Address—C. Hendricks
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Like to read a number of scriptures beginning in Ephesians 4?
Ephesians 4.
Verse 17.
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that she henceforth walk not his other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness.
With greediness.
Then we'll read 2nd Corinthians 5.
Beginning at verse 17.
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's stead 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.
Next we will read Colossians one verse 19. I'm going to change one word in the verse to make it.
More accurate.
Verse 19 For it pleased the Godhead, that in him should all the fullness dwell.
And having made peace through the blood of his cross.
By Him to reconcile all things unto himself, by Him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now had He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you wholly.
And unblameable and unreprovable in his sight.
And then we'll read a passage from Ephesians 2.
Verse 13.
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who hath made both 1 and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments containing ordinances. For to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace.
And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body.
By the cross having slain the enmity thereby.
And then Romans 5.
Romans 5, verse 10.
For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation that ought to read.
And lastly, Luke 15.
Verse 22 But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring, hit her the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry.
For this, my son was dead and is alive again.
He was lost and is found and they began to be married.
You've probably discerned in the reading of these scriptures that I'm going to talk on reconciliation.
I was thinking how the theme of the meeting this morning at the breaking of bread remembrance of the Lord was.
Very suitable.
For what the Lord laid upon my heart.
Reconciliation tremendous.
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New Testament doctrine.
You don't find it in the Old Testament. You find the word, but if you check it out, you'll find that the word translated reconciliation in the Old Testament is more properly rendered atonement.
The thought of reconciliation is appalling doctrine.
You don't find it in the other writings of the New Testament writers, and it's in the epistles that he wrote to the Gentiles.
Addressing Gentile believers.
Reconciliation. That class that was the farthest from God, has been brought the nearest.
The distance that.
Existed between US and God has been removed.
What is reconciliation? In order to get God's thoughts of it, don't reach for the dictionary because it will give you a definition which falls short.
Of what the word presents. You'll probably read something like to set things right, and that's true as far as it goes.
To set things right, two parties are at issue with each other and they get reconciled with one another. They have set things right between them, and the alienation, the distance, the enmity, the reserve, whatever it may have been, is removed and they are reconciled.
There are hymns that have been written of old. We don't sing them because they're not scriptural. Talking about God being reconciled, well, thank God, I can say this afternoon that God did not need to be reconciled to man. Man needed to be reconciled to God.
Man. Man's heart was turned away from God's, from God, not God's heart turned away from men.
God needed to be propitiated. He needed to have His holy nature vindicated as to the question of sin that took place at the cross, but man is the one who needed reconciliation.
Now, with that as an introduction, let's break up the subject into.
Why do we need to be reconciled? What is the need?
For reconciliation, well, the first verse we read in Ephesians 4 brings that before us probably the most.
Vividly of any verse in the New Testament.
In Ephesians 4 verse 18 describing the Gentiles that he's mentioned in verse 17.
That these Saints now that had been saved out of that state, out of that condition of being Gentiles, He says that you walk henceforth not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened.
Being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them.
Because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, unto lust.
To work all uncleanness with greediness.
Being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them.
There's a passage in First Corinthians 6 where the apostle outlines the number of evils and sins that the Saints at Corinth used to live in and after outlining them, he says, such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God, such were some of you. But when it comes to this question of alienation, this question of.
Conciliation and the need for it, we would have to say. Such were all of you. You were all everyone of you in this room, Every one of us.
Was alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that was in US. We were so far off that it is impossible for us to measure the distance until we look at the cross.
And there we see God himself.
Coming into this scene, becoming one of us.
And spanning that tremendous distance that existed because of this alienation from the life of God through the ignorance that is in US.
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We were dead in trespasses and sins. We sometimes sing an expression and I'm going to change it. It's just the opposite of what we sing. Farther we could not be.
Father, we could not be the expression is nearer. We could not be, for in the person of the sun we are as near as he and the only way to properly.
Estimate the distance that man is at with God.
Is to look at the cross.
For there we see what it cost him.
To bring to remove that alienation.
And to bring us into favor with himself.
So the need for reconciliation is that everyone of Adam's race, Jew and Gentile, bond and free, male and female, boy and girl.
Older one, younger one doesn't make any difference. Alienated from the life of God. Every single one of us in this room was in that category at one time.
