John MacArthur at Angola State Prison: How to Be Reconciled to God | 2010

I was fine some time ago from LA to El Paso Texas I was going down there to do a Men's Conference and sitting on the airplane in the dreaded middle seat everybody hates and I'm squeezed into the middle seat and sitting next to a guy who's obviously Arabic and got my Bible I'm writing some notes and eventually this guy's curiosity gets the best of him and he leans over and says excuse me sir is that a Bible I said yeah it's a Bible he said oh may I ask you a question I said absolutely he said I'm new in America I just immigrated from Iran he said I'm Muslim I don't understand American religion in my country everybody is a Muslim but here it's very confusing here's my question this is exactly what he said sir can you tell me the difference between a Catholic a Protestant and a Baptist now I don't know how he put that all together in that way but that's exactly what he asked me and you know what I knew the answer I knew the difference so I explained the difference this is perfect perfect I explained the difference and I think I got the Baptist in the Protestant category where they belong and I just kind of talked through a little bit I said sir would you mind if I asked you a question no no I said and I knew the answer but I wanted to hear from him do Muslims sin he said huh yes yes in fact we have so many sins I don't even know all the sins I said what happens when you sin it's very bad it's very bad I could go to the hell I said you could go to hell he said yes I said why don't you stop doing I can't stop and then he said this I'm flying to El Paso to do some sins I said why you're flying to El Paso to do some sins what are you talking about he said when I was immigrating there's an El Paso immigration point I met a girl to work for the immigration we we made a friendship and we're going to meet do some sins my gosh this is an honest guy right I said you're gonna make things worse I know I know and then he said this I hope the God Allah Allah will forgive me and I said why would he do that I don't know are you somebody special I said why would you forgive you I don't know I hope did God will forgive me and I said you know something God won't forgive you I know him personally I can tell you he won't forgive you he looked at me like I was out of my mind you know God personally and you're sitting in the middle seat in coach who are you kidding if you knew you got personal you'd have your own jet it me couldn't process that a conversation continued for him there was no pathway no hope no means to receive forgiveness no redemption no salvation and absolutely no hope the best hope he had was to strap a bomb on himself and blow up a bunch of people he said I I just hope D God will forgive me and then I described the true and living God the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ and I explained to him that God wouldn't forgive him unless he accepted the one way to be forgiven and then I told him fully the story of Jesus and he listened to every word I said I got his address said goodbye when we landed I mailed him a bunch of things to read listen to I never heard back now I don't know what the final outcome was but I think I messed up his weekend a little bit but I went away from that really broken in my heart that you have people plunging into a religion that offers them no forgiveness no salvation no redemption no reconciliation with God and no hope you know sometimes when I'm flying people save me what do you do and I say I tell people they can have all their sins forgiven are you interested that's pretty straight isn't it but that's the issue I was flying from New York to LA a guy sat down next to me he had metal coming out of everything and he asked me what do you do and I said I tell people God can forgive all their sins are you interested we had just taken off from New York I never saw him the rest of the flight I think he was in the men's room for five hours there are some people who don't want to talk about that but that's what we do we tell people that there is forgiveness and reconciliation with God now we talked about that today didn't wait a little bit I'm just gonna talk informally to you tonight just kind of follow that up we talked about a father who ran to embrace a wretched sinner right threw his arms around him kissed him all over the head put a robe on him a ring on him sandals on him took him to his house full rights as a son and had a massive celebration invited the whole village to come and celebrate the son that had been forgiven the great story of grace and the question rises out of that how can God do that how can he do that how can he just forgive the sinner now we understand that the Bible tells us God is just and I think you're pretty well acquainted with what justice looks like if I was a judge and I was sitting at the bench and a criminal came into court and said look I'm really sorry but I did that I'm really sorry I know I I killed a lot of people and created mayhem everywhere but Judge I am really sorry I feel so badly about it I just wish you'd forgive me what kind of judge would say sure I'm a compassionate guy you're forgiven what kind of a judge would do that well if a judge ever did that it wouldn't be a judge anymore because his responsibilities uphold justice and if