God’s Grace in Reconciliation

What if the solution to humanity's deepest divide is simpler than we think? Dive into this episode as we explore the doctrine of reconciliation through the lens of 2 Corinthians 5. We unravel the profound necessity for humanity to mend its relationship with God, highlighting the severance caused by sin. With God’s unchanging nature as our foundation, we assert that it is humanity, not the divine, that must seek reconciliation. Our conversation confronts the daunting challenge sinners face in recognizing their true state without divine intervention, and the indispensable role of God’s grace in this process.

We then shift our focus to Jeremiah 31:3, where the concept of God's everlasting love is brought to light. This chapter emphasizes that God's love, boundless and eternal, initiates the process of reconciliation through His loving kindness. We discuss how Christ's sacrificial act serves as the cornerstone of this divine reconciliation, ensuring salvation not through human effort, but through God's provision and Christ’s perfect adherence to divine law. This narrative compels us to understand that the prerequisites for salvation are met not by our works, but by God’s unfathomable grace.

Lastly, we dissect the ministry of reconciliation, tackling theological debates around God's sovereignty and the true nature of Israel. True believers, we argue, are defined by their faith in Jesus Christ, transcending ethnic and religious labels. Our discussion underscores the assurance of salvation for God’s elect, brought to completion through Christ’s atoning work. The ministry of reconciliation, entrusted to believers, calls us to spread the gospel with the understanding that God has already reconciled the world to Himself through Christ. Join us as we navigate these rich theological insights and their implications for our faith journey.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

I have decided I want to have a conversation today about a very important doctrine in the Word of God, and it is the doctrine of reconciliation, reconciliation and what that means. So, good morning to you all this morning, and I hope that you will stand with me for a little while and endure this message that I want to bring to you. Hopefully, it will bring something to your mind that perhaps you had not considered before. So I've titled this message the Be reconcileded to God. Be Reconciled to God. I'm taking my text from 2 Corinthians, chapter 5. If you will, I'd like to read the following verses. To read the following verses Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Now, all things are of God, who has reconciled us To himself Through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us. We implore you Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us. We implore you, on Christ's behalf, to be reconciled to God. So you see, here, in verse 18, it says all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself. In that same verse we read that he reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and gave us a ministry of reconciliation. Then it says in verse 19, that is that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. Then it says in that same verse that he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. And then in verse 20, he closes by saying we implore you, on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. So in six places we see this word or a variation of it being used Reconciled, being reconciled or to be reconciled to God.

Speaker 1: 3:24

Now, one of the first things that I'd like to point out in this understanding that I want to try to convey to you about reconciliation and its ministry, is that we are told over again that it is we who need to be reconciled to God. The scriptures makes it plain that it is us who somehow have broken the tie Between us and God, and it wasn't that God broke the tie, it's that we broke the tie. So therefore, it is us that needs to be reconciled to God. But, more importantly, I need you to understand, from God's perspective, that it is not he that needs to be reconciled to us. It is not he that needs to be reconciled to us. It is we that need to be reconciled to us. It is we that need to be reconciled to God. So the point that I'm making here is that there is a work of reconciliation that needs to be done. That needs to be done, but this work of reconciliation is something that is on our part and not on God's part. So God is not reconciled to man, but rather man must be reconciled to God.

Speaker 1: 5:01

Now let's consider what the alternative would mean, or the addition would mean. If God needed to be reconciled to us, it would imply a change on the part of God. It would imply a change on the part of God. One of the essential attributes, one of the absolute, essential attributes of God, is that he cannot change. It is an impossibility God to be. God cannot change, otherwise he would not be God. So there was a relationship that was formed between God and man that became severed by sin and needed to be remedied. But the problem was not on the part of God. The problem was on the part of man, a part that needs to be continuously emphasized, continuously emphasized in the ears and hearts of mankind.

