Truth and Life Session 1 - John MacArthur

last sunday some of you may have been here but last sunday i i spoke pretty pointedly on the fact that we are in america living in a time unlike any in the past in this sense that we have essentially an evil king in an evil set of counselors to the king and an evil set of agents to the king and when i say we have a king for the first time in american history we have a king who is ruling by fiat through executive orders at a at a rate that's dizzying bypassing all the normal uh processes that the separation of powers are intended to protect he is a king and he is motivated to do those things that are evil blatantly against the true and living king the lord jesus christ that this is sad in some ways because it is both a defection from god and a judgment of god god gives them over to their sin when they choose blatantly to sin so you have leadership not only choosing to sin but thus finding themselves wrapped up in the wrath of god and as back in the book of hosea where god said to israel i gave you kings of my anger and took them away in my wrath and those are imperfect verbs which means he kept doing it and if you study the history of israel you know there were ten of them in a row given by god in his anger and taken away in his wrath and an equally bad or worse one followed that we are in the cycle of divine judgment showing up because of the evil character of leadership and while on the one hand that is a tragedy on the other hand it produces clarity more so than in any time in my life there is a clear distinction between the truth of the word of god and the gospel and the culture i said on sunday or one of these recent sundays that for most of my ministry life i've been talking to the church about getting the gospel right i wrote a book years ago called the gospel according to jesus try to help believers understand what the gospel is then another book the gospel according to the apostles and then the gospel according to paul and then the gospel according to god and then ashamed of the gospel and then the jesus you can't ignore and book after book after book after book conference after conference sermon after sermon warning people from matthew 7 not everybody who says lord lord will enter the kingdom of heaven and trying to help the church understand that they needed to be true to the word of god the true gospel and sound doctrine it was a hard sell to be honest with you it was a hard sell because fake christianity was so financially successful it was so viable in all of its forms everything from the prosperity gospel to pragmatism to social justice whatever it was it sold and so because it sold whether it was sentimentalism or some form of socialism it sold and so people could succeed and build empires and become rich and now that may not be the case now that the evil empire is in power and resents all things that where the christian label might be harder to be a fake christian get away with it and make a lot of money doing it i like that i like when things are clear and stark and i've never seen a time in my life when there was this kind of clarity between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light when you have the secretary of state sworn in and he puts his hand on a bible and swears in the swearing in to become secretary of state of the united states to put a gay pride flag on every u.s embassy on the globe something twisted has taken over i go back years ago to the fact that if someone was a homosexual it was something you hid your whole life that's where the phrase come out of the closet came from and now they're making laws to criminalize people who say anything against it that's how flipped this society is so we live in a culture of lie satan's a liar his demonic forces are liars and his agents are liars and uh we're living in the kingdom of lies and it has taken over which helps because the truth is so clear against the lie and that is why there is a canceled culture the one thing lies can't tolerate is truth you're not surprised are you that they're shutting down everything that's true to protect all the lies i said on sunday there's a taiwanese general who said he was asked the question do you how do you deal with china's chinese propaganda he said we have an entire department in the taiwanese government to search and find everything the chinese censor and we know that's the truth you have to think like that in this world you have to think in a protective way you have to think with a discerning mind a culture is always known by what it will not tolerate and this culture will not tolerate the bible god jesus christ the gospel and the true church and frankly that kind of stark contrast is healthy for us it's the way it really should be because it's very difficult to survive in the middle and you're in fact watching a lot of the chaos in that sort of middle ground evangelicalism as it disintegrates breaks up fights quarrels argues it's part of the disintegration of the hypocritical middle people with one foot in the kingdom of light and one foot in the kingdom of darkness trying to survive when those two are separated so far [Music] so this is an amazing time to be alive people sometimes say well this is a terrible time to raise your children this is a perfect time to raise your children they've never been more necessary like esther you've come to the kingdom for such a time as this right this is you you're here that's the plan that is not a mistake you're right here in the middle of the united states of america a nation under judgment as evidenced by the fact that it's gone through a sexual revolution a homosexual revolution and now it is characterized by a reprobate mind a mind that can't function and that's when you're a man you think you're a woman that's how insane it is and then you make laws to protect that insanity this is a nation under judgment god made you for this time he made the masters university for this time this is the best of times i said a couple of weeks ago i watched my one-year-old great-grandson take his first trek on his little tiny legs around the campus of grace church and somebody said whoa what kind of world is he going to face and i said exactly the world that god ordained for him to face and we're praying that he will be a light because god has designed his people to be light shining in the perverse generation so the perversity has never been this stark in my lifetime and again that is very very helpful to