Take your Bibles and turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. We're going to be looking at verses 21, excuse me, 16, all the way to chapter 6, verse 2. Let's find that. Let's stand together. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 16. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. We are ambassadors for Christ. God-making is appealed through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Working together with him then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain, for he says, in a favorable time, I listen to you. In a day of salvation, I have helped you. Behold, now is the favorable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation." The grass withers and the flowers fade, but not God's Word. It abides forever. Please be seated. Many of you remember the name George Shultz. He was the Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan, the Ronald Reagan administration. And George Shultz, when he was Secretary of State, used to keep this large globe in his office. And when he was about to send out new ambassadors or diplomats, Or when somebody on their post was coming back and they were doing a debrief with the Secretary of State, he would often put them to a test and he would send them to the large globe in his office and he would have them, he would say to them, I want you to prove to me that you can locate your country. And so they would spin the globe and then they would wait for it to stop and then they inevitably, this is almost 100% of the time, people would put their finger on the country to which they were sent. And then one time, he was about to deploy one of his very best friends, Mike Mansfield, who served in the Senate. Now he was being sent as the ambassador to Japan. And so he put his friend, Mike Mansfield, to the test. And Mike Mansfield went over there, spun the globe, put his finger on the United States of America, and said, this is my country. This is who I represent. And so from that time on, as George Shultz described on an interview with C-SPAN, he said this, I told that story subsequently to all the ambassadors going out, never forget you're over there in that country, but your country is the United States. You're there to represent us. You know, all of God's children, all of God's people, when He calls us to Himself, we become His ambassadors. It's not something that you work up to. It's not something where you receive a phone call from the elders, from the deacons, and or the pastor, and they say, kneel down and we're going to knight you with the sword that you are now an ambassador for Jesus Christ. It is God who appoints this commission. It is God who sends you out. He is the reconciler, and you become an instrument of reconciliation, an agent for Him, when you are reconciled to God. And that's very important for us to consider. This morning we're looking at a section of chapter 5 where Paul has, if you've been with us the last couple of weeks, Paul has been building up, there's this crescendo, this mounting evidence upon mounting evidence upon mounting evidence of God's love for you. Alienation from God has now been replaced with reconciliation. Hostility and enmity with God has now been replaced with enmity. Our deserved judgment from God has now been replaced by His affection. And so this is very crucial for us to dive in and consider this because every day you get up out of bed, you put your feet on the floor and you walk out of your house. Most of you walk out of your house. Some of you are remote workers and you never leave your house until Sunday, right? But you get up and you leave the house and the world screams at you. to adopt its values, its worldview. And so it becomes sometimes very difficult for us to remember our diplomatic identity. So this morning we're going to, as we can consider this wonderful passage, we're going to spin the globe, if you will. We're going to spin the globe and we're going to remember and really think through what it means that we have this diplomatic identity and rediscover with wonder, I hope and pray, the wonders of being reconciled to God. So three things we're going to look at this morning. First of all, the sweet fruit of reconciliation, the sweet fruit of reconciliation. Second of all, the critical foundation of reconciliation. And then last, a clear-minded ambassador of reconciliation. Let's begin with the sweet fruit of reconciliation, verse 16 and 17. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard Him thus no longer. Therefore, there's another therefore, right? If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. So, last week we considered Paul's motivation for for everything, for life and for ministry. His everything motivation was what? It was Jesus dying in his place. It was Jesus resurrection from the dead. And that changes everything. And he says, if you recall, because of that, because of Jesus dying in my place, and because Jesus rose from the dead, I no longer live for myself. What a magnificent verse. And then he advances his thinking to say, and therefore we no longer regard any person according to flesh. We don't evaluate people according to outward appearances, what we look like. our educational background, our