Bible Reading Part 2, Reconciliation

Well, let's open the scriptures to Romans chapter 5. First of all, we consider reconciliation. Romans chapter 5, verse 6. For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

But God commended His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by His life.

And not only so, but we also join God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement, or should be, the reconciliation. Now, let's read also in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Let's begin at verse 17. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17.

Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

In Colossians, please, chapter 1. Let's begin at verse 19. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell, and having made peace through the blood of His cross by Him, to reconcile all things unto Himself. By Him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of the flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight.

We've only got an hour left, so we'll just skip any sort of a portion, we'll just dive into this, if anybody's got any opening thoughts. So forgiveness is the release or that dismissal. Reconciliation is the removal of a barrier, removal of something that is causing the enmity or causing the improper relationship, so that relationship can be changed.

Do you agree with that? More definitions could be a thorough change or an adjustment. Strong says of a difference, to bring together. Same idea? The example of Joseph has been brought up in forgiveness.

Joseph forgave long before there was reconciliation. Joseph kept dealing with his brother. All the food he sent back to Egypt and the cups and all in the prison, time for sinning, all that work and accomplishment, wasn't for forgiveness, it was for reconciliation.

Relationship to be established once again. Did God leave man or man leave God? Man left God. God doesn't need to be reconciled, man needs to be reconciled.

That's right. Who sought after Adam and Eve? He knew where they were, but he wanted them to acknowledge where they were. Why were they hiding? That's the way we were.

We were on the broad road, we were leaving God, our backs turned to God, and the Holy Spirit stopped us in our tracks and turned us around. God and sins are never reconciled. It's the sinner, it's the person.

It has nothing to do with the sins. Its basis is the love of God. We hear that in Romans chapter 5 or 6, that God commended His love for us.

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Following on from that is reconciliation. Isn't it awesome that in all these truths of the gospel we've studied so far, God is always the source.

It doesn't begin with us ever. That is wonderful. There's a picture of reconciliation in the first sentence of chapter 29.

It's the first time that the word reconciliation is used in our Bible. Well, I should say there are a couple of times that it's used in Rebekah, but it really means atonement in those cases. But in verse 29 and verse 4, we read about David when he's among the Philistines.

And Achish has him as one of his captains. And David is going to their war council. And the Philistines are upset with Achish.

And they said unto him, Make this fellow return, that he may go again to his place, which thou hast appointed him. Let him not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he be an adversary to us. For wherewith should he reconcile himself unto his master? We have to understand that the Philistines are understanding the conflict between David and Saul as something that David had done against Saul.

And David has a problem. And Saul has got an issue with David. And they're understanding that if they were to lose their heads at David's hand, and he was to return to Saul, that he would be reconciled to Saul.

So their deaths would accomplish a reconciliation back with David's master. That's a beautiful picture of reconciliation with us, isn't it? That through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can be reconciled to God. And David wasn't the one that needed to be reconciled there.

Yeah. We didn't get it through the eyes of the Philistines. Right, right.

When Moses, when he was hungry, the Lord fed him. When he was thirsty, the Lord gave him drink. When he was attacked, the Lord gave him victory, and the Lord forgave him.

So is this the same as reconciliation? When you were attacked, I forgave you. The Lord won the battle. For Moses.

When you were attacked, I gave you victory. I don't know, would that carry with it the thought of being brought back, or would that be just the Lord's provision? The Lord's provision, yeah. Yeah.

Keep in mind that there's an enmity, that a change of relationship somehow must be dealt with. There's a barrier. An enmity, the three barriers that were against us was our sin, was the law, and the flesh, the old man.

All that was against us, and God, he removed those barriers out of the way by the cross. What the Lord Jesus did in the cross, and then he says, Now come unto me, be reconciled. All the barriers are removed.

Now he says, be reconciled. So in a sense, he's saying, he's laid out the peace terms on the table, and he says, now come and surrender, and change your relationship. So in reconciliation, there needs to be that change of relationship from a place of enmity beforehand.

So I think most of that's different than reconciliation. So God has removed that hostility based on the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And beautifully, he's thoroughly removed it.

There's nothing that's not answered to. It's gone. In our readings, we read the different ways by which we're reconciled.

In Romans, it's by the death of his son. In Colossians, it's by the blood of his cross. In Ephesians, it's by the cross.

In Corinthians, it's by Jesus Christ. And so, that's a pretty heavy lineup. So that heavy lineup shows that there's no excuse to the sinner not to be reconciled.

It's a matter of a stubborn will that we have. I will not bow to God's way. And God says, the way is open, just come.

And the rebel sinner says, no, I won't. I will not surrender. So to understand, first of all, really, again, where we were, we were enemies.

Let that sink in for a while. And it was God's desire that we would be reconciled to him. Now that blows my mind.

Total enemies. And God wants us to be in full relationship with him. And is that, will not God get great pleasure from that? To enjoy his creation how he intended it to be, really? In due time.

It will be forever. In Colossians, of course, it's looking from the Godward view of it. You're alienating enemies in your mind.

