Colossians - Christ Reconciled Us

God Centered Theology

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:01

The word reconcile means to restore a relationship or to cause to coexist in harmony and Verse 19 says for it was the father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him and all and through him to reconcile all things to himself

00:21

It was necessary that all the fullness of deity dwelt in Jesus Christ. Otherwise, you would have not had a situation where Christ's sacrifice could have been the exact sacrifice the true

00:33

Propitiation or satisfaction for God's wrath for sin if Jesus Christ had been any less

00:39

God Or if he had not been fully man, he had to be 100 % God 100 % man

00:44

It's what we call the God man If he was not every bit of that 100 % of that his sacrifice would not have fully satisfied

00:53

God's wrath for sin Therefore there would be upon no basis that God can reconcile all things to himself and he is going to reconcile all things to himself

01:08

Notice that in verse 20, it says through him to reconcile all things to himself Having made peace through the blood of his cross

01:16

So his cross the the death that Jesus Christ died the blood that he shed

01:21

Not only is the basis upon which God will reconcile all things to himself But also made peace with God Now peace what peace why would peace be needed?

01:33

I mean after all everybody's, you know, basically a good person, right? No That is a lie straight from the pit of hell there is none good but God Anybody that thinks they're you know, we're all basically good

01:50

They're probably involved in some type of works -based salvation or if they're completely a void of religion

01:56

They're probably trying to justify their sinful behavior If peace was needed you can turn with me to the third chapter of the book of Romans if you will

02:08

Book of Romans is very clear in the way. It lays this out starting in verse 10 It says there is none righteous not even one.

02:15

There is none who understands there is none who seeks for God All have turned aside together they become useless there is none who does good

02:26

But we're all basically good right? No, there is none who does good there is not even one

02:33

Their throat is an open grave with their tongues. They keep deceiving the poison of asps is upon their lips

02:41

Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness? Their feet are swift to shed blood

02:50

Destruction and misery are in their paths and the path of peace They have not known

02:57

There is no fear of God before their eyes That doesn't paint a very pretty picture

03:07

Because this can be applied to every single person has ever lived none righteous

03:13

You go further in the chapter you get to verse 23 for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God All have sinned past tense in Adam all of Adam's sin is imputed to us

03:26

Come short of the glory of God. It's a present tense. We continually Come short and miss the mark.

03:33

That's ultimately what the definition of sin is. It's a missing of the mark and Sin is you know

03:40

You can put it in terms of law you can put it in terms of you know, do this

03:45

We do that instead Disobedience but sin ultimately when it comes down to it is anything outside the character of God God is perfectly holy.

03:54

He's perfectly just he's perfectly righteous. He's perfect love. He's perfect grace.

04:00

He's perfect mercy He's perfect peace He's all those things in any church that would focus on God's love to the dismissal of the rest of his attributes is

04:10

Not teaching the whole Council of Scripture God is all those things perfectly and he's perfectly all those things at all times

04:24

God is a perfect righteous judge if he were to ignore sin or not

04:29

Or not demand a penalty for sin He would cease to be God because he would cease at that point to be perfectly just righteous and holy

04:38

But at the same time if God were to withhold Eternal life from anyone that repents of their sin and places their faith and trust in Jesus Christ as the only

04:48

Uniquely qualified Savior. He would cease to be God because then he would be ceasing in his grace mercy and love

04:57

He's all those things at the same time and he's all those things perfectly at all times

05:05

Think about it Did the cross happen a week after Adam sinned?

05:11

anybody No Couple thousand years, right?

05:19

What three four somewhere in there? It wasn't a week Think about the grace and Mercy of God Almighty That he would allow

05:34

Everything that occurred between the time he created Adam to the time of the cross all that sin

05:41

Just read Genesis chapter 6 and Noah's day He wiped everybody out except for eight people

05:51

Think about all the rebellion of the Jewish community all the sin all the idols all the disobedience

05:58

And that's just the people that were God's people Nebuchadnezzar paganism

06:06

Idolatry all of it all the sin all the rejection of God And he didn't wipe him out

06:15

The grace and mercy of God that he would wait because he knew That one day his son was going down on a cross and man

06:23

They become the basis upon which God could not only reconcile everything to himself

06:29

But also could pass over sin he could it could be covered

06:34

He could overlook it in his grace and mercy could let it pass by without rendering just judgment right then and there

06:42

See the shocking thing to us should be not that You know God's graceful merciful so and so forth the shocking thing to us, you know

06:51

You know, how could God allow such evil and how could God allow such sin and died it out it out it

