The Presentation of Christ.

The speaker begins by welcoming visitors and mentioning the building fund offering and a young man in need of financial assistance. They then turn to the topic of reconciliation and explain that it is one of five terms that define salvation. The five terms are justification, redemption, forgiveness, reconciliation, and adoption. The speaker goes on to explain each of these terms and their significance in relation to salvation. They emphasize the importance of understanding these terms in order to apply them properly in one's life. The speaker then discusses the doctrinal teaching of reconciliation in the context of Colossians and addresses some heresies that were present in the church. They highlight the need for deeper knowledge and understanding of Jesus Christ. The speaker then explains the plan of reconciliation, stating that God reconciles all things to Himself through Jesus Christ. They emphasize that reconciliation is needed because of the alienation and enmity caused by wicked with the message and what God is wanting to speak to us this morning. We are glad to have visitors with us this morning. We are glad to have members with us this morning and everybody in between. And a couple of the things this morning that came up that I want to make sure to mention before we get into the message because I will then forget. But what I want us to remind you today is that this is the first Sunday of the month and so today is our building fund offering. In the offering plates in the very back, we put our tithe. But if you would like to give to the building offering, you can do that in this box up here. Also, we have a young man visiting with us today, Sean, who just got through having hernia surgery and stuff and is compelled on a little bit of hard times. And if you would like to help out his family, they are needing to make a car payment and some other things this week. If you would like to help out, then if you would leave that in the offering plate right here, today, then we will be sure to get them to that and hopefully God will bless it. If you have your Bibles this morning, turn to Colossians 1. We're going to be looking at verses 20-23 this morning on the presentation of Christ. And mainly it's dealing with reconciliation. And our text this morning in verse 20 says, 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 sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unprovable in His sight. If you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, which you have heard and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister. When we look at this word reconciliation, I want you to understand this morning that this is one of five of these big words that we use in religious circles, in Christianity today, that really define and describe what salvation is. And really when you look at salvation, you can't just use any one word, but yet we do a lot of times. But yet this is a whole description that is found in it. And look at these five terms. There's justification. Have you heard that big word? Justification. And then there's redemption. And then there's forgiveness, reconciliation, and adoption. And when we think about these terms, I want you to understand that these five terms summarize salvation. And so a lot of times when you hear somebody presenting the Gospel of salvation, they may use one or all five of these words when they're talking to you about that. But when we think about justification, I want you to understand that the sinner stands before God as the accused. And God, as the righteous judge, declares them righteous. And so we're sinners, but God Himself declares us righteous. That is justification. The second word is redemption. And the sinner stands before God as a slave and is granted freedom by a ransom. Jesus Christ paid that ransom on the cross of Calvary so you and I can have eternal life. That is redemption. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. And so we were slaves, we were servants, but yet He granted us freedom. And that's what redemption has to do with. And then there's forgiveness. With forgiveness, the sinner stands before God as a debtor. We owe a debt that we cannot pay, but yet God Himself pays it and it is completely forgotten. We saw that a couple of weeks ago. God has cast our sins as far as the east is from the west, buried in the bottom of the seas behind His back, never to be brought up again. That is forgiveness. And then the one that we're going to deal with today is reconciliation. Reconciliation is the sinner standing before God as an enemy and then becomes a friend. In other words, the peace was made by God. God opened the door for us to come boldly into His throne room of grace and mercy. And the last one is adoption. Adoption is when a sinner stands before God as a stranger, but God makes him a son. And so when we think about these five different terms, forgiveness deals with the fruit, the sins in our life. Every one of us for all of sin and comes short of the glory of God. That is the fruit of who we are. Forgiveness cleans all of that and cleanses us of all unrighteousness. Redemption goes a little bit deeper than just forgiveness because forgiveness deals with the fruit, but redemption deals with the root, the sin nature that we have. That every one of us because we are of the seed of Adam, we are all sinners before God. Reconciliation deals with our condition as sinners. We're enemies with God. And so God doesn't want us to be enemies, and so He makes us His friend through the death of Jesus Christ. Then there's adoption that deals with our position. He takes us and makes us sons of God. To him that believes, He gives the power to become the sons of God. When you add all of these things up together, what we do is we get that big word, justification. And justification is the