Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
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Glory to God in the Highest

Dr. David Vaughan looks at the glory of God and how we are to worship God because He is glorious.

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Luke 2

If you would open your Bibles to Luke chapter 2, we’re going to look at the same passage we looked at last week. And last week we looked at the angelic announcement of the birth of Jesus.

The Gospel of Luke chapter 2, starting in verse 8. [audio unclear] around them. And they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” Last week we talked about the glad tidings of the gospel that a Savior was born and as I reminded you last week many at the time of Christ were looking for a Savior to come but they were looking for the wrong kind of Savior. They were looking for a political Savior. Even Jesus’ own disciples, after spending three years with him, after his crucifixion and resurrection in the first chapter of the book of Acts, right before he ascends, they’re asking Jesus, when will you restore the kingdom to Israel? They were still looking for a political solution, a political Savior. Unfortunately, many are doing the same today. Many think that Jesus came to save the Republican Party. That Jesus came to save the US Constitution. That Jesus came to save the American economy. Jesus did not come to save these things. Jesus came to save your soul. Amen. That’s why Jesus came. One of the greatest works ever written in theology was written by Augustine in the 400s called The City of God. And if you know anything about history, you know that at the time that Augustine was writing this famous work which is about the city of man versus the city of God, he was writing it as the Vandals were sacking the Eternal City of Rome. Now we think that our society is going to last forever. We think that America is the greatest country in the world, always has been and always will be. And that’s fine we’re patriotic and all that rah-rah right? I love America. But the reality is we are one of many societies that have risen, and we will probably be, if the Lord tarries, one of many societies that falls. And many [audio unclear] He did not even come to erect a political system. Jesus came to erect his kingdom. His kingdom, and I can assure you that Donald Trump isn’t running His kingdom. Amen? Alright, thank you. Jesus came to save our souls. As the angel said to Mary, “Name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” You know, the solutions we are attempting to erect whether they be political, social, economic, whatever, these solutions are like putting Band-Aids on somebody who’s dying from a terminal disease. The cancer that is eating away and rotting away at the soul of not just our society but of all societies is the cancer of sin. Man’s problem is that he is alienated from God. He no longer walks in communion with God. The Bible tells us that all men are born in enmity against God. It is that broken relationship which is the source of all of our ills. This is the problem that must be solved. If we are going to see any kind of healing, any kind of true growth in not just our society but all the societies of the world. We must deal with the root problem and the root problem is sin. Jesus is a Savior. Jesus is the Savior.

Not one of many, but rather Jesus is the only Savior. He says that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through Him. Now that sounds exclusive, but in fact it is inclusive [audio unclear] The Jew in the time of Jesus’ day. They believed that God was the Savior of Israel. They did not believe, most of them, that God was the God of the Gentiles. Jehovah loved Israel, but he didn’t love the dogs, the Gentiles. He loved only Israel.

Well, the angels come and say the Savior being born is not only the Savior of Israel. this is the Savior of all peoples, of all nations. And when we look in Revelation, what do we see before the throne? We see those worshipping God from all tongues, all tribes, all nations. Amen? So Jesus, although he says he’s the only way, the invitation is to all. It’s an open invitation. He came to save all men and women from their sins. That includes you, it includes me, it includes our neighbors, it includes our coworkers, and that’s why, especially at this time of year, we have a great opportunity to share the glad tidings of great joy. My wife and I went around her neighborhood and gave out gifts yesterday and gave out invitations to church. I encourage all of you to do that in your neighborhood. Share a tract, share invitations to our Christmas service, our Christmas Eve service. This is a great time of year to share the glad tidings with people. Amen. Because those people we’re talking to are those for whom Christ also died. Because the gospel is for all people.

Not a Political Savior

That’s my introduction. That was the announcement of the angels. The Savior is born. This is good stuff. Good stuff. Glad tidings, great joy, a Savior is born.