Speaker 1: 6:09

When you look at reconciliation in the way we normally understand it, if two people who are in a relationship, who are involved in a relationship, if somehow that relationship goes belly up, the relationship becomes severed, then what ends up happening is that for peace to be established, there needs to be a reconciliation. But you have to understand what reconciliation presupposes, because reconciliation presupposes that there was a union between God and those to whom he was reconciled, and I want to make that point very clear. All men in the end are not reconciled to God In the end Are not reconciled to God. All men In the end Are not reconciled To God, and all of those who are not eventually Reconciled to God it is because there was not a A relationship Between Between God and relationship between between God and these men. So the point is is that a reconciliation implies the existence previously of a relationship. It also implies that if there is a reconciliation that there was a union before, that needs to be reestablished in order to bring about peace.

Speaker 1: 8:17

Reconciliation is a difficult thing because it is very hard sometimes in a relationship to fit for it to have one of those parties willing to admit to fault. And in the situation between God and man, there is no fault on the part of God that needs to be admitted to or, on his part, requires him to be reconciled to us, and that only leaves us as having the problem. Sinners are the problem and sin is their problem, and therefore that creates a problem with the blessings and benefits that God has intended for those who need to be reconciled if they do not deal or if their sin is not dealt with. And for sin to be dealt with, it requires on the part of the sinner to recognize himself or herself as a sinner in need of having their sins remedially dealt with. And because men are sinners and because men love their sin and because men love darkness, they are incapable of recognizing their condition as sinners. They are incapable. They are incapable, yet they are required, if they would have salvation, to be reconciled to God.

Speaker 1: 9:46

But if a sinner is incapable of knowing that he's a sinner, knowing that he is at fault, knowing that he is wrong, how can a person in this condition, how can a person in this condition ever, of his own effort, see, let alone act, in such a way that would enable him to be reconciled to God, and I hope that if you are truly a Christian, you will understand that this is an absolute impossibility. There are many amongst the brotherhood truly a Christian. You will understand that this is an absolute impossibility. There are many amongst the brotherhood of Christ and his family. There are many of us who disagree on a great many things, but there are two things that we must all agree with, and that is that we are all sinners incapable of being saved apart from his sovereign work of God on our behalf. It is an absolute impossibility. Every Christian must believe this. This is an absolute impossibility.

Speaker 1: 11:00

If you do not believe that there is no way for you to be saved in and of yourself, through efforts in and of your own, if you don't believe that you cannot come to Christ on your own, you are not a Christian. You're not a Christian. It requires to be saved, a reconciliation, and it requires on your part, as a sinner, to understand you have this need, and yet it is an absolute impossibility for you not only to know that you have this need, let alone do something about it. So that leaves only one avenue left in order for men to be reconciled to God, and that is that he himself must do something for you and on your behalf. There's a plan that he must put in place if you would have salvation. There is a relationship that was had, that was had and that was severed, that was broken, and it is up to us to be reconciled to God, even though there's nothing that we can do about it. But, thankfully, god did not leave us to our own devices, he did not leave us to flail in our sins, he did not leave us to drown in the morass that we have created and begin to sink, like as if we were in quicksand, to a demise that is irreversible.

Speaker 1: 12:58

Now here's a key thing that needs to be understood, that needs to be understood, thing that needs to be understood. If man is incapable of reconciling himself to God number one and, on the other hand, if God is the only one who can bring about reconciliation number two then that means, by implication, that only those who are saved are saved because of a work that God did on their behalf, nothing to do with what they have done, which means that, for those who don't come to Christ, they are left in a condition that God is not obligated to fix or change on their behalf, and yet they still have the same responsibility as all men, saved or not, to be reconciled to God. But it needs to be clear to all of you that men are incapable of reconciling themselves to God. But only Christians are reconciled to God, god's people, who were his people before the foundation of the world. They were always his people, and only God's people are reconciled to God. God will only reconcile to himself those who are his people, and that means that all are not his people and that means that all are not going to be reconciled.

