Address—C. Hendricks
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Turn with me again to.
2nd Corinthians 5.
Verse 10.
For we must all appear.
Before the judgment seat of Christ.
That everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but are made manifest unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that she may have somewhat to answer.
Them which glory and appearance.
And not in heart.
For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God.
Whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead, and that he died for all. That they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh?
Yet, though we have known Christ after the flesh.
Yet now henceforth know we him no more.
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new, and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation to it, that God was in Christ.
Reconciling the world unto himself.
Not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ, that be reconciled to God, for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin.
That we might be made the righteousness of God.
In him.
In the 3rd chapter we had before us in verse 8 the ministry of the Spirit.
How much? How shall not the administration of the Spirit be rather glorious?
And again in the middle of verse 9, the administration of righteousness exceed in glory. And at the end of this 5th chapter we have the ministry of reconciliation.
That we are here as his ambassadors to minister this precious truth that God wants you back. Do we tell that to sinners? God wants you back. He is a reconciling God. He is one who is not against you, but He has sent us as his ministers and we're all ministers of His.
With a ministry of reconciliation, telling them that a righteousness has been one for them which can be theirs. It won't be their own righteousness, but as this chapter ends, the righteousness of God in Christ, they'll stand before God in a righteousness which He Himself provides, and which is for his own glory.
A ministry of reconciliation.
What is reconciliation? Well, in a case of two people who are at odds with one another, it is setting things right between them.
And the reconciliation that God gives to us to entreat sinners to come back to him, it's to set things right according to God.
To set things right according to God.
God does not need to be reconciled to man, He needs to be propitiated, and that was accomplished on the cross, For God hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
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God has been propitiated, but man needs to be reconciled and he's committed to you and to me who were once guilty, lost sinners away from God, who have been reconciled to God. Now to have that ministry of reconciliation ourselves to reckon, to offer to man peace has been made by the blood of the cross.
And now come back to God.
Come back. His arms are open and outstretched, welcoming you to come.
That's the Ministry of Reconciliation.
As my Father hath sent me, he said, Even so send I you. And he came administering the ministry of reconciliation, not imputing the trespasses unto them. We had that before us in John 8, in these meetings, when this woman was brought before the Lord, taken in adultery by the hypocritical Pharisees.
Moses and the Law commanded that such should be stoned. But what sayest thou?
And here they were talking to the very lawgiver.
And they kept pressing him for an answer.
They wanted him to say either one of those. They thought they had him on the horns of a dilemma. No matter what he would say. Stone her. Then they could have accused him of having no mercy out. If he had said to let her go free, they could have said you're not keeping the righteous law.
But he said neither, He said He that is without sin among you, let him first cast the stone at her. And they went out one by one, from the oldest to the least, and he was left alone with this poor sinful woman. Hath no man condemned thee? No man, Lord?
Now he had said he that is without sin among you, let him first cast the stone, and that disqualified all her would be stone throwers. They all left, and here was the only one that could cast the stone. Woody. This was the critical moment of that encounter. Would he cast the stone? He said, neither do I condemn thee.
He was the first to to minister this Ministry of Reconciliation.
And now it's been committed to you and to me.
Receive the Ministry and the Word of reconciliation.
The atoning work is done, the work is accomplished, and the floodgates of God's love and grace are now opened. And the Word is welcome. I love to come to a house where it says welcome. And you know that you're welcome in that house. And that's what God says today. Welcome.
You can come back to him, He won't reject you. That's the ministry of reconciliation. Having therefore this ministry.
What a ministry we have. A ministry of an accomplished righteousness by the Lord Himself. Ministry of the Spirit of God who's been given.
You might say the the greatest, or I could say maybe the second greatest. If we say the greatest is the Father giving his Son, and the Son and the Father giving the Holy Spirit. When it comes to these divine realities, it's not a question of which is the greatest, because they're all the greatest.
God himself has come to dwell in every believer.
But I just want to make a few more comments and then I'll sit down.
Back where we started, verse 10, That's where we had left off.
We must all appear. We must all be manifested. It's a manifestation seat where how we have lived as Christians, and it may include those times in our life before we were Christians, but how we've lived, especially after we got saved, what we've done with our time.
What we've done with our energies.
What we've done with all that God has entrusted to us, because it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful, and we're all stewards. He's committed to each one of us some talents.
And what have we done with our talents? How have we used them?
How have we? I was talking to a brother. It was so refreshing to talk with him because he was telling me about this.
Man that was working at the hotel where we're staying. He's a Muslim, he's an Arab and a Muslim.
