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2 Corinthians 5:11,21 -Ambassadors Of Christ- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2025-03-02
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Second Corinthians chapter five beginning with verse 11, verses 11 through 21, ambassadors of Christ. Would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word, together? Second Corinthians chapter five beginning with verse 11. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest unto God and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf that you may have somewhat to answer them with glory in appearance and not in in heart. For whether we beside ourselves, it is to God or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constrains us because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. And that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. Wherefore, henceforth know we no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and has given unto us the ministry of reconciliation. To it that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now, then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's dead, be reconciled to God. For he has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Father, thank you for your holy word. Thank you that we're not the blind leading the blind, falling into a ditch, Lord. Thank you that we're on that narrow path, a very narrow, very very narrow path. And that Lord, we never need fear. You one day say away from me, I never knew you, you that practice iniquity. Those who have gone the broad way. Lord, keep us on that narrow path, that straight narrow path. Help us to be those who are guided by your eye, guided by your word, by the power of your holy spirit. Give us ears to hear this morning, hearts to hear, hearts to apply your word to our lives, Lord. Be endures of your word, not hearers only. Lord, make us strong. Make us those that can persevere, that no matter what kind of trials, no matter what obstacles come our way, Lord, that as we rely upon you, Lord, we're able to get through it. Day by day, Lord, you get us through it. And Lord, we not only get through it, but Lord, we're we're more than conquerors through him that loved us. The joy of the Lord being our strength, Lord. Help us in these last days, Lord, to shine bright, to point people to the way of that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and savior. In Jesus name we pray, amen. Would you please be seated? Paul is now examining his motivation for proclaiming the gospel. He describes himself as an ambassador of Christ to illustrate the motivation. The word ambassador held a colorful meaning easily understood by Paul's readers. The Greek word for ambassador, presbytes, which is translated from the Latin legatus. The word is rich in meaning describing a person who who a person sent to represent the nation of Rome. Two types of ambassadors. The nation was divided into provinces of two types, the imperial and the senatorial. The imperial provinces were those still turbulent, being subdued into submission. They were under the direct jurisdiction of the emperor and administered by the ambassador. The second type of ambassador was the senatorial provinces. The senate would send 10 representatives, 10 ambassadors to a peaceful province. These ambassadors would work along with the conquering general to arrange the terms of peace. We saw this in 1945 when general Douglas MacArthur upon The US Missouri gave terms of peace to the Japanese, which was what? Unconditional surrender. And that's what it takes for you and I as Christians. And you and I are are ambassadors of Christ, bringing forth the terms of peace, the good news that although you're an enemy of God, although you've been fighting with God, he offers peace through his son, the prince of peace. But those terms will be, Zelensky, unconditional surrender. You must surrender. You can't keep it going. So the ambassador was for the senatorial province. So the senate would send 10 representatives, the ambassadors to a peaceful province. Their ambassadors would work along with the conquering general to arrange the terms of peace. They were men responsible for bringing others into the Roman family. Paul sees himself as the man who brings to others the terms of God, whereby they can become citizens of his empire and members of his family. As an ambassador of Christ, what motivated Paul to preach the gospel? Number one, he knew the conviction of Christ. Do you know the conviction of Christ? Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, there's your conviction. Do you know the terror of the Lord? Are you a man, a woman with a sense of responsibility? That it's not the great suggestion, it's the great commission, a commandment to go and make disciples? Are you following the orders of your king, of your Lord, going and making disciples? Or are you gonna take what he's invested in your life and bury it, and one day be reckoned with? Do you know the terror of the Lord? The sense of awe that people are going to hell? People are perishing? And just because you and I have ours, doesn't mean we bury it. We're ambassadors. Our citizenship is in heaven. Abraham and Sarah are looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. And people are perishing. People are looking for leadership. They're looking for the meaning and purpose of life, and we have that meaning and purpose in the person of Jesus Christ. Because he's made himself known unto us. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. But we are made manifest unto God and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. So Paul knew the terror of the Lord is motivating motivation was to preach the gospel. The terror speaks of fear, of reverence, of awe. Paul had an inner conviction, a sense of responsibility that he would be held accountable as an ambassador, not just at the judgment seat of Christ, but as we alluded to in Matthew 25, the Lord went away on a He said the kingdom of heaven is like a master, a a owner that went away on a journey, and he gave to his servants one five talents, one two, and a third one one. And he went away for a long time, and when he came back, there was a point of reckoning. What did you do with what I invested in your life? Now we don't need to worry about what's invested in somebody else's life or another church's life or how big or small or whatever. Because to one he gave five, another he gave two, another one. Every man according to what the Lord decides, you know? And you might be in Nazareth, you know? Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Yeah, the Messiah came out of Nazareth, you know? And so the five, when the Lord comes back for reckoning, he's got five more to offer. He reinvests in the lives of others. And it's not a numbers game, you know, that you need a lot of things on your belt. Remember last week we talked about the Lord doesn't, you know, pay by commissioning. You reward a salary. You just be faithful what God's called you to do. You reinvest in the lives of others. One man sows in other waters. God brings the increase. You can't convert a person. You can only be faithful to what God has called you to do. And he says, well done, thou good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a few things. I'm a make you ruler over much. You know? And then the guy with the two, same thing. Well done. The guy with the one, I knew you're a tough guy. I knew you're an austere man. And so I feared you in a in a a weird way and buried it. And I'm gonna dig it out and pull back the napkin. Here's what you invested. And he says, thou wicked and unjust I mean, pretty heavy words. You wicked. You're you're gonna you're gonna suffer the fires of hell. So the investment God makes, he's the savior of the whole world, but especially for those who believe. Those who believe reproduce. Those who believe, their lives bear fruit. Those who don't believe but hear the gospel intellectually, you say you believe there's one God, you do well, the demons also believe and tremble. But you didn't allow that investment God's making, first of all, to change your life. And you just bury it like it's some information, intellectual consent, and you just bury it. Rather than allow that investment, allow the seed of the gospel, the seed of God's word to germinate and grow and cause you to be born again and to manifest as you abide in John 15 in him, and his word abides in you, you're gonna bear fruit, some much fruit. Some thirty, forty, 60, a 100 fold, you know? That's what we want. We want our lives to be fruitful for his glory. In Hebrews 10 verse three thirty one, it says, it is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God. So Paul sought to persuade men, to convince men, to win them over for the kingdom. Paul's relationship with Jesus was not a casual relationship. Oh, I can I can be Saul of Tarsus if I want, or I can be Paul if I want? I can preach the gospel if I want, and I cannot preach the gospel if I want. He says, woe is me if I don't preach the gospel. For Paul was a powerful conviction in his heart, a sense of responsibility. It wasn't just a laissez faire, I'll get to it at the end of my life when I have time. God apprehended him for a reason. God's apprehended you and I for a reason. Why don't we sense the urgency of the times we're living, the seriousness of the days in which we're living that people are perishing? Why do we why do we seem to act like tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, and not today? What is it about us? Are we the church of Laodicea? Are we lukewarm? God forbid. God forbid. God God pray that we pray that God would stir us up. Get us away from that sense of complacency, that we'd be like the codfish sent to market with an enemy chasing us to keep us ready, supple, and and and ready to fight, ready to battle. Lest we have the taste, we lose the taste, we lose the the spice, the the subtle supple, you know, the the part of who we are, and it becomes just lukewarm, insipid, powerless, sterile, an inability to transform and change lives. Good for nothing to be but to be trodden under the foot of men. God forbid. Paul sought to persuade men, to convince men, to win them over for the king. The Roman legions were an ominous force to be reckoned with, but how much more the living God? In Nahum, he says, who can stand before his indignation? Lord, in your wrath, remember mercy. None of us wanna stand before the wrath of God. There's no fearful looking to of you and I having to stand before the wrath of God because the wrath of God was poured out upon Jesus Christ in our place. So we as the church, but there still is a a sense of awe and a reverence and a and a reckoning that one day at the great white throne judgment that we're going to give an account of the things that were done whether good or bad. Yeah. There's reward, but there's also a sense of loss, a sense of missing the opportunities and and not entering into all that God, you know, has for us. And one of the tragic things is is that we don't do what God's called us to do. We're the ones that miss out. God's just gonna raise up somebody else. He's gonna get the work done. But we're gonna we're gonna see the Lord one day and and we're gonna be ashamed at our indifference to the times in which we're living in, to the urgency. Verse 12, for we commend for we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf that you may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance and not in heart. So Paul's saying there's no self commendation here. We know the terror of the Lord. God sees the motive of our heart. Verse 13, for whether we've been beside ourselves, so some of them are saying, you know, Paul, you're beside yourself. You're mad. You're a crazy man. Well, that's not the first time Paul's heard this. Have you heard people say, he's a little off. He's a he's a little crazy. He says, for whether we beside ourselves, it is to God, or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. I think it's okay to be a Jesus freak. I think it's okay to be different than the world and different than your relatives, your family, friends, and any other lukewarm churches and all. I think I think it's okay to be a little different. You know, the bible says be not conformed to this world. In Romans chapter 12. Right? Don't be conformed. Don't come under the conformity of the world to be like a worldling, a worldly Christian, but be transformed. You know, don't let the world press you into its mold with the your digital ID and your digital social credit score and everything you do having to conform to the b system. Klaus Schwab says, you Christians don't fit in with the world that he envisions. Well, Klaus, you don't fit in the world that we envision. You know? So there, you know? We know that our king is coming back and he's gonna set up his kingdom. And your stuff is just pie in the sky, buddy. You're like Adolf Hitler, man. It ain't gonna last. Your third Reich, your your dream of the rebirth of the Nazis and all, it's over, dude. You don't even know it. It's already over. You've already lost, and you don't even know it. The Lord's just setting the stage to be glorified in his judgment of you guys. The blood's gonna be as high as the horse's bridle, you know. Jesus is the conquering king that's gonna enter Jerusalem and set up his kingdom, and we're gonna be there as witnesses, Claush, and Noah Yuval Harari and all you globalists. You guys are pretenders. You guys are just used by God to set the stage so that God will subdue the devil, the beast, the false prophet, all of these people that have a chance because the terms of peace are given to them too. And these Christians are ambassadors, and they're representing a kingdom to come. And you guys, you're envisioning over your rebellion against a true living God, and you and all the other rebels with Lucifer, you've already failed. You've already lost. Not gonna happen. And you think we're beside ourselves, that's not gonna stop us. We don't care to be in sync with all the different social media and all the different groups and things that people are in. There was a time in Acts chapter 26 where King Agrippa came down and heard about Saul of Tarsus, the apostle Paul. He'd already met with Festus, the governor, and Paul was appealing to Caesar because he was unjustly treated by the Jews. They were trying to tear him in pieces and all. And he was sharing the gospel. That was his crime. He was simply sharing the gospel to his countrymen. And at the Atonia Fortress, the centurion and all had to protect him and keep him from being ripped apart, and then he appeals to Caesar, and and he spends a couple years in jail. And Agrippa or excuse me, Festus, the governor, want a little money, a little pail, a little bribe, Paul wouldn't do it. And so then King Agrippa and Bernice heard about it. They