Speaker 1: 14:39

This is the bitter pill that so many people have to deal with, because they don't want to accept the fact that God is the king of the universe, lord of Lord, king of kings, and he is under no obligation to do anything other than what his nature requires. And being that his nature is sovereign, that means that God can do whatsoever he pleases with any part or all of his creation. That his nature is sovereign, that means that God can do Whatsoever he pleases With any part or all of his creation, as he sees fit. And who is man To reply against God? God is under no obligation To reconcile any when all deserve condemnation. When all deserve condemnation. All men deserve condemnation. In fact, prior to anyone being saved, condemnation was the lot in life for all of mankind. Condemnation was the lot for all of mankind.

Speaker 1: 15:45

Everyone who is not saved today has the sword of God's wrath hanging over his or her head at this very moment. At this very moment, salvation implies that condemnation is over your head right now. There is no salvation unless you are already condemned. You are under a condemnation that necessitates a pardon that you are under a condemnation that necessitates a pardon that you cannot issue for yourself. In order to obtain salvation, the pardon must come from the law giver, not the law breaker, and the pardon is what all of us need in order to be reconciled to God, and only God can issue that pardon. But there's a condition that comes along with that pardon. There's a condition man has to keep God's holy law, and it has to be flawlessly kept in order for him to be saved.

Speaker 1: 17:03

Now you have a lot of people out there that like to parade around telling people that the only way they can be saved is by keeping the law of God, and I applaud those souls that they believe that they have actually kept God's law, because there is not one person who says they are a law keeper who believes that they are not going to be saved. So you have so-called law keepers who believe they are going to be saved, having to admit that somehow, in some way, they are saved by their own efforts in abiding by and keeping God's law, not knowing that they undermine the very offering and satisfaction that was provided by God through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So anyone who believes that he keeps the law, you undermine and you circumvent the very work of Christ. You prove and show that there was no need for Christ to come in the first place, because all you had to do was decide to keep the law, discounting everything that you did prior to your to your awareness that you needed to keep the law, as if the sins that you didn't know were sins would somehow exempt you. Now that you believe in serving the law, that you could be saved. Did not the old testament account for laws that were committed in ignorance? It did. No man is exempt from breaking the law, whether he knows he's doing it or not, and so every man who has broken the law, whether he realizes he has done so or not, needs to be reconciled to God if he would be saved and no amount of law keeping, no amount of law keeping would reconcile any man to God. It's an impossibility, an absolute impossibility.

Speaker 1: 19:21

In Jeremiah, 31 verse, verse 3, it says this the Lord has appeared of old unto me saying, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, have I drawn thee. Look what Jeremiah is saying. You see, the sovereignty of God didn't start when Christ came to earth. It didn't start when Paul wrote the book of Romans. It didn't start in John chapter 6 or John chapter 10.

Speaker 1: 19:59

Jeremiah here, under the old covenant, he says the Lord has appeared of old unto me and he says that I have loved you with an everlasting love. Let me ask all of you a question which demands an emphatic reply that cannot be misunderstood. He says that he has loved his people with an everlasting love. Everlasting what does everlasting mean? It means it has no beginning. It means it has no end.

Speaker 1: 20:44

I heard a clown the other day talk about Christ was not slain before the foundation of the world. Well, here's the fact of the matter is, christ must have been slain before the foundation of the world, because our sins was seen before the foundation of the world number one and understood by God but, more importantly, god has loved us with an everlasting salvation which precedes the foundation of the world. If God loved us with an everlasting love, that means that love had no beginning and that love has no end. If God has loved us with an everlasting salvation, that means that our salvation and his love to us is as eternal as he is. Hence the need for being reconciled to God, because in time we sinned against God. Those who are the objects of his everlasting love Were born in time and sinned against God, and therefore those who he loved Needs to be reconciled to him In order to be able To go into eternity With him.