06:57

That's not what's shocking to me The shocking part to me is that a perfectly holy just righteous

07:03

God at the very first instance I sinned didn't kill me right then and there wiped me off the face of the planet

07:10

He'd be perfectly righteous in doing so. He's God. We're not Too many churches and too many instances and too many context in life in the media in Pulpits and everywhere else they don't talk about sin

07:25

Now I grew up in fundamentalism where you know If women wore pants they were evil and if men didn't have a suit on they were evil and you know

07:33

If you didn't have certain songs saying in your church, you know we weren't a real church and they had all these lists of rules and Regulations all these crazy things about how you dressed and how you looked and you couldn't wear a certain amount of this or certain

07:44

Now that you know you had to walk a certain way Some of some circles had certain rules were it was either the woman had to walk in front of the man or behind the man

07:52

I don't know. I got lost on that one, but it was like a weird thing It was you know I'm like The crazy thing that always messed up Gina's when we go these churches is she just naturally like any y 'all would do very nice Walk up stand your hand.

08:04

Hey, how you doing? But women weren't supposed to extend their hands to the man like That's crazy

08:11

That's not biblical That's man law That's I'm a man.

08:17

I'm humankind. I'm mankind. I'm not satisfied what God says. I'm gonna add to it Pharisees ring a bell

08:23

They were really good at that But just because we're not gonna sit there and have this this rule and that rule this rule

08:31

That doesn't mean sin shouldn't be dealt with Now I've told you many times it's not my job to dissect your life

08:38

It's not my job to come into any of your houses and say now you tell me how you operate and I'm gonna tell you

08:43

Where you're going wrong? That's not my job You have the same indwelling Holy Spirit.

08:49

You have been reconciled to God On the basis of the cross of Jesus. You don't need a pastor telling you how to live your life to that amount of detail

09:00

But if you were to come into my office and say Andy I'm struggling with a certain area or there's something

09:05

I can't wrap my head around or you know I've got this one particular sin that I just it's nagging at me.

09:11

I can't seem to find a Constructive way to get past it at that point if you give me permission to give you my opinion and take you through the

09:19

Word of God and give you Instruct then it's good But it still does not keep me from my responsibility to preach about the fact that we're all sinners and We see it exceedingly.

09:32

Well If you ever find yourself in a church that thinks that we're all just basically good and we're just victims of sin

09:40

And you know if it wasn't for God allowing Adam to do this thing with the fruit and stuff, you know

09:45

We're just good people trying to make it in this world. We're just victim. No, you're not you're sinners Your your throat is an open grave your tongues deceive my tongue deceives.

09:56

I'm not righteous You're not righteous if Left to ourselves.

10:02

We would die choosing our sin loving our sin And the shocking thing to me is people think that sins gonna cease in hell

10:09

People go to hell. They're not gonna stop sinning They're gonna be given a glorified Resurrected body that's suitable for eternity for the eternity

10:17

They find themselves in if you find yourself in a place called hell you will have an eternal body that will not decay that will exist in this lake of fire and you will be gnashing your teeth and Sinning with your mouth and sinning with your deeds to some capacity in some way for all of eternity

10:34

There will be no victims in hell They will find themselves there because they chose to be there.

10:41

They have rejected the Savior they've chosen their sin and they will never ever be able to point a finger at God and said you sent me here and I didn't deserve to be here

10:55

Romans chapter 8 is another one of my favorite chapters on this subject Romans chapter 8 verse 6 says for the mind set on the flesh is death

11:05

But the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace now He's not speaking in practical terms here like in the book of Galatians by the

11:13

Spirit the fruits of the Spirit This is how you can notate what a Christian life looks like Paul is

11:19

Describing two types of people because there's only two types of people in this world There are those that have already been reconciled to God in salvation and those that are still on their sins and will be reconciled to God One day in judgment and we're gonna get to that in just a minute

11:34

But he's saying those that are of the flesh he's saying the unsaved the natural state the old self the old man the the

11:41

Dead and sinning trespasses when he's saying those of the Spirit those that have been saved those have been regenerated those that have been had the

11:49

Holy Spirit and come to entwine them through faith in Christ and So he says for the mind set on the flesh is death because that's all you will know is death spiritual death

11:58

But the mind set on the Spirit is life Watch this now and peace

12:05

Colossians 1 19 and 20 peace through his cross Well peace with who?

12:11

Verse 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God now We're to cover that in a few minutes when we go back to Colossians But it says a hostile toward God for it does not subject itself to the law of God for it is not even able to do so the sinful

12:30

Unsaved mind not only would never choose God is not even capable of performing righteousness

12:39

All works -based salvation programs just went out the door With this one verse and in context with the rest of the chapter and the rest of the book of Romans Because he establishes in chapter 3 we're all sinners.