the gospel at the same time you're going to have to have a spine you're going to have to have some courage some conviction because they're coming after us so what's our responsibility why are we here one reason open your bible to second corinthians chapter five uh second corinthians chapter five and i want to read a text for you and then uh kind of hope to open it up a little bit so you'll understand what you're to do while we're here second corinthians 5 and we'll pick it up at um verse 16. therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh that's a good word from now on we don't look people we don't look at people we don't judge them according to anything external or superficial you've got to get past making judgments on people by looking at the outside even though we have known christ according to the flesh yet now we know him in this way no longer we now think in supernatural categories we live in a different paradigm the one we have not seen we love as peter says we are christ followers we've been singing to a christ we've never seen we surrendered again to a christ we've never seen we love a christ we've never seen we have to look at people in the same way not according to the flesh but according to the spiritual issues we've got to get past the surface and that's tough because this culture is so consumed with the outside so if we start seeing people as entities that will live forever either in heaven or hell if we start looking at people from the spiritual perspective and noting that the only thing that really matters is their relationship to christ we're in the right position to be useful in this kingdom if we're caught up with style and superficial things to the degree that we are caught up with that our usefulness to the kingdom disintegrates so we have to have a spiritual perspective again looking past the superficial things past things that are on the surface we have to see people as eternal souls headed for heaven or hell we also have to recognize in verse 17 that there's only one possible way out if anyone is in christ he's a new creature the old things passed away behold new things have come the only hope for these souls is to be connected to christ the only hope is that they be in christ become new creations that they pass from death to life that old things are replaced by new things the old things of their sinful natures and the new things of their recreated nature created in christ jesus so that's sort of the introduction to the text that i i want you to look at we have to see people as eternal spiritual souls we have to see them in the way that we see christ we have to look at the invisible as we look at him as the invisible redeemer their invisible souls have to be as vitally important to us in some sense as the very vision we have of christ because unless we see them that way we pass by them without a sense of responsibility we have to know that the only hope is christ then verse 18 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 are 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 one word appears five times in what i just read it's the word reconciliation we have been given according to verse 18 the ministry of reconciliation the ministry of reconciliation is god verse 19 in christ reconciling the world to himself and then he has committed to us the word of reconciliation we have a ministry of reconciliation and that is we are instruments of god as he reconciles the world to himself through christ and our responsibility is to proclaim the word of reconciliation in that sense we are ambassadors in other words we are agents of another kingdom deployed in this world for the sake of the ministry of reconciliation we all understand the word reconciliation we understand the word alienation and men are born into the world alienated from god cut off from the life of god scripture says they are totally depraved in the sense that they are neither able or willing to come to god it's impossible no one seeks after god they're all dead in trespasses and sins dead people can't feel or see or act so we're essentially dealing with spiritually dead souls and our responsibility is to go to them with the living power of the gospel that's why we're here if all the lord wanted out of us was worship we should be in heaven where we can do that perfectly if all the lord wanted out of us was knowledge of his word we should go there where we'll know as we are known if all the lord wanted out of us was perfect fellowship we need to go to heaven where fellowship can be everything god wants it to be no he left us here for the fulfilling of the great commission which is to go and preach the gospel to every creature ours is the ministry of reconciliation our joy is to tell sinners they can be reconciled to god i remember flying across the country years ago next to a long-haired rock and roll guy and he said to me what do you do i said i have a great job i go around and tell people they can be reconciled to god would you be interested in that never forget it he got up this is about 30 minutes into the flight five-hour flight from new york and never came back it was a large plane i guess he melted into another middle seat no no thank you i'm not interested in being reconciled to god on the other hand there are those whom the lord has prepared whose hearts are ready and when you say to them do you have any interest in being reconciled to god i remember saying that to a guy who was a football player at the university of kentucky flying out here for a new job we were flying somewhere over chicago and i asked him that question he said i i am i'm so interested in being reconciled to god he was a tight end at the university of kentucky and i baptized him right here where i'm standing when he gave his life to christ god is the one who determines the interest we are the instruments that give the message of reconciliation so let's talk about reconciliation we tell sinners they can be reconciled to god which assumes then that we have to tell them they are alienated from god the evangelical world is so tangled up these days in political issues and social issues that it has lost the singularity of its message it is busy blaming culture for people's problems blaming history for people's problems blaming white people for people's problems or blaming black people for problems or blaming social inequities for problems this is ru so this is the theory that has polluted western civilization now since rousseau's