Speaker 1: 22:04

Now people don't understand the relationship that we have. Those of us who are believers and believers only we have a relationship with God that preceded not only our birth and it didn't just precede the foundation of the world. The relationship we had with God is as old as he is. It is everlasting. He tells us to Jeremiah in 31, verse 3, in the book that bears his name I have loved you With an everlasting love. I've loved you with the love that is eternal. I have loved you with a love that is eternal and that is everlasting, as I am as I am and every single person that God has set his affection upon With everlasting love. Every single one of them Shall be reconciled To God. How do I know that? Because Peter tells us that he is not willing that any of us should perish, and these people Whom Jeremiah says have been loved by God With an everlasting love, these people All shall come to Christ. Because he is not willing, god, the Father, is not willing that any of us Should perish.

Speaker 1: 23:42

For the Christian, this should be Fantastic news. For the sinner, this should be dark and dire. This should reflect a tempest that is brewing around you right now. A stir of God's wrath surrounds you at this moment. The sword of God's wrath hangs over your head, as we read in Psalm chapter 50, verse 20. And there's nothing you can do to avoid it outside of being reconciled to God. What will you do? What option do you, sinners, have? This message is an old message and it's not going to change. This message is going to be the message that needs to be heard around the world as long as this world continues to spin. If man is going to be saved, he must be reconciled to God.

Speaker 1: 24:55

In Jeremiah 31, verse 3, when, after God tells him that I have loved you with an everlasting love. He goes on to say that, therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn you, with loving kindness have I drawn thee? Go, look up Jeremiah 31, verse 3. Turn to it right now, if you're paying attention, if you're listening and your Bible is near, because in this one verse 3 of jeremiah 31, the whole gospel is laid out I have loved you with an everlasting love. Number one, therefore, or because of that, because of that everlasting love whereby I loved you, therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn thee. I have drawn you where he has drawn you to him. What is it to be drawn to God? It is to be reconciled. To be drawn to God is to be reconciled to God.

Speaker 1: 26:03

There's no way around this. This is required, but it is a beautiful requirement. When you go to school, to college or any school, I guess, for that matter, there are generally prerequisites that are required on your behalf in order to graduate, and these requirements are what you must do. These are prerequisites that you must take in order to graduate. Without them, there is no graduation. Likewise, there are prerequisites requirements if you would have salvation, prerequisites requirements if you would have salvation. But the problem. The difference is between the prerequisites in school and the prerequisites for salvation. The difference is this when it comes to going to school, the prerequisites are on your part and it's something you must do, something you must do, something you must complete and someone whereby you must make a grade. But when it comes to the prerequisites of salvation, there is nothing you can do. And yet the prerequisites and the requirements For salvation stand. You must be reconciled to God, but there is no part of being reconciled to God that you can do in order to be reconciled to him. You cannot establish the peace with God without being made to see that you are a sinner, without being made to see something in the only one who can save you.

Speaker 1: 27:56

Now I deviated from an earlier point where I was bringing out that God, because we cannot reconcile ourselves to God because of our sinful nature being a barrier to our desire to see him and to see ourselves as sinners and to see him as righteous and holy and pure. God himself had to provide a remedy enabling our reconciliation. God himself had to provide this, and the provision was that he sent his own son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to take on the form of mankind, to take on the form of mankind To do one primary goal, that is, to reconcile his people to himself. But in order to do that, there is a work that needed to be done that all of mankind failed in doing, which is to keep God's law perfectly. No man did that. No man, from Adam to now, has been able to keep God's law.

Speaker 1: 29:13

But in the course of time, forged out of the fire of eternity, god sent forth his son to put on human flesh, to come down to earth, to descend to the lower parts of the earth. And, by the way, when you read that the Lord Jesus Christ descended to the lower parts of the earth, it wasn't talking about he went to hell after he died. Every reference to Christ descending to the lower parts of the earth speaks to the fact that he, being the son of God, was with God and was always with God. Put on human flesh and came down to earth, into the belly of a woman, into the belly of a woman, to perform the work of keeping God's law, dying on the cross in order to reconcile us to himself, to raise from the tomb for our justification, so that we can look forward to the glorification which is yet to come. It's a glorious message and in Jeremiah 31, verse 3, as I said, god said to Jeremiah I've loved you with an everlasting love and therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn thee. This is the gospel. God loves us and then he, because he has loved us with an everlasting love, draws us to himself with his loving kindness. He drew us to him. It wasn't that we went to him, him it wasn't that we went to him. We didn't draw God to us, he came for us. He drew us to himself and we, when we believed, were reconciled to God through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1: 31:34

