Do You See What I See

Happy Sunday Crossway. This morning, Pastor Shamus Drake is bringing the word.

And when we think of Pastor Shamus, we think of the word passion.

Yes, Pastor Shamus shows so much passion when it comes to caring for our

children's ministry and our student ministry and finishing his PhD dissertation and caring for our

church as a whole. Shamus has still me before he would want to serve

this church even if it existed on the moon. And Pastor Shamus shows so

much passion when it comes to communicating God's Word, getting it right and getting

it across passion. So thanks for welcoming Pastor Shamus this morning. Thanks brother,

well, good morning. If you have with you a copy of God's

Word, we will be doing this not in zero gravity on the moon today,

We'll be doing it right here. And soon it's turn to Second Corinthians.

That's the one after First Corinthians. Chapter five, starting in verse sixteen,

is where we'll be where I'll actually be preaching from. If you don't

have a Bible with you, there are some some ushers who are coming forward.

They've got Bibles. They've got If you didn't get a bulletin when you

came in, or if you didn't, if you don't have a pen to

take notes, sometimes that's really really helpful. I have to have something to

take notes or I actually can't pay attention. So um, you may want

to take notes. And if you like to fill in blanks, we have

blanks for you to fill in. It'll be great. It'll be great.

But as I said, we'll be we'll be picking it up in chapter five,

verse sixteen. But if you just look up a few verses to chapter

five, verse eleven, I'm gonna ask mister Aaron, he's going to come

and read the text for us from Second Corinthians, chapter five, starting in

verse eleven through six two. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord,

we persuade others, but we well what we are is known to God,

and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending

ourselves to you again, but giving you cause to boast about us, so

that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not

about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it

is for God. If we are in our right mind, it is for

you, for the love of Christ controls us. Because we have concluded this

that one has died for all. Therefore all have died, and He died

for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but

for Him who for their sake died and was raised. 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.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal 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 and God

in vain, for he says, in a favorable time, I listened to

you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you. This is

God's word. Than you nat that we would pray one more times, one

more time. Whether we need this word, we need you to make it

to get it into our hearts. We can't just slip on the lights.

That's not how it works. So humble us before your word. Would you

feel this moment with your spirit's power. We trust you for this in Jesus

name. Amen. Amen. Our vision is a funny thing. What we

see can easily become very, very distracting to us. Right in first service,

somebody told me right after I walk down from the platform that my shoe

is untied. That is an example of the kinds of things that I would

have picked up on and not been able to pay attention to anything else.

Don't worry, it's tied now. But it's the sort of thing that can

easily become a bigger deal than it needs to be. Right, there's all

kinds of things that are like that. But you will understand what it's like

to be able to see pa something that's that's not as important to something that

that is important right, something that's actually really there. The word tells us

that there's all kinds of realities when it comes to the way that we see

life, that are deeper and far beyond what we can just see in front

of our faces. There are things that there are reality, spiritual realities,

immaterial realities beyond the flesh that's in front of us. But we get so

caught up in the things that are just right in front of our faces.

Again, depending on how how difficult it is or how it easily distracted,

you become all of a sudden you you will actually lose sight of what's most

important. And because it's not that it wasn't there before. Right when Daniel

and and I were dating, we had this wonderful plan for our lives.

One of them was we were never we were not going to be the kind

of family that had minivans. We were going to be the kind of family

that drove our brood around in SUVs. Now, I don't know why that

was a big deal to us, but at the time we were thinking,

no, we're not going to get a minivan. That's never gonna happen.

And now we have three of them, see only thing that we have keys

to. That's it. And I don't know what that was a big deal.

I just remember that when we finally made that switch, right when we

finally started looking for okay, we'd sort of settled into the wisdom of many

mini vandam we noticed how many mini vans there were in the world. We'd

never noticed that before. That's not that they just like showed up on site

the first day that we noticed. It was just like, oh, yeah,

well that one's kind of cool, and that's kind of a nice feature,

and that's pretty that's that's pretty sweet and all that. Somehow, all

of a sudden, what was right in front of my face. I could

see what was actually right there, but it had been there all the time.

We have a problem with the things that we see. They can easily

become more important, or we can think that they're the only things that are

there, and we have a hard time seeing past what we can see,

which at best is a truncated reality, especially when it comes to people.

When it comes to people, there's always more to them than what you can

see with your ice. And so in this text, we're going to be

challenged to not merely regard, think about, consider one another and the rest

of the world according to the flesh. According to the flesh, it just

means the way that we see with our eyes, there has to be something

that goes There's there are realities beyond just what we can see with our eyes.

We need to be able to see past that. And God in the

Gospel does that. When God in Christ reconciles us to himself, he transforms

the way that we see life in this world. When he reconciles us to

himself, he transforms how we see and what we see. There are realities

that that that I think we hope to be able to see in this text

today that you would be able to walk out if you're saying now, I

want better to be able to rightly, rightly see the first one that you

see there in verse five. Our chapter five, verse sixteen and seventeen is

that we would rightly see each person rightly see each person. That's the blank

filled in. So there plus who we who have died, we who have

died and been raised with Christ no longer see others in merely an according to

the flesh manner, but as those who've been made new creations in Christ.