ability, our family connections, our political affiliations, all of those things. Now, before his conversion, Paul regarded people according to the flesh. He regarded Jesus according to the flesh. Before his conversion, he thought Jesus was a big loser, a liar, a fraud, a fake messiah. He regarded people according to what they do. He regarded people according to their outward appearances and not the matters of the heart. Now this is really kind of ironic because the irony continues here. Paul's opponents, his critics in Corinth As an apostle, they regarded Paul according to the flesh, and they concluded by, you know, they didn't think that he was a very overwhelming speaker. They didn't think that, you know, because he didn't receive a paycheck or because trouble just seemed to follow him all around, that he was just a big fat loser, just a big loser. They regarded him according to the flesh. So this is really kind of irony here. And we know that his conversion story, when Paul was on the Damascus road, he was going from town to town persecuting the church, persecuting Christians. Jesus stopped him in his tracks in a blinding light. Jesus revealed himself as risen Lord, and he convinced Paul of his misery and sin, and he persuaded and enabled Paul to embrace Jesus as Lord and Savior, and that changed everything for Paul. So from that point on, Paul sees kind of the important things of life, the value of a soul, the matter of the heart, the price that Jesus paid. And the fruit of that is verse 16 and 17. He doesn't go around now evaluating people according to the world's standards. We just typically, we just slip into that mode typically where we just evaluate people according to our culture's standards. Remember when God sent out Samuel to anoint Israel's king, he sent Samuel out, sent the prophet out with a warning. Remember the warning? He says, just remember, Man looks at what? The appearances, but God looks at the heart. So he sent the prophet out with that in mind. Well, there's a second fruit. The first fruit is not regarding people according to the flesh. The second fruit is what? We now see God's reconciled people as what? New creation. New creation. We see God's reconciled people as a new creation. What is that all about? Well, by birth, we are in Adam. But by the new birth, born again, we are now in Christ. So we are in Christ and we are new creations. The Greek is very explosive in this, verse 17. It's really this, if anyone's in Christ, boom, new creations. There's not a verb there. If anyone is in Christ, new creation. Very powerful and explosive. And I think God gives us a new heart, he makes our hearts new. And this links back to chapter four, if you remember chapter four, where God is talking about shining the light in our heart and he likens it to Genesis one where God says, let there be light. I'm gonna read you chapter four, verse six. It was God who said, let light shine out of darkness. That sounds like Genesis one, doesn't it? He's really talking about something else. He has shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus." So he's kind of, he's linking this work of new creation in your hearts to Genesis 1, where he formed heaven and earth. He let there be light. Only God can do that. So, kind of in summary, as we think about this, when we're born, every human being, without exception, we're joined to Adam. Adam is our spiritual father. Adam is our federal head that was chosen to represent us. And so everything that Adam did, counts as that we have done. Whatever Adam deserves counts as what we deserve. So sin and death, here's the implication, sin and death, that's your inheritance by birth. It's pretty bleak. But now what? Here's the good news, verse 17, but now We are in Christ. We are new creations. We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. I want to illustrate this by two little stories out of St. Augustine's life. St. Augustine was a church father in the fourth century. And, you know, before he became a Christian, he was a partier. He lived hard. He was sexually promiscuous. But his mother prayed for him, and God came into his life, gave him, regenerated his heart, gave him new birth. He's a new creation. And so here he is, a new Christian. He's walking down the road one evening, and all of a sudden a prostitute kind of springs out of nowhere and starts pursuing him. And he's ignoring her this time. This is somebody he's known very well over time. It's not a stranger. And she's getting annoyed because he's ignoring her at this point. And he says, Augustine, psst, psst, psst, it is I. To which he replied, yes, but it is no longer I. See the profound change, there was such a fundamental change, the old person was not recognizable. He was a new creation. And that really fundamentally changes how we relate to people, how we relate to others. As kind of self-centered narcissists, when we were in Adam, We are new creations, and as such, with new hearts, we begin to grow, not in self-love, but in other love, caring for other people. Again, this is illustrated in the life of Augustine. When he became a Christian, his ambition was to lead just a very quiet life of contemplation, a private life. He was just so thrilled