For us to be reconciled, for us to be reconciled to God, it not only presupposes, as I said earlier earlier, a union between God and man, but it also presupposes that that union was severed and needed to be fused again. That union was eternal. God's love, as Jeremiah said, was an unchanging, was an unchanging everlasting love for those who are reconciled. All mankind are not and will not be reconciled, because all of mankind are not the recipients of God's everlasting love. Otherwise they would be reconciled, and this is the part that so many Christians have a hard time understanding, and so, and because of that, it affects their testimony.

Speaker 1: 32:19

And now you have people in the world who tell us that God is some kind of a tyrant and evil God, because he does what God can do. As I stated earlier, god is under no obligation to save anyone. If you believe that God is a just God, then you would know that all of mankind is worthy of condemnation, that you would know that all of mankind is worthy of condemnation, and not just worthy. They were under the condemnation of God, waiting for that final sentence to be laid upon them, a sentence that has already been passed upon all of creation. But God, in his wisdom, carved out a window of opportunity, a window of patience whereby he would bring men to himself that had been broken and separated in their relationship with him. That relationship needs to be restored, and it is being restored every day, every time a sinner bows his knee to Christ, seeking his salvation, the salvation that only he can give.

Speaker 1: 33:36

The law that God required all of mankind to keep, the law that God required all of mankind to keep, the law that God required all of mankind To keep perfectly, has not been able to be done perfectly by anyone other than the Lord Jesus Christ, which is why he is the only one that can bring us to God safely. He is the only one. There is no possible way that, through law keeping, you can be brought to a safe relationship with God and think that you can enter to the gates of glory and live in eternity with the saints of God and with the Lord Jesus Christ forever without. This Faith is necessary because law failed, not because the law itself failed, but because man is a sinner. The law was perfect, the law was holy, the law was just and the law is what you're going to get. The law is going to be that which sentences you If you do not seek another way of salvation, if you do not seek a reconciliation with God by faith in Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1: 34:58

It's not that hard, is not that hard? It is our sin that needed this remedy, because the will that we have by and through death was rendered completely impotent. All of us died in Adam. When Adam sinned. We sinned. That means we died. God told Adam that in the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. That's so. That means that through death, through the fall, man lost his capability of obedience. Man lost his ability to will anything good for himself when he fell.

Speaker 1: 36:05

So for all of you who scream about the glory of your will, that idol which is dominating the world and especially in America, know this the will of man is his greatest idol. The will of man is a greater, bigger idol than Baal worship during the time of Isaiah, or I should say Elijah, and during the time of Ahab and Jezebel. Man worships his will. The will of man is an idol. It is the will of man in this day of grace that is keeping him from salvation, even if he calls himself a Christian.

Speaker 1: 36:51

Just because you call yourself a Christian doesn't mean that you are one. If you believe that you are a Christian because your will saved you, because your will drove you to Christ, because you made a decision for Christ, that is not salvation. Because what decision and what will is there on the part of those who are dead? When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, what will did Jesus appeal to on the part of Lazarus? What will did Lazarus have? What freedom of choice did Lazarus have? What choices did Lazarus recognize or see he was dead? And this is the thing that Christians Christians don't understand, and I believe that many Christians don't understand this and they are saved, just as there are many Christians who don't believe this, and I believe that many Christians don't understand this and they are saved, just as there are many Christians who don't believe this and they're not saved.