So God knows what's in the mind. He knows that your mind is at enmity with him. So it's not God that created that in your mind.

It's not God that needs to be reconciled to you. God looks at you and says, you need to be reconciled to me. I can see right through your mind.

That's where it starts. And then it was carried out and works. When we start in Romans, we're enemies by nature.

We come to Colossians, it says, enemies in your mind by wicked works. And so it's not only the nature that we are at enmity with God, but our works. And God has dealt with both the nature and the sins.

It's tremendous. Wouldn't you like to say, brother, that repentance is my change of God to align my thinking with God. And reconciliation is God changing his mind in the way he views me.

I was once an enemy. But now I've become a son. Could you repeat that first part? All right.

Repentance is when I change my mind to be in alignment with God. I see myself as God sees me. So you're agreeing with God.

I'm agreeing with God. And then salvation occurs. And then God's mind is changed with respect to how he views me.

Because no longer is he looking at me, he's looking at his son. I'm a son now. Has his mind changed or has his action part of you changed? His viewpoint has changed.

Yeah, because we were in the mind of Christ. The mind of God for the world was. So here he is.

We're coming to his place of purpose for us. Now his action toward us comes out. His heart is open.

The barriers are gone. Now he's able to flow toward us in marvelous, wondrous grace, mercy, kindness, compassion, everything. So his heart is open and there's nothing to hold him back anymore.

He's able. Okay, everything has been removed. You've come.

You've repented. Now here you're getting all the blessings. That's all.

Instead of his mind being changed, his action part of me. Okay, yeah. Thank you for correcting that.

Well, I'm not correcting that. No, no, that's good. But he sees me in my sin.

So it's, yeah. Before salvation. Repentance is more than, I would say, than just a change of my thinking to God.

Back to Luke again. This is a parable. A parable doesn't stand on four legs.

It stands on three. So you can't push every truth to one leg. But the prodigal son, first of all, says he came to himself.

He realized that I am the cause of where I am and what's going on in my sin. So the first act is a recognition of sin. That's repentance.

That's a definite truth. You have to understand that. Then he says, I will arise and go to my Father.

It's a turning from sin. I hate this life. I just was fed up with sin, you might say.

And it's like he turns from sin. Then it's a turning to Christ. He turns to the Father.

It's turning to God. There's a change of mind. First of all, a change of mind towards himself.

A change of mind to God. Then he says, I will say I have sinned against heaven. He turns to Christ, the only one that can save him.

It's turning from sin. It's turning to Christ, the only one that can save him. That's their purpose.

He's lost and helpless and hopeless. He turns to God. And then he says, I will say I have sinned against heaven.

And he told me, I have no more work to be called my son. I am going to go to the Father. And I'm going to cast myself upon his mercy.

That's what people can say. If I'm going to say this, God will have to say this. I am doomed.

I'm lost. I deserve help. He casts himself upon mercy.

That's genuine defense. And God saw all that happening. And then there's full reconciliation.

Reconciliation comes into view, which is a wondrous, beautiful thing. Two parties that are totally opposite. Another beautiful illustration of this is in that lovely little book of Philemon.

Onesimus was forgiven. And then what happened? He was reconciled back to Philemon. In the Prodigal there is full forgiveness there.

It says he fell on his neck and he kissed him. In the original, you'll read like this. It says he kissed him tenderly.

When you want to go back to sin, you go back to Genesis. What did Adam do? Adam didn't depend on God anymore. He wanted to be his own God.

That's what Satan told him. If you eat and have fruit, you're going to be your own God. So when we get saved, we go from independence back to dependence.

Just the opposite of what Adam did. That's how God brings us back. God made man to dwell within.

That's why we're here. To dwell within. To manifest Him on this earth while we're here.

And He does that through the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God. What He does, He uses our bodies as a living sacrifice. And He uses our hands that we serve with.

Our mouth to speak the love of God with. And to think about God and the things of God. To manifest Him to the people we meet every day.

In the grocery store, where we work, wherever we're at. That's where God is working through us to do this. That's His work.

Instead of being Christ here in one spot, we've got all Christ and every believer. He's throughout the world. He's working.

Bringing people back to Himself. That's why we're here. We're not here to get rich.

We're not here to build up pleasures. We're here to serve Him, to love Him, to worship Him, and serve Him. That's why we're here.

And it was His desire. Yeah, that's what we're here for. To satisfy His desire, His will, and that's His purpose.

When we study reconciliation, would it be true to say that there is a victor? And that He has put forth all of the details of the agreement. And we, as we came to God, we agreed with everything that He said. We're completely beaten.

We're completely submissive. Not that we can save ourselves, but we're in that state where we understand that He is God and His requirements are us. That's the idea of total surrender in relation to an enemy.

Reconciliation is dealing with enmity. It's not just a dislike. It's not just a, oh, I don't really care for it.

It's an animosity. It's a hatred of God. And so when God says, okay, here's the demand that I have.

And He says, you totally surrender. As an enemy, you lay down all the weapons of warfare, and you say, God is right. It's like the Japanese did at the end of World War II.