12:51

He establishes in chapter 6 the saved have been baptized into Christ Jesus He establishes in chapter 7 that the saved person will struggle with sin the things

13:01

I wish I would do I'm not doing the things I wish I wasn't I wouldn't do those are the things I find myself doing and in chapter 8

13:08

He just Really throws the hammer down He says if you think you're gonna work yourself way to heaven if you're gonna somehow stand before a holy righteous and perfectly good

13:19

Merciful and graceful God and stand there by somehow have earned Your way into his kingdom.

13:25

You're really in trouble because not only could you earn it You can't even perform one single act of righteousness

13:33

You're that spiritually dead which is so Makes the grace of God in the change the reconciliation.

13:44

That's what we need We need reconciliation to God We're enemies of God in our natural state our unsaved state.

13:52

We're hostile towards God. We sin. We hate God You say oh, come on.

13:59

Is that really true? If you're being honest, yes We love to point to Adolf Hitler, oh, he's just a greatest example of sin, right?

14:09

Well, I don't obviously never killed Jews. I'm not hateful to that regard. So surely you couldn't say

14:15

I Hate God, right? Bible says you do

14:21

We're the ones that compare we're the ones that say well Adolf Hitler surely he's going to hell but me, you know

14:26

I've never really murdered anybody. Well, you've lied probably the Bible says for a man watch this man

14:33

The Bible says if you look at a woman and lust after her you've committed adultery with her in your heart already

14:40

I've done that I'm not going to ask anybody else to raise their hands because I don't want to point anybody out

14:47

But I'll tell you your preachers done it in my life in college and other times in my life If you think you can escape sin without the power of God, you're fools.

14:57

You fooled yourself Satan's blinded your eyes. He fooled you We are the ones that compartmentalize sin and say well murders bad

15:07

But you know, I can commit adultery in my heart all I want because hey after all I've ever murdered anybody Guess what?

15:14

The only thing we contribute to our salvation is the sins that required Jesus Christ to go and die for him

15:22

Say Andy, this is hard. Yes, but it's true And when you understand just how

15:29

Sinfully sinful mankind is you realize just how great a Savior Jesus Christ is

15:35

Because there's no amount of sin I don't care what it is that Would keep the

15:40

Holy Spirit from coming to indwell your heart if you have repented and place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ Nothing, there's nothing you could ever do that would keep

15:50

God's forgiveness From your heart if you've placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ No matter how big a sinner you are grace abounds that much more and we have that much more greater

16:01

Savior Look around you my friends not literally in here, but around in the world in California right now.

16:13

They're trying to pass a bill that would make it illegal to sell a book preach a conference

16:20

Eventually preach a sermon to it will be a broad thing because it's being done through the guise of consumer fraud

16:26

But it's being done in such a way where it'll be illegal to talk about anything regarding sexual purity including homosexuality sex before marriage

16:36

Transgenderism it fill any fill the blank with anything Is it we think so much in terms of way the media presents stuff to us?

16:44

But my friend sexual purity in the Bible is so much more broader than what is before us in the media today

16:50

It's so much more broader God says Sexual relationships is for one man and one woman in a marriage relationship

16:58

She what that means any sex other than that is wrong and it's seen Call it whatever you want and in California is getting to the point where it's gonna be criminal to even say anything about it

17:10

This world hates God They just do So do you think we need peace with God?

17:20

And you know I gave the example earlier how much his grace and mercy must be so great that he would wait from the time he created

17:26

Adam to the time of the cross How much times transpired since then? What two thousand some odd years give or take?

17:35

What 80 33 ish till now? 9 -11

17:43

Constant Islamic killing Chicago murders every single day adultery rampant through good government

17:54

And that's just them what about us what about Emporia sins everywhere it abounds

18:01

How graceful and merciful God must be to stay his wrath on this world?

18:08

But it's coming because he's going to reconcile all things to himself

18:13

How was this piece made well turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 9 This is probably

18:20

I know I say this all the time. This is probably my other favorite verses of all time So y 'all just work with me. I have a lot of favorite verses.

18:27

You know, I love the whole Bible. So there we're done with it but Hebrews chapter 9 in reference to how

18:32

Jesus cried made peace for us with It's probably my favorite Hebrews 9

18:38

Verse 11, but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come

18:46

Your best life is not right now, I'm sorry Osteen's wrong

18:53

Does God want to bless us today? Yes Does the good father above know how to give good gifts to his children?