Alienated from the life of God, So we were.
Away from God, we were in a life which is at enmity with God, a life of self will, independence.
And self pleasing and self love.
That was our life alienated from the life of God, not a movement Godward.
I was struck in hearing something.
Over the airwaves the other day and traveling.
How that man continues to cling to the false hope.
That he can solve his problems.
He is simply unwilling to face the indictment.
Which has been pronounced by God himself on the whole human race, and you get that in Romans 3.
The whole world is guilty before God.
Man is no longer under trial. He was under trial for 1500 years under the law.
And the cross ended that trial, and the judgment has now been pronounced. Man is guilty.
Every evil that's in this world, whether it be drugs, they talk about coping with it and addressing the issue and they never address the real issue.
They refused to face the truth that man is alienated from the life of God.
He's past feeling given himself over unto lasciviousness with greedy, unsatisfied lust.
Such as man's life, as far from the life of God as could possibly be. Not one thought, not one movement, not one desire.
In the heart of fallen man towards God.
Alienated enemies in your mind by wicked works.
Turn to 2nd Corinthians 5, where we come to the ministry of reconciliation. We've seen in that verse in Ephesians, and there are many more I could reproduce.
That of man's desperate need of reconciliation, of having things set right. I didn't give the full definition. According to the Word of God is to set things right according to God.
According to God.
Reconciliation to set things right according to God, so that everything is brought back into a state which is suitable to God Himself. That's reconciliation.
Being everything being set right according to God, being brought back into true and proper relationship with respect to himself, to be reconciled, and we're going to see the vastness of the subject.
But now let us look at verse 17 of 2nd Corinthians 5. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, we've seen the need of reconciliation, the need of a change of state. We're not talking so much when we're talking about reconciliation, of removing guilt that has to do with our sins, that has to do with what we have done. But here we're talking about state. We're talking about what we.
In the flesh what we are in Adam, and it is we are in a state which is alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in us because of the hardness of our hearts. That was our state, a state of alienation, a state of enmity against God such as man, whether he be the most.
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Educated the most.
Refined and trained and learned or whether he be the bomb on Skid Row doesn't make any difference. He's his life is alienated from the life of God. So now we need a new creation and he says therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. There is a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold all things are become new. Now that's absolutely essential in order to effect reconciliation.
The old has to be removed from before the eye of God, totally removed. Not only in at the cross are we privileged to see our sins removed. Wonderful truth, tremendous truth, to see that the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from every sin.
All sin, but to also see that that work that he did was to remove what we were in the flesh, what we were in the first man, what we were in that state of alienation, to remove it from before the eye of God and to bring in something which was suitable to God. So there's a new creation now. If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation. We are.
Creatures, we are a new creation. All things are passed away.
The old order of things gone forever. All things have become new in that new creation, and all things are of God.
Who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation?
This to me is just a tremendous thought, that He has taken the likes of me, and who was so far from Him could not farther be. I could not more wretched have been than I was in my sins and in my state in fallen Adam.
And neither could you have been farther. And he has reconciled us to himself by a person, by Jesus Christ, and then he's given to you and to me the ministry of reconciliation he has committed to us.
You might think, well, he would never commit that important message to the likes of us, we who were so far we who were such a failures and just groveling in sin. But no, he's he hasn't committed that ministry to angels. He hasn't committed that ministries to those that do his bidding and perfection those holy spirits.
Those angels who are spirits ministers do his will.
Now the holy angels, but he's committed that ministry of reconciliation to us. We who have come into the good of reconciliation, we have been brought near. We for whom all the distance and the enmity and the alienation and being outside of the life of God, we've been brought near into this new creation, partakers of this new life, Christ himself being our life that he.
Life that was with the Father and was manifested to us, now communicated to you and to me, and brought into this new creation of which Christ risen is the head, and He's committed to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit, verse 19, that God was in Christ. When did this ministry of reconciliation begin?
It began with the person of the sun. Become a man down here in this world.
God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. The best illustration of that that I can think of is John chapter 8, where the Pharisees brought this sinful woman.
Into the presence of the Lord Jesus. And they posed a question to him, which they thought no matter how he answered it, they would have him. And he said this. They said this woman was taken in adultery in the very act. Now Moses and the Law commanded us that such should be stoned, But what sayest thou?