They had to lay down their weapons and come and sign that peace treaty. They totally surrendered. Reconciliation, there is two parties.

There's two parties at odds. So there's an offense there. There's an offender.

And what is offended is sin. That's why we preach at hospitals. Sin has to offend God.

That sin must be removed before there can be reconciliation. Before there can be brought into that harmony of fellowship with God. And that's what happens in the person of Satan.

There's forgiveness. There's the sin is removed, and there's reconciliation. And the wonder and the beauty of Leah's believers is, and the brother has read, who is given to us the ministry of reconciliation.

That word given is the idea of stewardship. It's been entrusted to us. And it's writing to an assembly.

It's actually been given to the assembly as believers. God has given to us the great task of going forth to the Gospels to be a reconciler. So could someone give us, Kent, maybe you could help us on this, what it means that God was reconciling things to himself, and then the sphere of it, the all things, where does that take us? It takes us into eternity.

And I think even in our human relationships, if we don't come to a reconciliation, it's in a sense defeat. We have not completed the whole circle. We have not come back where we should have.

That's why God is going to have all things reconciled. He is not going to be defeated. When sin came in, it brought in an enmity, a barrier between God and man.

Man couldn't bridge it. He had done wrong. He had no desire to bridge that gap.

He had no power, because sin is the gap, and without shedding of blood, there's no remission. So it couldn't be removed otherwise. So God is working in this day of grace to reconcile individual sinners and come through the Son, because we're reconciled to God by the death of his Son.

And then, that's not the end of it. God is not finished yet, because he's still got a world that's plunged under the dominion of sin. It's groaning and travailing.

It's waiting for the adoption. For the full extension of the work of Christ. And in eternity, all things are going to be reconciled.

It doesn't say things under the earth. They had opportunity in this day. We beseech you in Christ's name, be reconciled to God.

You fail that, there is no option. But looking back from eternity, God says everything is reconciled. It's all done.

It's all been done by the one who came in flesh and suffered and bled to death. So the glory of God will be extremely glorified in the completion of this. Is it right to think of it as bringing it back to its original state? Or how does that fit in, brother? God in creation, dwelling with his people, and then now sin has come in and that's all been taken out.

What's the connection, or what's it going to be like compared to Adam's day? The privilege that we have in being reconciled is greater than what Adam received in the garden. Because without the sin, the forgiveness couldn't have been made. The love of God could not be displayed in the same way.

So there's a better blessing. We'll receive a better blessing for all eternity than what could have been in eternity. So then when people ask why did God allow sin into the world, we look at it now from what we're studying today, and we can see God getting more glory through the whole thing.

The way it went, than he ever would have if sin had never come in. Would that be your statement? Would you rather take worship from a robot or a person that commits himself? That's basically what you're talking about. Those that are forgiven by God.

Right, right. He gives us a free will and we commit our will unto him. We're talking about all this stuff.

What's going to happen during the millennial kingdom? What's that going to be like? Is that going to be like the Garden of Eden? No. He's going to rule. How is he going to rule? Not only that, but there's unredeemed that are in the world that will be manifested at the end of the millennium.

But you can't brought it out in terms of it's an eternal thing after the millennium. They're going to be under the rule of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to be king of kings and lord of lords.

All the people that go into the millennial kingdom are saved. What people are born after that, then they have a choice. That's true.

He said a rule of righteousness. That's right. And righteousness will reign in the millennium.

Righteousness will dwell in the eternal state. Reconciliation is a new of God coming out to remove these barriers on the basis of his righteous action to bring about a blessing to the people that once were enemies. And that's what he has done for us.

I thought in the book of Romans, there's a reason why reconciliation doesn't come in until chapter 5. We've got guilt proven. We have righteousness. We have justification.

We have forgiveness. And this chapter begins, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what reconciliation is, is peace.

And so peace is a reconciliation term, and it has to be founded on the basis of guilty sinners who are justified freely by God's grace through the redemption of the Son of Christ Jesus. So was Adam, in the truest sense of the word, was Adam and Eve really, truly reconciled to God like we are today? I would say no. He drove them out of the garden, and we're accepted in the beloved.

The image you've been removed with us were meant to draw nearer. Right? So it's a picture, but all Old Testament pictures and types fail when you come to Christ. Master, in Isaiah, verse 3, Adam was an innocent, and he chose to sin.

We will, we're a class I of old, and we will, at the rapture, we will be given a body, like on his body, of glory, unable to sin. So sin will be purgatory. That's what God's done for us.

From being enemies to that. There's tremendous scope in this word, reconciliation. It just launches our thinking way beyond, right into the eternal state.

The definition of sin is sin robs God, but there has been reconciliation brought in. And God is going to receive more glory. And even in the millennial reign, you'll see reconciliation as far as physical world, but then it goes beyond.

God in Christ has brought in a complete new order of things. And that's what we're moving towards. It's reconciliation.

It just grows and multiplies. It's a greater wonder of God. I wonder if the free gift in continuing with Romans 5, as our brother Kent brought out, there's beginning in 5, we are justified by faith, there was sin.

