God doesn't have a hundred names, He has one name. He's got a million titles,
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He has one name, and that name is Yahweh. That is I Am. That's who that is. That name is used almost 7 ,000 times in the
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Old Testament. We all recognize there may be other so -called gods, there might be Baal, there might be
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Anubis, there might be all these other so -called gods, but there's one true God and His name is Yahweh. Amen? Now listen what this says.
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Was it not I, Yahweh? And there's no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a
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Savior. There's no one besides Me. Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am
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God and there is no other. By Myself I have sworn, from My mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return.
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Now listen, this is Yahweh speaking. Isaiah 45 .23 To Me every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.
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That's Yahweh speaking. Does that passage sound familiar to you? Does that ring a bell?
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As Yahweh spoke from His own mouth recorded by Isaiah, He says, To Me every knee will be bowing and every tongue will be swearing allegiance.
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You see, ladies and gentlemen, the reason why it's unimportant to me whether or not you have an informational knowledge of Is Jesus Lord?
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Because that is not salvation. The question I have for you, the question God's Word has for you is do you acknowledge
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Him, submit to Him as Lord? And if you say, well,
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I don't know. Here's the question. Do you obey Him? And are you learning to love to obey
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Him? There's the question. That's all that matters. At the end of the day, is that true of your life?
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If not, you need to ask yourself, are you really a Christian? This is what
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Paul says of that passage. And we'll go back to our texts in Romans after this. But I'm just going to read for you this out of Philippians chapter 2.
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Again, this is under point 1, sub point A. I'm going to read to you what this says.
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I'm in Philippians 2. Paul's going to quote that passage from Isaiah 45. But listen to who
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Paul applies that passage to. You ready? Now, it was just Yahweh speaking.
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God, yes? Listen to what Paul says in Philippians chapter 2. Therefore, God has highly exalted
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Jesus and bestowed on Him the name that's above every name.
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Isn't that what we're just saying? Verse 10. So that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.
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Oh, but it gets better. Not just every knee on earth. What's it say? That is in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.
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You see, on that day, on that great and awe -inspiring day of the Lord, every single knee will be bowing in allegiance to Jesus.
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Heaven, earth, hell, it doesn't matter. All will pay homage to the Lord of lords and King of kings.
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But it says, to the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.
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You see, ladies and gentlemen, we confess Jesus as Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not just a general ruler or master.
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No, but New Testament writers apply that He is God come in the flesh. That as that passage was applied to Yahweh, to God Almighty, to El Shaddai, to Jehovah, to whatever way you want to pronounce that, as it was applied to Him in Isaiah, that application goes to God the
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Son, who is Jesus. And every knee will be bowing and every tongue will be swearing allegiance. And He will finally get the credit that is due
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Him. And I beg you to come to reality. That will be happening in your life.
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And I beg you, for your soul's sake, come to that realization now, because He is gentle and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
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He is kurios. He is Lord. And since our
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Savior is God Almighty, repentance is not a request.
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It's a command. Now this, and I'm very happy, I don't think it was any of our people, someone put this
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Scripture on the corner right here at Whitman Macon. Acts chapter 17, where the Bible declares that He now commands all men everywhere to repent.
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For so long, we have spoken the
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Gospel like this. That Jesus really wants to be part of your life.
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He really just wants to. And gosh gee, He'll just be heartbroken if you don't accept
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Him. And you don't want to see Jesus sad, do you? So why don't you do Him a favor and just pray to Him every now and then so He doesn't get lonely.
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Ladies and gentlemen, have you read the same Bible I've read? I'm serious.
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He commands repentance. He commands repentance.
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Parents, I hope that's not how you tell your children to obey. Well gosh gee,
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Naomi, I really just wish you would clean up your room. It would make your mommy happy, it would make me happy.
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Would you mind just sparing a few moments of your time to help me? But if not, that's okay,
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I'll just do it myself. Now we scoff at that, but that is the picture we present of Jesus, is it not?
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He commands people to repent. You know why? Because He is Lord. And He has the right to do that because He is the
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Creator God. And what's amazing, what's amazing is the next word,
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Lord Jesus. Let's move on to point two, but let me just read verse 11 one more time, of Romans chapter 5.
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More than that, we rejoice in God through our
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Lord Jesus Christ. Iesous, from the
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Hebrew, excuse me, from the Hebrew, Yehoshua, means Yahweh saves.