What he says right there in verse seventeen, if anyone is in Christ,

he's a new creation. Have you met any new creations? Do you know

any new creations? You do? I know you do, But do you

know them as such? Like? Do you see them in that way?

It's really hard to when you know that they can be impatient, or you

know like how they can sometimes not be kind, or you know that sometimes

they're not quite as mature as you'd like them to be, or if they're

your children, then you know that they're not always quite as obedient as you

would love them to be, or things like that. Right, you are

able to see them, and if they are in Christ, this word tells

me something that goes beyond what I can see, Because what I can see

is that doesn't look very new. That looks like a lot of old.

Right, the old has gone, the new has come. But what Paul

is saying here is that what's right in front of your face can distract you

from what's really real. He says, don't regard one another just merely according

to the flesh. According to the flesh. This is his language and second

Corinthians to talk about in chapter one, he talks about human wisdom, you

making plans according to the flesh or like or end. In chapter ten he

talks about you know, we don't wage war according to the flesh, like.

There are spiritual realities past what we can see rightly see how God has

made each person more than what you can merely see according to the flesh,

which you can see just in right in front of your face. He said,

there was a time when we even saw Christ according to the flesh.

When we saw Christ, you saw Jesus of Nazareth. This dude from Poe

dunk Nazareth when Philip asked, like, is there anything good that can come

from Nazareth? Right, He's not a flashy, shiny guy from a flashy

big city. He's just this ordinary man. And when you looked at him,

Isaiah said that he had no former majesty that we should look at him.

He had no beauty that we should desire him. There wasn't anything that

would have drawn you to Jesus merely according to the flesh. In fact,

if you followed his life, he was not one. He wasn't one that

you would have wanted necessarily to emulate. Right, He's a man of sorrows,

who was acquainted with grief. He was a man and who suffered.

He was a man who was according to the flesh. This world had kind

of run him through the ringer. And so unless you see him as something

beyond what you can merely see according to the flesh, he's not someone that

you would have wanted to follow, not someone that you would have wanted to

be. And so even in justin chapter four, he's saying, Paul was

talking about just back in chapter four, I preach this gospel, but this

gospel is veiled. To those who are perishing. It's veiled. There's a

veil over their eyes. The God of this world has put a veil over

their eyes lest they be able to see that this veil is actually uncovered.

It's it's picked up when the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ,

who is the image of God, is seen. But only God does

that work, and he doesn't when he draws us to himself. He does

it when he transforms us to the Gospel. He changes the way that we

see other people. And that means two things broadly, One that we see

other people as those who are going to live forever, at some level.

Right, everybody, everybody made in God's image is going to have an eternal

destination. Right. We see them, yes, made in God's image,

but they're not even if they if they live separate from God for eternity,

there's still living. There's a there's a there's an ongoing nature to their reality.

There's something that we can't see. We're gonna see every single image bearers

one that lives forever, and if we're eternity in one way or another,

and then we also see those who are in Christ in the way that God

says we should. He says that we're new creations, right, and so

that means that we're gonna have different expectations for others. We're gonna have different

expectations for ourselves. We're not merely just gonna sort of slough off and say,

ah, that's just that's just Fred. There's not a Fred in here.

By the way, I don't think there may be a Fred. You

may be Fred, but you won't just sort of excuse it as a personality

quirk. Right, We're going to be more more intentional about calling one another

to be who He says we actually are. But unfortunately, everything in this

world is designed to train our hearts, train us to see only what's on

the outside and to value what's on the outside. Right, It's like every

marketing department in the world is about, Hey, this is the good life.

Just do this, buy this, read this, drive this, this

is going to be this is the good life. Right, attractiveness, charisma,

necessity, wealth, influence, fame, age, all of these things

are difficult for us to see beyond. We can't see beyond because they tend

to be written from our face. And yet each of these things are in

this sense what he's talking about. What he's talking about according to the flesh.

Don't nearly see one another according to the flesh, because if you just

see one another in that way, you won't see the immaterial, the new

creation, the one for whom Christ died. So he's not talking about according

to the flesh, and like a sinful sense. Necessarily, there are other

times in the scriptures where he talks about the flesh is being that which is

sinful and is fighting against the spirit, and it's not really what he's talking

about. He's just talking about the externals. Because if you look just back

ups, as Aaron read for us, just a moment ago. If you

look just backup in verse twelve, he's talking about those who are commending.