And we come through Romans, and then we come to this part in chapter 5, but not as the offense, so also the free gift. And I wonder if that free gift isn't reconciliation, or is it just the fullness of salvation? I don't know. I'm just putting it out there.

Don't we say that in the Old Testament, the Old Testament saints were saved on credit? And the full credit for when that credit was paid was upon the death of the Son. That's what reconciliation is saying. It's conditional upon the death of the Son, which did not happen before that.

We have such a blessing in the summary of the section on reconciliation in verse 11. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom or through whom we have now received the reconciliation. And so, yeah, that's something beyond Old Testament.

And that's something perhaps beyond our experience. It's the joy in God. We are no longer enemies, we're made not enemies.

It's through our Lord Jesus Christ. It's kind of interesting when we take into consideration the practical, how he is the one who wants to rebel, block, spend his money, and do the things that the worldly person wants to do. Then he realizes that he has nothing.

Then he realizes that his father has something. So he wastes the two. But yet, what about the older brother? You know, a lot of times we think about the sins of the flesh.

What kind of sin did he have? What was he thinking? He had sins of the spirit, didn't he? Ah, what about me? I've done this, I've done that. So what do we have in Romans 5 in verse 10? Where it talks about, "...already being reconciled, we shall be saved by his light." Can someone help us on that, taking us even a little further? Would that be the idea that his resurrection is vital to reconciliation? When you got saved, what did you receive? Forgiveness of sins, eternal life. You received life, right? But Kim didn't have life, and more abundantly.

So what we received is the life of Christ. That's eternal life because He is eternal. And the life we live is His life in us.

He uses our body to move around Him. And that's His life, not ours anymore. We're dead.

That's one thing you've got to realize. We're dead. Now when these things stir up, we just say to the Lord, that must be the flesh that's doing it.

And we just say, anything that doesn't satisfy God is the flesh. He tells you that in Galatians, what the work of the flesh is and what the work of the spirit is. And what you want to do is write that list down and put it on the refrigerator.

And when you get angry and everything, upset, look at the list and find where it's under. It's the flesh. That's the biggest enemy, self.

A lot of us, you know, go around blaming the devil. But it's not the devil, it's ourselves. And that's the biggest enemy we have is our self, the complete self.

Thinking about this question of verse 10. So at Calvary, it's not just Calvary. That's where the payment for our sin was made.

But it's the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. His life that we've been given, as we've heard. But, you know, I think verse 11 is a very interesting verse.

Ben was crunching at it. He also joy in God. So really, I think the heart of God is, he wants us to get to the person of Christ.

That's where he wants this reconciliation. The pathway to take us to is his son. Get to him in all of his fullness.

Perhaps a simple way to look at verse 10 is this. If God would do this for his enemies, how much more will he do for his friends? I think that might be a simple way of interpreting that verse. Yeah, because verse 9 says, We shall be saved from wrath through him.

That's tribulation and wrath coming on his enemies. And, of course, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

He lives. He's not going to... He's already dealt with us. We've acknowledged we were enemies.

He's already dealt with us in the person of his son on a righteous basis in removing the guilt, dealing with all those things about our sin. Now we're friends. Now we're his.

We have a relationship with him. We're going to be saved from tribulation and wrath by his life. He is risen indeed.

We're going to heaven with him. We're going to be with him forever. It's not just that he rose from the dead.

The word by in verse 10 is actually in his life. It's in his immutable life. It's in his fact that his life can never end.

It takes me back to Romans 6, verse 10. For in that he died, he died once on the sin. But in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, where are you alive at? Well, you're alive where Christ is alive. Well, where is he alive? He's before the Father.

That's what the Bible says right here. He is unto God in life. He lives there.

So where does God see me? He sees me there with Christ. Your reconciliation is sealed in him. It's in his life.

It's eternal. That's where we live, brethren. That's where God sees us.

We're beyond the veil. We are in the most holy place. That's positional.

Colossians 1.22 says, In the body of his flesh through death to present you holy, unblamable, and unreprovable in his sight. That's what you talk about being seen in him. So when we talk, when we get these fleshy, my doc is bringing up these fleshy thoughts or ideas coming to my mind, or I have a problem with forgiving my brother, remember where you are.

You're in the life of Christ standing before the face of God. That's where God sees me. The flesh can't live there.

Nothing can survive that. What is the purpose of Bible studies and get-togethers like this here? Is it so that I might add to my knowledge? Or is it so that I might be more like my Savior? Both. Knowledge brings that.

Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Both are important. Worldly knowledge will do that, brother.

It will puff us up. But spiritual knowledge of my position before God humbles me. Yes, it does.

It should. But yet, sometimes people can get into disputes over those types of things. You know, we are discussing these things, and a lot of times we may want to go home and study this, but we have an attitude that is not acceptable or approvable unto the Lord.

So the point I'm trying to make is that I think that my study should be more concentrated on making me more like our Savior. Paul said that I might know Christ. I think your brother Kevin probably answered that why we have Bible studies.

He quoted that verse 11. It said we might enjoy more in God our Savior. We might enjoy our salvation more.