Now if had he said let her go free, they would have accused him of violating the law. If he had said stone her, they would have accused him of having no mercy. He said neither. He stooped down, and with his finger he wrote on the ground, stooped down.
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He came from heaven's glory.
Down into this world, stoop down to the very dust of death.
The very finger that had written the 10 commandments on those two tables of stone.
Wrote another message on the ground.
You can view it two ways. He who was the Lawgiver.
He who was the only one in that whole company, when the Lord Jesus said, he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. He was the only one qualified to cast that stone. He was the only sinless one there.
And he stooped down.
He answered them.
How was he going to harden this woman?
Is it possible?
And the only way he could do it was to stoop down to the dust of death.
To become one of us in a part, and die that ignominious death on the cross. And so he says, as they are convicted, from the oldest to the youngest in their consciences, and they leave his presence and her presence. And he says to her, Hath no man condemned thee? And she said, No man, Lord, neither do I condemn thee.
Neither do I condemn thee. That word imparts to her the power.
To fulfill the next words, go and sin no more.
It is the sense of forgiveness. It is the sense of not being condemned. It's the sense of grace in our souls which imparts the power to live above sin. The law doesn't do it. The law requires it. The law demands it. But the Word of God says the strength of sin is the law. It doesn't give the power to carry out its demands.
What does the sense of grace, the sense that he who could have thrown the stone, he who could have condemned me?
Refused to do that.
God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.
He did not throw the stone. He could have, but he refused to.
Not imputing their trespasses unto them. And he has committed unto us the word of reconciliation you have committed to you. I have committed to me the most glorious message that has ever sounded out on human ears. It's the word of reconciliation God is beseeching. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ.
As though God did beseech by us.
Be, we pray you in Christ's dead. Be reconciled to God. That's the message. Be reconciled to God. God is beseeching man through whom? Through what? Messengers, through you and through me. God is beseeching we who have been reconciled, we who have been brought into the benefits of reconciliation, the distance having been removed, we who are now new creatures in Christ.
Old things passed away. All things become new.
We've been reconciling. He's committed to us the ministry of reconciliation, and we can go out and say God is beseeching you. Be reconciled to him. Be reconciled to him. I'm his ambassador. That's the message he's given me to proclaim to the world. He's given it to you.
The Ministry of Reconciliation.
Now, what is the basis for reconciliation?
There has to be a basis for it. God couldn't just.
Proclaim such a wondrous message to man who was alienated from him, who had not one movement towards God, not one thought towards God. God goes out to such and says be reconciled to God.
Come back.
My arms are open, I'll receive you. What's the basis for it? The next verse tells us verse 21. For he God hath made him Christ, to be sin for us who knew no sin.
That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, the one who knew no sin, the one who came from heaven's glory without the taint of sin in his nature, the Holy One of God, the impeccable.
Christ.
The one whose humanity?
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Was not innocent as Adams.
But holy.
Impossible for him to sin, impossible for him to desire anything contrary to the will of God. It was his very meat and drink to do the will of God.
My will.
My will, he said, is to do my meat.
Excuse me is to do the will of him that sent me.
And to finish his work, it's, it's what sustained him here.
Is very neat.
He could say, the Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please Him.
He was the one who knew no sin, that one, the altogether righteous 1.
He became sin. He went into that darkness which enveloped Golgotha's cross, the three hours.
Before that darkness set in, he looked down upon his tormentors.
Well before he got on the cross, we see him in the struggle in the garden.
The father gives him that cup to drink.
And he has to say to Peter, the cup which my father hath given me, Shall I not drink it? Put up the sword into the sheath.
And then he has that struggle.
As a perfect man.
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.
As another has said, he couldn't find his meat in the wrath of God.
And as he looked into the cup that he would have to empty, to the very dregs, filled with the unmitigated wrath of a holy sin hating God, he cries out in the holy horror of his soul. Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
John 12. He says, Father, save me from this hour.
But for this cause came I unto this hour. And so in the garden he says, not my will.
But thine be done.
And again on the cross, he uses the term of relationship as he looks down upon those that had nailed him to that cross of ignominy and shame. And he says, Father, forgive them.
For they know not what they do.
And as he emerges from the darkness again, he uses the term of communion and relationship. Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.
But during the three hours.
During the three hours.
It wasn't father.
It couldn't be.