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And he had a Bible there. This brother pointed him to John 316 and he folded over the page. I want to read that. And then he told him, read the whole Gospel of John. And then he folded over the page at the beginning of John's gospel, and we trust he will read it.
We trust that there will be a follow up of this young man at that hotel. He's on the night shift, don't remember his name.
For the Bob will be able to tell you.
Bottles, whether Bob waddles.
His name?
To follow him up.
The wonderful thing people say when I hear the Jew getting saved, he rejoices. I would rejoice even more to hear of a Muslim being saved.
Having such a an antagonistic religion, everyone who gets saved is a trophy, a wonderful trophy of His grace. What are you doing with your time? What are you doing with your talents? I asked this question because we must all appear.
Be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ. Now this is for us. We'll never be at the great White Throne Judgment, but this is broad enough to to embrace that for the unsaved.
All will be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ.
That everyone may receive the things done in his body.
According to that he hath done.
Whether it be good or bad.
You see, there's a payoff day coming. People do not get away with the evil that they've committed.
And the good that they've done will be rewarded in that coming day.
And what a day that will be a manifestation seat. Our lives will be manifested, will be we ourselves as Saints will be in glorified bodies when we stand before that judgment seat. So it has nothing to do with our acceptance before God. That's already been decided. But it has to do with how we've lived after we've become a Christian.
How are you living?
How you spending your spare time?
How's your prayer life?
How much time do you spend in this book?
How much time do you spend witnessing to souls?
I know of one who wouldn't go to bed at night until he had spoken to at least one soul every single day.
One night he lay down on his bed and and they came to him. I haven't talked to anyone today. He got dressed, he went out and with tracks in hand, he found someone that he could witness to give the gospel to leave a track with. You may not be eloquent in your speech, but you can always give attract.
And speak a word for the blessed Lord.
You work with people every day, rub shoulders with them, talk to them about your Savior.
Precious Savior.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
That everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Now just hold your place here and go back to Romans 14 for a quick, quick moment. Romans 14, we have it again.
And.
Verse 10.
Why does thou judge thy brother, Or why does thou set it not thy brother?
Where we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, as I live, saith the Lord. Every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us.
Shall give an account of himself.
God let us not therefore judge one another anymore, but judge this rather that no man put a stumbling block in here or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. He's dealing in Romans 14 with non essential matters, not fundamental doctrines, but non essential matters as to eating, drinking and what you wear and so on.
But that expression we shall all stand.
Before the judgment seat of Christ. So then everyone of us should give account of himself to God. We're going back to the Second Corinthians 5.
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You're going to give account. I'm going to give account.
For what we've done with our lives.
How we've spent our time, precious commodity. Everyone of us has the same amount of time. And how are you using it? You're either using it for self or are you using it for him?
Well, there's going to be a day, a day when we'll stand before him, not a question of our salvation here. It's a question of how we have handled as stewards what he has committed to our trust. And it's required in stewards that a man be found faithful.
But then it says, Read verse 10 again, We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Someone says, well how do we receive for the bad? Well Christ has already received for the bad for us, but we will lose reward if we have not used our.
Talents faithfully for him. We'll lose our reward and everything that we do for him.
Even a cup of cold water will be rewarded every word.
You speak for Christ every act of kindness. Every.
Everything that is selfless, you're doing it for self. You've lost a reward.
For the applause and the praise of men, you've lost your reward.
But if you do it for him.
If you do some good deed and they they say I've noticed you, we're talking about how we live in our meetings and I've noticed you and you must be a very religious person and and you just leave it there. If you say no, I'm really not religious, but I found a savior and everything I do is for his glory and not for mine. Don't praise me, don't thank me, thank him.
He's the one that has produced.
Any good works that I do, he deserves all the praise. Now when we do that, there may be there will be a reward. But if we take the credit to ourselves and they look upon us as a wonderful person, that's not the right attitude on our part. But then he says in verse 11, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord.
I believe the judgment seat of Christ for the ungodly, for the lost, is the great white throne.
And that's why it says the terror of the Lord. We persuade men, but we are made manifest unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.
He says we're living our life as an open book before God, and I trust it's an open book before you. We're not hypocrites and we're not pretending to be something that we're not. We're not putting on a front, Paul said. He said I trust that.
We're just as open before you as we are before God.
How is it with you?
How is it with each one of us? How are we living our lives?
For we commend not ourselves again unto you.
But give you an occasion to glory on our behalf.
That she may have somewhat to answer them which glory and appearance, and not in heart.
For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God whether he is raptured, so to speak, in his soul, as he's occupied with what the Lord Jesus has done. We had some of that this morning at his table, as we considered him the forsaken. 1 And we sang that beautiful hymn, God, my God, art thou forsaking him, whoever did thy will?