And just quickly like verse 10, what as believers we appreciate about that verse is this. We were enemies. We were going away from God.

The last thing for an enemy is to want to togetherness. It's reconciliation. It says we were reconciled.

Now, to God. The word reconciled there would mean be brought back to God. Reconciled.

Brought back to God through the death of His Son. If we were reconciled by His death, much more than reconciled we should be saved by His life. Our brotherhood of eternity is because Christ lives.

Because He lives. If I've been reconciled by His death, He lives. So much more I'm saved.

I was saved. I'm being saved and I will be saved. I'm being saved today.

Because He lives. That's the joy of that verse. Saved by His life.

Do you believe in predestination? The believer is predestinated to be conformed to the image and likeness of His Son. That's why we're here today. The more you know about Him, the more you love Him, the more you appreciate Him.

That's the thing you have to do if you've got to develop that love relationship with God. That's the most important thing to get. It's Christ in you.

The hope of glory. That's what we're here for. To know more about Him.

The more you realize how much... I have a hard time fathoming how much God loved me that He would send His Son to die for a wicked sinner like me. The love I have is what I received from God. Because I never knew what love was until God came into my heart and gave me His love.

Sometimes it seems as though we can take into consideration having opportunities to speak with people and we could be perhaps a little bit heady and blow our opportunity to lead the individual to the Lord. However, when we take into consideration how our Savior dealt with people, He always dealt with them in a manner that was loving. And sometimes I can get too heady with people and I want to guard against that.

That's right. I agree with that. Alright, let's get back to reconciliation.

Okay. We looked at Romans 5. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 5. See what we can learn there. We've read in verse 17 that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.

All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.

So, we've got a little bit different aspect here. It seems to be there's a responsibility coming upon us. This ministry of reconciliation.

Could someone help us with that, please? Is this just for certain Christians? Is this for everybody? Is this just for preaching brethren? And what is this ministry? Well, who is He writing it to? Well, He's writing it to the Corinthian believers. Okay. And so, it would be all of us.

This is a service that we have to know that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. So, there's the ministry of reconciliation, verse 18. It's the word of reconciliation, verse 19.

So, it seems to be that we've got an obligation to use our mouth in this service. It doesn't sound like it would justify a gospel of predestination to damnation, does it? Because we have a ministry of reconciliation. God is coming out to the rebel forces and saying, I want to reconcile.

And I've made provisions for your reconciliation in giving my son to the death of the cross. Will you have it? And say it like you mean it. It's basically what he's saying.

We have a word of reconciliation. And then in verse 20, we are ambassadors, so we are representing Christ. We should do that picture of Christ because that's what an ambassador is in our country.

We represent the country. We represent Christ. So, really, verse 19 tells us what we need to know in this ministry, does it not? It says to know, or to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.

So He's really telling us, very simply, what we need to say, what we need to represent or present to the people. Verse 19, it says, God is working through Christ making the peace terms available. But in verse 20, God is entreating through Christ's representatives that the peace terms are available.

God is doing the work through Christ. Here's a passage that means that Christ is God. That's really not fancy.

God was in Christ working as an agency through Christ and His work to make reconciliation for us. To make that available. Now, we, on the basis of that, we preach that the peace terms have been made available.

Now, the sinner must be reconciled. What we say is, be surrendered. Unconditional surrender to the terms that God has laid down.

Lay down, stop fighting. In terms of who this is written to, it's a sovereign choice that God has selected us to take His gospel message out. That was His choice to take redeemed sinners.

And He's put into us the word reconciliation. I'm trying to underline what has already been said. Each one of us needs to do this, no matter what sphere of life we are.

We need to understand really what has taken place in order for us to communicate effectively to other people. So if we don't understand reconciliation and we are not showing it in our relationships, we are misrepresenting God's view, or God's presentation of reconciliation. Because we're not living it.

It's living the truths of what God has already made us for the people so that when they see us, they say, you know, there's reality in that individual. It has really meant a lot to them. It means it to them.

They know what forgiveness is. They know what reconciliation is. And so then they're drawn to that.

Or they say, well, He says this, but He lives that. I want nothing to do with that. See, that's a misrepresentation of the message.

And it goes back to our first section about preaching with a bitter spirit. It's a misrepresentation. Are we on right terms in our relationships with each other? Or do we need to be reconciled with each other? See, there are barriers that are involved.

And we're saying, oh, there's no barrier. Well, yeah, there is. And see, if we're not living in a reconciled relationship and enjoyment of that in our horizontal relationships, well, then it affects our appreciation of the vertical one to God.

I've got a question on reconciliation. Does the believer need to be reconciled? Supposedly, he's gone astray and backslidden. He's away from God.

Does he need to be reconciled? The scripture that says, I've returned to you from a redeemer. I'm returning now to God, seeing He's there, and returning to Him. Reconciliation again, or is He once reconciled, He's always reconciled? Well, if God is the one doing the work, we'd have to say that He failed in His work if a person could lose their reconciliation.

Well, being returned to God after being gone astray, it's just a returning, it's not being another... That would be a restoration. Reconciliation is position. I wasn't in the deep now I am in.