holding justice is a standard operating procedure for a judge and God is the judge of all the earth he has to uphold justice so the question rises as to how God can forgive sin on what basis can he do that and the answer that question comes in a passage that I want you to look at with me for a little bit and do a little Bible study here 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and you're going to see that this is a sweeping reality in Scripture that you may well be familiar with I want to read to you verses 17 and right down to verse 21 2nd Corinthians 5:17 to 21 this is the single great doctrinal passage in this entire epistle 13 chapters and this is the diamond that sits in that setting let me read it if anyone is in Christ he's a new creature the old things passed away behold new things have come now all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the Ministry of reconciliation namely that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them and he's committed to us the word of reconciliation therefore we're ambassadors for Christ as though God were making an appeal through us we beg you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him did you hear the word reconcile five times five times there's a form of the word reconcile this is a passage about the ministry of reconciliation we have been given the end of verse 18 the ministry of reconciliation into verse 19 we have been given the word the message of reconciliation we tell sinners they can be reconciled to God that's our ministry that's our life that's why we're here as Mark said earlier that's the only thing that you don't do in heaven and that's the only reason you're left here to fulfill the Ministry of reconciliation the message of reconciliation to tell sinners they can be reconciled to God consequently verse 20 says we're ambassadors for Christ we're representatives we're his agents we are placed in an alien environment and we have one objective but not social change our one objective is to tell people they can be reconciled to God that God is eager for reconciliation that's what we do now is this passage kind of breaks up into component parts I want to tell you four things that you need to understand about reconciliation okay number one reconciliation is by the will of God it's by the will of God that is really important because if you study ethnology or the science of religion you study world religions you will never find a religion in the world with a God who is by nature a reconciling God you won't find them that is distinctively the god of scripture for example if you were living in Israel in the Old Testament era there were gods all around but they ran on a spectrum from on the one extreme indifferent to the other extreme vicious on the one hand bail bail was indifferent the profits of bail were up on Mount Carmel and they were trying to get his attention remember that what did they do they started yelling they started slicing themselves up and what did the prophet of God say yell louder he might be sleeping now maybe he's on vacation they were dealing with indifference like modern Islam can't get his attention he's way beyond you and doesn't care on the other hand you had the opposite extreme Molech Molech said you want to satisfy me put your baby on the altar and torch it that's what I want that's what I expect the gods of the nations run that spectrum from indifference to vicious hostility there's not a savior anywhere in the panoply of false deities but God is by nature the Saviour look at this if anyone's in Christ he's a new creature old things passed away new things have come verse 18 all these things are from whom God if there is a possibility of reconciliation it has to come from the one who's been offended right david says against thee thee only have I sinned and done this iniquity it is the offended party that sets the terms of reconciliation and it is God against whom all sin is committed and yet reconciliation come from god I love this all these things are from God look at verse 19 it is God in Christ reconciling the world look at verse 20 it is God making an appeal through us begging people to be reconciled God is by nature a savior he is by nature save that's what sets him apart from all false deities all other false deities are the product of Satan right doctrines of demons Satan hates salvation doesn't offer any salvation in any of his false systems but God by nature is a savior I'm gonna illustrate this to you a couple of ways first Timothy 4:10 says God is the savior of all men especially of those who believe that's a kind of strange statement God is the savior of all men especially those who believe well I understand the especially part I understand in this in what sense God is the savior of those who believe but in what sense is he the savior of all men I'll answer that God reveals his patience his compassion his reluctance to judge his saving nature by not giving the sinner the punishment the sinner deserves when he deserves it and you see that the beginning in the book of Genesis God says to Adam in the day you eat you die guess what he lived over 900 years what's that romans 2 calls that the patience and four Barents of God meant to lead you to repentance God doesn't give the sinner the punishment the sinner deserves when the sinner deserves it or none of us would