It was for you and for me.
That he went to the extremity of suffering to win your poor soul and mind. What do we owe him? Everything.
Everything.
It always de stresses me.
When troubles come amongst the Saints.
And a person justifies.
The way they're going because my family went that way.
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The Lord said He that loveth father or mother, wife or children, more than me, cannot be my disciple.
He deserves the 1St place always above everything else.
And if he doesn't have it, we are idolaters.
We've had we put another object before him.
And he's a jealous God.
He demands, he requires, He deserves always, ever the first place in our lives.
May it be so with each one of us.
Whether we be beside ourselves, raptured in an ecstasy of the awesomeness of His, of his love, of His goodness, of His power, of his unspeakable grace.
Is to God.
It is to God this is not to be displayed before men. This is a this is a rapture that we have in our souls as we're occupied with him and all that he is and all that he has done.
Whether we be sober, it is for your cause, before our fellow men were sober.
Not given to levity and lightness as alas, some of us are guilty of.
For the love of Christ constraineth us. It motivates us, it impels us, it propels us.
Because we thus judge that if one died for all.
Then we're all dead.
If he died for all.
Then all were dead while we were in the state of death.
And that he died for all.
That they which live, that's us who believe the gospel we've passed from death to life, from to the power of Satan, to God. Now we live. What does it say that they which live should not henceforth live under themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again?
This is what he claims for you, from you, from me. And alas, we failed.
We have not committed ourselves entirely to him.
The biblical example of one that did that was the Apostle Paul.
He was a man that was characterized by whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. And when he was persecuting Christians, he did it with his might, and after he got saved he did it with his might to preach the gospel, to get souls saved. He was he was an he was not wishy washy.
He was committed.
And made the soul.
With us the little while that remains to us.
He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live under themselves.
But unto him which died for them, and rose again.
Wherefore henceforth know we know man after the flesh.
If I was a Jew.
And I get saved, I'm not a Jew anymore, I'm a Christian. I was a Gentile and I get saved and a Gentile anymore, I'm a Christian. We don't know one another in our relationship after the flesh. Remember they came to the Lord and they said their mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to speak with thee. And he said, who's my mother? Who are my brethren? That they that hear the word of God and do it. He disowned the natural in favor of.
Spiritual. And that's what he's saying here.
Henceforth know we know man after the flesh. Yeah, though we have known Christ after the flesh. That was true of the Jew, not the Gentile. They knew Him after the flesh.
They were expecting their Messiah to come, and when He came, we know they rejected him. And Paul speaking as a Jew here, says, though we have known Christ after the flesh, we Jews that now henceforth know Him no more. And that's the meaning in John 20 when?
Mary Magdalene came to realize who she was talking to.
And.
Said master.
And he said touch me not.
Don't handle me.
Don't cling to me, Mary. You can't have me back as Messiah to Israel.
I am now a risen man.
And a new, complete, new order of things has come in, and you go to my brethren, My brethren, tell them I ascend to my Father, to your Father, to my God, and to your God. And that's the opening up of this dispensation of grace.
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Greece, and we belong to that.
Where participants in the the highest order of blessing ever conferred on that.
That's what we've been brought into.
She wanted him back as Messiah to Israel. Remember in Acts One they said to him, Wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel?
And he said, It is not for you to know the times of the seasons which the Father has put in his own power, but he shall receive power after that. The Holy Ghost is come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. That's a that's an outline of the whole book of Acts and the way the gospel is going forth, starting at the guiltiest spot, Jerusalem, reaching out to Judea and then Samaria and then to the Gentiles.
Wonderful to be a participant in this, to be ambassadors in this, to represent a heavenly country.
And not to be engaged in the politics and the affairs of this world.
He's called us out of it. We are now new creatures in Christ. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature or there is a new creation. Old things have passed away. I'm no longer a Jew. I was, but I'm no longer a Jew. I'm no longer a Gentile. I was, but now I'm a Christian.
Whole things have passed away, all things have become new, and all things are of the God who hath reconciled it to Himself.
By Jesus Christ, and hath given to us.
Ministry of reconciliation, so we can go to anyone and say be reconciled to God. He told me to tell you this, He loves you, He wants to save you. He wants to bring you into this blessing. And we can go to that Muslim behind the desk there and say God loves you. He wants to bring you into his family. He wants to become your father.
He wants you to know God.
The Scott that you worship, you can't know him. He's unknowable. We heard that last night. Ministry of Reconciliation.
The foundation of it, that is, that He was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.