Reconciling Rebels

We invite your attention this evening to Colossians chapter 1, as we make our way through the book of Colossians, Sunday evening studies. We find ourselves tonight in verses 20 through 23 of chapter 1. Last week we looked at the person of Christ and we saw that as Paul is developing the concept of Christ's Lordship in the Church and Creation in chapter 1. Remember the theme of the book of Colossians is the Lordship of Christ as he has demonstrated to be Lord of the Church and of Creation in chapter 1. Last week we saw his person, who he is. The person of Christ was very clear verses 15 to 19. Tonight we look more at the work of Christ, what he has done for us in salvation. So we are going to be talking about reconciliation tonight. In fact, that is the word that Paul uses here. He uses it twice in the four verses we are going to look at. The word reconcile or reconciled. It is one of those biblical words that we hear a lot, but I am convinced that sometimes we really don't know what it means. You know, we use words like redemption and reconciliation and justification and propitiation and all those good salvation words. We are not real clear in what they are talking about. So let me take just a moment to describe and define the word reconciliation. Reconciliation primarily means to change thoroughly. That is the basic meaning of reconciliation, just to change thoroughly. But the idea in salvation is that God changes, removes a barrier between us and Him that makes it possible for Him to respond to us and to treat us in a different way than was possible before. There is a barrier that is removed, something between us and God that is removed, allowing us to be brought back into relationship with God. So that is the essence of reconciliation. God can deal with us in a new way, in a way which provides peace and harmony in the relationship whereas once there was alienation and distance and separation. Now we do use the word reconcile today. Usually it is a banking term. Today we reconcile our checkbooks. And there is much the same thing going on. When you reconcile your checkbook, you are bringing peace between you and the bank. You are reconciling what it says in your checkbook with what the bank says is supposed to be in your bank account. What may be a barrier or a problem between those two is removed by careful math if you ever have to do any of that kind of thing. Most of you I am sure your checkbook always agrees exactly with what the bank says it should be. But if you have to do any reconciling what you are doing is removing any impediments between the two so that now there is peace and harmony between you and the bank. There is agreement between you and the bank on what you actually have by way of resources. Now that is very similar to what we are talking about with reconciliation. God removes a barrier between us, a problem between us which is sin. He takes care of that in such a way that allows us to be brought back in relationship to God. The purpose changed thoroughly, things are changed so that now we can have peace and harmony with God. Now as with many truths relating to salvation in the Scriptures the word reconciliation is used in two ways. First of all there is positional reconciliation which takes place at the cross. What that means is that by the work Jesus did on the cross the barrier is removed and the way is made possible for everyone and indeed as we will see in the message a little bit later everything in the universe to now be reconciled to God. That work is done, everything that is needed to be done is done at the cross. So sometimes the work of the word reconciliation is used of the work that was done at the cross which removes the barrier between God and man makes it possible for us to have a relationship with God. The second way the word reconciliation is used in the Bible is of practical reconciliation. So there is that positional truth but there is also practical reconciliation which means that at the moment you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior what was accomplished at the cross is made personal to you, it is made practical in your experience and you actually become reconciled to God. You actually become one who is now brought back into relationship with God through faith and his son. So there are those two kinds of reconciliation. We are going to see both of them in our passage tonight. We are going to see that reconciliation has been made possible so that the whole universe is reconciled to God but that hasn't been practically applied yet and so then he uses it in a second way to talk about us being reconciled in salvation. By the way there is another place where those two forms of the word are used right back to back by Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 19 and 20. I want you to notice this, it is kind of interesting. He says in verse 19 that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ not counting men's sins against them and He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf be reconciled to God. Now in verse 19 he said he's already made reconciliation through the work of the cross but then he says go out and tell people you need to be reconciled. So reconciliation in one sense has already been done in a second sense it is yet to be accomplished until we receive Jesus as our Savior. That's the difference between positional reconciliation and practical reconciliation. The work of the cross is not applied to the individual person's life until that person turns to Christ in faith and trusts the Lord Jesus as Savior. So this is the two kinds of reconciliation. Now that's what Paul is talking about here in Colossians chapter 1 and verses 20 through 23. Let's look at what he says by way of reconciliation there are five truths about reconciliation he speaks of in these verses. The first is the scope of reconciliation. What all does reconciliation take in? How far is the scope of reconciliation? Verse 20, well let's begin reading in verse 19 where the thought begins. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood shed on the cross. Now once you notice first that this reconciliation comes through Him. Now that may not seem awful important to us as we read through the book. It may seem that what the rest of the verse is saying is more important but remember the cult that Paul was dealing with in Colossian. It was a cult which later developed into what we know from church history as nosticism kind of a secret society almost kind of a cult that claimed to have special knowledge of inside secrets of God. And one of the teachings of that which is reflected here in the book of Colossians is that they believed that all matter, all physical stuff was evil. And so what that meant that God who was good certainly could not take on a human body. They did not believe that Jesus Christ was God because He had a physical body. That's evil and so God could not have any, you know, be tainted with evil. So what they believed was that there were a series of beings between God and Christ called angels. They called them immonations but different beings between God and Christ. And each one of those angelic beings was a little less God, had a little less of the fullness of God in Him until finally you got all the way down here to Jesus who was on planet earth and barely even resembled God. He was just a normal man. That way God did His work through Jesus without contaminating Himself by becoming human flesh. Now that's what those that cult believed. And that's why everywhere you turn in the book of Colossians, Paul is slamming that in the face. He's saying this reconciliation was done through Christ. No angels in between just through Christ. Nobody else is needed. God did His work through Christ. So it's through Him that God reconciles all things to Himself. The second thing about the scope of reconciliation that impresses me about verse 20 is that everything is included in reconciliation. Everything. Notice how He says this. Through Him to reconcile to Himself all things. Now that's not just all people. The potential for reconciliation extends beyond mankind. It's all things. And notice He goes on to say whether things on earth or things in heaven. Everything in the universe is included in reconciliation. You say well wait a second. It's only people that get saved, right? Yes. But it's not only people that get reconciled to God. Do you know that? Creation also is affected by sin. Creation is affected by sin in that because of man's sin the curse was given and placed upon creation. And the creation has to be released from the effects of the fall just like people do. And so reconciliation which is also called in the Bible the renewal of all things. Reconciliation not only involves people it involves creation as well. That's why He says all things including things in earth and in heaven. All things including the whole universe will be reconciled to God. Now Paul describes this a little bit further in a way that maybe we can grasp a little better in Romans chapter 8. So look at these verses. I think we've got them up there for you. Yes. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration not by its own choice but by the will of the one who's subjected it. In hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Now what He's saying is that because of man sin it was within the purpose of God to subject not only mankind but creation itself to the curse. And under the curse creation has grown. It has labored under the curse. It has not been productive as it was designed to be. You know we have all these weeds that mess up your gardens. We have all kinds of insects and all kinds of weeds that mess up farming and crops and fields. All that is a direct result of the curse. I've always felt that insects especially mosquitoes were a result of the curse. All that is a result of the curse on nature. And so nature groans under that. Nature travails in that in pain almost like someone ready to deliver a child waiting for the renewal of all things. Waiting for new life and that's going to happen in the future in the resurrection and especially in the millennium when Christ comes to rule on this earth. And so all things have been reconciled at the cross. The groundwork for reconciliation has already been laid at the cross even for the curse to be lifted from creation. But that part of reconciliation will not take place until Jesus Christ comes back to this earth and sets up His kingdom. I don't have this verse up there but it just occurred to me in Matthew 1928. Jesus says to His disciples talking to them about the future kingdom. He says when the son of man comes back to rule on his glorious throne at the renewal of all things. He says then you will also sit on the 12 tribes, rule over the 12 tribes of Israel. That's interesting. He's at the renewal of all things. That's what we're talking about here. The reconciliation of creation to the original purpose of God. What stands in the way of creation fulfilling its original purpose is the curse that was brought because of man's sin. All that's already been taken care of at the cross. It just hasn't been put into effect yet. Just like the world has been reconciled to God but it's only put into effect by those who trust the Lord Jesus as their Savior. Well, the possibility of creation being reconciled to God is already taken care of through the cross. It's just that it hasn't been put into effect yet and won't be until Jesus comes back to rule on this earth. By the way, there are a lot of implications for that that are important. When you understand Bible teaching, for one thing that means that we will not be done with sickness until Jesus comes back. Regardless of the claims of some teachers who say it is already accomplished at the work of Christ on the cross to relieve you of your sickness and all you have to do is have a faith and