Glory to God in the Highest

Now after they announced the birth of Jesus, they then break out into song. And in verse 13 it says, and suddenly there was with the angel, there was one angel making the announcement, a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God. So now all of a sudden a whole band shows up with the one angel, a choir shows up and they begin praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” Now some of your versions say, “and on earth peace toward men of goodwill” and I’ll discuss that in a moment. But first let’s focus this morning a little bit on the angelic hymn. First, they break out in song and they say, glory to God in the highest. Glory to God. When we think of God’s glory, we need to think about two things. One, his intrinsic glory, and then secondly, his extrinsic glory. Well, what does that mean? Well, God is glorious by his very nature. When we study the word of God, we see that God is holy, He’s just, He’s righteous, He’s merciful, He’s benevolent-benevolent, all of these glorious attributes. And in His essential being, God is the one attribute that really is perhaps the one that sums up the totality of His being is His holiness. Because holiness means not only moral purity, but it means otherness. That is to say, God is not like us in any way in His essential being. other. He’s not a superman. He’s not us times a million or even a trillion. He is other. A completely different order of being. And in its essential nature, God is glorious. Now, when the scripture talks about giving glory to God, you might think, well how can I give glory to God? He’s glorious. How can I give anything to God, right? I mean, God is Lord, God owns it all. I mean, how do we… In fact, when we give glory to God, we are simply recognizing his intrinsic glory. We are recognizing what the Word of God has revealed about who he is, and then we are declaring it. We are saying it. God is good. Amen. Say, “God is good.” He was good before you said it. But he still wants us to say it. God is love. Amen. Say, “God is love.” He was love before you said it.

But he wants us to say it. He wants us to declare it. He wants us to proclaim his excellencies. why? So that he is magnified in our eyes and in the eyes of others. So that the more that we see, the more that we profess, the more that we begin to really see. Hold your place here and look at 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2. We’re going to come right back to Luke. Actually, go to 1 Peter 1. Where do we start? It’s also good. [audio unclear] Verse 18 of 1 Peter 1: “…knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as the Lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who through him believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God.” So we are redeemed by the precious blood of the lamb. Amen? And because we’re redeemed, it says here, to give Him glory. We give Him glory.

Now notice this. He goes on and talks about our calling as priests. Every believer is a priest. Do you understand what that means? Every believer has the prerogative of entering into the presence of God. Every believer has the responsibility of intercessory prayer. believer because we are all priests to God. Then he says this, he says, verse 5, And you also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, that’s you, to offer of spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And he goes on in verse 9, But you are a chosen generation, you are a royal priesthood, you are a holy nation, you are his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him, or it could be translated the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. That is to say one of the church’s functions is simply to proclaim and declare the glory of God. That’s one of the reasons we are here. So that we magnify God in the [audio unclear] eyes of one another, of course, but in the eyes of the world by declaring his glory, all of his glorious attributes. So when we worship and we sing, we are fulfilling one of our functions as priests unto God. We are glorifying God. Yes, he possesses all glory intrinsically, but we are declaring- declaring him and we are magnifying him in the eyes of ourselves and in the eyes of others. Now another point I want to make about God’s glory is this.

Saved for the Praise of His Glory

When we think about salvation, and if I were to ask why did God save you, or why did God send Jesus, One answer we would say is because God loves us, right? John 3 16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” And there are many texts along that line that because of God’s great love for fallen humanity, He sent his son, Jesus, who was God incarnate. Jesus Christ died on the cross. And by dying when he was dying on the cross, the sins of the world were being placed upon Him. He died for those sins, but he was resurrected because he put away sin once and for all. God did this because of his love for us, amen.

