"Reconciled You"
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1. If I like it, it's mine.
2. If it's in my hand, it's mine.
3. If I can take it from you, it's mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
5. If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.
6. If I'm doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.
7. If it looks just like mine, it's mine.
8. If I saw it first, it's mine.
9. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine.
10. If it's broken, it's yours.
These are the Property Laws of a Toddler. And even many adults today.
The depravity of man is evident even at a very young age. Our beloved king David even said that we were sinful from the time we were in our mothers womb. The apostle Paul says that we are by nature children of wrath. Sin is our nature. Even from a very young age we display this depravity. Think about it… we never had to teach our children how to behave like this. It comes natural. And unfortunately, unless the power of God regenerates us, cause us to be born again, this nature continues to grow into maturity and it is a problem. Our total depravity is infectious and it spreads and destroys, leaving in its wake the continued vandalism of the beautiful creation by Christ, through Christ and for Christ. Sin is real. It is clearly there. It just takes a few second to realize how much we do it, when we list all the times we have broken the 10 commandments. Or how many times we have broken the great commandment… loving God and loving our neighbor. Sin is any want of conformity or transgression of the law of God. Anytime we are not being or doing what God requires. We are sinning. Anytime we are doing what God forbids. We are sinning. And when you think about it this way… um we do it a lot don’t we?
The great Princeton theologian Charles Hodge writes, our guilt is great because our sins are exceedingly numerous. It is not merely outward acts of unkindness and dishonesty with which we are chargeable; our habitual and characteristic state of mind is evil in the sight of God.
Our pride, vanity, and indifference to His will and to the welfare of others, our selfishness, our loving the creature more than the Creator, are continuous violations of His holy law.
We have never been or done what that law requires us to be and to do. We have never had that delight in the divine perfection, that sense of dependence and obligation, that fixed purpose to do the will and promote the glory of God, which constitute the love which is our fist and highest duty.
We are always sinners; we are at all times and under all circumstances in opposition to God, because we are never what His law requires us to be.
If we have never made it our purpose to do His will, if we have never made His glory the end of our actions, then our lives have been an unbroken series of transgressions. Our sins are not to be numbered by the conscious violations of duty; they are as numerous as the moments of our existence.
The scriptures are clear on this...
The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.
We are all infected and impure with sin.
When we display our righteous deeds,
they are nothing but filthy rags.
Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall,
and our sins sweep us away like the wind.
“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,
and desperately wicked.
Who really knows how bad it is?
As the Scriptures say,
“No one is righteous—
not even one.
All have turned away;
all have become useless.
No one does good,
not a single one.”
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
Not a single person on earth is always good and never sins.
But we struggle with this today, because of our culture. We see the wickedness and sins we commit today, but by nature we reject the gospel but still left with the guilt. So the culture today just calls things that are sins… not sins. The Bible says that it is sin, but we just gonna say its not a sin. We just wave our hands and say no its not. We just redefine it so that we feel better.
A person is not lazy, he is merely “motivationally dispossessed”; a shoplifter is not a thief, he is “a cost of living adjustment specialist”; a prostitute is not a prostitute, she is a “sex care provider.” Homosexuality is now called sexual deviancy, Lying is called true statements that are contradictory, Lust is called admiration, Rebellion is called the exercise of freedom, Pride is called confidence, Envy is called economic stability, Destruction of property, burning down buildings, and vandalism is called peaceful protest, Abortion is called population control, and the dishonoring Father and Mother is called adolescence, idolatry is called being spiritual, drunkeness and being high off of illegal drugs is now called medicating. Guy being girl, girl being guy and we call it being non binary. No need to feel guilty cause there is nothing to feel guilty about.
This ideology is also affecting the church. We do today what is called law light. We don’t outright change the law of God, we just minimize it. The Bible say that we are to meditate of the Word of God day and night… and what do we hear?? Just do what you can… try every other day, try day and night on the weekend when you not so busy, just do the best that you can and God will be please with your effort… NO HE WONT!!! Sell everything you have give it to the poor and follow me… well you don’t need to sell everything, just buy buy a used car instead of a new car, get your hair done once a month instead of once a week, eat at McDonalds instead of Tony Romas, buy clothes at Costco not Saks 5th Ave, give money to charitable organizations and go to church as much as you can… do that and God will be happy with you… it will be acceptable application of that scripture. NO IT IS NOT!!! Sin is called by evangelicals mistakes, not the best thing for you, accidents, incidentals, unhelpful variables and sin nature is called brokenness… we are not broken we are corrupted. We are not fixable, we need to be replaced. We cannot be refurbished, we need to be brand new. Sin is sin and sin is real. The situation is worse than we ever thought.
But being aware of this is the first step toward hope. Thomas Brooks wrote, “The first step toward heaven is to see ourselves near hell” Remember, I am just a doctor being honest with you today. We have a terminal disease. But today, I have good news… there is a cure. And we will see it vividly today.
This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.
Enemies of God
Reconciled by Christ
The first thing we will look at today is what it means to be by nature enemies of God separated by our thoughts and actions. The second thing we will explore is the wonderful reconciliation we have through the death of Christ.
Thesis: Though sin, the pattern of this world, and the deception of false teachers cause us to minimize in our minds the true atrocities of sin, it is the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of scripture that will shed light on the reality of the disease of sin, but also gives us hope in the revelation of the cure… the gospel of Jesus.
I. Enemies of God
- Enemies in our thoughts and actions.