you can be relieved the sickness. I do believe that all of the effects of the curse, including illness, are provided for in the death of Christ. It's just that the effects of the curse on creation and on us physically will not be lifted until Jesus comes again. That's just not going to happen. While God may choose sovereignly to heal people, it is not his normal work in this day. We are still groaning under the curse. But the thing I want you to see from Colossians 1 is that all of that is included in reconciliation. And someday, even the universe, all things, will be reconciled, brought back into proper relationship with God, functioning as it was intended to function and all of that was done at the cross. Now it's interesting that he says all things on earth and in heaven. What is there in heaven that's been tainted by the curse? What is there in heaven that needs to be reconciled? Well, he may be speaking of the heavens, speaking of the starry universe, but he also may be speaking of the fact that heaven was the scene of Satan's rebellion. And there is a sense in which the effects of sin have even entered into the very heaven where God dwells. There is a sense in which that needs to be cleaned up as well. And that's part of what's taking place in reconciliation. So the scope of reconciliation includes all things in heaven and in earth. All things are included in this reconciliation of being, everything being brought back into its original purpose intended by God. Now notice the scope goes on to be described in this way in this verse. He says through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. Now this reconciliation is accomplished through the death of Christ on the cross and will come back to that later. But that's the scope of reconciliation. It includes all things, not only people, but also creation. The universe is included in reconciliation. That's the scope. Notice secondly the need for reconciliation. Verse 21, here's the need. What the need is, our condition before reconciliation. That's why we need to be reconciled. Verse 21 describes it very well. Verse, you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. He says three things about our need for reconciliation in that verse. Three things that describe very well. Why we need to have something a barrier removed between us and God that makes it possible for us to have a relationship with God. Now there are three things that are wrong. Number one is we are alienated from God there in verse 21. You know what that word means? The word alienated means to be a foreigner. It means to be someone who's a stranger, someone who's from another country. It means to be far removed from. So the idea is that we are far removed from a relationship with God. We are separated from Him. We are distant from Him. We are not related to Him at all. We are from a different country, if you will. If you've ever traveled to a different country, then you know what it's like to feel out of sync, separated, not one of the people that you are with. So if you travel out of West Virginia, you know what that feels like. I remember when I went to college and I just went to North Carolina, I thought and still do think West Virginia is the greatest place on earth. I found out there are people who don't even know where West Virginia is and think that all West Virginians live at the corner of a coal mine. And they thought we were strangers and foreigners and didn't wear shoes and all those kinds of things. That was back in the early 70s, but I found that I was to some people a foreigner, a stranger, separated. Now that's the idea here. We are not one of God's people. We are not like Him. We're not from His country. We're foreigners. We're alienated from Him. But secondly, He also says the need for reconciliation is because we were enemies in our minds. He says once you were alienated from God, separated from God, and by the way, we all come into this world, separated from God. We all come into this world because of a sin nature separated from God. Outside His family, alienated foreigners. We're not part of His family. But then He says that we were also enemies in our minds. Now what that basically means is that we oppose God in our way of thinking. Man's natural way of thinking is the exact opposite of what this book teaches and of who God is and what He says. Now it shouldn't take us long to recognize that. It shouldn't be hard to realize that. All you have to do is watch the news and see what's going on in this world. You know sometimes it gets to the point where you just don't want to hear any more of it. Because you hear righteousness and righteous standards being ridiculed and slandered and laughed at. And sometimes you wonder how in the world can't why can't people see this? I mean, you know, issues like abortion. And I think why in the world can't people understand that we're taking the lives of babies, of people, that we're killing our children when that happens? Why can't people understand that? Talk about the right of a woman to control her own body. That little life inside her is being fed by her body, but it is not her body. It is another life inside her. And I'm thinking why can't people see that? Well this is why people can't see that. This is why people can't see that. We are enemies of God in our minds. Spiritually our minds are darkened. We cannot understand spiritual truth until we get reconciled to God. And so really, you know, we ought to understand how do we expect unsafe people to think? They cannot understand the values of the Word of God. And almost every issue, moral issue that is a hot topic in our country today, you kind of shake your head and say, why can't people see this? You know why? Because we are enemies of God in our minds, naturally. And so people who are crusading for homosexual rights, people who are crusading for it, simply being an alternate way of living and just look on you as some idiot or bigot if