I didn't have to stay in this position. Repentance is definitely a requirement. Oh, good question, brother.

I'd say repentance is absolutely necessary for restoration. When the Lord Jesus satisfied the law, He satisfied really the two parts of the duty. The first five of the Ten Commandments are man to God, and the second five are man to man, and our salvation gives us the ability to reconcile.

It's fully satisfied. The law is satisfied. You can reconcile man to man as you were bringing out, and God has reconciled us to Himself when we enter into salvation.

So, Paul, your point was for us to say we're enjoying our reconciliation with God, and yet on the plain field of earth to not be, it's a total contradiction of what God really wants us to represent. We're misrepresenting our God in this world. Can we just call that sin again? Is that too blunt? Because that's exactly where Adam failed.

He misrepresented God, and God doesn't want us to do that. He wants us to understand what He has done for us, appreciate it, worship because of it, and then live in the good of it. So we have a problem in our relationship.

We deal with that barrier that has come in, and we say this is the barrier. This is the problem right here, and so there needs to be repentance. Let's remove that barrier, deal with the barrier, and now we can more than shake hands.

We can hug. We can have all kinds of other blessings in that relationship. So then forgiveness has already taken place.

Here's the question. Is forgiveness always before reconciliation? I would have to say yes. It would seem that way.

Would you? Brother Marvin. Brother Mike. Because how can two people have a relationship if it's at odds, a profitable relationship, if they're enemies? It's got to be that way with God because there first must be the removal of sin.

I need to know I'm forgiven before I can be reconciled to you. So first there's the release of the sin, the offense, and then there's the reception of the brother. You can't hang on to both, can you? You can't hang on to the offense and then embrace your brother.

In a sense. In New Testament times, can you really divide the two? See, I don't have a problem with the Old Testament, that forgiveness preceded reconciliation because that happened upon the death of the Lord Jesus. So there was forgiveness, but then reconciliation had to wait.

But in New Testament times, aren't they simultaneous? I'm speaking now between us and God. With us and God, yes. We're talking about... Of course not.

Of course not. How would that be different than how it happens with God? Because I could have forgiven you for what you did to me, but we might not be reconciled yet. Maybe we never even talked about it yet.

Everything God taught us was done in Christ. So that goes back to... predates our existence even. But as brethren, it all takes place in time.

So I think I've got to forgive you before I'm going to shake hands and give you a hug. Look, in 2 Corinthians 2, this comes to mind. You can go ahead if you want.

The brother who's being brought back into fellowship because of a sin that he's committed, he's been put away. Now he says, let's confirm our love to him. And then he says, forgiveness has taken place.

Now, is he brought in yet? So there's a stage there. There's a stage there where the forgiveness is noted, but now he's brought into place a relationship in the assembly again. So there's where I would see it.

I'm on the horizontal left. I was looking at Matthew 5, verse 4, when you bring your gift to the altar and you know that your brother has something on against you, go and be reconciled to your brother. So I was looking at that.

In that instance, that might be simultaneous. But in the case of assembly, that's very good. Now that you brought up Matthew 5. Okay.

You may have a few comments you want to say first. Go ahead. No, I guess we can go there.

No, no, no. So, as far as our responsibility then toward God and carrying out the word of reconciliation and the ministry of reconciliation, we all have that responsibility and we all have that responsibility to act both in how we live and how we speak. Is that correct? Okay, Matthew 5. Verse 24, which has already been mentioned.

Or we'll just go to verse 23. Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar and there rememberest that thy brother hath bought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go, that I may at first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly while thou art at the way with him.

And so on. Rob, would you want to develop your thoughts on that a little further? Well, is it not the idea that it affects our worship? That's the idea. First, if you bring your gift to the altar and there rememberest the conviction, the grievance, that thy brother has bought against thee, where'd that come from? Why didn't you remember that before you went up to the altar? Are you saying who reminded him? It was by the Spirit of God.

Yes, because he's the one that's grieved in every case. So it is possible to bring our gift to the altar and worship and have all the right language and still be as cold and far away in our soul and our spirit than if a person is silent for years and years and years. Just remember it.

It's going through the motion, through the flesh. So then does God get anything out of that? He doesn't want to. It's not the point.

You need your gift to the altar. Right. He's not even receiving it.

It's pointless to continue until you get that thing care of. I've taken that. There's my gift.

God wants it. Right. He wants it offered.

Right. If you're going to Matthew after just reading through the Old Testament, get right into Matthew without any break. He's been upgrading the people again and again.

He said, I don't want your sacrifices. I don't want your solemn feasts. It's a stench to me because you bring it with defiled hands.

You're defrauding the widows and so forth. No, you clean up your life. And bring it with holy hands and I'll be glad to receive it.

So God wants it. Leave it there. Come back and give it.

So it's not go out of the assembly for a few months and maybe when I get older, if I pout, I'll come back and I'll go get it fixed and come back right away. Go ahead. Go ahead.