came down to hear Paul straight away. And and as he's sharing the gospel with king Agrippa with Festus, they're also in Bernice. Festus interjects in acts 26 verse 24. Paul, talking over him. Paul, you're beside yourself. Your much learning has made you mad. You're a crazy man, Paul. Paul's an intellectual. And Festus understood. He he could speak in Hebrew, he could speak in Greek, he was schooled in the greatest schools of Tarsus and at the feet of Gamaliel. This was not an idiot. This was a learned man. A man who was possibly gonna be the next great high priest. But God apprehended him. He says, he's a chosen vessel unto me. Show him what things he must suffer for my name's sake. And then Paul went on to say to him, no. No. I'm I'm not beside myself. This thing wasn't done in a corner. And I think king king Agrippa knows that. I I I come forth not as a crazy man, but with truth and soberness. You know? And and the king Agrippa says, Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. Almost. That's what it means to be almost pregnant. You're still lost in your sins. Paul says, I I I hope that the people that are listening here are not almost almost, but altogether. All the way saved. We'll we'll listen to it in a more convenient season. You know, they're they're trembling. They're trembling with the gospel coming forth. This overwhelms them. And Paul says, you know, this wasn't done in a corner. You guys are aware what Jesus of Nazareth did. You're aware that he was crucified, buried, raised from the dead, walked upon the planet for forty days, and many mighty miracles and such, and we're followers of him. This wasn't some little side, little circus, side little sect. This is this is Jesus we're talking about. And you guys know the account. You know. We're not beside ourselves. We're more sane than we've ever been. Our motive, whether crazy or sober, is for God and you. We fear the Lord under conviction. As an ambassador to Christ, what motivated Paul in preaching the gospel? Number one, he knew the conviction of Christ. Secondly, he knew the constraint of Christ. Do you know the constraint of Christ? Not just the terror of fear, but of love. Love of Christ constraining you. Can you go to heaven and not shed a tear for those that are perishing? Can you preach the gospel and preach on hell without it moving you? As Jesus wept, as he saw the destruction of Jerusalem, he couldn't speak of the destruction without it moving his heart. For the love of Christ constrains us. Paul knew the love of Christ, not just intellectually, but experientially. He says in Ephesians three nineteen, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. So who are the intellectuals of today? Who are those who study and seek the occult and information from, you know, demons to be the smartest people on the planet technologically? Do they know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge? All I know is I was blind and now I see. I was a drunk and now I'm sober. That's all I know. I was in jail and addicted to drugs and and just destroying myself and everybody around me, and all I know is the Lord came into my heart and life and transformed and changed me. All I know is I was demon possessed, and I couldn't get any satisfaction. And the demons were tormenting me and I was relegated, I was moved to the tombs and I was cutting myself and no chains could hold me. Until Jesus, until I met Jesus. And he cast the legion of demons that would torment me. The demons that would torment Mary Magdalene. He cast those demons out. And now I'm clean and I'm clothed and I'm in my right mind. Because God hasn't given us the spirit of fear, but a power of love and a sound mind. I'm more sane now than I've ever been. Constrained to be controlled, driven, pushed, Paul intimately knew the love of Christ. Love motivated him. Paul was grateful. Paul was thankful. Are you grateful? Are you thankful? Were you raised in a Christian home and there's a danger of not being grateful, of being thankful? Boy, when you're grow up in an ungodly, unholy home, and you have not a clue. You don't have a clue about what it means to be a Christian. When he surprises you, when he hits you upside the head, You didn't even see it coming. Where out the Lord? Paul didn't see it coming. Why would he save Paul? Paul's an enemy of the cross. He's compelling people to blaspheme. He's he's going all the way to Damascus to bring letters and incarcerate people that are professing to love Jesus. That's their crime. They profess to love Jesus. And it makes Saul of Tarsus insane. He's haunted by the vision of Stephen. His face shining like that of an angel, hearing Stephen say, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. He's haunted. God relieves that pressure. God relieves that haunting by introducing himself onto him with a bright Shekinah glory light, brighter than the desert sun at twelve noon. Who art thou lord? I'm I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting. Can you continue to kick against the goads? Can you continue to resist my love? The hound of heaven's after you, Saul. You better just give up. If you don't give up, you're gonna go insane. You'll be the one beside yourself. You're grateful. The rest of your life is an expression of worship, an expression of gratefulness, of thankfulness. He knew he was apprehended of God as an ambassador of his saving love. Are you an ambassador of his saving love? Is the love of Christ constraining you? He says, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. Are you dead? Did you die with Jesus? Is it no longer you living, but Christ living through you? Have you reckoned the old man dead? Have you mortified the deeds of the flesh? Are you crucified with Christ? Or are you trying to live on the fence? You want all that the world has still, and you've embraced Christ simply as fire insurance. Well, it'll be good in case I case I die. At least I'll go to heaven, you know. Is there a transformation and change in your life? Have your desires changed? Is there any change? If any man being Christ, we're gonna see he's a new creation, a new creature. Old things are passed away. All things have become new. Nicodemus, you must be born again. Being religious isn't gonna do it. Excuse me. Jesus wept. He wept. And that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live under themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. It's not a legal relationship, it's a love relationship. Your life's an expression of gratitude, of thankfulness. How could you ever repay? You can't. You'll never be able to repay, but at least your life will be a life of worship. Love put him on the cross for you. Will you live for him? Does his love compel you to be his ambassador to those who are perishing? Seven hundred thousand men have died in Ukraine. Seven hundred thousand and a million Russians, according to president Trump back in January. And you've got a leader that's coming and gonna argue the terms of peace, ungrateful, unthankful for $350,000,000,000? And you think you're gonna go over to The UK and get 2.6 or $3,000,000,000 and continue this insanity of watching your country be destroyed? You're gonna mouth off? You're gonna be unthankful? People headed to hell, and you don't care? I watched the clip of their meeting in the Oval Office, and you could see this woman who was an ambassador of Ukraine, and she's just she's trying to hide trying to hide from it, the