We hear that cry piercing the thick darkness, telling what was transpiring during those awful hours.
When an eternity of suffering was condensed.
Into three hours.
Of.
Infinite.
Unknowable.
Suffering.
It was my God.
My God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Not the term of intimacy and relationship and communion.
But the term he uses.
Tells us. Enables us to fathom just a little bit.
Of what was happening.
During those three hours when he was forsaken of God.
It was God in all that He is, as God in his holy nature, as the judge of sin.
He cries to him as man, my God.
My God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Alone he bare the cross, alone its grief sustained, His was the shame and loss, he the victory gate. Now none of you, nor I, nor any of us will ever know, will ever really fathom.
What transpired during those three hours?
When all that was in God against sin.
Was poured out upon the head.
Person of our substitute, when he who knew no sin.
Made sin for us.
That we might be made the righteousness of God in him, he went into the very thing that we were.
For we were nothing but a mass of sin, alienated from the life of God. You can never judge properly how far you were from God, how far I was from God.
Until we view the Savior on that cross, enveloped in those three hours.
Of unfathomable darkness, not one ray of light.
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Not one stream of comfort reaching him then.
Nothing to mitigate the sufferings.
As wave upon wave of divine wrath against sin rolled over his soul.
There we find that He answered not only to God for our sins.
But for the whole state that we were in as sinners.
Behold, the Lamb of God, John announced. That taketh away the sin of the world.
All that evil principle of sin that entered in through the disobedience of the first man.
The affront to God's holiness.
The insult that sin is to God.
To be dealt with.
Christ became.
Sin on the cross.
And now we have become.
What He was the righteousness of God. In him we who are nothing but sin, have now been made righteous. He, the altogether righteous, 1 was made sin.
That he might span the distance that reconciliation might be effective.
That the distance might be removed and that God could have a righteous basis now.
To communicate a new life and a new position and bring us into a new creation where all things are of God.
Marvelous, wondrous subject of reconciliation.
The basis was the cross, 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.
There are two of the offerings in Leviticus.
That say they are most holy. The one is the meat offering.
The other is the sin offering.
The need offering lest we fall into the error that so many today in Christian circles have fallen into.
It was without leaven.
Levin always a type of evil, the meat offering.
The holy humanity of Christ.
Showing that he was impeccable.
Showing that he couldn't sin. It's not enough to say he didn't sin.
But he could not sin because of who he was.
The holiness of his nature.
Is holy humanity.
It is most holy, it says. It also says that about the sin offering, lest we.
Fall into the air of saying that during those three hours of darkness on the cross.
He wasn't pleasing to God.
Never was he more pleasing to God than when he was burying the wrath of God.
But that pleasure could not then be expressed to him. But never was he more the delight of God the Father, than when his obedience rose to such heights as to accomplish the will of God in the face of divine wrath against sin.
So he could say in John 10, Therefore doth my father love me.
Because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. A fresh motive provided to the Father's heart. He was obedient even unto death. And that the death of the cross, the sweet savour of that burnt offering, ascending up to God.
The Savior of Christ's obedience, even when forsaken of God.
So it would, I believe it says of the sin offering it is most holy.
Had to be.
It was anything but holy. He could not have been the sin offering.
God hath made him.
That holy one.
Sin for us.
That we, the unholy, the unjust, might be made the righteousness of God in him.
And as we're.
Going to be seen in the glory.
They'll be able to point to us and say there they are, the display, the exhibition of God's righteousness in Christ.
Now let's look at the scope of reconciliation, the extent of reconciliation. We've looked at the need for alienated from the life of God.
We've looked at the Ministry of Reconciliation, which is committed to us, the reconciled ones.
We've looked at the basis of reconciliation, a place that Christ took on the cross when forsaken of God. Now let's look at the scope of reconciliation. Colossians 1.
Verse 20.
Having made peace.
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Through the blood of his cross.
By him.
To reconcile all things unto himself.
By him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.
Here reconciliation in its scope goes out to the whole universe.
Everything in heaven and everything in earth is going to be brought back into suitability to God Himself.
It's all based upon the cross. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. He laid the moral basis for that on the cross. He hasn't done it yet in power, but all it will take will be an active power to remove every trace of sin from His universe, whether it be a heavenly or an earthly sphere.
He made peace by the blood of his cross. I believe that that's the thought of peace. There is the work of Christ, God, word.