A. What we see here in verse 21 is that Paul is describing the Colossian Christians before they became Christians. This sheds a lot on what we are like by nature and what unbelievers are like in our world.
B. But here Paul reminds them of the great change that took place when they became Christians. How great? The unusually strong greek word here translated ‘Alienated” This is to be a reminder of what you left from and hopefully you will not desire to fall back to your former life before Christ. Alienation is being far away from God… we were in isolation, loneliness, the sense of not belonging to God. In other words, we were outside of the sphere of God’s blessing. Paul said that they we also seen as enemies or hostile toward God… another strong word for the former condition.
C. We were enemies with the living God hostile toward him. Don’t you see why there is hostility toward Christ from many in the world today. Unbelievers are not neutral toward God today they are hostile and we were hostile in our thoughts and our actions. Dianoia and ergon … in mind and actions which is a usage that points to the totality of a human. The hostility is the entire life a the individual. In this sense, mind and actions are intertwined. The depravity of our actions has effect on the mind and the mind will have an adverse effect on the actions. The mind gets worse, the actions are worse, the actions are worse and the mind is worse.
D. And this is an important piece when it comes to sin. We are hostile toward God even in our minds. We can sin even in our minds.
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
These people always cause trouble. Their minds are corrupt, and they have turned their backs on the truth. To them, a show of godliness is just a way to become wealthy.
E. But Shane I don’t drink, I don’t chew I don’t go with girls to do. I got rid of my tv. I don’t listen to the radio anymore. I don’t lie or cheat on my spouse. I don’t flip people off in traffic. I don’t steal from the workplace. I don’t cuss. I don’t get angry. I say no to prono. And I say no to drugs. And I say no to putting eggs on my brain. I hear that. And that is great, but that is the easy stuff. How are you doing in the mind. How you doing in the heart. How bout envy, jealousy, pride, arrogance, lust, greed, selfishness, unforgiveness, resentment, indifference, hatred, and the inability to take our thoughts captive? See that’s different. There is hostility toward God in our minds and hearts.
F. We may not have commited the actual act of adultery, but Jesus says that even if you did not do it, but looked lustfully upon a woman you have committed adultery in the heart and that matters to God. It is a violation. It is a sin and a trespass.
G. I was watching one of the superhero tv shows this past week and one person was talking about judgement based on what we do not about what we think. He said, “I think about killing my boss all the time. But I don’t do it, so how can you judge me for that?” Yeah maybe in the court here in our country, but in the courts of heaven it is different.
Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.
H. Our hearts and minds are minefields of sin and hostility toward God. It not just actions it is our thoughts as well. It is our motivations and our desires. Paul and Timothy is making it clear that our lives in totality is hostile toward God… we are indeed enemies toward God. And we are outside of His blessing… we are alienated from God. Separated from Him. A serious serious serious situation. But Paul and Timothy want to make something else abundantly clear.
II. Reconciled by Christ
- No longer separated from God.
A. Yes we were separated by God. We were enemies of God. We transgressed God’s law by our thoughts and actions with utter hostility. We were outside of the sphere of the blessing of God. There can be no worse place to be.
B. But our God is wonderful and marvelous. He is full of grace and abounding in steadfast love. For as high as the heavens are above the earth so great is His love for us. His grace is amazing. His mercy is more. So much more. How do we no this?
C. He reconciled us to Christ by the death of the Son of God. He sent His son into this world to seek and to save that which was lost. And because Jesus died on the cross for our sins, he paid the penalty for our sin and because it was acceptable to God and God was satisfied, Jesus rose from the grave. It is finished.
D. Not only are we reconciled to Him no longer separated from him, no longer outside of the sphere of the blessings of God, we are in His presence. We are now called Holy and blameless. Did you see that… The word of God calls us who are in Christ Holy and Blameless. And the blood of Christ was so pure, divine and perfect and right now, Christian, you stand before God without one single fault before Him.
E. All the awful things we have thought and done in our lives… because of the death of Christ in His physical body, we stand right now before God the Father without one single solitary fault. How awesome is the death of Christ and how wonderful is the sacrifice.
F. Do not allow the false teachers to ruin this for you. Do not today’s false teachers ruin this for you. The word of God declares that you must believe this truth and you gotta stand firmly on it. This is why we cannot be tolerant of any false teaching leading us away from the truth of the wonderful Gospel of Jesus. Do not drift away from this. We received a wonderful assurance from the truth of the Gospel. We cannot fall away from this. We cannot drift away from this.
G. This is a warning from the Holy Spirit. You were in a really really bad place before Christ. He has done something so astonishing for us all. Do you really want to go back to the way things were? Do not be deceived… there is no way to get this blessing apart from Christ. He is supreme, he is sufficient, and there are no substitutes. Christ is the living God made flesh the image of God and he came to reconcile us to Himself.
H. Yes. The Bible declares that Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners.
He personally carried our sins
in his body on the cross
so that we can be dead to sin
and live for what is right.
By his wounds
you are healed.
I. And the promises continue… If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved. All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
J. Today we see that in reality we are worse than we think we are, but the grace of God is better than we could have ever imagined. Sin is real, but so is the Love of God. Christ is God. Christ is Man. The God-man reconciled us to Himself by His death. And the death was so magnificent and worthy that all of us holding on to the true faith will be covered by the blood of Jesus and we will stand before God without one single solitary fault. That is an absolute miracle. A miracle we celebrate not just during the Easter season, but every single Lord’s Day. Every Sunday is resurrection Sunday.