survive because we're born sinners this to me is the greatest element of common grace theologians call that common grace because it is grace common to all people read the Old Testament for example and they say what kind of a God is that what kind of a God is the god of the Old Testament when a couple of young men yell bald head bald head bald head at the prophet and God sends bears out of the wood and destroys 42 of those young men what kind of a God does what kind of a God tears up young men for mocking a prophet what kind of a God opens up the ground and swallows up people for invading the priesthood what kind of a God destroys the the Canaanites kind of a God does that what kind of a God grounds the world leaves only eight souls that's not the question but Justin holy God does that the question is what kind of a God lets the sinner live that's the question what kind of a God lets the sinner live take another breath fall in love smell the roses eat a good meal see a sunset have a baby hug his children sit under beautiful music make a friend kind of a God does that a God who by nature is a savior rescuer patient forbearing that's the real question to ask before God drowned the world he preached righteousness for a hundred and twenty years that's a long time and he had an illustration of what was coming right before everybody God is by nature a saving God but Genesis 6 says my spirit will not always strive with man his justice will come but when it says God's a savior of all men listening that means he is the savior of all men in the physical temporal sense sinners survive they live physically and they live for time none of us should be here should we none of us we should have been catapulted into divine judgment right from our birth because we were guilty we sinned in Adam but God by nature is a saving God you know what's so wonderful about that he puts that saving longing on display across the planet generation after generation in the fact that sinners live and sinners flourish and they can shake their fist in his face now that the psalmist wondered why the right why do they unrighteous prosper right because God is a patient God God said I have no pleasure in what the death of the wicked that's a sad work well then what what does this have to do with us this is so important I don't have to convince God to save the sinner I just have to convince the sinner to accept the salvation this would be a lot tougher if I had to talk God into taking the sinner that's done deal because he will not refuse anyone who comes to him our responsibility is to go to the sinner and to say God is by nature a savior there are some wonderful portions of scripture that indicate this just briefly a little letter of Titus Titus 1 for grace and peace from God the Father in Christ Jesus our Savior but verse 3 at the proper time manifested even his word in the proclamation with which I entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior Christ is our Savior but behind him of course is God who is also the savior chapter 2 verse 13 looking for the Blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ chapter 3 verse 4 when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared and then verse 6 he poured it out richly through Jesus Christ our Savior listen my friend God is a savior in the same way that Christ is the Savior they are one and I'm gonna tell you something this is important and I'm gonna be really honest with you okay how many of you were raised in a Catholic background Roman Catholic okay here's what you were taught you were taught that God is a tough guy you don't want to go directly to him he's distant he's judgmental he's harsh Jesus a little softer but he's got a lot of other things on his mind and you don't really want to go to him you want to get saved go to Mary she's tender she's compassionate and Jesus can't resist Mary and that's the system of Roman Catholic theology and it's all based on the fact that God is a reluctant Savior and Jesus is a kind of a quasi reluctant Savior and if you want to move them toward your salvation go to Mary because Jesus can't resist his mother I Got News for you Mary never heard a prayer from any human being since the day she died and you don't need her there is one mediator between God and man and that's the man Christ Jesus and he is no reluctant Savior and neither is the father reconciliation is by the will of God he's the reconciler Jesus says the son of man has come to seek save the Lost God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son God is the reconciler how liberating is that to know you don't have a reluctant God if you want to know how eager he is to save see his saving desire through the tears of Jesus as he weeps over Jerusalem says I wanted to gather you but you wouldn't come so reconciliation is by the will of God secondly it's by the act of forgiveness verse 19 how is God gonna be reconciled to us by not counting their trespasses against them you got that that's the only way because they are a massive offense to him a scandal a blasphemy a barrier and if we're gonna have any relationship to God that sins got to be removed you know you understand that humanly don't you are you trying to reconcile with a wife you're trying to reconcile with a child trying to reconcile with a person somewhere if there is some standing sin between you