Speaker 1: 37:58

One Christian brother says all glory to God, and I agree with what he is saying. If you are saying that you made a decision for Christ, that you came to Christ, that you, that you, through the wisdom and intellect, suddenly realized that it all made sense, if this is how you came to Christ, you never came to Christ Because you could never say all glory to God, and the only way a Christian can be saved is to know that all glory goes to God. But if you came to Christ through an act of your will, it is not all glory to God. It is glory to God conditioned upon your choice, your will. But Jeremiah told us because I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness, have I drawn you to me. He draws us. John 6, 44 says it. Jesus says it you cannot come to me unless my father gave you to him. Let me read it exactly the way Jesus said it, because people like to say show me that in the Bible Jesus says this no one can come to me. Unless this being the condition, the only condition for salvation, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. That's exactly what Jeremiah said. Because of God's everlasting love, therefore, with loving kindness, has he drawn us. If you don't love this, you don't love the word of God.

Speaker 1: 39:55

There's a guy out here on this platform that calls himself the wadester. He doesn't believe this and yet he considers himself the police officer of Christians that he determines who is saved. Based on On what? This? On His faulty interpretation of the word of God, because he refuses to believe that God is sovereign and he believes that God's sovereignty Is only valid Conditioned upon the actions of men. And so, while he's going around Telling people who's a false prophet and not, he doesn't even realize that he is the one who is false. But there is no way that you can avoid this passage.

Speaker 1: 40:42

Now, people like to say well, that was written to the Jews. Everything that they don't like that the New Testament teaches, these people say, only apply to the Jews and that if it applies to us, it makes God come out to be evil or wicked. But if that's so, then why wasn't God evil or wicked when he applied the same principles to the nation of Israel. Why was it not evil and wicked then when he chose them from among all the nations of the world? But again the problem becomes not understanding the word of God. It was he who told Isaiah all Israel is not Israel. It was he who told Isaiah all Israel is not Israel. It is he who also said that all Israel shall be justified. We know that all Israel is not justified. We know that all Israel aren't saved. So either God was wrong or we misunderstood who Israel really is.

Speaker 1: 41:54

The Israel of God is not just Middle Eastern people. The Israel of God is not just white people. The Israel of God is not just black people. The Israel of God is comprised of all believers who have put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They are all Israel.

Speaker 1: 42:16

Christians are Israel. It has nothing to do with the circumcision of the flesh. It has everything to do with the circumcision of the heart. It has everything to do with the circumcision of the heart. When Jesus says that God so loved the world, he was putting the people of his day, his natural people. He was correcting them, putting them in their place, if you will. They were a people who believed that only they were God's people, which they still believe today. Islam they believe that they are only God's people. You have the Jehovah's Witnesses they believe that only they are God's people. The Seventh-day Adventists they believe they are only God's people. But I submit to you that God's people are those who have been reconciled to God through the death of Jesus Christ, those who put faith in Jesus Christ as their substitute, I don't care what they call themselves. If you believe that Jesus Christ Is the only road For access To reconciliation To God, the Father, if you believe that you are amongst the Israel of God, israel meaning people that prevail or people that have power with God. And the only people that prevail with God, the only people that have power with God, are those who embrace his son, are those who embrace his son. Allah, muhammad Buddha, joseph Smith, ellen G White. None of these people can reconcile you to God. None of these people died for you. Only Christ died for us, for sinners, and only Christ is able to bring us to God, to reconcile us to God.

Speaker 1: 44:40

We're told in verse 18 of 2 Corinthians 5,. Now, all things are of God. All things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. Now notice this. He says that all things are of God and who has reconciled us to himself? Paul is saying that we who are believers, all of us, have already been reconciled to God. How? By Christ. Because he says in verse 19,. That is, god was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them. Then he commits to us the ministry of reconciliation, which is why we go preach to the lost in the hopes that they may also, through the gospel, be reconciled to God as we were. Oh, I love this gospel, I love this word of God, I love my Savior.

Speaker 1: 45:47

Listen, notice that he says in verse 18 of 2 Corinthians 5, all things are of God and he has reconciled us to himself. Did he reconcile the entire world? No, we know that people died in their sins. So how can it be said that he reconciled us to himself? How can you be reconciled to God and not be reconciled at the same time? If you, if you are broken up from your wife or your husband, if you broke up and then you get back together, how is it possible that you can be back together, reconciled again, and still be broken up at the same time. It's impossible.