embarrassment of it all. I don't know if it's a dog and pony show. I don't know the whole greater implication of the land that the globalists want, the precious metals, the strategic metals for their new technocracy that they need. But I know one thing, there was a guy there acting like a clown, vice president Vance says, you don't even have any men left. And he says, come and see. I would not wanna follow a leader like that at all. That's not a savior. That's not a leader that would lay down his life for the sheep. He says, verse 16, wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh, yet though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. So there's a new understanding of men and of Jesus. We had a a sense of who he was when we're in the flesh. Do you think the apostle Paul, as Saul of Tarsus, knew who Jesus was when he was in the flesh? Before his conversion, do you think Saul of Tarsus knew of the fame of Jesus of Nazareth? Certainly, did. Yeah. I knew of him. I knew of the miracles. I knew of him raising Lazarus from the dead because we got together at Caiaphas' place and we plotted to kill him. We plotted an assassination plot against him. And Pilate said, it's expedient that one man died for the nation. Yeah. I was a zealot. I've gotten the end of the earth to save Israel. I'm a patriot. And I knew Jesus of Nazareth, he was the one person that could undermine the deals, the the agreements we had with the Romans. We're not looking for a carpenter for Nazareth to be our Messiah. We're looking for a conquering king. One that'll overthrow the Romans. This guy's gotta go. He's he's moving the people. We're losing our power. We're losing money. He's throwing the tables over. Paul says, yeah. I once knew him after the flesh. Yet now henceforth, we don't know him after the flesh anymore. Those days are over. We got a greater understanding of who he is. He's almighty God. He said, therefore, verse 17, if any man be in Christ, are you in Christ? That's a Pauline phrase. It's a phrase used over a 100 times in the New Testament describing the church. Are you in Christ? The dead in Christ shall rise first, those in the church. From Pentecost to the present, anybody that dies between Pentecost and now are those in Christ in the church age. They're in the ark, in Christ Jesus. And we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds, meet the Lord in the air, so shall we ever be in the Lord be with the Lord. Those after the rapture, those are the the tribulation saints. The saints in the millennium are different than the saints now, the church age saints. The old testament saints, John the Baptist, the last of the old testament saints. But you and I are in Christ. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, you're in or out, either gathering with him or you're scattering abroad, you're either forming or you're against him. There's no in betweeners. You have to decide. Except a man loses life, he's not gonna find his life. You're either taking your cross up and following him daily or you're not. There's no neutral ground, Pontius Pilate. There's no washing your hands of this man. You're either in the ark or you're not. And Noah's a preacher of righteousness for a hundred and twenty years, and he's he's saying, get in Christ. Get in the boat. The animals are smart enough. But think of the people that perished, the millions, if not billions of people that perished from the flood. They didn't need to drown. They didn't need to die that way. They just needed to hear the righteousness, the gospel message that that Noah was preaching. The millions and billions of people in hell because of rejecting Jesus Christ. By rejecting his terms of peace. He's not sending anybody to hell. They go to hell by choice. They go to hell by rejecting the terms of peace. He's the prince of peace. He's the babe of Bethlehem. Peace, goodwill toward man. He's a savior of the whole world, but especially for those who believe. Do you believe? If you believe, you're in Christ. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Adam, the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. Adam and Eve were finitely perfect. Perfect bodies, perfect environment, perfect dad. Any fathers, any of you guys out there who feel inadequate as a father? My wife reminds me, hey, Adam and Eve had a perfect father, and they still rebel. Alright. Okay. Alright. They had a perfect dad. We take a lot of heat. We wanna we wanna try and keep our kids from the struggles and the problems that we faced, that we went through. We don't want them to go that way. We try to influence. We try to raise them. We try to give them that faith and that confidence in Jesus to choose the right way. And when they don't choose the right way, we take it personal. We failed them. Didn't protect them. Didn't do all that we could. But Adam and Eve, they died spiritually, their body and soul, but not body, soul, and spirit anymore. Nicodemus, you must be born again. You must be born from above, born of the spirit. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, body, soul, and spirit. The natural man, body and soul understands not the things of God neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. But eye has not seen nor he heard, neither has it entered in the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him. But God has revealed them unto us by his spirit. Read the book of Revelation. God wants to reveal the unveiling of Jesus Christ, the apocalypse. He wants to reveal himself to you by his spirit. He that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit is saying to the churches. The ecclesia, those who are called out from the world, you're distinctly different. You're no longer body and soul. You're body, soul, spirit. You've been born again. He's a new creature. The old things are passed away, behold all things have become new. I love a new beginning. I love that in Lamentations three, his mercies are new every morning. I love the Christian's bar of soap as pastor doctor Chuck Missler would say. First John one nine. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. He's a confession away. An agreement away. God be merciful to me a sinner. Why hide your sin? Why cover your sin? Why try to rationalize or justify your sin? Just tell her you're sorry. Fellowship restored. Immediately, fellowship restored. No stairs to climb, no works. By grace through faith alone, a new creature. You're not that dog anymore. You're not that victim anymore. You're not that one that people abused anymore. You're a new creature in Christ Jesus. Are you in Christ? Are you a new creation, born again, a new man with a new song, a new name, a new citizenship, a new city, a new heaven and earth, a new beginning. The old has passed away and a lot of us don't wanna let go of the old. A lot of us have bought into the psychobabble. The psychology of Freud and Roy and younger and all of them, and you're trying to hold it against God. You're trying to hold your past against him that, hey, I was raped. I was abused. I was and you fill in the blank. You're gonna carry that with you the rest of your life? Are you gonna receive the newness of life that God has for you? You're not that man's dog anymore. You're not that person's victim anymore. You have a new beginning. Did it skew your mind? Did it skew your brain? He can fix your brain. He can fix your mind. He can actually watch this. He can actually give you the capacity to