19:00

Yes, but we are promised things in eternity That's when there's no pain sorrows sin.

19:05

That's what we're gonna inherit everything Everything God has is gonna be ours, but not now

19:12

Says are the good things to come He entered through the greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands the tabernacle of his body which he sacrificed on the cross

19:24

Not that is to say not of this creation You know, it's that all those Gnostics all those people that say

19:30

Jesus Christ. I think Mormonism. He's the spirit brother of Lucifer Jehovah Witnesses. He was the first created being

19:36

Have you read Hebrews Not of this creation, he's an eternal being

19:46

Not through the blood of goats and calves but through his own blood

19:52

He entered the holy place once for all and watch this now having obtained eternal redemption

20:01

The Cross just didn't make salvation theoretical or possible He literally obtained the eternal redemption for every single person that will ever pre -cross

20:16

During the time of Jesus or even after the cross that will repent of their sin Place faith in God based on what he has revealed to you at that time and in our time in 2018 we look back to the cross.

20:28

We have the full revealed Word of God Our peace with God is found in Jesus Christ our

20:38

Redemption by God redemption a word meaning a buying back is found in Jesus Christ our salvation eternal life found in Jesus Christ our righteousness found in Jesus Christ our reconciliation is found in Jesus Christ our

20:58

Changing from enemies to friends with God is found in Jesus Christ Our high priest is found in Jesus Christ our perfect sacrifice our atonement our propitiation for sin is found in Jesus Christ our

21:16

Adoption into the family of God is found in Jesus Christ our

21:23

Justification before God Romans chapter 5 is found in Jesus Christ our sanctification our holiness everything that we have everything that we are is found in Jesus Christ I'm out of breath

21:47

It's a good thing. I brought my dishoney water with me today Thank You Glenda Thank You Glenda This was not a promotion for Donna sunny water.

22:00

I drink all kinds of water Nestle Pure Life Aquafina tap Laws are not brown.

22:07

It smells like sulfur. Hey y 'all ever grow up that weird smelling water. Yeah And we were just told to drink it

22:16

But I'm still here so it didn't kill me My friends.

22:22

Did you notice in all that something? Everything we need everything that we want to be

22:29

Everything that we should be is found in Jesus Christ, and he's going to reconcile everything back to God Reconciliation means that he's gonna make everything come back to being in a right relationship with God So let's take humans out of the equation for a second think about the universe think about the creative order

22:46

Romans 8 says that even the creation itself groans waiting for its redemption Have you ever had a garden or did lawn work and you encountered these pesky little things called weeds?

23:02

nobody And you kill them and you spray them and you get your lawn so nice and pretty

23:13

And then you walk out the next day and what is that? Those things will not give up the ghost

23:25

Cancer Disease Heartache Everything death

23:34

It's all been affected by sin You can't find one single thing in existence today that has not been affected by sin except for the eternal creator

23:44

They created it all But one day it's gonna be reconciled back to God. It's gonna be made perfect It's gonna be whole paradise loss will become paradise restored and it'll be perfect for eternity

23:55

With no chance of sin ever marring it again Everyone that has repented and placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ is right now

24:06

Reconciled to God the unsaved however will be reconciled back to God But in a different way

24:13

John MacArthur says on the other hand There is a sense in which even fallen angels and unredeemed men will be reconciled to God for judgment

24:20

But only in the sense of submitting to him for final sentencing Their relationship to him will change from that of enemies to that of being judged now

24:30

Notice what I talked about us that are saved I said we go from that of being enemies to those of being the friends of God the adopted of God the saved of God the regenerated of God the eternal life

24:41

With the unsaved is going from that of enemies to that of being judged They will be sentenced to hell unable long to any longer pollute

24:49

God's creation They will be stripped of their powers and forced to bow in submission to God. I think it's

24:54

Ephesians 2 11 What's references that so number one reconciliation means we have peace number two reconciliation means we will stand perfectly

25:05

Holy blameless and righteous before God For the remainder of our sermon go back to Colossians chapter 1 and now we're going to look at verses 21 and 22

25:18

Reconciliation not only means that we have peace with God It also means that we will actually stand perfectly holy blameless and righteous before God Almighty notice in verse 1

25:27

It says although you were formerly formerly meaning previous You were once being this or you were previously this hence you are no longer this thing

25:38

So you were formerly? alienated and hostile in mind alienated estranged from God Hostile open hostility.