But that’s not the only reason. That’s not the only reason. something is actually more important than God’s love for us. And that is the glory of God. And we tend to not think of that. That side of the equation tends to get lost in much of our thinking about the gospel. But when the angels began to praise God, they said, “Glory to God.” A Savior’s coming, glory to God. A Savior is born—not glory to man, a Savior’s born, glory to God. That is to say that God in his plan of salvation had two things in mind. Yes, he had in mind the redemption of the world or he wouldn’t have sent Jesus to the cross, but he had something else in mind. Not only something equally important, but I would argue there’s something more important than even our salvation, and that was his own glory. Who clapped? All right, you can all clap. Look at Ephesians chapter 1 for a moment. We see Paul bring this out. He’s talking about all the blessings that God gives us in our salvation. He goes to this list of the blessings, he says in Ephesians 1, blessed, verse three, blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing, every spiritual blessing, that’s a lot, isn’t it? Every? In heavenly places in Christ. Now he’s gonna mention some of those blessings, just as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. That’s a blessing, not only that we’re called, but that God makes us holy and blameless, that God loves us. These are blessings. Having predestinated us to adoption as sons, we’re God’s children now, that’s a blessing, amen. To himself according to the good pleasure of his will. Notice this though in verse 6. Why did he do this? “To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the” [audio unclear] “who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.” In Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. Notice, to the praise of His glory. And over and over in this text, [audio unclear] God is glorified. Right? Man will take the credit. So even in Christianity we’ve developed a whole system of religion and works righteousness so that we can be saved and blessed but that we can take the credit for it.

That No Flesh Should Glory

Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1 where Paul addresses And he says in 1 Corinthians chapter, chapter in verse 18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: ’I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.’ Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” I mean just ponder what the world is doing is the world’s attempting to save itself. And the folly that we see displayed there. Verse 21, For since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God. It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. You know, when you think about preaching, and I don’t mean just what happens on a Sunday morning, I mean when you share with a co-worker the gospel, when you think about that and you think, how can some simple words from my mouth transform someone’s life. You’re like, huh? It’s foolishness. But the Holy Spirit takes the gospel. He plants it in the heart. He causes the soul to be born again. He transforms the life. And it’s miraculous. But from a human point of view, it’s folly. You’re saying that sharing the gospel message changes lives? You’re saying that sharing this message of Jesus actually changes families and changes societies? Yes, that’s what we’re saying. And it seems foolishness. But when God the Holy Spirit takes the spoken word, takes the gospel and applies it to the soul, people are transformed. They’re transformed. Paul goes on, 22, “For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” [audio unclear] “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.” but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty, and the base things of the world, the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not to bring to nothing things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and” [audio unclear] “sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, ’He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’” Amen? I mean Paul is saying God’s chosen the weak things and the foolish things. You know, we have, it’s very, very difficult for us, especially when we think about the early chapters of Matthew and Luke, in light of all of our Christmas traditions, to really understand what’s going on here. I mean, the angels show up and they say there’s going to be a baby over here, and that’s the Savior of the world. Huh? That’s not how I would send the Savior. I mean, wouldn’t you send him with some clouds, you know, and the host behind him, and the trumpet’s blaring? Here he comes, grand entrance, red carpet. You know what I mean? No, God comes hidden. God comes small. God comes weak. God comes poor. God comes despised. Why? That no flesh would glory in his presence. God’s method of salvation is such, not only that because we can’t work for it, but everything about it is designed in such a way to remove human glory, human boasting. What we see in the incarnation is the love of God, is the mercy of God, is the grace of God. When we look, we see all of those attributes, we see, we see, but we also see the justice of God and the righteousness of God. But one thing we see in the in the incarnation, which is often overlooked, is that we see the humility of God. [audio unclear]

The Humility of the Incarnation

I remember sharing with a Muslim girl years ago, and I was telling her about Jesus. You know, well, they believe in Jesus. Jesus is a prophet, but he’s not God incarnate. He’s not the savior. And I was trying to explain to her the incarnation. And her English was a little broken, but she kept on saying, God up there, God up there. In other words, God was so high and exalted in her mind that she couldn’t conceive that God would condescend to come down here. that God would condescend to be a man. And ironically, her idea of God was actually more exalted than many Christians’ idea, ironically. Because it ought to shock us the thought that God would take upon human nature. That God would humble himself to even take human nature upon himself. But in addition to that, God not only took upon himself human nature, God came as an infant. The one who made the worlds was allowed to be fashioned in the womb of a woman. It’s astounding, the thought. And to be not only born a helpless infant, but then to live in obscurity, to be from a relatively poor family, And then to live a life in which he was despised by many and ultimately crucified and rejected. I mean, it’s a story that is so incredible that it must be true. That God would do such a thing. Philippians chapter two, look what Paul says. He says that we should be humble. Because our Savior was humble. In Philippians 2 verse 5: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation.” Some of your versions may say, “He emptied Himself,” “taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death.” You would think that’s the ultimate humiliation. He who was life in His essential being, who was the fountain of life, subjecting Himself to death. But then Paul has to add this to drive home the point of His humility: not only death, but even the death of the cross. Even a death which was a death, not only a death which was painful, but the point of him adding this statement about the cross is that his death was shameful. He died as a criminal. He died as people mocked him.