God would.
He has answered to God for every every aspect of sin.
Whether it be our individual sins or whether it be the nature and principle of sin.
Which motivates the natural man.
He's made peace.
By the blood of his cross, the blood Speaking of the death of Christ.
Speaking of the value of that death for the putting away of sin.
He's made peace.
Through the blood of his cross, so that now God can bring in the new order.
He's he's answered to God for the old order. He's removed it.
From before the eye of God.
In the judgment that has been executed against it.
Sins forgiven the old nature condemned. Romans 8 says he condemned sin in the flesh.
The thought of forgiveness for the old nature is foreign to Scripture, but it's condemned, not forgiven, and it's all been done at the cross.
Having made peace through the blood of His cross, by him, by Christ to reconcile, to bring back into suitability to God, to set everything right according to God, all things unto Himself.
By him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.
Today righteousness suffers. In the Millennium righteousness will reign, and in the eternal state righteousness will dwell. And then?
Everything will be brought into this reconciliation, every trace of sin.
From God's fair creation will be removed. I saw a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. No sin will ever be there in the Millennium. There'll still be some sin. Righteousness will reign, but there'll still be traces of sin here and there. But not so in the in the eternal state.
Then this reconciliation will be completed with respect to heavenly and earthly spheres.
Now verse 21 and you.
That were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, Yet now had he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death.
We've been reconciled. Now you will never be more reconciled to God if you're a believer.
Than you are right now.
We now have the reconciliation. The heavens and the earth await a future day when He'll put forth power to effect it. But the work that is the basis for it was accomplished on the cross. We saw that in 2nd Corinthians 521, the basis for reconciliation.
So the scope is to include all heavenly spheres. Even the heavens are not clean in His sight.
Satan has access to the heavens, the demons there and the fallen angels there, and sin has defiled the very heavens.
Well, the heavens have to be purified as well as the earth.
All is going to come on under the beneficial sway of Christ.
And every trace of sin forever removed, it's been, it's true of us now, you that were sometimes that were once alienated.
We were so far we could not farther be.
We were enemies in our minds by wicked works, Yet now hath he reconciled. He spanned the mighty gulf. He's eliminated the distance. He's brought us near, near to himself.
Yet now hath He reconciled everything set right. How did He do it? In the body of His flesh, Through death on the cross He was charged.
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He was held accountable, responsible for all that we were.
As well as all that we had done.
And God condemned.
All that we were at the cross, he put it away by the sacrifice of himself.
In the body of his flesh through death. It's a question of our state, not a question of our guilt Here it's a question of our state, the deeper thing, the tree that produces that ugly fruit.
Those evil works of the flesh.
Has brought us into a new creation.
And he's reconciled us right now.
To present you verse 22.
He's reconciled us in the body of his flesh through death.
To present you wholly.
And unblameable.
And unreprovable.
In his sight. Think of it.
We are holy.
We are unblameable.
We are unreprovable as a result of this reconciliation. We are as suitable to God in the new creation.
As it is possible to make us it is not in the sight of the angels, it's not in the sight of one another, but in his sight, and it must be so. And it's all begins with having made peace through the blood of his cross. Peace was made. It's the work of Christ, God word. So as reconciliation can be effective, every bit of.
Of evil removed.
Everything unsuitable to God in heaven and earth removed, and everything in US removed.
Well, it's not all removed yet. We still have the flesh.
We still have the old man that we have to cope with.
But as soon as we leave this scene.
That will be forever gone.
That will be forever gone.
And will be there.
In that scene of glory, supreme.
Light and love supreme.
What a day he waits us.
We're going to be there wholly.
Unblameable.
Unreprovable in his sight. We are that right now.
Because of the work of Christ.
There's one more thought of the scope of reconciliation in Ephesians 2 That we read. We might just look at that.
Ephesians 2.
In verse 13 Now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, and O how far we were.
Are made nigh.
By the blood of Christ.
For He is our peace. Now here the thought of His being our peace has to do with the removing of the alienation that existed between Jew and Gentile.
And bringing these two opposing factions of humanity into one. Newman so making peace.
Reconciling. The thought of reconciling here is to bring Jew and Gentile into harmony, to set things right between them, to remove the distance that existed between them. We know how that the Jew would look upon the Gentile as a dog.