time through karl marx down to today the idea that you're not responsible for what's wrong with you somebody else is this is the devastating thing that the church has bought into which has cut it off from the singularity of its message that you are what you are and where you are and who you are because you are a wretched sinner society can provide lots of elements to fulfill that but your nature is dead in trespasses and sin [Music] that has to be the message that's the work of the holy spirit to convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment so it has to be the message convicting them of sin righteousness and judgment so we are then calling people to be reconciled to god we have to tell them first of all then that they're alienated from god it's not a social issue it's not an economic issue it's not about poverty it's not about lack of education it's not about inequities not about something somebody did to you or did to somebody related to you in the past you are alienated from god by virtue of your fallenness your sinfulness your inability to come to him and your unwillingness to do so but here's the good news and i want to give you a few points to think about okay and they're right in the text the first one is this reconciliation is by the will of god reconciliation is by the will of god look at verse 18. now all these things are from god all these things are from god god is the reconciler god is the reconciler he's the one who reconciled us to himself through christ he's the one who gave us the ministry of reconciliation he's the one who is in christ reconciling the world he's the one not counting their trespasses against them he is the one who sent us to beg people to be reconciled he's the one who provided the sacrifice so reconciliation is by the will of god let me talk about that for a moment the heart of god is expressed perhaps as vividly as anywhere in the new testament in the story of the prodigal son the prodigal son was the worst sinner that jesus could invent to make his point in that parable he created a young man that would not be able to exist at least in the minds of the pharisees who were listening to him in israel because no young man would be that blatantly bad no young man would be so disrespectful to his father that he would go to his father and demand his inheritance which he wasn't to receive until his father had died and in effect you're saying to your father i wish you were dead what respectable jewish young men would ever do that no young jewish man would then take the estate that he was given and go to a foreign country and spend it on prostitutes the gasps of the pharisees are audible even today he was such a wretched man he ended up begging for food that was fed to pigs we know something about the husks that were fed to pigs the human digestive system can't digest them so he couldn't even eat pig food i mean he's eating pigs that's not kosher everything he did was as outrageous as jesus could make it he was the most wretched young man imaginable and when he decides to come back the pharisees are getting to feel a little better now and they're anticipating jesus is going to say his father said to him go go to the field the lowest level of service work back every penny you wasted that is restoration that has to happen you go out there you earn every bit of it back and maybe if you're able to do that you'll be restored to the family and that's what the young man thought because he rehearses in his mind when i go back i'm going to say to my father make me one of your slaves and i'll work to earn it back but instead we find the father looking for him longingly and when he sees him afar off he runs and throws his arms around him and kisses him all over his pig stinking head puts a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet and throws a party and that's god taking back the worst sinner conceivable that's the good news folks if you're a roman catholic you would be taught this that god is hard god is not only hard but god is busy and you don't really want to go to god if you need anything he's he's the law giver and he's the judge and he's the executioner and got a lot on his mind so jesus is a little more um understanding because he's a man and jesus is a little more sympathetic but you really don't want to go to jesus either because jesus was pretty harsh and jesus is also busy with a lot of things apparently so that theology is essentially says that you don't want to go to god for reconciliation you really probably don't even want to go to jesus for reconciliation but there is somebody jesus can't resist and that's mary so the catholic church invented an entire system to pray to mary because mary's going to convince jesus to be kind to you and uh mary is so important to jesus he can't resist her pleas this is a blasphemous assault on god our savior who will have all men to come to repentance god our savior who god who is the savior paul says to timothy of all men god who by nature is a savior this is the good news you can tell sinners that god is a reconciling god it'd be a tougher assignment if you not only had to convince the sinner he needed to be reconciled then you had to figure out a way to convince god he needed to take him back but god is that loving father who pulls his robe up which is a way to shame yourself in the middle east and runs through the village top speed throws his arms around a wretched sinner the son of man reflects that doesn't he luke 19 10 the son of man has come to do what seek and save the lost he's not trying to avoid the lost he's going after them this is the best possible news if you're going to be engaged in a ministry of reconciliation you want to know that the one who has all the power to reconcile is in on it right you don't want to say to the sinner you need to be reconciled to god let me talk to you about it and then i'll go talk to god and see if he's willing no god is by nature a savior in fact god already knows who the sheep are and when you preach to them the ministry of reconciliation they will hear that because they hear his voice so reconciliation is by the will of god that's the good news you're doing god's work you get the joy of taking the hand of the filthy prodigal and walking him to the reconciling father the second thing that this text shows us is reconciliation is by the means of forgiveness go back to verse 19 how can god reconcile sinners if he is just how can he do this not counting their trespasses