with his new life in Christ that he just wanted to meet with God and reflect on God and to contemplate this. But the other church fathers saw his deep love for God and his love for people, so they tapped him as a church leader. And so his dream and desire of leaving this quiet, private Christian life was up, and he became a church leader. Now in 427, the Aryan Vandals began to advance down into North Africa, and they began to invade the city where he ministered and loved. And so this King Vandal, which I am sure is the great, great, great, great, great grandfather of Keith Vandal, I have to check it out. I have to look at his family tree. But because of this advancement of the Arian Vandals, there were all sorts of Christian refugees that were scared to death, and they were migrating into Hippo, where Augustine lived. And they not only brought heightened responsibility, but they brought deadly disease and sickness. And so Augustine had a choice at this point, three choices. He could flee the city, he can quarantine in his palace and be safe, or he can roll his sleeves up and get his hands dirty and risk sickness and death. And that's what he did. He didn't know how to be a pastor from afar. He didn't know how to do it. And so he would actually die from the fever that he contracted from this. But this powerful man of God whose books still are just so compelling. They're still on the must read list of seminaries. I hope you read his confessions. These very powerful books. This very powerful man. You see that in his last hours he was ministering to the very basic needs of terrified Christians. The Vandal King invaded North Africa, but the King of the universe invaded Augustine's heart with love so that Augustine no longer regarded anyone according to the flesh, but he knew the value of the human soul, and he knew the priceless value of the price Christ paid. So, one of the first things we see is this sweet fruit, the sweet fruit of reconciliation, but then he kind of gets into the nuts and bolts, the critical foundation of reconciliation. How does it come about? How does it come about? Well, let's look at verse 18, 19, and 21. For all this is from God, he's leaving no doubt about this. All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them. Sneak down to verse 21, for our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. So, what is reconciliation? Kind of a basic definition is reconciliation is the removal of enmity or hostility and the restoration of fellowship between two parties. Because we're united to the first Adam, by birth, our hearts are at enmity with God, hostility with God. So reconciliation doesn't happen just because a person decides to stop resisting God. That's not how reconciliation comes about at all. It's the result of what God has done. God is the reconciler. God is the pursuer. It is God who does this. And so this passage, you know, there's not that many passages in the New Testament, believe it or not, that really talk about reconciliation on the screen. our preparation for worship, we had a passage from Ephesians. But this is one of the clearest expressions of how reconciliation comes about. And we see here a couple things I want to point out. First of all, we see that Jesus is the agent of reconciliation. That's very abundantly clear. Verse 18, all this is from God, who through Christ You see that Jesus is the agent of our reconciliation. But we also see secondly, well, along with that, I'll hold that for just a moment. Secondly, I want you to see this, verse 21, if you'll drop your eyes down to that. We see that, you know, what exactly took place on the cross? What exactly took place on the cross? There's this transaction between sin and righteousness. It's commonly called, I've mentioned it before, the great exchange. It was a great exchange that took place. So let's just kind of unpack this real quickly. On the cross, all our sin was put on Jesus. He did this not only to pardon us, but so that in Christ we would become the righteousness of God. that Jesus didn't become a sinner. That's not what happened. But for our sake, Jesus was treated. Think about this. For our sake, Jesus was treated as a sinner. He was condemned so that you might be regarded as righteous in Christ and God's sight. Think about that. that Jesus was regarded as a sinner. He was condemned so that you might be regarded as righteous in God's sight. Now, throughout the sermon series, and even in the past, you know, I kind of talk a little bit about how some people, especially the younger generation that have grown up in the church, they read stuff online, they see stuff on YouTube, they go to college, they take some religion classes. And they think, you know, the atonement is, you know, some type of, you know, barbaric, unjust thing that happened. And so they kind of reject what we have been talking about, penal substitutionary atonement, that Jesus took our place, He paid the debt of our sin. And so that's sometimes being rejected because, you know, I've pointed out various reasons why, but I'm going to point out some people reject penal substitute Syria atonement because they say that it's unjust for God to do this. It's a moral violation for God to regard Jesus