He died as people were spitting at him because he was an outcast. He was considered a criminal. He was considered unclean. Now that’s humility. To choose that. To choose it. Yet that’s what Jesus did. Glory to God. Amen.

Glory to God.

Peace on Earth

Secondly, the second point I want to make about the hymn is where the angels say this. Go back to Luke chapter 2. In verse 14, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace goodwill toward men. Some versions say and on earth peace to men of goodwill. And there’s a textual debate in the Greek text about this, not just the English translations. Both make sense. But But the thing I want to point out here is primarily this mention of peace.

The angels say, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace. They didn’t say on earth love, or on earth hope, or on earth many other joy, although they mention joy, the glad tidings of joy, but on earth peace. Peace. Well, I read the headlines this morning. There’s bombings all around the world yesterday. There’s machine gun attacks. There’s war. There’s planes being shot down. There is no peace in this world.

And to think that we will ever have peace without the Prince of Peace is an illusion. We’ve never had peace. Ever since the fall of man, what was the first thing, the first sin that happened after the fall? Brother murdered brother. Not just murder—brother murdered brother.

Brother murdered brother. And so it goes until this very day: brother murdered brother. The world’s at war with itself, the world’s at war with God.

At Enmity with God

Because what the scripture tells us is that because of the fall of man, man is at enmity with God. That is to say, man has a fundamental, when I say man, I mean humanity, humankind. We have a fundamental inner fallenness, we have a fundamental hostility toward God. Now, this is because of our fallen nature because in our fallenness we know whether we articulate it, whether we really it really runs through our mind clearly, we know that we’ve sinned and we know God is righteous. I believe these truths are inherent in the soul. I believe every person knows that they’ve broken the divine law. I think God writes it in the heart. And so we know this and this puts us at enmity with God. Look at Colossians 1:20 for a moment. No, no, no, go to Romans [audio unclear] 8 first. In Romans 8 Paul says he’s talking about the flesh versus the spirit. And in Romans 8, starting verse 5, for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. For to be carnal or fleshly minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Why? Because the fleshly mind of the carnal mind is enmity against God. For it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then that those who are in the flesh cannot please God, but you’re not in the flesh if you’re saved, but in the Spirit if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ then he’s none of his. So the fleshly mind, the carnal mind, is in hostility with God. Colossians 1. Notice what Paul says here. In Colossians chapter 1, he says in verse 21, And you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he is reconciled. So the fallen mind, the carnal mind, is at enmity with God, and is also toward God. Now this is hard for us to believe because you meet people that clearly don’t know the Lord and they might even like to talk about God, maybe they like to talk about theology. They’re like, you like Jesus? That’s awesome. I like this, whatever. And they’re cool. But that’s only the surface. The way you know somebody’s disposition toward God is to present the gospel to them. And then you’ll find out. Jesus says those who honor the Father honor me. If someone rejects the Son, they’re rejecting the Father. They’re rejecting God. The attitude toward God is really revealed in the response to the gospel. Not in generic conversations, not in religion, not in spirituality. Many people are on a spiritual quest. I think some of those quests are actually Holy Spirit inspired quests. In other words, I think God is drawing men and women to Himself. But some people are on a quest because they like spirituality. They like religion. I was raised in a religion such that it made it made me dislike religion a lot because it was it was very heavily ritualistic heavily legalistic I repudiated all of that when I was a teenager and I was an agnostic/atheist depending on what day you talked to me and so religion to me is like eww but some people like it They like stained glass windows. They like church organ music. They like incense. They like things that they associate with religion. They like the ritual. And that’s OK if they’re saved. But some people like religion because it’s religion. That’s very foreign to me. But I’ve learned over the years that some people are religious and that’s their nature. And they confuse their like for religion the way I might like classical music. It’s ennobling, it’s elevating, it’s inspiring. But it doesn’t mean I love God.