forgive the person that victimized you and set you free. That's the God we serve. The old has passed away. Behold, he makes all things new. Is the love of Jesus greater than anything you've ever suffered? Think of what you've suffered. Are you holding this leverage against God? God, you owe me. God, I'm different. God, I'm unique. Jesus isn't enough for me. The gospel just isn't enough. I need Freud and Roy to help me put my life back together again. I need to understand the inside of me. No, you don't. You you start looking within, that's a recipe for this disaster. Why did I say that? Because in me that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. The heart, your heart is desperately wicked, deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it? No. You need a new heart. You don't wanna meditate or think of that old man, that old person, that endemic in nature because you are capable of great evil too. If you're mad at your brother, you've already committed murder. If you're unforgiving toward him, you're given over to the tormentors. So isn't the love of Jesus far far greater than any area of victimization? We all wanna be victims in our culture. We all wanna be entitled. We all want to somehow somebody owes me something. Do you really want what you're owed? Do you want hell? Don't you want eternal life? Don't you want God to transform and change you? Don't you want God to give you the capacity to love the loveless? He loves you. And nobody, nobody's a greater victim than Jesus Christ. Nobody's more pure and and had such a raw deal as Jesus Christ. And it's so crazy because God then takes that pain, that sorrow, and that suffering, and all that he allowed you to go through, and he uses you not to go get justice, but to go rescue others. To rescue others that are that are so incredibly bewildered, that don't know if they're a man or a woman that were sexually abused, homosexual, boys being raped, girls being raped, trafficked. We live in a evil, evil culture. An evil time of people preying upon the most innocent. And what's the answer? Jesus. Jesus is the answer. Jesus can transform and change anybody's life. And I wish and I pray and I I don't understand how somebody so close to me could be victimized, but I don't want him or her to waste their life in self pity and sorrow. I want them to surrender to the sovereignty of Jesus and wait till the day they see Jesus face to face for the answers they're searching for. Why would Jesus save me? That's the greatest why question that I have. Why would you save me? I don't sit around going, oh, god. Why was I born in a family? My mom's married seven times. I don't go through a whole list of things, you know. I'm just blown away he saved me when I was 20. We didn't perpetuate that craziness. Why me? A new song, a new name, new citizenship. The old has passed away. Behold, he makes all things new. His love is greater than anything we've ever suffered. In Isaiah chapter 43 verse 18, remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth. Shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The Lord will take the years that the locusts and the cankerworm have eaten, and he'll give you a new marriage. He'll give you a brand new relationship with your children. You guys be going to church. You'd be cracking the bible open. You'd be Jesus freaks in no time. As an ambassador of Christ, what motivated Paul to preach the gospel? He knew the conviction of Christ, number one, for you note takers. Secondly, he knew the constraint of Christ, the love of Christ constrained him. He wanted to reach the lost for Jesus. And thirdly, he knew the commission of Christ. He says, verse 18, and all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. This word reconciliation means to remove enmity between parties at war with each other. How did God remove the enmity between us? It's not him at war with us, it's at we're at war with him. Saul Alinsky wrote his book, Rules for Radicals, dedicated it to Lucifer. They freely admit they're at war with God. They're at war with Christianity. They're at war with Christians. They worship and serve Lucifer, a fallen angel. At least they admit it. And yet God loves them. Christ died for them. So how did God remove the enmity between us? He punished his son instead. That which we deserved, if you want what you deserve. I had a woman tell me one time who was so incredibly mired in being the victim of being raped as a child. And she could never ever get over it as an adult, at least to the point of being at peace in her walking relationship with Jesus. And she said to me, do you understand that sometimes we don't view God the father as a loving heavenly father because we had an earthly father that was not all that, that was the complete opposite? Yeah. We can understand that intellectually. We can understand that humanly speaking. But we're talking about a whole different dynamic here. We're talking about a dynamic in the in the spiritual realm where if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. That God can take that away. God can God can wash it away. Not that you ever forget, not that you ever get beyond the pain and the sorrow of it all, but his love is so much greater. He's got something so much greater, and the father's love is demonstrated and given his son. So don't cheapen the gospel. Don't cheapen what he's done for us by allowing that monster to keep you his dog and keep you on that leash of guilt, condemnation, and anger, bitterness. We got a new commission. We got good news. He says, all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. God punishes his son. We've been reconciled by Jesus Christ. Now, don't know if Ted Bundy really came to the Lord or not. I remember doctor James Dobson, you know, meeting with him and all. I don't know if Jeffrey Dahmer or any of these horrific, murderous guys who are in prison, cannibals, whatever they've done, I don't know. I wasn't there. But I know it's possible. I know that Manasseh was saved, and he was far more wicked than anybody of his generation. Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. Super abounding grace. Can anybody go so far that they're beyond the love and grace of God? No? The ones who seem to be in the greatest danger are those who are self righteous religious pharisees. The pharisee prayed thus with himself. His prayer didn't even make it out of the room. But the publican wouldn't so much as even lift up his eyes up into heaven, smites his breast, and says, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Jesus said, this man went away justified. Look at how Zacchaeus, a tax collector, look at how he responded when he's a wee little man and he's up in a sycamore tree. And Jesus comes by and he wants to just get a glimpse of him and all. Hey, Nick. Excuse me. Zacchaeus, Zach, I'm gonna eat at your house today. And he's so elated, he's so excited. Me? Are you kidding me? Everybody hates me. I'm a tax collector. Well, Jesus didn't come for the righteous, but for sinners. And in Luke seven, the woman who was not the most righteous person at the home of Simon the Pharisee, Jesus let Simon the Pharisee know those that are forgiven much love much, Simon. Very moment I got here, she hasn't ceased washing my feet with her tears and anointing, you know, me with oil and the alabaster box that she's breaking over on me and drying my feet with her with her hair, and you gave me nothing. Because you're righteous. No