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Iesous, Jesus is used 917 times in the New Testament. There's an emphasis there, yeah?
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That word means Yahweh saves. That's what the name Jesus means. Yahweh, God, saves.
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A fitting name, setting His purpose and His course of action from the get. When He got here, that's what
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His purpose was. See, He's Lord, so He's from Heaven. Jesus, you won't find the name
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Jesus in the Old Testament. You see, the Promised One, we'll talk about the word Messiah in a minute, the
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Promised One, if you just had your Old Testament, you would know a lot about the
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Promised One. If you read, you would know that He was coming to save, you would know that He was coming to be a king, you would know
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He'd be from the line of David. If you really paid attention, you would know that He would be born of a virgin. If you really paid attention, you would know that He would die and be resurrected.
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If you really paid attention, you would know He would suffer, and by His obedience, others would be made righteous.
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If you really paid attention, you'd even know that He would be born in Bethlehem. But the name Jesus was not revealed until He came.
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The Gospel of Matthew records this for us in chapter 1. And Gabriel tells Mary, she will bear a son, and you will call
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His name Jesus, and I put this in red on your paper, for, this is the reason why
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His name will be Jesus, means Yahweh saves, right? For He will save His people from their sins.
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Not He will try to save, not He'll give it His best go at it, He will save. Because in His nature,
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He is a Savior. That's who He is. He's a Savior, and He will save His people from their sins.
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And in Jesus, we have the answer to the question, How can
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God reconcile? How can a judge pardon sin, and still be a righteous judge?
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And the answer is because, that sin was not passed over. That sin did not go unpunished.
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The scales of justice were met out. See, He wasn't a pushover.
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He didn't just pretend He didn't see it. Every sin was paid for.
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Jesus Himself, God the Son said, I will reconcile the world to Myself, so here's what
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I'm going to do. I'll come Myself, and I'll take the punishment, so that they don't have to.
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You see, ladies and gentlemen, we often ask, we often ask, why, and maybe you've been challenged on this, and it's a good question, why an eternal sin for temporal punishment?
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You ever thought about that? Like, okay, God, I understand that I have sinned. I understand that this person has sinned.
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I understand that they have wronged Your command. But they've done that in time. So why should the punishment for a temporal sin, for a temporary sin, for sin on this earth be eternity in hell?
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You ever wondered that? Isn't that a fair question? Because it's not a temporal sin.
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It's an eternal sin. Because you've sinned against an eternal God. And I gave this example,
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I gave this example on Wednesday. In our world, we do not value all humans the same.
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We don't. We value some as more important than others. And thus, we can have people killed in this city every night, and you won't hear about it.
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Oh, but if a certain kind of person dies, if a millionaire, if a rich, famous actor came in this town and was killed, it would be the number one story for weeks on end, right or wrong.
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Because we don't value all people the same. We don't. We view sins against some as greater than sins against others, don't we?
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Well, ladies and gentlemen, the person we have ultimately sinned against is not each other.
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It's against the holy and sovereign God who is the most valuable, most honorable, most worthy person, most worthy being to ever exist.
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The reason why an eternal punishment is required is because those creatures made from dirt defied the orders of an infinitely eternal, worthy
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God. That's why. So the only punishment that can be met out is the death of an infinitely worthy individual.
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And thus God entered His own creation for the purpose of saving and reconciling those people back to Himself.
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That's why He came. Amen? That's why He came. And His name is Jesus for He will save His people from their sins.
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John Everett was teaching a Bible study years ago and again, he probably didn't come up with this, but it doesn't matter.
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He taught it, so he gets credit for it. John told me this. He said, Josiah, the
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Old Testament is just the New Testament concealed. And the
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New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. And that's right. That's right. You see,
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God gave us pictures of His plan of reconciliation. He gave us images, shadows, symbols.
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And it's only until the person of Jesus we get the full picture of what He's been doing all along. The whole picture of what
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He's been doing all along in reconciling the world back to Himself. Look again in verse 10.
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For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, we'll come back to that line, much more now that we are reconciled will be saved by His life.
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More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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The Lord because He is God. Jesus because He came to save.
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And now Christ. The word Christ is simply the
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Greek word for the Hebrew word Messiah. Listen, Messiah... Here, learn something today.
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Messiah and Christ are the exact same word, just two different languages. Juan and John. Jorge and George.
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Literally the same thing. I know they don't sound the same in English, but they are. Christ is just a Greek transliteration of the
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Hebrew word Messiah. It's the exact same word. Now, here's why that's important.