So if a person, this brings me to a practical. So if a person comes into the local assembly and they will not shake hands with another brother, they will not speak with them, they will not recognize them in any way, and they still come in and sit down and they break bread. Is that sinning? They're breaking bread unworthily and they're causing judgment from God upon themselves.

It's a very dangerous position. And maybe possibly other members of the assembly. Because God is sovereign.

And they're reaping the Spirit of God in the assembly. The verse you go to, that would be 1 Corinthians 11, right? That says, verse 26, For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do so with the Lord's death until ye come. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

Verse 72, it says as well, I will therefore make men pray everywhere, lifting up the holy hand of the Lord. So, Ken, thanks very much for that. God does want it.

But he wants it without the wrath. And then, interpersonal relationships between husband and wife. That's 1 Peter 3, 7. Likewise, he hasn't involved them according to knowledge.

Giving honor to the wife. This is what we hear about the apostles, making prayers together in the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered. So the thought there is that if there's wrath, or if there's enmity within relationships, prayers will be hindered.

So what would be the next step? If this brother won't shake hands, won't have anything to do with the person in that meeting, what do we want them to do? Just take and leave them? Are they going to be able to work it out? Just first be reconciled. So, God wants them to work it out. They'll have to work it out.

We won't take steps to try to force them out. Well, I don't know. If you look at Matthew 18 closely, there seems to be a brother at the beginning of the chapter that willingly has gone astray.

And if you read down through that whole chapter of Matthew 18, you will find out that brother can be put away because of that, not desiring to be brought back into the fellowship of all the believers. So that's heavy language I just said. But I see that in Matthew 18.

Because he's willing. He's not willing to be put away. Or not as a healer.

Oh, yeah. Well, really in that case, wouldn't the action of those in the power of the oversight of the assembly and putting someone out really be just fulfilling what's already heard in their heart? Yeah, they're not in fellowship anyway. That's right.

They're denying fellowship right now. And just think of how our assemblies would possibly be transformed if we were a little quicker to judge ourselves and say this relationship is not right and it needs to be dealt with now or there will be consequences. It would transform us.

I know we have a merciful God. And in my own personal experience, I came to this realization much later in a conflict situation than I should have. And God restored me.

But I do know that that period of time that I spent in bitterness was not a good time. And I know that my brother, and God would not have it so in our local assemblies, but he is slow to anger. Well, wouldn't that brother initially be walking disorderly? If he has that attitude that it's developing, he's in disorder at that point.

And would it not be right to speak with him directly? You're walking in disorder. Get in line. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. Get in line.

If he doesn't get in line, he's directly sitting against the authority of the leadership. And then further steps must be taken. Well, yeah, but there's a parallel with Matthew 8 and Matthew 10.

Both are hand in hand. You can see that's where an individual goes to that offending brother to gain him, right? That's the whole thing. To bring him back.

They can talk, you know, eyeball to eyeball, as it were, heart to heart. So does it matter what your brother talked about of a scale of degree of disagreement? Say you and I are squabbling over... Lumber grade. Yeah, yeah.

You gave my lumber away, Paul. Or something bigger. How... how... how strict, if I can use that word, are we going to be here? Because, you know, we're at odds over something relatively small.

You know, very minimal. But still, he did it. Why not take care of him the smallest before he's bigger? Right.

Isn't that the attitude of the brotherhood of Matthew 5 is that he has a sensitivity to the relationship with his brother. And he has an attitude of a repentant spirit. And he seeks forgiveness and reconciliation.

He wants to do something about it. But then we have a problem. What if he goes? What if Paul comes to me and says, hey, I'm sorry, you just did that.

I say no, and he did not. Has he been cleared? Can he go worship? Or does he have to wait until I change my mind? If I come to you, if I come to you with the attitude that I want to get this straightened up, then you won't let me. I'm clear.

I have fulfilled my responsibility. Now, now you're... God's going to do it with you. That's... that's spiritual.

That's 2 Corinthians 5. Your disagreement seems like it's kind of 50-50. Scripture says, if a brother hath fought against... the number of people... agreed. I will give you a good map.

If a brother hath fought against Satan. Now, I take it in the Bible, God sets it out. He's not talking about all this romantic stuff going on.

I heard a brother, a brother had come and told him because he felt he had offended him. Or, as it says, he had done something... I mean, you think of it. See, you know.

It's on over. But this here seems to be kind of a major thing. He has done something to this person.

And then he remembers. He has the responsibility to go get that kind of straightened out. But you can't overlook the nitpicky stuff because what may be nitpicky to you is maybe not nitpicky to me.

Well, that's why Dave and I learned. Like, I don't know what happened. If I made you upset, I am sorry.

But I want to distinguish something. Matthew 25 is not the same as Matthew 18. Because Matthew 25, I have... Matthew 5, I mean, verse 24.

I have sinned against bread. That is an example. When I go to you and I say, I'm sorry, but Matthew 18, it's not the way.

It's the brother has sinned against me. He's not shaking my hand. That's an example.

There's some tendency there. To make this simple and boil it all down, all of this mess, we know to keep short accounts with God, don't we? Keep short accounts with our brother. Same thing.