summation that you have been declared righteous because of the forgiveness of God, because of His redemption, because of His reconciliation, because He has adopted you. You stand as righteous. And that's some good stuff. That's some good stuff. And today I want us to really zoom in, and we kind of covered these verses really fast over the last two weeks, but this is in the doctrinal section of Paul. Paul is trying to teach the Colossians something, and we need to make sure that we understand this so that when we get to the duty part of Colossians, we'll be able to apply it properly. And so this morning I want us to really zoom in on this doctrinal teaching of reconciliation. If you remember Paul as he's writing this letter, he's writing it because Epiphras has come to him while he was in prison and told him of some heresies that were happening in the church, that were starting to make their way into the congregation. And so Paul is fixing to deal with these. And part of the heresies that was there was that Jesus Christ is not sufficient enough because all matter is evil, and if Jesus Christ was a man, then that made Him matter, and that makes Him evil. And the evil cannot redeem evil. It takes someone that is unevil. It takes someone that is pure. And so this heresy was slipping in that there had to be more. There had to be knowledge. There had to be works other than Jesus Christ. Because of what God has done, we do need to pray for deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ. We need to understand it more and more. If you go back up to verse 9, he says, For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual knowledge. Now when we're praying for this knowledge, remember, it comes in two forms. Wisdom is taking all of the knowledge that we have, all of the facts, all of the information, and forming a principle. And then we take that principle, that wisdom, that comes out of the Scriptures, and it goes to spiritual understanding. In other words, we apply it to our lives. It's not just about being able to say a bunch of facts and quotes about the Bible. It's how is it going to change our lives. How is it going to make us different. And in order that we might walk approving to that new position. And so he says that in verse 10. He says that you might walk worthy of the Lord. Walking worthy happens when we take the Word of God, we form principles, we gather wisdom, and then we understand what it is that God wants us to do. We begin to walk. We begin to perform the will of God in our life. And when we do that, he says, we'll be fruitful in every good work and we will continue to increase in knowledge of God. And so then in verse 11, he says, not only will we be fruitful, but we will become strengthened. And how will we be strengthened? Patience, long-suffering, with joyfulness. And folks, as Christians, we need patience. We need some long-suffering. We need some joy. As individuals, we need some joy as our church. And we need to understand what God has actually done for us through His Son Jesus Christ. We need to understand the plan of reconciliation. And so this morning, I want to answer just four questions about reconciliation. Number one, what was the plan of reconciliation? Was there a plan for reconciliation? Had God even thought about reconciliation before He created Adam and Eve? And I want you to look at what He says there in verse 20 and 21. He says in our text this morning, And having made peace through the blood of the cross by Him, and I put that in italics, that's not in your Bible, but that Him is Christ, by Him Christ, to reconcile all things unto Himself, God, by Him, by Christ, to God. I supplied that because if you just kind of read that, you get carried away with what's these prepositions going to and what are they leading to. And He says, I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. And so basically, it's saying God reconciles everything to Himself through Jesus Christ. That's what this verse is telling us. All things refer to all things being reconciled. All means all. It's not part. It's not incomplete. And so let's quickly this morning, let's go back to see what was the need of reconciliation. In Colossians 1 and verse 21, it says, You were sometimes alienated in enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled. And so God has reconciled all things. In Genesis 1 and verse 31, it says, And God saw everything, there's that word again, everything, that He had made, and it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the six days. And so God looks out over all of His creation week, everything that He has done, everything that He has created, everything, everywhere, and He said it is very good. Life was good. He's done created man and woman. He's put them to have dominion over all of the animals, over the garden, everything that God has provided them with. And they fellowshiped with God. They enjoyed God's creation, but something happened. Something changed. And our text tells us that something happened in the past. And we find that in chapter 3, verse 6. It says, and then again, notice this word, God saw everything and it was very good. Eve saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasing to the eyes, a tree to be desired to make one wise. She took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And so I want you to notice what's happening. Something is going on. God saw everything as being very, very good, but Eve saw this tree. And what is the tree that she is looking at? If you go back up in the Scriptures, you will find that she was standing before the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And I wanted to stress this to you this morning, that when God saw everything, was the tree of knowledge of good and evil already created? Yes, and God said it was very good. God is not against