And the Jew was dispensationally near, and the Gentile dispensationally at a distance.
But now in Christ Jesus, that distance has all been removed and those earthly distinctions forever gone.
And he's made one Newman.
Let's read it.
But now in verse 14. But for He is our peace.
Our Jew and Gentile, who hath made both Jew and Gentile, 1 and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself.
Of Twain. Of Jew and Gentile, 1 Newman. So making peace. The thought here of peace.
Is to bring into harmony, and to remove all distance and alienation and enmity between you and Gentile into one Newman, and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body, by the cross having slain the enmity thereby. And he came and preached peace to you that were afar off, that's the Gentile, and to them that were nigh dispensationally near the Jew, but not.
Near until truly saved. For through Him Christ we both Jew and Gentile, have access by 1 Spirit unto the Father. That's the great effect of reconciliation.
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To remove the earthly distinctions whenever we set up.
Earthly distinctions like Peter did. We were discussing it last night in Acts 15, Peter says.
God put no difference between us and them, us Jews and them the Gentiles.
Giving them the same spirit that He gave unto us. Therefore we believe that they shall be saved, even as we know He doesn't say it that way. He says that we Jews shall be saved even this day, where we have to be brought in on the same ground of sovereign grace as the Gentiles have brought into.
And yet that same man, that great apostle when certain, came to Antioch from Jerusalem.
Peter withdrew himself, separated himself, and didn't eat with the Gentiles, and Barnabas was carried away too with their dissimulation. The presence of legality can cause us to succumb to it and to deny in our action, which is what Peter did, the very truth of the Gospel.
That's what he did. He denied the truth of the gospel, and he received a rebuke from the apostle Paul, and even Barnabas was carried away with their dissimulation. They were setting up. Peter was setting up. And what he did there in Galatians 2.
When they came to Antioch.
He was setting up a distinction and he had said God put no difference between us and them.
No difference and that's the truth of reconciliation. God has reconciled us both unto God in one body. No distinction between races, colors, creeds, nations, languages, tongues, whatever it is one in Christ, and whenever we.
We make a distinction whenever we set ourselves up above any of our brethren. We're denying that truth.
We are one in Christ.
He's reconciled us. Now let's turn to Romans 5.
Romans 5 verse.
Verse 10.
For if when we were enemies.
Colossians we read Enemies in Mind by wicked works.
Here when we were enemies.
In verse 6 he says we were without strength.
In due time, Christ died for the ungodly, without strength, helpless, unable to help ourselves to deliver ourselves from our lost condition. We were ungodly, we had no thoughts towards God. We left God out of our calculations. And ungodly person is one who lives his life without referring to God, just as though God didn't exist. I know well what that is. I live 19 years of my life when I got saved as a young man at 19.
I lived an ungodly life.
It wasn't excessively wicked.
But ungodly God was not in my thoughts. And then it says in verse 8, God commanded his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners.
Christ died for us. Now that's more active in doing those things that are hateful to God. A Sinner is one who does what God forbids. He does acts of sin which are contrary to God's holiness so that we we pass more from the passive state of being ungodly and just living our lives without referring to God into active sins and then.
Verse 10. When we were enemies at enmity with God, alienated from the life of God, enemies of God.
Man won't admit that.
He won't admit that he's an enemy of God, but he is.
An enemy of God, such as his state so far, is man from God. What does it say we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son? It doesn't say we were reconciled to God by the blood of Christ here. It doesn't say we were reconciled to God even by the death of Christ, but the death of his Son.
The death of his son, having therefore one son, is well beloved, he said. I will send him also.
They will reverence my son, the darling of his bosom, the Son of his love. He couldn't have given more. He gave his son into death. He is reconciled as he's turned our hearts back to him. We look at that cross and we see the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. The death of his Son, that's won my heart.
That's removed the alienation. That's removed the distance. He loves me so much. He's given all he could possibly give. God himself exhausted himself.
In what He has given in order to effect this reconciliation. Having reconciled us, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Much more, more than that. Yes, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
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We shall be saved by his life. I'd like to talk about that tomorrow night, Lord Willie.
Not how he's brought us into relationship with himself, but how he maintains it and restores us.
Restoring grace of God is to me, is as wonderful a theme as the saving grace of God.
That here we're looking at the saving grace of God.