that just doesn't happen that reconciliation can't happen until forgiveness takes that sin and moves it out the only way you'll ever be reconciled to God is if he does not impute your sins to you what does that mean he doesn't charge you for them he doesn't hold them against you that's what forgiveness is and when he forgives you the Old Testament says he is a pardoning God the Prophet said he's a pardoning God who's a pardoning God like you it's incomprehensible how God pardons he removes your sins as far as the East is from the West he buries your sin in the depths of the sea and he remembers them no more Wow someday I'm gonna write a book about the people that God forgot the people that God forgot that's the only way you can be reconciled and that's made available to you because through Jesus Christ comes the forgiveness of sins all sin all sin you say well what about the part the sins I don't remember huh they better be covered because if you have to remember them all you'll never be forgiven you say well what about my future sins they're all covered as well he's forgiven all your sins all your sins present and future that's the only way reconciliation could happen and that we're back to the message the Ambassador who preaches the message the word of reconciliation in the Ministry of reconciliation tells sinners forgiveness is available so reconciliation is by the will of God and by the means of forgiveness think about it in infinitely holy God obliterates the entire record of your sin from the moment you come to Christ to the end of your life from the heavenly record it's wiped out erased Colossians 2 right he blotted out the list of sins held against us this is such magnificent magnanimous grace that it's in comprehensible that's not all I told you there were four so I got to think up to more reconciliations by the will of God by the act of forgiveness thirdly by the obedience of faith by the obedience of faith verse 20 we make an appeal it's really God making an appeal through us we beg you be reconciled to God what's implied there is the sinner must come the sinner must believe the sinner must repent this is essential so that salvation is by the obedience of faith that's what we go to sinners and tell them we beg you I love the Apostle Paul he had his theology right he had the theology of divine sovereignty right you know stood the doctrine of election but he spent his whole life pleading with people to put their trust in Jesus Christ he begged them he begged them it cost him it cost him he was beaten with rods multiple times he was whipped multiple times in danger all the time shipwrecked left in the deep deprived all he knew was that he had to spend his life ferreting out every unbelieving sinner he could find and begging that sinner to come to faith in Christ that's what we do that is what we do we plead with sinners to come to Christ it's tough message because you have to deny themselves take up the cross follow tough for a sinner to deny himself right well because he loves himself and because he loves his sin men love darkness John 3 they love their sin they love themselves what do they need to do hate their sin hate themselves and hate the mother and the father and a sister and a brother and everything else that holds them in their sin count the cost total self-denial that's hard one of my favorite stories about Jesus since the tragedy he goes to synagogue in Nazareth Luke 4 that's his hometown it's where he grew up went to the synagogue every sabbath of his life didn't leave till he was 30 everybody knew him Nazareth was a small little town everybody knew everybody that was his synagogue his family went there his extended family went there his neighbors went there as friends and went there everybody went there he shows up about a year into his ministry almost a year in just minutes tree his reputation precedes him about the miracles he'd done at Capernaum which is a few miles away he goes to the synagogue he's the visiting rabbi now hometown boy they hand him the scripture he gets Isaiah 60:1 and he reads the passage and he he reads the best news that those people had ever heard the news they've been waiting for all their lives it was this Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to preach the gospel the good news and the good news is this to proclaim the gospel to the poor to proclaim release to the captives recovery of sight to the blind to set free those that are oppressed and to declare the favorable year of the Lord what's he talking about he's not talking about people who are poor with money he's not talking about people who are in jail he's not talking about people who are physically blind he's not talking about people who are struggling in their life and can't kind of crawl up out of the hole he's talking about this he's saying the gospel comes to people who know that spiritually they are poor prisoners blind and oppressed he's calling for a beatitude attitude of brokenness spiritual bankruptcy mourning over one sin hunger and thirst for righteousness he came into those sophisticated self-confident self-righteous Jews in his own town who knew him since he was a boy and must have known that he was not like any other person they had ever met and he tells them here's the good news the good news is freedom spiritual sight spiritual deliverance salvation you