knowledge. That's what He's fighting here with the Colossians. God is not against knowledge. But what He wants to do is He wants to give us knowledge as we can handle it and as we can grow, as we mature. That's why sometimes you can be a student of the Bible and read the Bible and read the Bible and read the Bible and you find something new. Why? Because I wasn't ready for it 20 years ago, right? And so now God has given that to me. He wants me to know. He gave us the Bible so that we could know Jesus Christ. But listen, and here's the problem. Man has this ability and this desire to take knowledge and wants us to take that knowledge as a good thing, but we want to replace it with faith. We'd rather have knowledge than faith. What is faith? Trusting and believing God, right? I don't want to trust God for my future. I don't want to trust God for my information. I want to know now, right? That's the whole thing with prophecy and what's going to happen in the end times. And right now, if you are a Christian and you know anything about the Bible, man, we are living in the days of the end. I mean, everything with Israel that's going on, the pestilence around the world, everything that's happening, the flood in North Carolina, all of these things are happening because nature is groaning for salvation. And God told us that all of this was going to happen. And the thing that we want is why, right? We want to know right now, why is God doing this? We're like the disciples. When is He going to come back and what does He tell us to do? He says, just trust Me. Just live for today. Do what you're supposed to do today and I will show you tomorrow. I'll reveal it to you. But man, we want knowledge right now, right? See, knowledge produces wisdom. And when we have wisdom, we begin to have this fear and reverence for God. In Genesis 3 and verse 7, look at what he says. He says when she saw it, they took it, they ate, she gave it to Adam who was with her. He did eat and the eyes of them both were opened. And look what it says. They knew. They knew. What did they know? They knew they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. God saw everything that He made and it was good. But Eve, when she looked at that tree, she saw it was good for food. She saw it was good to make her wise, to give her instant knowledge. This tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And all of a sudden, what does she want? She doesn't want to wait for God. She wants it right now. Solomon said in Proverbs 1.7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. See, all they should have done was trust God. They should have followed God. Remember, he told them, he said, man, you can have everything in this world. You can go and eat of every tree that I've placed in the garden. You go out and you sample it. You enjoy it. This is my gift to you. But, of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you don't need to mess with that one. You don't need to mess with that one. Just trust me. I'll take care of the knowledge. I'll take care in what you need to do. And so, remember now, in context, Paul told us that we are to do what? We are to pray for knowledge, right? But it's not quick knowledge. It's not easy knowledge. What did he say? He said this knowledge is something that we increase as we begin to study with wisdom and spiritual understanding. As we walk worthy, we get more and more knowledgeable as to what the Word of God is. And we can know that we're in the will of God. And so, that's what they were supposed to do. And you come back to Colossians. He said that wisdom and spiritual understanding. But Eve was impatient when she saw the easy way. And notice the words. He said she didn't ask. She didn't think about it. She took it. Taking is an act of sin. Taking is something... You know, it's not yours until God gave it to you. What did He say? I give you of all of the trees in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And what did Eve do? She said I don't care what you think, God. I'm going to go take it. And she took it. She wanted it. She desired it. It was hers. She ate it. Her eyes were opened. She knew she was naked. Who convinced her that it was a wise decision? Who convinced her that this was a wise decision? Well, if you go back up in v. 1, it says, now the serpent. The serpent that was more subtle than any beast of the field. Now who in the world is this serpent that he's talking about? Well, if you study your Bible and you look at your Bible, you will find out that this serpent is Satan himself. It is the devil. It is the archangel that God created that turned against God and said, I will be God. I'm not going to wait for Your honor. I'm not going to wait for Your glory. I demand it now. If you go back and look in Ezekiel and stuff, there were five things that Satan said, I will do. Not that I'll wait. Not that I'll wait until they're honored upon me. But I will do these myself. And this serpent, this Satan, this devil convinced Eve and created being, bearing the image of God Himself to rebel against her Creator. We see rebellion in heaven and on earth. Everything is now messed up. Everything in heaven is now messed up. You remember there's Satan. One third of the angels went to follow him. But we know that Satan still has access to heaven because we read in Job. Where is Satan? He's not on the earth with Job. He's up there with God. And he said, man, Job wouldn't serve you if you quit blessing him, right? And so now heaven is messed up. Now all of a sudden because of Adam and Eve, earth is messed up. And because Adam and Eve have sinned, God passes on a curse upon this earth. And He says this earth now is going to produce thorns and thistles and there's going to be bad things. And so everything is messed up. But in this act of sin, in this act of rebellion, we really find an act