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The word Messiah, the word Christ, is used 529 times in the
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New Testament. Every time you see that word, here's what that person is telling you. For example, y 'all remember when
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Peter, when Jesus says, who are they saying that I am? And they say, well some say you're a prophet, some say you're
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Elijah, or whatever, right? And then Jesus says, y 'all remember this? But who do you say that I am?
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Remember what Peter says? Peter says, you are the Christ, the
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Son of the living God. Make sure you understand what Peter is saying there. You are the
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Christ, you are the Messiah. You know what he's saying there? All those stories I heard about growing up. Every time my grandmother opened up the
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Bible and spoke to me God's word, and it spoke of a promised one, a future king. All of that,
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I believe you're Him. I believe you're that God. I believe you are this guy right here.
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When we say Christ, what we are saying is Jesus is the promised one of the
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Old Testament. We're saying He was the one to come. That's what we're saying. When you see that word, and that's why it's so pervasive in the
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New Testament, because the writers are continually pointing you back to what's already been written saying, that's Him, that's
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Him, He's the man, He's the one, and He came in the person of Jesus Christ.
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You see, Lord Jesus Christ means He has the right to tell me how to live because He is
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God. He has the compassion and empathy to understand what I'm going through and my weakness because He became a man.
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And I know He will fulfill His promises to me because His very existence as a man,
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His whole life in ministry as Jesus the Christ, is a fulfillment of all the promises of God.
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And so, here in the Incarnation and in my life in the ministry of Jesus, we finally get to see the plan
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God has been working all along. His plan for reconciling the world back to Himself. What He had previously told us in shadowy imagery and symbols,
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He now clearly makes known in the person of Jesus. Every promise
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God made in the Old Testament is fulfilled and completed in the person of Jesus who is
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God come from Heaven. The existence of Jesus of Nazareth is undisputed.
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You will not find any serious person, any serious scholar, any serious historian that will dispute the existence of a man
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Jesus of Nazareth from where they would call Palestine. It's undisputed. See, when you confess
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Him as Jesus, you only have to admit that far. That there was a man in the first century named
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Jesus who was a great prophet and did many things. When you recognize that Jesus of Nazareth, or excuse me,
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I should quote this. This is a quote from Bart Ehrman. I have his book upstairs.
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He's probably the most influential atheist in the country.
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He says, Jesus is the best attested Palestinian Jew of the first century.
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In other words, there is no denying His existence. But you see, recognizing
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Jesus Christ, when you admit that He is the Christ, you are confessing that you believe that guy, that Jesus of Nazareth, that human being is the promised one of the
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Old Testament sent by the Father to do the work. And thus, is a blood sacrifice for sins.
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But ladies and gentlemen, if you take it one step further, if you confess the
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Lord Jesus Christ, be sure you know what you're saying. If you confess the
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Lord Jesus Christ, you're recognizing that this man Jesus, the promised one of the
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Old Testament, is God come from heaven. The sovereign one who created everything and governs all things at all times, entered
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His own creation to accomplish His own purposes. Can you think about that for a moment?
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In that garden, God made everything. He made everything.
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But only one did He make in His image. That is, with the ability to know
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Him intimately and love Him deeply. And that's mankind. And if you read the first two chapters of Genesis, they are just a blaze of miracles.
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He speaks this and it comes. He speaks this and it happens. He says this and it happens. He opens His mouth and this happens.
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And waters come up in heaps and mountains rise and stars and the sun and the moon and all these things.
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When He stops, He takes His time. And the Bible says, He formed man out of the dust of the ground.
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Remember? He breathes life into Him. He breathes life into Him.
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Personally. Intimately. And then, that man defies
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His orders, rejects His command, and is banished from the garden. Can you imagine for a moment, the answer is no, but just try.
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Being God and entering your own creation, you become that which you formed out of dirt.
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You subject yourself to the laws of nature that you created. You feel gravity for the first time since it left your fingertips when you created it.
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Right? You experience pain and sorrow and sadness and happiness and joy in a totally different way.
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You have to obey parents that you created. You ever thought about that?
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Then you're tried by people you brought into existence and found guilty of laws that are supposed to be your laws that you created.
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Then you're nailed to a tree that you spoke into existence. Right? And then you are put into a rock that you called to be.
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You are humiliated by the people that you are very, the very people you're trying to reconcile.