you have another view, a biblical view. You know why they think that way? Because they are enemies of God in their minds, by nature. We wouldn't expect them to think any other way. That's the natural man's way of seeing life. An enemy of God in his mind. That's why we need to be reconciled to God. And then he describes it in another way, not only were we alienated from God, enemies in our minds, but he says, because of your evil behavior. Our behavior expresses our thoughts. So the thoughts and the behavior are closely tied. We live out what we believe in life. We live out what we are committed to in our minds and our thoughts. And so what he's saying here is that in our nature, in our thoughts and in our actions, we are apart from God. And that's why we need to be reconciled to God. We are the exact opposite of where God is and who he is. We're an opposite camps. And because in our nature, in our mind, and in our behavior, we are separated from God. We need to be reconciled. We need to be brought back. So that's the need for reconciliation. Then look at the means of reconciliation, if you will, verse 22. Here's the means. Here's how it takes place. But now it says, but now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death. Now I go back to verse 20 and it talks about making peace, which is reconciliation, making peace through his blood shed on the cross. Now put those two together and you have this statement. The way that we are reconciled, the means through which we are reconciled, is through Christ's physical body through death as he shed his blood on the cross. That's the way we're reconciled. That's the means of reconciliation. Again, Paul places an emphasis on Christ's physical body because of the cult in Colossi. That denied that Jesus was truly God or that his physical body could in any way be the instrument that God would use to do his work. So Paul emphasizes, no, it was through Jesus' physical body as he laid down his life on the cross and shed his blood on the cross. That is the means through which we are reconciled. You see, God saved us. God made it possible for the barrier of sin to be removed through what Jesus did by shedding his blood on the cross. And that, my friend, is the only way to be brought back into relationship with God. And we come into this world, enemies of God, alienated from him, unable to think or receive spiritual thoughts, characterized by evil behavior, then the only way that we can come into a relationship with God is through the death of Christ, his son on the cross. Through Jesus' physical body, laying down his life, shedding his blood, which means his life drained from him and he gave his life for us on the cross. That is the only means of reconciliation. Please remember, you cannot get right with God by anything you do. You cannot get into a relationship with God, which is what we're talking about here, reconciliation, being brought together with God in a relationship with Him. You cannot get into a relationship with God through a church or through baptism or through your good works or through trying to do better and hoping that your good deeds will stack up against your bad deeds and there will be a little higher in the day when you stand before God. You don't get to have it that way. It is quite clearly through the physical body of Jesus Christ being taken on the cross, shedding his blood for our reconciliation. Paul makes that very clear. That's the means of reconciliation. You didn't notice if you will the purpose of reconciliation, verse 22. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death, too. In other words, in order to, here's the purpose for being reconciled and he says three things, in order to present you wholly in his sight without blimmych and free from accusation, those three things. The purpose of us being reconciled to God is first of all for us to be wholly. Now, the word wholly simply means to be set apart to God. To be set apart to God. Now we're set apart to God when we are saved. He sets us apart to Himself as His children. But then He says, okay, you need to be wholly in your lifestyle. You need to be setting yourself apart from worldly things, from worldly thought patterns and lifestyles. By the way, I remind you again that worldliness is described for a defined very clearly for us in 1 John 2, 16. The lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. John says, that's all that's in the world. That is it. Everything that I think of as worldliness, John says, falls in one of those three categories. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. Lust of the flesh, the desire to do whatever our sinful flesh prompts us to do. Our sinful nature prompts us to engage in things that please us and do not please God. And when we do that, we're worldly. Lust of the eyes, the desire to have everything we see, materialism, possessions, life with the ambition to have more and more and focus on this world when we do that we're worldly. And the pride of life, the desire to make a name for myself, to have life revolve around me, to have people recognize me, pride of life when we live that way we're worldly. Worldliness is not so much defined in external terms in the Bible as it is in internal terms where your heart is. What motivations do you live by? Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, if those are your motivations you're worldly. Now you can be like the Pharisees and have everything on the outside look great. You're doing all the right things, going to church, reading your Bible, praying, you never do the things, you don't drink smoke, run with the girls who do that kind of thing. You don't do that. And I'm not suggesting you should do those things. But you can do all those kind of things and be extremely worldly in your heart because you're living inwardly by the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. Now if you take care of the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life in your heart, then your heart is going to be such that you won't want to do external things that displeased God. That'll take care of itself, but it's got to start in the heart. Jesus said to the Pharisees, you can clean up the outside of the tomb and be full of dead stuff inside. And that doesn't do it. So what does it mean to be holy? It means to have the heart cleansed. It means first of all to be set apart to God in salvation. Secondly, to be set apart to God in a godly lifestyle, a holy lifestyle that resists and is being set apart from worldliness. And then thirdly, it means someday that we're going to be presented to Him spotless and someday completely holy in heaven with no stain or evidence of sin at all. And we'll get back to that in just a moment. So we're to be holy. The second thing he says about the purpose of reconciliation is that we are to be without blemish, like an Old Testament sacrifice, no defect. Remember the qualifications for Old Testament sacrifices? If you chose an animal to present to God, couldn't have any defect. You couldn't go out and say, well, here's a lamb, it's got a broken leg, one eye missing, you know, a few other things wrong. I think that's the one I want to sacrifice to God. No, God said, when you sacrifice to me, give the best. Give the best of the flock. And that's the idea here, without blemish. God wants us to be presented to Him without blemish. And then thirdly, He wants us to be free from accusation. In other words, nothing laid to our charge that can stick, purity of life that is above any accusation. Now, it doesn't mean people won't accuse us of things, but it ought to mean that people cannot justly accuse us of things. People cannot honestly accuse us of things that are wrong, that displeased God. Now when does this all happen? This purpose and reconciliation, when we are holy and without blemish and free from accusation, when does all that happen? Well I would say this, it ought to be our goal right here and now. It ought to be what we're pressing toward right here and now, but this is not going to happen perfectly until we are presented to Him in heaven. And that's what the word present means in verse 22. It's His purpose to reconcile us in order to present you, He says, holy any sight without blemish and free from accusation. There's going to come a day when Jesus Christ presents us to the Father as His bride. The word present literally means to place beside, to take to your side and present to someone as your bride. And there's going to come a day when Jesus does that. Paul talks about that in Ephesians chapter 5. Look at what he says. He says, husband, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy. Okay, same kind of thing. Jesus gave Himself for us purpose to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish but holy and blameless. You see, He died so that we would become His church, His bride, He's cleaning us up through the Word, washing with the water through the Word as we walk through this world. But someday He's going to present Himself, present us to Himself and to God the Father as His bride. A radiant church without any stain or wrinkle or blemish, holy, blameless, everything perfect. Revelation 19 talks about that when it says that the marriage, supper of the lamb, the bride will show up in white linen garments free from any spot or stain. Nothing to defile us. We will have already been raptured to heaven, judged the judgment seat of Christ, and dressed up prepared for the banquet when Revelation 19 takes place. That's what He's talking about here. This presentation of us as holy without blemish and without accusation will fully and finally take place when we get to heaven and when He presents us to Himself as His bride. That's the purpose of reconciliation. Then notice the evidence of reconciliation in verse 23. He says, all of this takes place. In verse 23, if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed every creature under heaven and of which I, Paul, have become servant. So all this is true of you and you'll be presented in some day if you continue in your faith. Hmm. Sounds kind of strange, doesn't it? Does that mean Paul is placing a condition on salvation? Does that mean I've got to continue to do some things in order to stay saved or I miss out on all this? No. That's not what Paul means. You are not saved by anything you do nor can you keep yourself saved by anything you do or don't do. Salvation and security and that's really just another part of salvation. Salvation from beginning to end is totally a work of God's grace. You don't merit any of it. You don't earn any of it. We don't deserve to be saved in the first place. We don't deserve to be kept saved in the second place. And so he's not saying there's a whole checklist of stuff you got to do in order to keep yourself saved. No, not at all. This is very much in line with Paul's teaching and other apostles teaching about the fact that if you are genuinely saved there's going to be some evidence in your life to that effect. If you're genuinely saved there's going to be some what theologians call the perseverance of the saints. You will persevere. There will be some evidence. It's not like you come forward, sign a card one day and then just go out and rest of your life live like a devil. No. If you genuinely get saved there will be some evidence in your life and what he means when he says if you continue what he's saying is if the evidence is really there that you've truly trusted Christ then yes these things will take place. But it's the evidence that he's talking about here in this verse. A true believer will have appropriate evidence in his or her life or you reveal that you've never been saved. There are lots of ways that this is said in the New Testament. Let me just give you a couple of them. We'll look at them on the screen in James chapter 2 and verses 14 and 17. James 2, 14 says what good is it