of grace. In v. 15, God tells them, I, God, will put enmity between thee, Satan, and the woman Eve, and between thy seed, Satan's offspring, and her seed, Eve's offspring, it, referring to Eve's offspring, shall bruise thy, Satan's head, and thou, Satan, shall bruise his, Christ's head. It's filled in. Who's He talking about? What's He talking about? And He's telling them that guess what? The seed of a woman is going to destroy you. Now, where did Christ come into all of this? I mean, if you're reading Genesis, we all know we're Bible students, right? Jesus Christ really is not even mentioned until Luke, right? And the New Testament. And so how in the world can I fill that in with Christ? Well, it says there's seed. And one thing that I know by studying biology and genetics is guess what? You don't get the seed from the woman. The seed has to come from a man. And by one man's sin, Adam, through his seed, guess what? Every one of us has been born with a sin nature because of Adam. You know, even in this homosexuality movement and everything else, when two women are together, they find out, guess what? They either have to go adopt a child or they have to go have infertile infancy. You know what I'm talking about. Because why? Neither one of them can produce a seed. They can only get a child out of something else. And so even the world knows and understands this concept, even though they want to rebel against it and try to do their own thing. In Luke 1 and verse 30, here's where Christ comes in. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor grace with God. You have found grace with God. And then look what she says in verse 31. Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shalt call his name Jesus. Now in order for a child to get into the womb of a woman, there either has to be a man involved or something else has to happen. Right? And so let's see what happened here because He said this child is just going to conceive in your womb. So a man is not involved. Then Matthew 1.20 and 21, it says, Joseph, while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is what? Of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost. And so this is not a seed from a man. Joseph had nothing to do with the birth of Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, the angel said that child that is in her that other man on earth had anything to do with that child. So you take her. She's still pure. She's still yours. She's still going to be your wife. But understand that child that got in her is from the Holy Spirit. And look at what He says in verse 21. And she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call His name Jesus. You know what Jesus' name means? He defines it right there for us. For He shall save His people from their sins. See, every one of us became sinners because of Adam. But then Jesus Christ, who was without sin, who had the nature of God Himself, was conceived in Mary. And what did that Jesus do? It says, look at verse 20. We go back to our text now that we kind of understand what has happened. And look at what verse 20 says. Having made peace... See, Adam and Eve, where did they go? They were fellowshipping with God. They were visiting God. It says, and God came to them in the cool of the evening. And all of a sudden, where's Adam and Eve? They're not there. They're hiding. They're hiding from God. They're hiding from their Creator. They're hiding from their Provider. Why? Because their eyes was open and they saw their nakedness. Well, they covered up with fig trees, right? Fig leaves ain't going to cut it when you're standing before God. See, He doesn't even see that. He just looks right through it. He knew something had happened. And that was God's plan. Look at what He says. He says, and having made peace through the blood of His, Jesus Christ's cross, by Him, Christ, to reconcile all things unto Himself, by Him... In other words, by Christ to God, I say, whether they be things in earth and things in heaven. Everything in heaven, everything in earth that has been made bad, that has been filled with sin, now all of a sudden, everything has to be reconciled. And He says everything will be reconciled. Now, watch this. This is rebuting the heretics of the church of Colossae. And Laodicea and Hierapolis right down the road. These cities around that area. These churches in this Lycus Valley. These heretics were saying that the true analysis of the universe is dualistic. That spirit is good and matter is evil. And Paul is saying forget that garbage. Jesus Christ is not only going to reconcile man, but He is going to reconcile the material universe that is evil and that is bad and all things in heaven and earth will be made at peace with God. Amen? I mean, that's complete reconciliation. And Romans 8 would be a great chapter for you to jot down and read this week when you have time because in Romans 8 it says all of creation. Did God create earth? Yes. Did He also create the heavens? Yes. Everything. All of His creation. Men, women, animals, everything is groaning. We're waiting for that day of redemption. That day of reconciliation. But what Paul wants them to understand, look at what he says in Ephesians 1.10. He says that in the dispensation, in other words, there's a time coming. There's a time laid out for this. The fullness of times He might gather together in one, and there's that word again, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him. So, we think about heaven as being pure and being holy. That's not the third heaven where God is. We're talking about the second heaven. We're talking about the realm that is outside in our outer space and stuff where they have to be reconciled. If you go to the end of the book of Revelation, what does it say? I saw a new Jerusalem coming down and a new earth and a new heaven. He recreates every bit of it all. In 2 Peter 3.13, nevertheless we... Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. This is going to happen after the tribulation period. After the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. In Revelation 21, John said, I saw... there's that word again, right? God saw everything very good. Eve saw something she couldn't have and she took it. And because of that was sin. And then what happened? Jesus Christ threw His blood on the cross of Calvary. But now John sees Jesus Christ. He looks up and he says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, where the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sin. Let me quickly address to you this morning, because I've mentioned it over and over, all things, and before we go on, hopefully it will be made clear as we get toward the finish, but all things that will be reconciled are things that want to be reconciled. You get what I'm saying? In other words, Satan will not be reconciled. Why? Because he doesn't want to be reconciled. Hell is not going to be reconciled. Why? Because hell does not want to be reconciled. And what is he going to do? Before he makes the new heaven and the new earth, he's going to cast Satan into hell and unbelievers and those that don't want to be reconciled. He's going to cast them into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is outside of the presence and fellowship of God. It is away from the new heaven and the new earth. When he creates the new heaven and the new earth, guess what? It's going to be holy. It's going to be pure. It's going to be righteous. Because all of Satan and the unbelievers and everything that doesn't want to be reconciled is going to be pushed away and out of. It's separated from God forever. 2 Corinthians 5.19 says, to this wit, 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. God wants to reconcile everything. God wants to reconcile everything. God wants everyone to be reconciled. There is not a single person or a single thing in this world or in heaven that God does not want to be reconciled. But I want you to understand, John 3.16 says, for God so loved the world, the world that includes the heavens and the earth, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now let's go back to verse 21 of our text and start wrapping all of this thing up this morning. He says, and you... and you... Who is the you? The you we find in Colossians 1 and verse 2 is what? The saints and faithful brethren in Jesus Christ. Those that have trusted in Jesus Christ, that have believed in Jesus Christ, that have been reconciled to God. He says, and you... what? That were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled. And so now, we understand that God had a plan, right? He had a plan for reconciliation. It didn't just happen. It just didn't come up. As a matter of fact, the Bible says that Jesus Christ was the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. Before Genesis 1-1, when God said, let there be in the beginning, He created the heavens and the earth. Before that, He already had a plan of reconciliation. So here comes question number two. If He already had a plan for reconciliation, how did God reconcile us? How did this reconciliation take place? And Paul says, having made peace. Here's the reconciliation. He made peace through His blood of His cross to reconcile all things, heaven and earth, unto Himself, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. So how did God reconcile us? Two things He says in this verse. Number one, He says the blood of the cross. When He refers to the blood of the cross, what is He talking about? Blood brings us back to the sacrifice of the Old Testament. That's why we sing about the blood. You know, we have a society today that believes, man, you shouldn't be singing and talking about the blood. That's gross. That's disgusting and everything else. But listen, Paul said His blood was a part of our reconciliation. How did it do that? Well, 1 Peter 1.18 says, we were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversations received by the tradition of your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. The blood of Christ connects Christ's death with the entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament. Do you remember what they were supposed to do in the Old Testament when they had sins in their life? They were to take that young animal, right? That lamb without spot, without blemish, and what did they do? A very violent death. They would bring it to the gate there of the tabernacle and they would literally slit its throat and the blood would drain out of that animal right there in front of them. And then they would take that sacrifice and they would put it upon the altar and they would burn it there. And depending on what the sacrifice was, some of it went to the priest and some of it they took outside of the gate and totally destroyed that nobody got. And all of this is here, but what it was doing is it was showing that the sacrifice was a brutal system. It was a hard system. It was a violent system. And that's this idea of this Hebrew metaphor that we see here. It's not only talking about the blood of the sacrifice, but it's speaking of the death of the sacrifice. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. Do you remember in the first Passover and it tells us in 1 Corinthians that Christ is our Passover? When they took that lamb, what did they do with the blood? Remember, they put it on their doorpost above the top and on either side? And then they would gather up what was left of the blood and put it there at the bottom in the basin of the door. It would drip down and fill that up. The blood was put on the doorpost. The blood was sprinkled. I want you to understand this morning, it was the death of Jesus Christ that brought atonement. It wasn't His blood. It was His death. The blood was a symbol of the violence. The blood connected us with the sacrificial sacrifices in the Old Testament. And to prove this, if you'll read your Bible, you'll understand Jesus Christ did not bleed to death. He did not bleed out. As a matter of fact, if you look at Scripture, Hebrews 13 and verse 11, it says, For the bodies of those beasts which blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore, Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate. The violence of His death and the sacrifice of His death were comparing the sacrifices with the shedding of blood so Jesus Christ came and did what? He shed His blood. It was a literal saving thing on our behalf. So it connects to that Old Testament realm. But then, John 10 and verse 17 tells us that Jesus Christ didn't bleed to death. He didn't bleed out and bleed to death. As a matter of fact, He said, Therefore doth My Father love Me because what? I lay down My life that I might take it up again. When the soldier came down to Jesus Christ to finish Him off, what happened? Jesus Christ was already gone. He cried, It is finished. It was done. And you remember what happened? And this is very important and I think this is why this was put in Scripture. Because you remember the soldier out of anger did what? He thrust the spear into His side. And when he thrust the spear into His side, what came out? Water and blood. So He didn't bleed to death. Because He still had blood in Him. The Bible says He gave up His life. He cried, It is finished. In John 10, verse 18, He says, No man take it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down. And I have power to take it up again. And then in Luke 23, verse 46, He says, Father, I put on the cross into Thy hands, I commend My Spirit, and having said thus, He gave up the ghost. So why the blood? The blood ties us to the sacrifice. To the vileness of it. But then notice the second thing here. It says in Colossians 1.22, Not only the blood of Christ, but also the body of His flesh through death. Through death. And so how did He reconcile us? Through His blood, but also the body of His flesh. The blood deals with sacrifice. His death deals with substitution. In other words, it is appointed unto man once to die, but after that judgment, why do we die? For what ages of sin is death, right? All of us have sinned. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And so His death, His death incarnate in human flesh is the thing that reconciles us to God. See, He had to be fully God, but He had to be fully man, and He had to die in our place as our substitution. That's the reconciliation part. Romans 8.3 that I mentioned a while ago for you to read says this, For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son. And notice the word in the likeness of sinful flesh. Jesus Christ had no sin, but He looked like everybody. He looked like sinners. He looked like sinners. And for sin did what? Condemn sin in the flesh. In other words, sin had no part of Jesus Christ. He never committed a sin. He was perfect. He was sinless because He did not have the nature of Adam. He didn't die as an animal. No way! He didn't die as a spirit. He died as a man for mankind. And that's what v. 22 means. He died a sacrifice in v. 20. He died a substitution in v. 22. And He paid the penalty as a substitute. And so you know what happened. God said that takes care of My wrath. My wrath, it is in the day that thou eatest thereof, remember in the garden? Thou shalt surely die. God didn't want them to have knowledge. God didn't want them to experience death. See, they could have grown in knowledge and spiritual understanding about God as they went through their life and never had to die. But they didn't want to wait on God to reveal it. They just did it on their own. And that's why Paul said that we studied in Philippians last time that for me to live is what? Christ. Christ. God has been appeased and I have been transformed all because of the cross. Our salvation is possible only through the death of the cross. So God had a plan of reconciliation. That plan was accomplished when Jesus Christ came into the world, lived as a sinner, sacrificed His life as a substitution for my life, and that brings us to the third question. Why? Why? Why in the world would God do that for me? Why in the world would God reconcile me? Well, look at what He says in v. 22 because this may shock you. He says, "...in the body of His flesh through death." To what? "...Present you..." Who is the you there? "...any of us that are saints, that are faithful, that have been reconciled by the blood and death of Jesus Christ, you, to present you holy and unblameable and unprovable in His sight." God's sight. Which goes back to you remember, God saw everything that was very good. Eve saw the fruit that she wasn't supposed to have and she took it. And then Jesus Christ comes and God sees His sacrifice again. And guess what? If we'll accept that sacrifice and believe, then God no longer sees us as sinners, but now He sees us as righteous in the sight of Jesus Christ. He mentions some words there. He says that you will be presented holy. Holy means separated. Set apart. Consecrated to God. See, I'm no longer me. When you see me, you don't see Donny Haynes. Donny Haynes went away at nine years old when I accepted Jesus Christ. Hopefully, you see Jesus Christ. Hopefully, that's the goal. That's the purpose. That's what we are striving to do. Because God separated me to live for Him. To consecrate me for Him. Romans 8.1 says, Therefore is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. And if God has declared me to be clean, and to be holy, and to be His, and nothing can condemn me, folks, that ought to make us want to live for Him. That ought to make us want to serve Him. That ought to make us want