Speaker 1: 46:36

Yet God here says that he has reconciled us to himself. He's done it. The only difference is some of us who have been reconciled don't know it yet, but they will know. The only difference is some of us who have been reconciled don't know it yet, but they will know. And at the close of this era, at the close of this age, all of those whom God has reconciled to themselves will be brought to him to live, live with him In glory for eternity. And then it says that he has given us this ministry Of reconciliation To pass it on. To pass it on, which is what that? God was in Christ Reconciling the world to himself. God has reconciled the world to himself. So now you should be asking if you are a doubter of the things that I'm saying and if you doubt the sovereignty of God, if you doubt that God has an elect people that he has loved for eternity. If you have ever doubted this, how do you explain that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself? Because you cannot look at the world and say the world is reconciled to God, because he is not talking about the world with exception, without exception. He's talking about the world without distinction. Do you remember?

Speaker 1: 48:04

The word of God, especially the New Testament, was clearing up errors in understanding that had, or errors of the misunderstanding that the history of God's people have always had. God is a God of all people, all races, all kindreds, all tongues. So when it says that God and Paul is trying to explain Paul is talking to his people, he's talking to the Greeks, he's talking to everyone else. He's saying that this message is not just for a particular group of people. Salvation was not just for the Jews in the natural sense, the natural Jews, but it was a message for all of the spiritual Jews, of which all of us are, who have embraced Christ as Lord and Savior and has submitted to and have been reconciled to God Through him.

Speaker 1: 49:14

When it says God, when Jesus says God so loved the world, it means the same thing here when it says that God was in Christ Reconciling the world to himself. We know the whole world is not reconciled and yet God has reconciled. The whole world is not reconciled and yet God has reconciled the whole world to himself, meaning the whole world of those from throughout the world who are not just Jewish but are from every nation, tongue and creed on earth. How do I know this? Because he goes on to say that, in reconciling himself, reconciling the world to himself. Because he goes on to say that, in having in reconciling himself, reconciling the world to himself, he goes on to say that he is not imputing their trespasses to them. And if this meant universally the world, then it means that no one would be in hell at all, that no one would be in hell at all. So how could anybody be in hell if God reconciled them all to himself?

Speaker 1: 50:17

The only way that's possible is if you understand that God has reconciled his elect, chosen people that were his before the foundation of the world. And these chosen people, these spiritual chosen people, were the result of that which was modeled under the national Israel as a emblem or a type of what God was going to point people to, which is a universal salvation, meaning universal in the standpoint of nationality, race, kindred, tongue, mankind, the world, without distinction. True believers who come to Christ in faith and are reconciled to God were always his people. There was never a time where they were not his people. On the flip side, I must tell you that all of those who are cast into outer darkness, they were never his people. There are many people who show up on this feed making these comments and they show they don't know Christ because they're not his people.

Speaker 1: 51:29

The ministry of reconciliation can only be understood by God's people, his chosen, elect people, whom he loved with an everlasting love and who was drawn to him by his loving kindness. They are the only ones who will be reconciled to God. They are the world that the scripture is talking about, whom Christ has reconciled to God through his death, and they are those whom Christ who, by the death of Christ, who is not going to impute their sins to their account, is not going to impute their sins To their account. God is not going to hold Anyone responsible For sins that Christ took away from them. So anyone who dies and perishes in their sins and is cast out into hell, that means they are standing Before God on judgment day To give an account for their sins, sins that we will never have to give an account for, because our sins, according to 2 Corinthians, 5, 19,.

Speaker 1: 52:36

Because we have been reconciled to God, our sins were not imputed to us. Why? Because they were imputed to Christ and when he went to that tomb, our sins went there there with him when he came out of that tomb, our sins stayed there and we were raised to the newness of life when we, when he came out of that grave. And so, therefore, every single believer who will ever live, they have already been reconciled to God and in due time they shall come. Why? Because God is not willing that any of them should perish, be provoked and be persuaded.