against them this is absolutely staggering this is the issue when you're in the ministry of reconciliation proclaiming the word of reconciliation you're saying you can be reconciled to god your sins can be forgiven total forgiveness of all their sins not counting their trespasses against them oh he counted their trespasses believe me they're in the books every sin every person's ever committed is in the books and listen every sin ever committed by every person who's ever lived must be paid for in full either by that sinner eternally or in christ at calvary every sin will be paid for for those who come to christ full atonement is made by christ himself god is willing to forgive your sin that's the prodigal again forgiving putting the sandals on which means you're a son not a slave putting the ring on full family authority having a massive celebration but this is where evangelism gets touchy because if you're going to take seriously the ministry of reconciliation in the word of reconciliation you have to come to this question do you desire to have your sins forgiven do you desire to be delivered from sin that is the question and mark it people don't hate their sin the bible says they love it they love it they hate god they hate his word they hate truth they hate virtue they hate anything that condemns their behavior as sin this is the challenge because this is the challenge in evangelism this is the point that often gets overlooked wouldn't you like jesus to fix your life make you happy wait a minute we don't get to that until we've gone through the point of sin why do you think they killed jesus not because he offered them eternal life but because he condemned them as sinners even though they were highly religious it was that offense that caused them to hand him over to the romans and execute him so this is a tough sell it's tough jesus makes it clear it's tough that's that's why it's hard it's hard to believe i wrote a book called hard to believe it's hard to believe it's really impossible on your own unaided by the holy spirit but you have to go there you have to go there you can't leave that out that's what salvation is it's not salvation from loneliness it's not salvation from lack of fulfillment or lack of satisfaction it's not salvation from some social ill it's not salvation from some anxiety it's salvation from sin if they're not interested in that you give them a warning that they're on the way to eternal hell reconciliation has to go through forgiveness and the sinner has to want that there's a third element in this thinking about the ministry of reconciliation it is by the will of god by the means of forgiveness and by the response thirdly of faith by the response of faith go down to verse 20. we are ambassadors for christ as though god were making an appeal through us we beg you on behalf of christ be reconciled to god you're begging the sinner you say well isn't it all sovereign it is sovereign but at the same time the sinner must believe in the first chapter of mark's gospel there's a simple line in verse 15 the kingdom of god is at hand repent and believe in the gospel it doesn't happen without faith beg them that's right beg them to believe beg them to come beg them it's hard it's hard because you have to sacrifice father mother sister brother listen the new testament says you have to hate your own life if you're going to believe it's not adding jesus to the other things it's if any man come after me let him deny himself that's the hard part about saving faith it's total self-denial picking up a cross which means any sacrifice for the savior he's that valuable to me and following him you have to believe and so you're calling the sinner to believe and you're promising the sinner this in verse 17 come to christ come to christ be a new creature let the old things disappear and all the wonderful new things of the kingdom come believe all through the book of acts believe believe believe believe believe the verb stuart all through the book of acts as the apostles preached called people to faith there's one other element of this that is absolutely critical so reconciliation is by the will of god by the means of forgiveness and by the response of faith and here's the key it is by the work of substitution it is by the work of substitution because god's going to have to protect his justice how can god say okay i'm going to forgive you i'm going to forgive all your sins sins past present future i'm i'm going to accept you no matter what your life has been or even will be i'm going to reconcile you to myself how can god do that how can god in the words of paul be just and the justifier of sinners how how is that possible for god to maintain his justice and righteousness and at the same time forgive sinners uh if you went into court and you had committed a series of crimes let's say a long list of crimes and you were brought before the judge and the basically the prosecutors came out laid it all down showed all the evidence and the judge said um what do you feel about this and you said please forgive me judge and the judge said hey no problem i got another case in 10 minutes you're forgiven case dismissed that man wouldn't be a judge because the judge's responsibility is to uphold the law and the violation has to be punished and that's true in the life of everyone who ever comes to christ the law has to be held up and punishment has to be executed what is god going to do to protect himself from being unholy to protect himself from being thought of as whimsical and not righteous the answer comes in 15 greek words in verse 21 that may be the most important 15 greek words in your bible he god made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of god in him wow that verse is the essence of the gospel god made him who knew no sin who's that only one person had no sin holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners the child who was holy that's the lord jesus christ so god made him who knew no sin literally the greek says he made him who knew no sin sin what is that did christ become a sinner that's what kenneth copeland likes to say that on the cross christ became a sinner and had to go to hell to pay for it that is blasphemous he was a lamb without blemish and without spot what does it mean the one who knew no sin god made sin simply this that he treated him as if he were a sinner let me go further he treated him as if he had committed all the sins of all the people through all of