BE YE RECONCILED TO GOD
Second Corinthians Chapter Five

June 26, 2011

We are ambassabors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God. The fifth chapter of Second Corintians has many reasons why the invitation should be heeded. THE IN­VITATION GIVEN BY THE AMBASSADORS OF CHRIST. Be ye reconciled to God. Get right with God. We beg you. We im­plore you as a representative of the Lord —BE YE RECON­CILED TO GOD.

LIFE AFTER DEATH

One reason that a person ought to be reconciled to God is the teaching of life after death. Listen to the words of Paul in this regard. He is speaking of the Christian when he says if the ear­thly house of our tabernacle be dissolved — he refers to the physical body as a tent. A tabernacle — a tent— is not very sub­stantial. A strong wind might blow it down. It is a fragile thing. Experience tells us that it is frail and is not going to be here long. Living in this body is like being on a camping trip. Some like to camp out, but it is not where we would like to spend all of our lives. This body is going to be dissolved. The song says, "This ole house is going to crumble, this ole house is going to fall." When this dissolution takes place the Christian has something to look forward to. He has a home eternal in the Heavens not made with hands. Paul knew what it was like to make a tent with his hands—he was a tent maker by trade. He says we in this body groan being burdened. How often we say, "My aching back." Not that we would be unclothed. Not that we would like to die and get rid of this body, but if we do, we have another body that is superior to it. Verse five informs us that He that wrought us this way —God made us so that we want to hold on to life, yet He also gave us the earnest of the Spirit. We sometimes long to go on and be with the Lord.

Comparing this body that we now have to the body that we will someday have is like comparing a battleship to a canoe. It is like comparing a model airplane to a spaceship. It is like com­paring an atomic bomb to a firecracker. It is like comparing the sun to the light of a match. The only thing wrong with these com­parisons is that they are probably woefully inadequate. We live in a tent now like the ancient tabernacle, but we shall have a home eternal in the Heavens like the temple of King Solomon compared to the Tabernacle.

Paul continues, "While we are at home in the body we are ab­sent from the Lord, we are of good courage and willing to be ab­sent from the body and present with the Lord."

The story of Hamlet in Shakespeare's story illustrates the predicament of this world and the world to come. Here is a man thinking of killing himself. He wonders about eternity and says in those familiar lines:

To be or not to be? That is the question. Whether in the mind it is nobler to suffer the arrows and slings of out­rageous fortune— or to take up arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them, To die to sleep? Aye there's the rub. For in that sleep of death who knows what dreams will come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil. The dread of something after death. The undiscovered coun­try from whence no traveller returns puzzels the will and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others we know not of.

That was his dilemma—to be or not to be? Should I kill myself? What will it be like on the other side?

For the Christian this is not the question of what it will be like. The question of Hamlet is turned into the bold assertion of the Apostle Paul when he says, "TO BE ABSENT FROM THE BODY IS TO BE AT HOME WITH THE LORD."

There are three stages that a person can have regarding Christ. One is without Christ—one is in Christ—the third is with Christ. At death the Christian is with the Lord. While it is true in

a sense that we are with Him now, we shall be with Him then in a way that we cannot be with Him now. ABSENT FROM THE BODY, HOME WITH THE LORD.

With this end in view we can come before you to say as ambassadors to Christ —BE YE RECONCILED TO GOD.

THE JUDGEMENT

Another reason a person ought to desire to get right with God is because of the Judgement. Verse ten states, For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ; that each may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done whether it be good or bad.

The thing that will happen right after the Second Coming of the Lord will be the Judgement Day. Other scriptures are abun­dant about the coming of that great day. John says, "I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it from whom all the heavens and the earth fled away and there was no room for them." Paul told the Athenians on Mars Hill that God had appointed a day in which He would judge the world by that Man whom He hath or­dained whereof He hath given assurance unto all the nations in that He hath raised Him from the dead. The coming of that day should be enough to make every person want to get right with God.

It says we will appear. There will be no disguise. No way to hide. We shall appear. We shall be seen. There is no escape.

Some say they don't intend to be there. Paul says, "We shall all be there." We will be judged according to the deeds done in the body. Not according to what we professed, but what we did while in the body.

Christ is the One who will do the judging. The Judgement seat of Christ. It will be a fair judgement. I heard of a man who was dying and expressed great fright at the prospect. Someone tried to comfort him by saying, "Now don't worry, you are going to get justice, Jesus is fair." He said that is what I'm afraid of — - justice. Jesus will be the Judge on that Day. The first time He came as a Saviour. The second time he comes He will come as the Judge.