Reconcile this to himself by the death of his son.
If God hasn't won your heart, what more could he do to win it?
He's given all he could give, the darling of his bosom the death of his son.
Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. He's brought us to Himself, set us in a place of nearness. He said to us, Come near to me, and he's brought us near and wrapped us in his arms of love, and blessed us with all that he has in his heart for us.
Now he wants to keep us there, and so he's living on high. We shall be saved as we walk through this wilderness, this defiling.
Wicked evil scene of death and defilement. He saves us from all the defilements of the way, and He's going to bring us all the way home to glory. We shall be saved by His life.
And not only so verse 11.
But we also now this is the this is the apex in the Epistle to the Romans, and it's probably a height in the New Testament beyond which you cannot go.
Not only so, but we also joy in God.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ.
By whom we have now.
Right now, receive the reconciliation.
We join God.
The first verse of our chapter says Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, peace with God. That was the theme of our meeting this morning.
Peace has been made.
By the blood of His cross, he's brought us into it, and the effect of that is that we join God.
It's not just as it says in verse 2. At the end of the verse, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We want to be there, that place that we came short of all of sin and come short of the glory of God. Now a work has been done. We've been declared righteous. We have peace. We're rejoicing in hope of that glory.
But there's something even more than that. Wherejoying in God Himself, who is the author, the source of it all, with joy in God.
We've been brought so near.
There's not a cloud between us.
And as I said a moment ago, we can't rightly evaluate how far we were until we look at those three dark hours on the cross.
We won't fully ever understand it.
That's where we see how far we were. He had to go there.
He, the holy, spotless, sinless One, had to go there.
In order to bring us near, how near are we? Well, we sang it in this hymn.
It says.
In the deep eternal Council chose us in Christ the Son, before the earth's foundation or sin had yet begun, that we might all the nearness.
Of the beloved known.
And brought to these children our children's praises. Flow will not know how near we are.
Until we understand a little how near he is.
That's how near we are.
We won't know the distance we were at until we see him and understand in some way, in some measure.
The place he took when he was made sin.
But the nearness?
Is the nearness of the beloved.
Of God.
This is my beloved son.
Whom I have found my delight, and he brings us.
Into that nearness.
Not only so, but we also joy in God.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ.
By whom we have now received the reconciliation.
Joy and God.
Delight in him.
Joy in God Himself.
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Now let's look at Luke.
15 and then we're closed.
The word reconciliation doesn't occur here, but the the truth is right here in verse 22.
But the father said to his servants.
Bring forth the best Grove. That's Christ.
Christ is our righteousness.
And put it on him.
And put a ring on his hand, the symbol of eternal love.
And shoes on his feet that we might walk here for him.
And bring hit her the fatted calf and kill it.
We feast upon.
Christ, the fatted calf.
The very same food that the father feasts on.
Here we have the gain of reconciliation.
The gain of reconciliation. We've looked at the.
The need for reconciliation alienated from the life of God.
The ministry of reconciliation, He's committed that to us be reconciled to God.
The basis for reconciliation God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. I mean we might be brought into such a place of favor and blessedness. The scope of reconciliation, Heaven and earth will all be brought back into divine suitability to God himself.
We already have been reconciled to God, Jew and Gentile, brought into one body in Christ, reconciled to one another, for He is our peace.
And then joy in God. We have joy in the God who has done it all.
God who has reconciled us to Himself. We have joy in God, and here we find God having joy in US.
The gain of reconciliation.
Bring hit her the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. We're brought into the divine merriment.
Were brought in to enjoy what God enjoys.
And all the highest thought.
In addition to our joy in God is He joys in US.
He rejoices to have you reconciled to himself.
And He's going to joy for all eternity the divine merriment to have us around himself and to share all that is in his heart of love.
With the likes of us.
Bring Heather the fatted calf and kill it.
And let us eat and be married the God who said let us make man.
Here says, let us make merry.
We're going to be in that.
Bring hit her the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and be merry for this. My son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.
They began to be merry. No end to that.
No end to that.
It is his own joy.
In having us.
With himself for all eternity.
Let's sing in closing 27 in the appendix so nigh.
So very nigh to God I cannot near be.
Or in the person of the Son I am as near as He, so dear, so very dear to God, more dear. I cannot be the love wherewith He loves the Son, such as his love to me.