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That's what Jesus came to do. That's what He was prophesied to do. And in reconciliation, we find this.
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Verse 10. If while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more now that we are reconciled will we be saved by His life.
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It's an argument from lesser to greater. Now follow the logic here. Paul says, you were reconciled while you were still enemies.
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That is a word that is not applied enough to rebel sinners. Enemy. Enemy.
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We have imagery of lost sheep. We have imagery of seeking and saving the lost.
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We also have imagery of rebel sinners who are enemies to God. Ladies and gentlemen, let it be known to you today by the
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Word of God, if you are in this room and you are not trusting in Christ as your Savior, you are an enmity with God.
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An enemy with the Sovereign King of the Universe. The Sovereign King of the
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Universe. You are an enemy of God. And maybe that phraseology doesn't get used enough in churches, but you make it say something it doesn't.
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Because that's what it says right here. Is everyone reading that? Here, get your eyes on your Bible real quick. Do you see that word right there? Enmity. Enemy.
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Contrary to. Against. An enemy of God. Playing with fire doesn't describe what someone is doing who has not submitted to God.
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That doesn't describe what we're talking about. We're talking about the God that formed us out of dirt.
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We're talking about that God. And we, who are not in Christ, are at odds with Him.
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And yet, while we were still sinners, He reconciled us to Himself.
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He didn't wait for you to find Him before He found you. He came to save His people. They were already,
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Matthew 1, His people before He saved them, yes? He came to save His people.
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So, ladies and gentlemen and Christians, let me encourage you with this. And this brings so much joy to my heart.
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I hope it does to you too. The argument of verse 10 is, if while you were an enemy, He did all that.
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If while you were still defying His name, He left heaven, came to earth, was ridiculed, mocked, beaten, scorned, and killed by His own creation.
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If you've never read the creation account, if you've only watched it on TV or heard, I'm going to challenge you to go read
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Mark 15 tonight. Quit writing it down so fast. Mark chapter 15. It is a rough read.
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If you don't love God, it will just seem like literature to you. But for the rest of it, it's a rough read. They cover
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Him with a blanket over His head after they put the crowns on Him, and then take sticks, and they beat
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Him over the head with a blanket on Him. And then they mock Him and say, alright prophet, prophesy to us, which one of us hit you?
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Right? He did all that while we were still enemies.
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Now, ladies and gentlemen, follow the logic for a minute. If you're a real believer, would you please raise your hand and God doesn't do half hands.
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Okay. Now, put your hands down for a moment. If God did that while you were an enemy, why would you ever think
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He could cast you away now? If while you were an enemy, look at verse 10, while we were enemies, you were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.
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Much more. Much more. Now that we are reconciled, we'll be saved by His life.
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In other words, He's going to finish the job. He'll see it through to the end. He did that while we were enemies.
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He'll be seeing the job through to the end. He'll be finishing that which
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He started, and then this right here. 2
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Corinthians 5. Would you turn there with me as we finish up here? We're going to finish in this passage, in 2
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Corinthians 5. Hunter, you can go ahead and come up here. We're almost done.
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Oh, someone asked me, I wanted to say this, and this has nothing to do with 2 Corinthians 5, but just a little side note for you.
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Listen, and I heard the Bible pages turning, which I enjoyed, so it reminded me of this.
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There is absolutely nothing wrong with, someone asked me this, having the
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Bible on your phone. I wish you could remember who it was right now. Absolutely nothing wrong.
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There is probably not a lesson or sermon I prepare now that I didn't use my computer, my iPad, or something like that in order to help write.
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However, let me say this. When I first started teaching here at Witten, I started with the
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RAs for 4 years, working with Mr. Mike. And then
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I worked in youth for several years, and so on and so forth.
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I helped do children's church for a while. That's always fun. And then I started teaching the adult
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Bible study, so on and so forth. And then I got a job as a public school teacher.
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And in all of those capacities, I always had parents tell me this. Well, my child is a visual learner.
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It's a visual learner. That phrase does confuse me, because I feel like everyone is a visual learner, because we all have eyes, and we all learn that way.
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But I think I know what they meant by it. So let me say this, if that be true. Your children always see you on this.
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They are used to seeing you on this. They're not as used to seeing you with this.
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So if they are truly visual learners, then my challenge to you would be, there's nothing wrong with having the
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Bible on your phone. I do it every day. But let your time reading with them be something that they can visually remember years from now, where they won't just think you're doing what you normally do on YouTube or TikTok or whatever, but they actually have a visualization of you honoring
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God's Word. Maybe that visual memory will help them in some way. It definitely helps mine.