to worship Him in the service of our life. But He didn't stop with holiness. He says He also makes us unblameable. Without blemish. Without spot. Faultless. Without any defect whatsoever. I was teaching an Old Testament survey at prison this last week, and we're getting into Leviticus this week, and I've been reading and preparing for the book of Leviticus. Over and over and over, the priests were disqualified to go in to worship God because of sores. Right? People were disqualified from bringing sacrifices because of sores. Because of different times of the month. And we read all of that stuff and we say, man, that is gross. That is disgusting, right? That you've got to go to the high priest and he looks at this sore, and if there's a white hair in it, it means this. If there's a discharge, it means this. All these rules and all these regulations, but guess what? It says when God reconciles me, He makes me unblameable. He takes away every bit of them spots and stuff. I don't have to go to the priest and be searched over anymore. I don't have to come before You. I am now without any defect whatsoever. He finishes out chapter 8 and He says, Who shall lay anything to charge of God's elect? Who's going to stand up against Me? Not one of you can because it is God that justifies. It wasn't you. It was God's Son that laid down His life to make me who I am. So Paul goes on there in v. 38-39 and he says, man, I am persuaded. I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to what? Separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. How do we get the love of God? You've got to be in Christ Jesus. And once you get in Christ Jesus, nothing can separate you from God. Nothing can take and walk away. Folks, that's what reconciliation is about. That's what that big word that we use is talking about. Jesus Christ reconciled us. He reconciled you. And one day, our position, what He has already declared me, guess what? It will become a reality. It will become a reality. When I see Him, I will be like Him. And so we go from position to practice. That's why He said what? In all knowledge and spiritual understanding. And then what's the next thing? Know your position and then go live it out. Go live it out. Walk according to His Word. And so the last question I want us to deal with today. How do you know you've been reconciled? How do I know? How do I know I've been reconciled? Well, look at verse 23. If you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the what? The hope of the Gospel. What God has declared me, God will fulfill. That's the hope. To be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go, I will come again that where I am you may be also. That is the hope of the Gospel. And you have heard it. It's been preached to you. It's been preached all over this world to everybody which is under heaven. And Paul says, I am made a minister. But it all hinges on that word continue. Continue. And it means to continue and then some. Continue and continue continuing. To persist in every moving on. Every moving toward more and more and more like the fullness of Jesus Christ. But listen to me, there has to be a starting point. You cannot continue in something that you haven't started. Who is he writing to again? He's writing to the saints at Colossae, right? Those that are faithful. Those that have already had a starting point. And he says because you have been reconciled, you've already started, and so this is what... if you're really reconciled, if God has really done this to you, then here's where you should be going. This is where you should be moving. It's not that you have to do these things to be saved, but these things will be evident in your life if you are. John 3.16 again, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever... whosoever, heaven and earth, all things, believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. And then look at verse 17. We never read 17 and 18 with 16. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world. Christ, God doesn't want to condemn you. Even though we were alienated, even though we are enemies with God, He didn't come to condemn us as enemies. He came in order that we might be saved. He came to give His life as a sacrifice and a substitute for you and I. Listen to me. God does not send anyone to hell. Not even Satan himself. They made a choice. They'd rather be condemned than repent and believe on Jesus Christ. He says in verse 18, it's so simple, He that believeth on Him, Jesus Christ, is not condemned, but he that believeth not is what? Condemned already. They're already condemned. God didn't do this. They did it to themselves. Why? Because they have not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And so He says if you start in faith, if you start by believing in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice and His substitution on the cross, then guess what? You should continue in faith. You should be continuing. If Christ saved you by faith, why in the world do we stop living by faith? Why don't we quit? Why don't we go right back to doing what? We want knowledge. We want it quicker. We want it what? God says I don't want you to do that. I mean, you look at all of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Go through the Bible. God would only show them as far as they needed to know to trust Him today in order to get them to tomorrow. Look at the disciples. He never told them in advance what He was fixing to do or what they were going to do. He got up in the morning. He went off according to Luke and He would pray. He would seek out the Father's will. And then what? He would say, come follow Me. Here's where we're going today. Well, where are we going? He said, well, today I need to go to Samaria. Samaria! Oh, Lord, we go around Samaria! Them are evil, wicked people! We're not going to