When you consider that that day will come and that you will be there, it is enough for anyone to be persuaded that the time has come to get right with God. As one of the Lord's ambassa­dors, I beseech you on behalf of Christ—BE YE RECONCILED TO GOD.

RIGHT MOTIVE

Another reason we ought to be reconciled to God is because of the One who desires it. Paul says, "ON BEHALF OF CHRIST." In verse fifteen he says that HE DIED FOR ALL... It is good to stand before people and tell them the plan of salvation. To tell them to obey what Peter told them to do on the Day of Pente­cost— Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is good to tell men—YOU OUGHT TO DO IT, YOU OUGHT TO DO IT! But a more appealing way is to tell them to do it for Christ's sake. Ask them if they would do it if the Lord told them to do it. Ask them if they would do it for Jesus.

It is needful to remind Christians of the Lord's Supper on the Lord's Day. It is fine to say, "You ought to do it, you ought to do it." But a more appealing way is to remind them that the Lord wants them to do it. Ask them if they would do it for Jesus. Ask them if they would do it for Christ's sake.

We sometimes tell people that they ought to attend the ser­vices of the Church. Never miss. You ought to do it. You ought to do it. You ought to do it. Why should they do it for us? Ask them if they would do it for Jesus. Would they do it for Christ's sake?

It is important to stand before people and tell them they ought to give money in greater amounts to the Lord's work. Tell them, you ought to do it. You ought to do it, you ought to do it. But a more appealing approach is to tell them to give liberally of their material means for Christ's sake. Ask them if they will do it for Jesus. Not do it for me as a preacher, but do it for Jesus as your Saviour.

Whatever the Christian's responsibility may be, this appeal of Paul's is the best. You ought to do it, you ought to do it, you ought to do it. But will you do it, if the Lord asks you to do it? Will

you do it for Christ's sake? When you think of this motive, it is time to say again as one of the ambassadors of the Lord's, "I beseech you, be ye reconciled to God."

THE NEW CREATURE

A very important reason to be reconciled to God is because of what he said about becoming a new creature. Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

In Christ we become new creatures. It is said that our bodies become completely new every seven years. I heard of a convict one time who had been in prison for seven years. He wrote to the warden and told him, "I have been here for seven years. I am a new man. On the basis of this, how about a parole?" This is not what Paul had in mind when he said that we become new crea­tures in Christ. When Columbus discovered America, one of the proofs he took back to the old world as evidence that he had dis­covered a new continent were the Indians he took back as proof. They had seen white men, they had seen black men, they had seen yellow men, and they had seen brown men. They had never seen a red man. This was evidence of the new world. When people see the Christian, they see a new creature and that is evidence of the Lord.

Augustine was highly immoral and when becoming a Chris­tian he became a new man. One story of his Christian experience is that one of his old mistresses saw him and called after him on the street. As he hurried to avoid her, she cried out, "Augustine, it is I." He called back to her, "But it is not I." That is what the new creature is. He is not the same person he was before.

The new creature has a new birth. Jesus said, "Verily I say unto you except a man be born of the water and the Spirit he can­not enter into the kingdom of Heaven." The new birth is summed up by Peter when he commanded us to repent and be immersed for the remission of sins. Note how baptism is a figure of a birth. In immersion the person comes up out of the water just as in a birth. He is born again of ^-water and the Spirit.

Not only does the new creature have a new birth, he also has

a new name. Isaiah tells us that My people shall be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord shall name. That new name in the New Testament is the name Christian. It is the only new name in the New Testament for the followers of Christ. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

Not only does the new creature have a new name and a new birth, he also has a new home. The song says:

This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through, My treasure is laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven's open door.

And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.

John says in Revelation, "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the old earth are passed away...Behold I make all things new. A new home for the new creature, a new birth for the new creature, a new name for the new creature and a new food for the new creature. Jesus took the loaf and the cup and blessed them and said that we were to eat and drink in remembrance of Him. He is the manna that came down out of heaven. Not as the fathers ate and died, he that eateth this bread shall live forever.

When you consider the new creature it is time to say again in the words of Paul, "On behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God."

SIN

One more reason to get right with God is noted when Paul tells us that He who knew no sin was made to be sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Jesus knew no sin. Yet He was made to be sin. He felt as though He was guilty of every sin that has ever been committed. He felt as though He had told every lie, done every murder, committed every incident of immorality, guilty of all drunkenness, started every war. All the coveteousness was piled on Him. All the addiction to drugs was heaped upon Him. He felt as though He had uttered every word of blasphemy, had every evil thought, all of it was His. He felt the guilt of it all. You name it and Jesus felt as though He was the one