know how the service ended they picked up stones tried to kill him try to kill him what what does a hometown boy do when he preaches his first sermon back in his hometown and gets him so mad they try to kill him What did he say what he said was there's no salvation for you until you see yourself as a poor prisoner blind and oppressed spiritually and that offended them so greatly that they tried to take his life that's tough for the sinner to admit and the more self-righteous you are the tougher it is that's why it was always the publicans and the outcasts and the lowlifes and the riffraff and the prostitutes that came to Jesus they knew what they were it's faith sometimes faith is hard you know the disciples came to Jesus one day and one of them said this are there just a few being saved remember that Luke are there just a few but you know trying to figure it out well they'd seen Jesus you do understand that there was never a disease ever actually cured until 1885 there's nobody knew what caused them do you understand that there had never been an actual cure of a disease because there's never been a diagnosis of a disease and do you understand that Jesus comes into that world where nobody's ever been cured of anything and banishes illness from Israel for the duration of his ministry heals blind people deaf people dumb people people with brain problems he gives him a new brain he gives him new internal organs and do you understand there was no rehab do you understand that if you'd been lying down for 38 years and he said get up you got up and ran you understand the disciples were with him every single day watching this and finally about two years into the ministry they say you are the Christ come finally I mean what does it take and they only said that after he walked on water they were there when he made lunch you know how he makes lunch lunch feeds 5,000 men up to 25,000 people goes to Decapolis does it again with 4,000 people they were there they were there when he sent all those demons out of that maniac and they went into those pigs and did a swine dive you know you'd think they would have rolled over a long time sooner but the heart is so hard and the Pharisees come to Jesus and they say show us a sign he says no more no more signs except one and the next one will be the resurrection and you know what they didn't believe that even though they knew it happened they bribed the soldiers to tell a lie that's how hard the human heart is and that's why we end up begging sinners to be reconciled it's not easy to shatter those things that hold them just thought about that you ever think about spiritual warfare talk about a lot of people confuse about that they think it means you chasing demons don't be doing that you're gonna wind up like the sons of sceva the demons gonna say Paul we know in Jesus we know but who are you you don't have apostolic authority here's what spiritual warfare is 2nd Corinthians 10:3 - 5 spiritual war for the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly but they're spiritual this is key they are mighty unto God divinely powerful for the pulling down of strongholds now the word stronghold is the word for fortress ok it's the word for fortress it's the word for prison it's the word for tomb because they're all made out of stone people are captive in prisons fortifications that become their tombs we do war against that what are they well he says we need weapons mighty unto God for the pulling down of strongholds and in the next line he says this even their log is mus what are those ideologies ideas theories viewpoints philosophies religions that's what we're going after we're not chasing demons we're going after the minds of people that are literally imprisoned and entombed in wrong thinking wrong theology lies and deception and there's only one way to smash those fortresses the only way you smash lies is with what truth you say look they all you guys need to go to seminary you need to go to Bible College I'm telling you if you want to smash the fortifications you've got to know the truth that crushes the lies this is not easy we go against this we go against it with the truth our only weapon is the truth we don't have apostolic authority to chase demons around town and that wouldn't do it anyway but we can bring the truth to bear to crush the strongholds of lies and deception and that's what we do if we're going to call sinners to faith in the truth one final point so reconciliation is by the will of God it is by the means of forgiveness it is appropriated by the obedience of faith and lastly and this is the heart of everything this is really the heart of everything reconciliation look at verse 21 is by the work of substitution it's by the work of substitution now let's get back to our original question what kind of judge would you be if you said I'm sad for you I'm compassionate on you you're forgiven fill your way next case it wouldn't be a good judge so Paul asked this question in Romans how can God be just and the justifier of sinners right at the same time how can he do that how can he be just and the justifier of sinners and here's the answer verse 21 he god made him who knew no sin who's that right short list short list one name he who knew no sin the writer of hebrews says about jesus he was holy harmless undefiled and separate from sinners and god