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So at any rate, just an encouragement in that regard. Okay. 2
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Corinthians 5, verse 17. We should all have this one memorized, yes?
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Okay. Verse 17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature.
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Nothing can change, and he can still be assured of his salvation, even though nothing in his life has ever changed.
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Right? No? Is that? But that's what
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I thought, because if you prayed a prayer one time when you were nine, and you showed up for your baptism four weeks later, and they gave you a little pink or blue Bible, you made sure to bow your head, close your eyes, repeat after me, don't look around, raise your hand, that whole thing, and then nothing ever changes,
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I thought that meant you were a genuine Christian, right? Look again, verse 17. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.
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Old has passed away, and behold, all has become new. This phrase, new creation, you can see this if you look one page over in chapter 4, verse 6, where it says,
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The God who said, Let light shine, has shone in our hearts. This imagery of creation and salvation.
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Ladies and gentlemen, the reason, the reason why we as human beings are so to pray, is because we are born with a dead spirit.
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And what it takes to save a soul is to create within that person a new heart and a new spirit.
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And that's the imagery of creation. Just like out of the darkness He said, Let there be light.
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In the same way, that's how salvation happens. And God says, Let there be. And thus a new spirit is born.
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But He says, If anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation. And just like the intimacy of how
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He created us in the beginning, He forms in us a new heart and a new spirit that loves Him. That wants to obey
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Him. And though we're at war with the flesh and the bad habits we've created, and for the first time in our life there's an inner struggle, there's still a new creation.
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And it says, All this is from God. Verse 18. Who through Christ, remember that?
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The promised one from the Old Testament? Who through Christ, reconciled us to Himself.
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And then there's the next words. And gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Did you just catch that?
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It's not just He reconciled us to Himself. Then He gave us, the reconciled ones, the job of reconciling the world.
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He gave us the ministry of reconciliation. The miracle is not just that He says,
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Let there be light. The miracle is that He uses us to send that message.
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The miracle is that He uses reconciled ones to bring about the ministry of reconciliation.
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Isn't that amazing? Look around. There's God's plan to reach the world.
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And you might think, couldn't He have come up with a better plan? And the answer is no. This is the one He chose.
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And look again. He gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That's our job.
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The ministry of reconciliation. Verse 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting the trespasses against Him, and entrusting to us the
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Word, the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.
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God making His appeal through us, we implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God.
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For our sake, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
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Reconciliation is being brought back in right stead with God. And God did that through our
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Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, because He's God come from heaven. Jesus, because He came to save.
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Christ, because He's the promised one in the Old Testament. And then finally, He has now given us the job of giving us the ministry of reconciling the world back to Him.
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And He's entrusted us with that job. If you are in this room right now, and you have been reconciled to God, God Almighty has chosen you to be the ministers of reconciliation.
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It was either, it might have been David or Robert, maybe it was Burkett, someone on the mission trip was pointing out the fact that, wow,
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I'm a missionary. Yeah, I didn't exactly see myself as a missionary until about five minutes ago, but I'm a missionary.
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Missionary Abbott. That's David. I mean, he's missionary Abbott, right? He's right. He's right.
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We are ministers of reconciliation. And you know how you do that? Not by knowing the most theology, not by being able to quote the most
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Scripture. You do that by being, listen to those words, ministers of reconciliation.
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You see that right there? Everyone looking at verse 18? The ministry of reconciliation.
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By showing somebody else there's a better way. And it's only one way, but there is a better way.
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That's the ministry of reconciliation. That we are totally lost, damned and on our way to hell, but God came in the flesh, in the person of Jesus, to save sinners like us.
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And I'm included in that. So, today I ask you, if you have yet to submit to your calling of being reconciled to God, I beg you to do that today.
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But if you're in this room, and you've yet to submit to the calling of being a minister of reconciliation to others,
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I beg you to repent of that today and start with that today. Whatever the case may be, right now if you would please stand.
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Here's your job. Stand. That's where you get on two feet. Thank you. Here's what you're going to do. You're going to go minister to somebody right now.
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Whatever that looks like. Even if that is this right here. Hey Melanie, can I pray with you? Hey Mickey, can
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I pray with you? That counts. But whatever you're going to do, you're going to worship by obeying God and doing just that, and being ministers of that reconciliation.