my brothers? If a man claims to have faith but has no deeds. In such faith and that kind of faith just going to kind of outward mental ascent to certain things can that kind of faith save him verse 17 in the same way faith by itself if it is not accompanied by action is dead. Now what James is saying dovetails perfectly with what Paul is saying. The kind of faith that is genuine is faith that produces some evidence, some kind of good works, some kind of holiness. Now it's not the same degree in everybody and certainly we grow in that. Jesus said even the seed that falls on good soil produces some 30 fold, some 60 fold, some 100 fold. I hope that we grow from 30 to 100 as we continue in the Christian life. There's always room for growth and progress but there's going to be some evidence that you're genuinely saved. If you get saved the kind of faith that's genuine produces works. It produces some evidence. John said this in 1 John chapter 2 in verse 19 when he's talking about false teachers. He said they went out from us but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us they would have remained with us but they're going out showed that none of them belonged to us. Now he's talking here about someone who turns his back on the faith walks away from Christ and the Bible and everything they've ever believed and the rest of their lives walks a different way. He's saying that person left us went out from us and they're very going out proved that they were not genuinely saved. They didn't belong to us in the first place. So you see the Bible repeatedly says there will be evidence of genuine faith if you're genuinely saved. That's what Paul's talking about here. Now he even describes what kind of evidence he's talking about. If you continue in your faith established and firm not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. Established and firm are both building terms. Established means good foundation. It means that you are firmly rooted in the truths of the gospel and salvation. That you truly understand what it means to be saved. You've got the real thing in other words. You're firmly established. But then firm means the structure is secure as well. If it's built on the right foundation the structure is secure. It's been built well. And it's, in other words, as a Christian you're growing. You're growing. There's some evidence of firm growth in your life. Established and firm and then he says not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. That's a doctrinal thing. You don't abandon the gospel, the truths of the Word of God as it relates to salvation. So that's part of at least in this passage. What he's talking about by continuing in the faith. So the evidence of reconciliation is that there will be some measure of change in your life. When you get saved things change. That may not be a real radical change at first or it may be. But there will be some evidence of change. You may have a hunger and a thirst for the Bible that you never had before or desire to be with God's people that you never had before. You may have a desire to stop some behaviors and ways of life and ways of thinking that you had before and a desire to start coming to know Christ better and grow in him and live a holy life. Things change when you get saved. That's evidence that you've got the real thing. That is genuine. That's what Paul's talking about here. He says, now if you continue in the faith and show these evidence that you are on the right foundation, you're growing to be a firm structure in Christ and you're not abandoning the gospel. When you show that kind of evidence and that shows you're truly saved. If that's the case then I can say all these things are true of you. You've truly been reconciled to God and you'll be presented to him someday as part of his holy bride without stain or wrinkle. So there's some evidence there. The evidence of reconciliation. Well, that's what Paul is talking about in this passage, the work of Christ in reconciliation. Now that we've studied it a little bit and looked at it and we know what it is, the real question that we need to ask ourselves is, have I ever been reconciled to God? Have I ever been reconciled to God? Have I recognized the need? Have I understood that I came into this world separated from God, alienated from Him, enemies in my mind, demonstrated by my wicked behavior that I was not one of God's people? Do I understand that I'm a sinner? Then have you applied the means of reconciliation? Have you understood that Jesus gave His body, His life for you on the cross so that you could be reconciled to God? Is there some evidence in your life that things are different, that you have a hunger for the things of God, desire for the things of God, is there different motivation, inclination in your life at all? And are you progressing toward that purpose for reconciliation, which is someday to present us without fault to Himself in heaven? Are you reconciled to God? It's the message of reconciliation, and like Paul said, we beseech you, therefore, be reconciled. Be reconciled to God. If you've never done that, even you may have been a church member, good person, as other people see you. If you've never been reconciled to God, I urge you to do that today, tonight. Let's pray. Father, we are so grateful to you that you have made the way possible. You've broken down the barrier of sin and enmity that stood between us and you, that kept us from having a relationship with you. We're so thankful that you've provided for us to be reconciled. And Father, I pray that if there's anyone here who's never done that, who's never realized the need to be reconciled to you. Never trusted the work of Christ and His shed blood on the cross to save them from their sins. But this very night, they would turn their hearts over to you, receive the Lord Jesus as their Savior, and be reconciled to you. Thank you that you've made the way possible in Jesus' name. Amen.