said about him this is my beloved son whom I'm well pleased he made God made Jesus listen the Greek says God made him who knew no sin sin what does that mean you got to be careful about that I've heard prosperity preachers say it means that on the cross Jesus became a sinner it is he was a lamb without blemish and without spot and he was as holy hanging on the cross as he was before and ever will be I've heard preachers say he on the cross he became a sinner and had to go to hell for three days to pay for his sins and then God released him to be resurrected that's a blasphemous idea and if that's true then why did Jesus say my God my God why if he was a sinner there'd be no why no he's not a sinner on the cross listen in what sense that when lo what senses he made sin one sense get this and you get the picture God treated Jesus as if he was a sinner though he was not I'll take it further God treated Jesus as if he had personally committed every sin ever committed by every person who would ever believe though in truth he committed none of them I'll go further on the cross God treated Jesus as if he lived your life he punished Jesus for your sins Jesus literally took the full punishment from God for every sin ever committed by every person who would ever believe in him he committed none of them that's why he could say from the depths of his soul my God my God why have you forsaken me now look think about it there are sinners who are gonna be in hell forever and all the time they're there forever they'll be paying for their sins and they'll never complete the payment now think about it if people will live forever in hell and never complete the payment for their sin how can Jesus pay in full the payment for all the sins of all the people who will ever believe and do it in one day I'll go even further I think he did it in three hours I think it was the three hours of darkness you say how can he bear the punishment that could last forever for all the people who belong to God through all human history in to do it three hours and the answer is this he is an infinite person and therefore had an infinite capacity to absorb an infinite judgment look the pathos of the cross the agony the cross isn't the nails and it isn't the crown and it isn't the beating it's the sin bearing that's what made him sweat drops of blood in the garden just anticipating that now God treated Jesus as if he lived your life in my life that's not all look at the rest of the verse he who knew no sin was made sin on our behalf for us listen to this one so that we might become the righteousness of God in him now let me help you see what that means that's the flip side of substitution on the cross God treats Jesus as sinful so that he can treat you as righteous I'll say it another way on the cross God treats Jesus as if he lived your life and now he treats you as if you lived his on the cross God looked and saw you when he saw his son and now he looks and sees his son when he looks at you I mean is that rich is that that's what it is now somebody say why did Jesus have to live for 33 years I used to think you know if I was God I'd say Jesus I need to go down and die I need you to go down on a Friday and be back on Monday there's no sense stringing this deal out just go down there die pay the penalty no no came down born lives lives as a child lives as a teenager lives as a young adult lives a full-grown man why why because he answered John the Baptist with this I must fulfil all righteousness he had to live a full life of perfection so that that full life could be credited to your account all your sin placed on him his perfect life credited to your account so when record is seen by God concerning you there are no sins there all that's there is the life of Christ as if you lived that life that's the glory of grace that's the glory of grace mazing grace how sweet that saved a wretch like me I once was lost but uh was blind but now I see twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears really ha precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed but the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all when we've been there ten thousand years bright shining us the Sun we know last days to sing God's praise than when we first begun Lord Jesus we thank you we praise you for what you have done for us unworthy sinners we're uh Turley unworthy we will remain unworthy we can do nothing to earn our salvation it is a gift beyond comprehension Thank You O Father for looking down on us in our need and removing our sin and placing it on your son and placing his righteousness on us so that there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ thank you Lord for granting us your Holy Spirit that he would take up a residence in us to live in us and live through us and empower us for this Ministry of reconciliation may we tell sinners that you are a reconciling God and may we plead with them and beg with them to put their faith in you that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ might be applied to them they might exchange their sin for his righteousness be honored Oh Lord in our lives be honored in this place be exalted here we pray and all for your glory amen

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Length: 52min 43sec (3163 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 19 2019