Religion Is Not Reconciliation

So we can be religious, and many people are religious, even more religious than some of us who know Christ. A devout Muslim says his prayers three times a day. Do you? You might not say a prayer three times a month. They say it three times a day. They’re very religious. But that doesn’t mean the heart isn’t hostile toward God. Because until the heart submits to grace, it’s in rebellion to God. You see, and this is one of those ironies of the gospel, is that you would think that the gospel of love and grace and mercy would just draw all men, but it doesn’t, because the gospel, as we saw in 1 Corinthians 1, it’s a gospel which repudiates everything human for salvation. It says, you can do nothing to be saved. And you’re like, come on, can I do something? I don’t want to give a 10, but I got a one.

Can I give something to be saved? You know anybody that just has really trouble receiving a gift? You know people like that? Oh, maybe you’re one of them. It’s just so hard. By the way, I don’t have that problem. It’s letting you know Christmas is coming up. I don’t have that problem. Okay. But actually I used to have that problem. And I learned that that was pride. And God taught me that if someone offers you a gift, you’re insulting them if you turn it down. You’re being prideful if you turn it down. And so I’ve learned to receive. And you would think that the free offer of salvation would be embraced by everybody because it’s free, but in fact, that’s not so.

Because the flesh wants to earn. See, the flesh wants God to be indebted to us. The flesh wants to be able to go into heaven. Now even if it’s just because we did one thing right. We still want to get credit for the one thing. Now you’ve probably done many things right. Maybe Maybe you’ve done more right things than I’ve ever done or ever will do. But it’s not the amount of right things that we’ve done that gets us into heaven. It’s only what Jesus Christ has done. And that’s one of the reasons God saves the weak and the foolish and the despised. That’s why in Jesus’ ministry, he hung out with the middle class and the lower middle class. That’s why he called the tax collectors, and as I attempted to explain to you in Mark, these were despised people. Matthew was despised by Jews. He was a traitor. And Jesus called these kinds of people into His inner circle. Jesus welcomed the prostitutes when they repented, who the Jews despised because they were unclean. I mean, Jesus drew people and embraced people, which we would probably shun, because he’s demonstrating that salvation has nothing to do with who we are or what we do. Nothing. I don’t know if you’ve shared the gospel much. Over the years I’ve shared the gospel with thousands and thousands of people probably. And in one-on-one conversations I’ve heard a number of times people saying, well, God can’t forgive me because of the bad things I’ve done. Now that’s not common, but I’ve heard it a number of times. a number of times. God can’t forgive me. I’ve done terrible things. God just can’t forgive me. And the point I make is the more unworthy you are, the more qualified you are. It’s just the opposite of the way the human mind thinks. The human mind thinks because I’ve done terrible things, God can’t save me. But the gospel says because you’ve done terrible things God is willing to save you and make you a trophy of his grace because he wants to show off his grace. So he calls the foolish, the weak, the despised, not the rich, not the noble, not the glorious in the eyes of man. So the glory goes to God, right? Glory to God in the highest. Back to peace, sorry, got off on God’s glory again.

God Reconciled the World

So we’re at enmity with God. It’s our nature to be hostile. But God sent Jesus Christ and through his work on the cross one of the things he affects is a reconciliation. A reconciliation. Reconciliation means when you have two parties at variance that you bring them together and you cause peace to be between them. Peace. That’s why the the angels sang glory to God in the highest peace on earth. What Jesus did is he reconciled through his work on the cross He came to bring reconciliation between God and man. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Paul says this. He says verse 17, [audio unclear] Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, not of God and you. God did this. [audio unclear] “…the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For he, meaning God, made him, meaning Christ, who knew no sin, sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. My old pastor would demonstrate this verse, one of his favorite verses when he gave gospel invitations. He’d say, you know, we’re over here and we have sin and Jesus over here and Jesus is righteous. Well, God made Him who knew no sin, Jesus, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