human history who would ever believe that's an incalculable amount of sin let me say it again he treated him the father treated the son on the cross as if the son had personally committed all the sins of all the people who would ever believe he paid for all of them you say wait a minute when people go to hell eternity in hell doesn't even pay for their sins eternity in hell doesn't even pay for one person's sin how can christ gather up all the sins of all the people who would ever believe through all of human history and pay for them essentially in three hours the only answer i can give you is because he's an infinite person he has an infinite capacity to be an infinite substitute he became a curse for us galatians 3. peter says that this way he bore our sins in his body our sins isaiah says it this way he was wounded for our transgressions bruised for our iniquities chastised for our peace our sins were laid on him this is the great christian doctrine of imputation that launched the reformation when it had been covered over by centuries of romanism the work of christ was to die in our place even today that's not popular there are british theologians who argue that that is cosmic child abuse statements which reveal their lack of understanding which reveals that they don't know the truth and then they don't know the god they're speaking of this verse let me just have you look at it for a few minutes so god treats jesus as if he committed all our sins let's just make it personal on the cross god treated jesus as if he committed your sins my sins let me say it another way on the cross god treated jesus as if he as if he lived your life get that on the cross god if you're a believer in christ god treated jesus as if he had lived your life and punished him in three hours of cosmic wrath for all the sins that you will ever commit this is the massive incomprehensible reality of saving grace but that's not all look at the backside of the verse so that we might become the righteousness of god in him so he takes on our sin and we get his righteousness now listen on the cross god treated jesus as if he lived your life did it out of love and grace that he might be reconciled to you it's the only way sin had to be paid for so he poured out his wrath for your sin on christ he treated him as if he'd lived your life listen to this so that he could treat you as you as if you lived his life you know if i suppose if um i had been the lord jesus in heaven having a conversation with the father i might have said well you want me to do what you want me to go down there why don't i just go down on friday i'll die i'll rise on sunday and you know just get it over on a weekend why do i have to go for 33 years why do i have to go and be born why do i have to be conceived and carried in a womb and carried as a baby and a child and a young teenager an adult why jesus answered that when he said he had to come and fulfill all righteousness listen he had to live a full life that could be credited to your account he was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin and what all points means is chronologically he lived a full life a fully sinless life theologians call that his active righteousness his passive righteousness he dies as a sacrifice our sins are imputed to him his active righteousness he lives a perfectly holy life this is my beloved son says the father in whom i am well pleased and here's the benefit of that god treats you as if you lived his life because you're in christ that's why when you go to heaven you sit on his throne with him you become a joint heir with him this is the gospel the world has always needed the gospel the world has not and will not generally speaking want to hear it because they love their sin so we're left here with this ministry of reconciliation using the word of reconciliation which is the gospel and we're begging people on behalf of god to be reconciled that's the ministry god's called us to and as i said at the beginning i love the i love the clarity with which things are being presented to us today the darkness is out of the closet folks uh you don't have to be a hypocrite anymore you can sin any way you want as openly as you want to do it short of murdering someone but that could change as we flip everything as we denounce civil authority and police and free more criminals part of this whole upside down world there's a starkness in the realities that we see and again that's helpful to us and i think also there were times when sinners had some pacifying kind of features in life this culture offers them none of that this culture is so base and filth is so available that it just drags people down to the gutter faster than any culture ever and the gutter is sort of where you have to be to understand your desperation so this is an incredible opportunity the lord has brought us to that's why you're in the kingdom can't think of a more wonderful thing i'm glad i'm here at this age and i'm glad i know i'm here it's a little bonus um this is why you're here as a believer some of you i'm not talking about you because you're not really committed to christ you haven't confessed to him as a lord you haven't asked him to forgive your sin and you haven't said i want to deny myself and take up my cross and follow you you need to do that that's between you and god you need to cry out to him there's not a formula for that there's not a little prayer that you pray for that you have to ask god to save you he has all the sovereignty and salvation you even have to beg him to save you plead with him to save you there's not a formula for that you have to force your way into the kingdom it has to be the plea of a heart that is weary with sin and longing for grace and blessing father we thank you for the gospel thank you for saving us thank you for putting all these precious people under the sound of the truth i pray lord for every person here those who know the truth but have not embraced you i pray lord that you will open the eyes of their hearts so that they can mean everything we just sown give them that new life make them a new creation manifesting that newness in all that pleases you for all the rest of us fill us with joy in believing and joy in the privilege of proclaiming the message of reconciliation to lost sinners jesus that way we pray for your glory amen you

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Length: 45min 49sec (2749 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 19 2021