as a sinner. So I want to just say this. God in no way perverts justice. No way. God is the very definition of justice. That's how C.S. Lewis came to faith. One day he was walking along and he says, wait a minute, where do I get this concept of justice from? I get it from God. He's the definition of justice. And he remains an infinitely just judge. Now, two things very important for you to hang your hat on here. First of all, we see this is very important to realize that Jesus willingly and freely bore your sins." Jesus willingly and freely gave His life. He wasn't shoved out of heaven by God the Father and God the Spirit. He willingly and freely. That's very important if you're going to understand atonement. And second, it is God's sovereign prerogative with no violation of any moral standard to regard our substitute as a sinner. Let me give you an example. There's examples in history where we can kind of understand the justness of this. Back in the 19th century, maritime law, ship owners would often, you know, they trafficked slaves and they had contraband cargo usually in the same ship. And so this was coming across the Atlantic and it was hard for the British fleet to stop and oppose this and board the ship and free the slaves because the smugglers could skirt the law by hiding behind all sorts of clever shell companies and hiding their identity and making it very complicated legally for the British Navy to take any legal action. And so authorities realized that they could legally regard the ship itself as a smuggler and stop the ship and board the ship and free the slaves. Now, was the ship the actual smuggler? No, but it legally could be regarded as the sinner itself. Now, that's a very imperfect illustration, but it's important to see that God lovingly makes this legal declaration that we who are not righteous, that we are given the beautiful obedience and righteousness of Christ. And this is not just a cold legal declaration for you to be regarded righteous. We are brought into this intimate relationship. And judgment has been replaced by affection. And your affections, as we've been talking about, your affections have been changed and transformed. And you're now giving the energizing power of the Holy Spirit to grow in love and to grow in obedience and grow in loving obedience because God has done this. This great exchange that we don't deserve. And so as Jesus, now as a new creation, as a Christian, as Jesus becomes more fuller and fuller in view, as your atoning sacrifice, as your beautiful righteousness, as your perpetual intercession advocate, You want to die more and more to sin, and you want to live more and more unto righteousness. Matt Carter is a pastor, and he tells a story about how when he's doing interviews for potential staff members, you know, they have all these questions they ask, you know, potential staff members. And he had said that he lets his other staff ask the detailed question. He just has one question, one question for the potential employee. And this is the question, when was the last time that you thought about the gospel and wept? When was the last time that you thought about the gospel and wept? Now, why would he ask that? Because he knows that there's a connection between a person's love for Jesus and a person's passion to follow and obey Jesus. And you see, when we really understand this great exchange, for our sake he made him to be no sin, who knew no sin to be sin, who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. When Jesus comes into fuller and fuller view as your atoning sacrifice and as your beautiful righteousness, Your heart swells with love and you grow in loving obedience because you've been declared righteous. Beloved, don't miss this basic fundamental, the foundation of reconciliation. You screw that up, you screw everything up. And last, I want you to see this. This is the third point. What does it mean to be a clear-minded ambassador of reconciliation? Verse 20, and then we're gonna sneak down to verse two. Verse 20, therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us. Think about that. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. And then verse two, behold, now is the favorable time. Behold, if you don't get the first behold, there's a second behold. Now is the day of salvation. Behold it. Heed it. Think about it. So verse 18, Paul writes that God has given us this ministry of reconciliation. Verse 20, he says, therefore we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us. We implore you to be reconciled with God. God makes his representative acting in his place. Now, I was reading in my quiet time just a few days ago. I want you to really think about this. God comes to Moses, and this is before he sends Moses to Pharaoh, and he says, I want you to go. I want you to go to Pharaoh. I want you to say, let my people go. I want you to be my spokesman. And what did Moses say? He shrank back in horror. And then he said this, he said something really curious. He says, me, I am a man of what? Uncircumcised lips. I think you knew the answer, didn't you? Uncircumcised, what does that mean? I'm a man of uncircumcised lips. Well, scholars kind of debate this. Some people think that, some scholars