Same idea. Something pops up, get it dealt with right away before it turns into something. That's the whole point.

That's the whole idea. Why? So that we can continue in our worship, number one. So we can continue in our work, number two.

So we can just go on. But what happens is, well, we don't think it's such a big deal. Festers, blah, blah.

We end up with a mess. So the whole point is to keep short accounts with God and short accounts with each other, no matter how small we might think it would be, like Dave and Cal. Don't even know what it is.

Blankest statement. Sorry. It's like the believers at Corinth.

He said to the carnal, please, you should be teachers. He said, you're like little babies crawled on the floor, sit around, see? And I would say to myself personally, Mr. Goff used to talk, and brethren like myself and others, in the Lord's Word, before he went, can you take criticism? It is not accomplished. But I would say to a brother, if you're not sure what the Lord's Word is, can you forgive? I went to tell all my seekers, I said, that's the Lord in the cross.

He said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. One of my seekers was him. From my own personal standpoint, consider the source.

Move on. I mean, otherwise, I mean, if you start giving something 70 times 70, that's more than anything. That's all you do all the time.

It was his people. What a rule, just a rule of thumb be, and they're in members. If something, if the Spirit of God brings something to my body, then it's important enough to deal with it.

Does that make sense to you? That God gave us a conscience. Yes. He used us in the Holy Spirit.

I'm just going to say, we shouldn't think that our brethren, our mind readers, aren't there. Right, that's good to hear. Oftentimes, we think that, well, they know what they did.

If we've been offended, we have a responsibility to go to the top as well. So then, a question was asked, just a couple minutes left. What happens if I don't forgive him? That was in the first section.

Okay, who better answer that one? What happens when Christians don't forgive Christians, and you go to the eternity? Where is that dealt with? What happens? Is it dealt with in the judgment seat of Christ? That would be my suggestion. You suffer loss in the judgment seat of Christ. Right.

It's not going to be, oh, you did this, and you did that, and you were right, and you were wrong. It's settled here in life. The results of that are rewarded before we suffer loss in the judgment seat of Christ.

God says, okay, you knew you ought to forgive, and you didn't, you suffered loss. And you knew you should have a forgiving attitude if you had. You suffered, you're gained, you're blessed.

So we will gain or lose forever on how we interact with each other here. So this isn't really a small issue that we're talking about? This is no game. This is not a game that we're playing.

This is not a chess match. This is a serious life. Wayne opened up something, and I think it's something we all need to be reminded of.

A real solution is communication. And when it comes down to Matthew 18, it is still valid for today. The sequence is laid out there.

Some say, well, this shouldn't be done. Everybody wants to become real opinionated. But when you look at verses 18 through verse 15 to 18, it's still valid for today, brother.

And it can come to the place of excommunication. Whether we like it or not, that's what the Bible teaches. So what a practical aspect would that be? You've sinned against me, and your next question is, well, how could I do it? What did I do? And so you tell them they're wrong.

And then the answer is, well, I'm sorry. I confess it. I didn't meet your powers, and then it's done.

It's over. How can I make it right? Confirm? Or how can I make it right? There may be restitutions involved. There may be restitutions involved.

Do we have a responsibility for one another in that someone or not speaking of anyone in particular, even if it was myself, does another brother have a responsibility to help the account itself here before we get to eternity? Well, Philippians chapter 4 would be a great example of that. Verse 2, I beseech you, oh yes, if you seek sin to get at me in the same light as the Lord. So he was giving a little nudge.

There was a problem there, and he saw it, and he knew it. And with his apostolic authority, he was saying, get this straight now. So we have a responsibility for one another to try to reconcile before we get to eternity.

In the same epistle, he says, work up your own salvation that you're in trouble. That's not the salvation of anything. That's the salvation of the assembly.

Right there. That's the problem. Work that out now because you're the judgment seat of Christ on earth.

Salvation from strife. Isn't that great? Isn't that really a blessing? Like we see in the Gospels, we see He reconciled with God. It's too soon or too late.

Isn't that it? He reconciled. It's too soon. Do we have any announcements? I just brought that close to this meeting.

We want to thank everyone for coming. And I brought that close to this meeting in prayer to just give thanks for the food that we have to change and set the tables up so bear with us in that respect. You might want to take a get a breath of fresh air.

You know if you're not involved it will be setting up the tables. But please stick around for supper. I guarantee it's going to be good.

Thanks for your help, everyone. Our Father in Heaven, we're thankful that we have been taught to work out our own salvation. We think that a person must be mature and be able to respect and honor one another, and we recognize, Father, that the greatest example we ever had was our Savior, and He, we don't see many times pointing a finger at someone else, but always being the one that was merciful, kind.

By doing those mighty things, He taught us how to be a joyous people, so this has been a good time to be together with those that love Thee. We're thankful for our salvation. We thank Thee now, Father, for the love that we have, because Thou has spread that love abroad.

Now we just say thanks for the food, and we ask that Thou will watch over those that know not Thee, that they may enter into the happy family of Thine own. As we say thanks for all things in Thy name, Amen.