Samaria! And Jesus said, well, there's a woman there that needs Me. So we're going through Samaria today. See, faith starts this walk. And then we continue the walk. And so look at v. 23. If you continue in the faith, the faith that you started with, what faith? Believing in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice and His substitution on your behalf. Ground yourself in that. You know what grounded means? It means to be grounded in a firm, solid foundation of the building. In other words, get all this other mess out of your mind. When some heretic comes to you, like they're doing at the church at Colossae, and says, man, you can have a relationship with Jesus Christ, but you need to have some knowledge. You need to understand that you need to know a few things before you can be saved. Or maybe you need to be circumcised. Or maybe you need to join the church. Or maybe you need to do this. Tell them to get out of your way because you are grounded in the sacrifice and the substitution of Jesus Christ. And not only grounded, but you better be settled in it. Settled. That means steadfast. Stand. Stand. How many times did Paul say in Ephesians 6 that we were to put on the whole armor of God that we may what? Stand. Stand. And he said, then what? Once we get it on, he said, stand again. And then therefore, having standing, pray, right? Pray. And stand. Stand. Stand. Folks, the world is getting so messed up because we as Christians don't really even know what we believe. There's so much garbage and so much stuff out there today. And everybody has their idea and everybody has their way. And folks, if you don't believe it, why do we have so many different religions, denominations, branches, offbeats, offshoots? Because everybody thinks they have something just a little bit different than everybody else. Folks, we don't have nothing but the Word of God. And Jesus Christ said, believe on Me, and thou shalt be saved. He says to be grounded. To be settled. Not moved away from the hope. If God could create this entire world, and then God can come back and reconcile this entire world, do you really think that God is powerful enough to make you living in a sinful body to be holy? Living for Him and walking in the will of God? Serving in the will of God? I think He's powerful enough, right? I think He can do it. And so what? I can't move away from that hope. That's why that song, and I've told you before, Manny's going to sing it at my funeral. He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be. But guess what? When I draw my last breath, His work is over with. Because I draw that last breath, I go and I am in the presence of the Lord. And He's done working on me then. Because I will be like Him. That's my hope. That's my future. That's what presses me. That's what gets me out of the bed every single morning. And so look what He does here. The question, obviously, what we have to ask ourselves at this point is are we reconcilable? Are we reconcilable? Are we? Yes or no? Yes, He's going to reconcile everything in earth and everything that is in heaven. Any one of you outside of earth or outside of heaven? No, then you are reconcilable. You can be reconciled by the sacrifice and the substitution of Jesus Christ. But what do you have to do? You can't take the easy way out. You can't take the boastful way out and look at what I did. Or look who I'm a family member is. No, all you can do is believe on Jesus Christ. And so this morning, I come to you this morning as we stand and we prepare for a verse of invitation. Are you willing to believe? Are you willing to believe? It's amazing because He's writing to these Colossians. And you know what He's telling them? He's telling them that you are flesh and blood. And in flesh and blood, you ought to be evil. You ought to be evil because the belief says that there's spirit that is good, and then there's matter that is evil. So you ought to be evil, but guess what? You're not evil. You know why? Because Jesus Christ has reconciled you. And you are no longer evil, but you are the light of the world. You are proof. And you know why we're still here today and we're not in heaven? Because you are not saved to go to heaven. That is a result of your salvation. That is a hope that is laid down there. He said in the text this morning, He said that we are reconciled for one thing and one thing only. So that Jesus Christ can take evil matter, sinners, and present us to the world as that He has made us clean. He has made us righteous in order that God might get the glory from the plan that He started and that was fulfilled through Jesus Christ His Son. You ought to be presenting yourself. You remember that's what Paul said in Romans 12, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you what? Present your bodies a living sacrifice. Holy. Acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. How in the world can I do that? First of all, we have to believe in Jesus Christ. And then he said, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed where? By the renewing of your mind. Pray for knowledge. Pray for knowledge, for wisdom and spiritual understanding. God, how can I take this verse and make a principle that I can live out this week? How can I make this work? And I've given you questions every week in the bulletin on how you can apply, how you can find, because I don't know what the application is. I don't know what the application is for your life because every one of us is different. I know the text. I know the reconciliation. But I don't know God's will for your life. That's between you and Him. But I've given you some questions that you can go look. And from the principle we learned in the Scriptures this morning, how can you live that out this week? How can you be holy? Unblameable? Grounded? Settled? In this world that we live in.