think that Moses had some kind of speech impediment, that maybe he was kind of mumbly, something like that. Other people think, well, maybe, no, he's just an unskilled orator. He's just unskilled in the art of public speaking. But others say, no, he's what he's really referring to. Maybe this is more to the heart of the matter where you are today. No, I just, I'm unfit and unclean and unusable. Maybe it's all of the above. Maybe that captures all of us in this room. And so what did God say when Moses said, no, because I'm a man of uncircumcised lips. God said, remember, he said, God said, you're right, go home. Oh, he said, go, go. It's the same with us, that God gives us this great privilege. He sends you into the world to invite his lost children to be reconciled to God. Isn't that amazing? But then there's this certain urgency about it. When should we do this? When should we be about this? When should we be thinking about this? Maybe in 2027. Maybe in five years. My five-year plan includes this. No. Look at this. It says this. Working together with him then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. Jumping on down to verse two. Behold, now is the favorable time. Now is the day of salvation. That applies, that urges. The ESV doesn't really even characterize or capture that urgency. Basically, it's this. One translator said this. At this favorable time, today, not tomorrow, never to presume upon God's grace, whether you are the deliverer of the message, there may be no tomorrow. Or maybe you're the one who needs to heed the message. There may not be a tomorrow. If I were to go on sabbatical this year, which I'm not, I kind of thought about studying the life of Charles Simeon. He was a pastor at Cambridge at Holy Trinity Church. He passed with him for over 50 years. He was a remarkable man. There's not a lot written about him. He has 21 volumes of his sermons, and I've shared snippets about his life from the pulpit over the years. Remember, recall probably the most memorable story you can remember of him was that he was tapped at a young age to be the pastor at Holy Trinity at this Anglican church, and the people were just not impressed. Now keep in mind that at some point, I'm going to be replaced probably with somebody younger than me. There's not too many people older than me in the PCA. Maybe David and Ruffin, but that's about it. But they weren't impressed. And see, back in the day, prominent members, wealthy members, because they paid their tithe and all that, they thought that they They owned a pew. I know which pew you guys sit on. It's usually the same one. And so people would say, this is my family pew. And so to protest the appointment of this pastor, they locked the pew, it was a way of locking the pew, and then they would boycott church. So when the guests, mostly Cambridge students came in, you know where they sat? They sat in the aisles. And Charles Simeon fearlessly preached the gospel. unashamedly preached the gospel. And guess what? The church grew and grew and grew despite the protest. And so if you go to Cambridge to this day, you can see some of his collectibles. Some of the things are on display. You can see his little pot of tea. Tea's not in it, but it's this black pot that he would use on Friday nights. Friday nights were discipleship and leadership training of the Cambridge students in his apartment. You can see his little umbrella because he was the first man in Cambridge to have an umbrella. It's pretty cool. Twenty-one volumes of his sermons. If you go to the National Gallery, you can see these famous silhouettes of him depicting various movements of him in the pulpit. He was quite animated. But one of his obituary writers wrote this about his reflection. He was recalling a particular sermon that he heard Simeon preach, and he wrote this in his obituary. He said, he reminded those who were there to whom he had preached for 30 years at that time that they had remained indifferent to the Savior's love. And at length became overpowered by this feeling and he sank down in the pulpit and burst into a flood of tears. He just stopped preaching and sat down and he wept for those he loved. Now, I want to lay on the plane with this. Urgency is not an aspect of your personality. Urgency is the conviction it is knowing the value of a human soul and the price that Jesus paid for it. And so, as Christ comes into fuller and fuller view as your atoning sacrifice and as your beautiful righteousness, as you behold him more. Let it move your heart. Let it enlarge your heart. Let it inflame your heart so that you will live for Jesus, that you will love for Jesus, and that you will speak of Jesus. You've been reconciled to God. That is such good news. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your radiant, beautiful Son, Jesus. We praise you that his flawless obedience is ours through faith, that we are forever reconciled to you as your beloved children. So we pray this morning that you would make Jesus more beautiful to us, that you would give us single-minded devotion to Christ, that you would give us a courageous speaking of Christ, that you would give us a content resting in Christ, your Son, our Savior, we pray in his name. Amen.