25:48

It's not passive. It's active. It's a hatred. It's it's means you're an enemy

25:54

Openly hostile towards God And notice it says you're alienated and hostile in mind the intellect your disposition our

26:04

Disposition being a slave of sin was all it says thing, you know, they talk about, you know free will and all say look

26:10

Here's how it works Yes You have a freedom of your will but you only have a freedom in so far that you will pick and choose things that are

26:16

Consistent with your nature if you're a slave of sin, you're gonna be slaves to things of sin slave of righteousness

26:22

You'll be a slave of things to righteousness But is isn't it the most ironic thing in the world that the only true freedom in this life is to be a slave of righteousness and a slave of Christ But formerly alienated hostile in your mind engaged in evil deeds

26:37

What's he saying? He's saying that you were formerly estranged from God Formerly hostile towards God and that expressed itself in your sinful deeds continually

26:49

But what changed? Verse 22 yet. He is now reconciled you

26:56

Thank God for reconciliation If You spend any time like you have

27:01

My life and I'm gonna preach about this tonight about being relentless in prayer If you've never been to the point where you've been on your hands and knees in the middle of your floor or wherever it is

27:11

Crying out to God Almighty to please forgive you and as a

27:16

Christian We don't ask for forgiveness continually because we lose our salvation. It's about keeping that right relationship that fellowship with God the

27:23

Father first John 1 9 But if your sin doesn't drive you to your knees in prayer something's wrong because we were formerly alienated

27:33

Formerly hostile now, we should love the Lord want to seek him and obey him But notice this

27:42

Reconciled you in his fleshly body through death why in order to present you before him holy blameless and beyond reproach our

27:58

Justification our right standing before God our Reconciliation to God on the spiritual level is a present reality

28:08

Now salvation is a process. There's justification. There's sanctification glorification

28:14

There's all these different things that are involved with it So you could say in essence Christians are saved, but they're also being saved.

28:20

We're saved. We're justified We're declared righteous. Our eternal life is secure that can never change, but we still reside in simple humanness

28:28

We haven't received it our resurrection resurrected body yet. So the glorification aspect of salvation hasn't occurred

28:34

It's still future but in terms of our standing before God it is reconciliation

28:41

That we already have as a present reality There will be no surprise witnesses there will be no last -minute sins that will reverse the righteous judges

28:54

Decision we will stand forgiven. We will stand righteous. We will stand reconciled

29:00

We will stand holy blameless and beyond reproach before God So what does this mean and he put it to me in basic general terms here?

29:09

What that means is from the moment you were saved The moment you repented of your sin place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ any

29:18

Second after that if you were to die you would stand before God Almighty perfectly holy

29:25

Perfectly blameless faultless this word beyond reproach is a league like a court term.

29:31

So it's like you're beyond conviction You're gonna stand before God. There's gonna be no surprise witnesses

29:37

No last -minute sins that come in and say oh, how you miss something? No, we that is why we have hope

29:48

Drain you work in courts Lot of these terms probably sound very familiar to you.

29:53

Think about it What if they were going into sentencing and then last minute they find something and you think you're scot -free

29:59

And all sudden you're gonna spend a life sentence in jail. That'd be a big difference Reconciliation means that's impossible

30:08

We will stand perfectly holy and righteous before God So that leads me to this and I'm closing with this last point number one reconciliation means we have peace with God Number two reconciliation means we can stand before God perfectly.

30:21

Holy blameless and righteous number three reconciliation means that evangelism matters it matters

30:34

We need to tell everyone about this good news We need to let the world know that there is salvation that there is reconciliation in Jesus Christ Look church involves fellowship.

30:45

It involves cool thing cool things like a country gospel jamboree and a wild game dinner and VBS and Sunday school and all these things

30:55

But our primary purpose is the Great Commission preach the gospel make disciples

31:01

Anything that takes the place of that is an idol Everything we do like fellowship like VBS like Sunday school and all these things are all in support of our primary

31:13

Purpose evangelism matters why yes, we're rebel sinners. Yes. We were spiritually dead.

31:20

Yes. We were sinful Yes, we were alienated from God. Yes, we were estranged from God. Yes, we were enemies of God Yes, we were hostile towards God, but in Christ Jesus.

31:30

Yes, I'm saved. Yes. I'm righteous Yes, I'm eternally have eternal life, yes,

31:36

I'm spiritually alive. Yes, I'm being sanctified Yes, I'm blameless. Yes. I'm beyond reproach.

31:42

Yes, I'm holy I'm all those things because of Christ And if we have this good news, we need to share it with others

31:51

Because my friends that's joyful That's good news And it's all because we've been reconciled to God on the basis of what