He’s righteous, we’re not. Our sins on Him, His righteousness is transferred to us. But it says, in Him, right? Righteous of God in Him. So we have to be in Him. This is you. Don’t you wish for that thing? This is you. This is Jesus Christ. You are now in Him. Do you see you? Where are you? Where are you Jake? You’re in Him. And that’s why God can justify us because when He looks at us He sees the Son Jesus Christ. Because we’re in Him. It’s really very simple, a very simple concept. It wasn’t so simple for Jesus, was it? So God reconciles hostile men to God. God always, always had good will toward men. hostile men to God. God always, always had good will toward men. In fact, God sent His Son Jesus because of His goodwill toward men. So you can say, well, wait a minute, why would God need to be reconciled if He already had goodwill? Because there was a barrier obstructing His reconciliation with men. Sin was a barrier to his desire in his goodwill and love to fellowship with fallen men. And the sin had to be dealt with in some way. It had to be removed so that God’s love could freely flow and he could fellowship with those who had sinned against him and rebelled against him. What was to be done? God humbles himself, becomes a man, takes sin upon himself. Jesus is, the sins of the world are laid upon him, so God now removes that barrier so that God now can come and fellowship with those who believe.

Ambassadors for Christ

But this is very important. Are you listening? Are you still awake? Okay, we’re going to wrap in a minute. Very important. Although God has good will toward us and toward men, men still need to be reconciled to God. Because as we saw in Romans and Colossians one and other places, men are still hostile toward God, even though God has good will toward them. Even though God has demonstrated through the cross his good will toward them, through sending his Son to die for their sins, still they are hostile toward him. And so what What does God do? God sends first Jesus, but then He sends the church. He sends us to declare to men the word of reconciliation. God sends us—say “us,” say “me,” okay, that’s you. God sends you with the word of reconciliation, verse 20, now then we are ambassadors for Christ.

As though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. God has given to the church, which is you and me, the message of reconciliation that we are to go and declare to men and women that God has good will toward them, that God loves them, that God is inviting them to receive the finished work of Jesus Christ.

And as the Holy Spirit enables them to understand the gospel, then they, although previously hostile, become reconciled to God. And when that reconciliation takes place, then there is peace between God and man, and only then. Romans 5, and we’re going to close. Romans 5, if you read the book of Romans, you see the early chapters are all about the work of Christ, all that Jesus does through His shed blood, how we are redeemed, God has propitiated, we’re justified. And then in chapter 5, he says this, Therefore, 5:1, “having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is the peace that Jesus came to bring. First and foremost, peace between the human soul and God.

And this is the source and the fountain of peace between man and man. It was the brother in Genesis whose offering was rejected by God, who became the murderer. That is to say, it was the person who was not reconciled to God first. It was the person who was not at peace with God who was not at peace with his brother. So, the foundation of all peace is first of all spiritual peace.

The peace that comes between the soul and God when the soul embraces the gospel and the message of reconciliation, that all sins are forgiven, that you stand in God’s favor. the And when you truly believe that you have peace in your soul and you are then reconciled to God, that peace is the peace that the world needs, amen? Because that is the peace that will lead to reconciliation of men and men and nations and nations. That is the hope of the world. The reconciliation wrought by Jesus Christ, our Savior, amen.

Closing Prayer

Let’s stand and pray. Lord, we thank You, Jesus, for Your humility.

No, no, no, no. Allison, no, no, no. Lord, we thank You for Your humility. We thank you, Lord, for all that you endured to reconcile us to your Father.

I pray if there’s any here that, Lord, have not been reconciled, I ask, Lord, that you would enable them through your spirit to understand your good will toward them.

Enable them to understand that Jesus Christ took the sins of the world upon himself to reconcile them to you. And they might put their faith in Jesus Christ. Lord, I also ask that at this time of year that we, your people, who have been entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation, that we might be faithful in the discharge of that duty, that we would declare to our family and friends the glad tidings of great joy, the message of peace, the message of reconciliation. We pray in your name. Amen.