gratitude. We've been reconciled by Jesus Christ. Jesus is the prince of peace. God punished his son in our place. God poured his wrath out upon Jesus. Jesus prayed three times in the Garden Of Gethsemane, the olive press, the pressure. He's sweating as it were great drops of blood. The enormous pressure for all eternity. He's never been separated from his father in fellowship. And now, it's the cross. And the devil's tempted him. You don't need to go by way of the cross. You can have the crown without the cross. Just bow down and worship me. And Jesus didn't take the bait, did he? Tempted in all points like we and yet without sin. And he's praying, father, if you're willing, remove this cup. The cup what? The cup of wrath. Remove this wrath from me that's coming on me. But nevertheless, not as mine. I will, but thy will be done. In complete submission unto his father, I do always those things that please the father. And he prays three times in this way. And each time his prayers are answered, gonna have to go by way of the cross, and we read in Hebrews 12 that for the joy that was set before him. The joy of redeeming you and I, saving you and I. The joy and the splendor of all eternity, him pouring out his kindness upon you and I, that he'd be willing to go to the cross. We read in Philippians two that he didn't die just any death, but even the death of the cross. Despising the shame and and seated down with the right hand of the father in that he humbled himself unto death, even the death of the cross. The atonement, they had one man. God couldn't, and when you say when God couldn't, listen closely, God couldn't. Is there anything God couldn't do? God couldn't just forgive us of our sins. His justice, his character of who he is, demanded that he judge sin. The wages of sin is death, eternal separation from God. The gift of God's eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Adam and Eve, when they sinned, the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. Death is separation. They were separated from God. In that fellowship, they once knew. Adam, where are you? Adam. Enoch walked with God and was, you know, raptured. Adam had an even closer intimate relationship with God in the garden, Adam and Eve. Until sin, until the fall of man. And then they tried to cover that nakedness, as you know, with fig leaves, with religious effort, but it couldn't cover that nakedness. So it's coats of skins, the atonement, the reconciliation. It's impossible that the blood of bulls, of bullocks, of animals could take away sin, but it's sure a picture of one day that Jesus would be the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. So Adam and Eve leave the garden with the angel of the Lord guarding the tree of life, lest they live for all eternity and their sins. With all that Botox and all that ugly dysformation trying to look young, you know. Doesn't work. So God in his grace and his mercy allows them to leave the garden, but they're in coats of skins with a promise in Genesis three fifteen that the seed of the woman, the virgin born son of God that is healed be bruised, but he crushed the serpent's head one day. So the type, the system, without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. Cain and Abel Abel brought a sacrifice, must have learned from mom and dad, a blood sacrifice. But Cain, he brought the work of his hands. No. Unacceptable. Unacceptable. In his jealousy of Abel, he kills Abel and the blood is crying out from the ground for justice. God couldn't just forgive our sin, his justice demanded that he judge sin. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God's eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. In Leviticus chapter 16, God gave a type of the day of atonement, the day of Yom Kippur for the nation of Israel. The atonement, the covering was just that a covering. It didn't take away sin. So the great high priest once a year would take a bullock and a ram, one for a sin offering and one for a burnt offering for himself. And he'd have to go through the ritual of cleansing himself and having the right kind of britches on and linen and everything, all the procedure to be clean. And once a year, he'd go into the holy of holies and he'd taken his sprinkled bread facing east seven times and and he would do that for himself first of all. Then they'd have two goats and they would cast lots to determine which goat would be the goat for the sin offering, and which goat would be what's called the scapegoat. Are you a scapegoat? Is somebody blaming you for their life and all their problems? That's what a scapegoat is in some people's minds. And so the priest would take and kill the goat, the sin offering, and again go into the holy of holies and cover the the judgment seat, sprinkle seven times with his tip of his finger, just the blood touching it. And then he'd come out and he confessed the sins of the nation upon the head of the goat, the scapegoat. And then a fit man would take that scapegoat out into the wilderness, and so it's a picture of forgiveness that the sins of the nation were covered for another year. Pointing future, building up, building up to the point when God would pour out his wrath upon his son. Jesus would take upon himself the sins of the whole world, of all of history, every sin that's ever been committed. Your sin, my sin, salvation's in three tenses. Right? All your past sins have already been paid for. Your present sins, the power of sin has been broken. You've been saved. You've been delivered in Romans six from the power of sin. You're no longer a slave to sin. You sin but not a slave to sin. You fall. You miss the mark, but you get back up. And then in the future tense, he delivered you in the future tense from the very presence of sin. And so the scapegoat would go out, and that's the day of atonement of atonement. Hebrews nine twenty two, without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. Hebrews ten four, it is not possible that the blood of bulls and the bullocks could take away sins. So the type, the system, the Levitical system is a shadow and types pointing to Jesus. And John the Baptist got it right. He said, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Only Jesus could take away, not just cover, the sins of the world. Then Hebrews ten seventeen and Hebrews eight verse 12, there's a picture of the Leviticus sixteen twenty two of the scapegoat. Or Psalm 103, he takes our sins and he casts them east to west, he remembers them no more. So he takes your mercies in Hebrews eight verse 12. Because of his mercies, he takes your sins and iniquities and he remembers them no more. There's no longer any record of sin because all of the sins, past, present, future, were placed upon Jesus. Jesus cried out, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Why aren't thou so far from my roaring? Psalm 22 and in Matthew 27, the sins of the whole world are placed upon him. And at that point in time, the father separated himself from his son. At that moment, Jesus is a worm, he says in Psalm 22. I'm a worm and no man. He came to identify as the last Adam, as the son of man who would die in our place. God's righteous holy justice has been satisfied at the cross. And has given to us the ministry of reconciliation to with that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing. That word imputing speaks of an accounting term. There's nothing in the ledger anymore. Paid in full. It is finished. Not imputing their trespasses unto them and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Jesus committed unto us. He commissioned us to go and to preach to the lost, and to disciple those that are saved. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead, be reconciled to God. So we beg you. We beg you to be reconciled to God. For why would you die in your sins? So you see president Trump and JD Vance there in the Oval Office, maybe not begging, but kinda trying to reason. Come now, let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they'd be white as snow. Though they'd be red like crimson, they'd be as wool in Isaiah one eighteen. Reasoning. Let's let's let's reason this out, Zelensky. We've given you $350,000,000,000. You're not gonna become a part of NATO. We're not gonna protect you. But we will invest. We will allow BlackRock and everybody to take the minerals from your country and use them for our global effort. And because we're there mining and grabbing these precious metals and stuff to build our chips so we can have our technocratic system. If we're there, Russia's not gonna attack you. I don't know what kind of theater's gonna happen after it, but there's a means of reconciling. And Zelensky wasn't grateful. He wasn't thankful. And so too many of us were ungrateful. We're unthankful for the cross and the tremendous price that was paid for our redemption. We consider it nothing. We consider it something trampled underfoot to mock the true living God. We beg you to be reconciled to God. It's not God reconciled to you. In psychology, another mistake they make is they teach people that you need to forgive God. That's blasphemous. You you you got it mixed up here. You're gonna blame God, and now you gotta forgive God for for what happened to you, or what's going on with you, or you didn't get your way, or No. You're the enemy of God, and he's offering you reconciliation to be made right with him. You've got no leverage against him. He's never done anything wrong. And he's never gonna say to you, I apologize. Would you forgive me? Would would you forgive me for allowing that adversity into your life? Those things in your life. I'm the God of Joel Osteen. I'm gonna give you your best life now. And if I don't, I'll ask you to forgive me. That's blasphemous. He doesn't owe you an apology. He doesn't owe you anything. Get it straight. We deserve hell. We could keep the whole law according to James chapter two and miss in one point and be guilty of all. We could spend an eternity in hell. We've sinned and come short of the glory of God. And how you reconcile these things in your mind, that comes down to faith. It always comes down to faith of trusting God. Otherwise, you're gonna find yourself in the book of Job, the latter chapters, and God's gonna say, where were you when? If you can't explain behemoth and Leviathan and how I hung the earth on nothing and beetlegeese and what makes you think you can understand my dealings with you as a human being? Is there unrighteousness with God, God forbid? If you come to the place of maturity, and I'm trying to get there, we start to thank the Lord for the things we've gone through. Because it breaks us. It humbles us. It helps us to enter in to the life of the spirit that he has for us. And our fellowship deepens with Jesus because Jesus is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as our were our faces from him. He was despised and rejected of men. And we begin to we begin to identify, we begin to connect with Jesus in the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. And it's that brokenness that we begin to experience. So we beg you be reconciled to God, but remember, you're not coming to God on your terms. You're not coming through those doors into here on your terms. I'm the most stubborn hard headed pastor you ever meet. And I'll I'll hang in there till the very end before I compromise God's word. It's on his terms. Everything's on his terms. Even what I'm saying here now is hard for some of us to digest. Because deep within us, we wanna be God. That's our problem. And some of us, we still think we are. But until you recognize he's God and you're not, that you've been fashioned from the dust of the ground and you deserve absolutely nothing, but that he's also gracious and merciful, and for all eternity he wants to pour out his love and his kindness upon you. Because you're the object of his love. It's not a legal relationship of of what you he owes you. It's his grace. His mercies are new each morning. Be reconciled to God. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn. I have no pleasure, he says, to the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye. For why will you die, o house of Israel? God offers peace. He says, verse 21, for he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin. He's perfect. He's the unspotted, unblemished lamb of God. Perfect. Pilate said, I find no fault in him. Pilate said, I know for envy that you Jews have delivered him. Which of you, Jesus said, convicts me of sin? Boy, you guys got a list this long of how much I've sinned just this morning, you know? That's not hard. But which of you convicts me of sin? Think of your thought life. How much we sin in me, Paul says, in my flesh dwells no good thing. On your best day. It's amazing. For he has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So Jesus takes all the punishment, all that we deserve, and then gives us his righteousness. He imputes to our account his righteousness. And he transforms and changes us from glory to glory into his image, becoming like him. Your sin was placed upon him. He suffered the wrath of his father. He that knew no sin so you could live in peace with God. He offers you a pardon. He offers forgiveness. He offers reconciliation. He offers you peace. He offers you a new beginning. He offers you eternal life and not an unrighteous Biden pardon. He's just not tricky. He's not sneaky. He's not gonna do something under the table. It's right there for the whole universe, the angels, everybody to see. His unspotted, unblemished son is gonna die so that you might live, so that you might be pardoned. God the father punished his son to pardon you and I. He has sent me an ambassador of Christ to offer you his terms of peace. From enemies to allies, on 09/02/1945, on the USS Missouri, general Douglas MacArthur offered terms of peace to the Japanese emperor Hirohito, And they were terms of unconditional surrender. Two atomic bombs, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, exposed the emperor as not being god. He presented himself to the Japanese people with the kamikazes and their belief system that he was as a deity. He's exposed as not being deity, the same way the antichrist, the beast, the false prophet, all these other pretenders who give the promise of you can be as God and people are given over to a strong delusion that they can live forever and be as gods will be exposed when the true living God, when he returns, when Jesus Christ returns, to take possession of this planet which he created and he redeemed with his blood, he's coming with you and I whom he created and redeemed with his blood. It'll all be exposed. Unconditional surrender, the Japanese people went from being enemies to allies. And they even allowed the emperor to continue until 1986 when he died to be the emperor, although he lacked power, to cooperate with the reindustrialization of Japan, the rebuilding of Japan, And yet, many of us shake our fist at God and say, the terms of peace, I can't I can't surrender. I can't surrender to a God, and then you fill in the blank. They come up with something, some perceived thing that God I can't surrender to a God that whatever you wanna fill in. How about a God that offered his son at the cross for you? How about that? Can you surrender a God like that? Which is your unconditional surrender to our conquering king. You must believe in him. He sent me to invite you to become a member of his family. He won't force you. You can choose to reject his love, but why would you? Hebrews ten twenty nine, a warning. Of how much sore punishment suppose ye shall be thought worthy, who has trodden under foot the son of God and has counted the blood of his covenant where with he was sanctified an unholy thing and has done despite under the spirit of grace. You're gonna shake your fist, you're gonna you're gonna say no to God, you're gonna say no to the precious blood of his son. He offers the terms of peace today, tomorrow's too late. You're gonna run out of the Oval Office and you're gonna you're gonna say, hey, 350,000,000,000 not enough. These are my terms. What made you so insane? We're trying to help you here. You're gonna reject this offer? You have you have no bargaining. You have no bargaining chips here. He offered terms of peace today. Tomorrow's too late. Don't go it alone. You'll lose. Jesus holds all the cards. Don't gamble your eternal destiny away. The house always wins. Be reconciled unto God. Surrender unto Jesus, the prince of peace. How many different ways can we say it? Be reconciled unto God. What's a characteristic of the days we're living in? Like in the days of Noah, the thought and intents of man's heart was only evil continually. And it grieved God, it repented God that even made man. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And Noah was a perfect man in his generations. He didn't give in to the crossing of the DNA with the sons of God, the giants that came down and all that, the Nephilim. So God's gonna start over with the family of Noah, the eight that got into the ark, to bring forth a purebred human being because Jesus wouldn't come back Hebrews one as an angel, he would come back as the son of man, as the babe of Bethlehem. And he would be the last Adam and that he'd live a perfect life, and then he'd go to the cross and God's wrath would be poured out upon him. And salvation is a gift by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ. So simple. Be reconciled to God. Quit fighting with God. Our culture, our time, again, is a time of rebellion against the true and living God. The apostasy that we see in the church today is a falling away, a rebellion against God. How could we be so far from the truth? The truth that should just so flood our heart of a grateful, worshipful heart for what God has done in punishing his son instead of us? How could we be shaking a fist at God even now demanding it our way? I want it my way. Be reconciled to God. Humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he'll lift us up. Let's pray. Father, thank you, Lord, for your love for us, your patience with us in dealing with our aberrant hearts, our hard, stiff necked attitudes, and I don't know how you do it. Lord, I'm I'm just so dense. I'm so stupid. Just like a I can't say it. It would offend too many people, but you know what I'm saying, Lord. You know what I mean. Without your love, Lord, without your patience, without your great, great long suffering, Lord, who would stand? You are so incredibly patient with me. Lord, I hold to the to the truth that the work that you've begun to me that you're gonna complete it. You're not gonna stop now. In spite of my obstinance, in spite of my inclination towards sin and rebellion and pride and so many things in my old nature, Lord, but you remind me in me that as my flesh dwells no good thing to not even not even go there. That I'm to be dead, that Rick's dead, he's already dead. And allow the newness of Christ to live through me, the new creation. Lord, evermore, I wanna yield to the spirit. I wanna yield more and more to the life of the spirit to enter into all that you have for me in the life of the spirit. That I could be that person that you've envisioned, that person that you've made me to be. Lord, I pray that my wife, my family, my friends, the church family, that all of us collectively, Lord, would glorify you as we yield to your holy spirit. That we would surrender, that we would surrender completely, Lord, to your terms of peace, unconditional surrender. No longer fighting you. Use us, Lord, for your kingdom and for your glory, we ask. In the power of your holy spirit, in the power of your love, let us go make disciples, let us be your ambassadors. Lord, you say in your word that they would see our love and they'd know that we're Christians. They'd see our good works, they'd know we're Christians. That you'd be glorified. Help us, Lord. Help us not to be those who blend in with the world in this Laodicean, lukewarm, insipid, apostate church. Let us be more like the church of Philadelphia, Lord, that seizes the opportunity of that open door and pleads with people. Get in the boat, get in Christ. Judgment's coming. Jesus is coming. If there's anybody here this morning and you don't know Jesus as your Lord and savior, but you want to, the Holy Spirit's working on your heart, tugging on your heart even now. The Holy Spirit's showing you the cross of Calvary, that your sins have already been paid for, that God punished his son in your place. That he's the atonement. He's the atonement. That he's your reconciliation, that you could be right with God. Come by faith. Come by grace through faith. Receive eternal life as a gift, a free gift that you can't earn, but a free gift offered. Surrender afresh. Surrender your life to Jesus. Say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Come into my heart and life. Transform and change me. Make me new. Anybody listening on Facebook or the the Internet, you pray this prayer. God, be merciful to me a sinner. Come into my heart and life. Make me new. Fill me to overflowing with your love, with your holy spirit. Write my name in your lamb's book of life. Anyone here this morning, just lift your hand up. Anyone here this morning? Father, we thank you that you saved to the uttermost. We thank you, Lord, that we're secure, that we're at peace. You're the prince of peace, and Lord, there's no warring in our heart. We're surrendered. It's a great place to be. Outside there, the world is tumultuous. It's crazy out there. But Lord, you're our peace, and we thank you. We thank you that we have your peace that surpasses all understanding that guards our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. You said, my peace I give unto you, not as the world give, give I unto you. In the world, you will have promised tribulation pressure, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. Thank you, Lord. You're our champion. You're our savior, and we love you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
About This Podcast
Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Sunday Service
Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, teach the Word of God cover to cover, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes on Mondays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.