We are not commending ourselves to you again, but just giving you or giving

you calls to boast about us, so that you would be able to answer

those who boast about outward appearance and not what's in the heart. That outward

appearance. That's the thing that we struggle to see past. We had hard

time seeing past that outward appearance. And of course they're not all bad things,

right, All of those outward appearance things are not bad in and of

themselves. But it's just when you take those things and that's the only way

in which you relate to one another, then we're not that different from the

rest of the world. Right Again, the way that we look, the

place that we live, and the things that we drive, and all of

those things can easily become ways in which we just sort of segregate. And

that's how it is in the rest of the world as well. And Paul's

here try fighting. He's fighting tooth and nail that this new creation group would

be something more than that. And he's fighting tooth and nail for the legitimacy

of his own leadership. In the Corinthian's eyes, if he were to read

all the way through that he would talk about these super apostles who are sort

of taking potshots at him. Right, Paul was not one that would have

been a flashy presence. Paul was not one that would have spoken with eloquence.

He's being kind of ironic when he talks about speaking with the tongues of

men and angels. He's He's not the guy who's just going to show up

and have all of this charisma and people are going to want to listen to

him, And so these super apostles are actually picking on him at some level.

In chapter ten, they say, well him, that's Paul. His

letters are weighing and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech

is of no account. Well, that may have been true, but Paul

saying, don't merely regard according to the flesh right. And that's even Paul

is saying, I'm not going to use these disgraceful, underhanded ways. I'm

going to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, lest the gospel be emptied of

its power. We don't want to just be flashy, right, Yeah,

maybe my speeches of no account. Yeah, maybe my bodily presence is weak,

but yeah, these super apostles might have had people come from far and

why to come and listen to them. Right, there would be people who

would want to hear what they had to say, that would want to follow

them, would want to emulate them. And the only ones who showed up

for Paul were people, as we learned last week, who traveled from a

long way to make sure that he got stoned to death. Right. And

so if you had to pick somebody to follow, or you're gonna pick the

one that's drawing people in that everybody wants to be like, or you're gonna

pick the one that's in prison again. Right, he's saying, don't just

look at the outward appearance, don't just look according to the flesh. He

even lists as as these things look, this is what it looks like for

us to follow in the footsteps of Christ. And down in chapter six,

verse four, he talks about afflictions and hardships and calamities and beatings and imprisonments.

What a commercial Right, who's gonna show up for that? Please give

me two? Right, nobody? And he's talking about these things because this

is the way of the Savior, and Jesus, the Savior didn't come to

be coronated, He came to be crucified. And so for following in the

footsteps of one who was crucified, we shouldn't be shocked when from an outward

appearance perspective, we're not looking like everybody else, and we're not really the

things that are important and attractive to everybody else. Those are not the things

that are most important and attractive to us. We don't want to be those

who merely regard one another according to the flesh, because it's through many tribulations

that we must enter the Kingdom of God. So don't be distracted into believing

that what you can see is the only thing that's really real. There's more

to everyone than what we can see. Regard no one according to the flesh,

and so I just encourage you see in others what God says is there

see in others the value that they have that is more and is beyond what

you can merely see. Don't regard or consider or just grant value to each

other merely according to the flesh, full stop. Every single human being is

an image bearer of God. Himself. And if you understand the glory of

the One in whose image they are made, you will seek to protect them,

You will seek to serve them, you will seek to value them,

especially especially in the body of Christ. We understand so much more about the

glory of God revealed in the image of God. How much more should we

be those who are about treating image bearers with respect and with dignity and with

honor, even when they're different from us, And even if they're outside of

the faith. While there's breath in the lungs of any human being, there's

hope for any one of them to be reconciled. The Lord's arm is not

too short to save anyone. If he saved me, he can save them

too. But the emphasis on this passage seems to be more on those who

are in Christ. If anyone is in Christ, therefore, if anyone is

in Christ, he is a creation. Certainly, there's a place in this

world where we're valuing others. If there is any place in the world we're

valuing others according to the flesh does not happen, it should be here.

Surely, this should be the place where where we're across all kinds of lines,

we're crossing all kinds. This should be the least tribalistic body and group

of people on the planet because we've been reconciled to one another. We've been

reconciled to God in the same gospel, with the same blood, under the

same cross. It draws us together. No, so yeah, a person's

relative attractiveness or charisma, or ethnicity, or wealth, or influence or fame

or age, these things should not have a primary impact on the way that

we relate to one another in the body, lest we fall into partiality.

Regard no one according to the flesh. So two Christians walk into a church,

I don't have a joke for you. But if they if they did,

who do they talk to? Right, you walked into a building today,

who did you talk to who? The reality is, that's a that's

a spiritual opportunity. It really is a spiritual opportunity. And the way that

we make those decisions really our spiritual opportunities. And I'm not trying to make

you feel bad about the way that you walked in, because you probably walked

in and found somebody in your small group and went over to somebody to catch

up on somebody something that you heard last week, which is fantastic. The

body life of this church is in some ways just like a freight train just

kind of keeps going. I don't know how you'd slow it down any way.

The way that you love each other is beautiful, and it's still easy

for us to hang around those for whom it's easy for us to hang around.

We just generally tend to flock towards those who are like us and like

us, who already have relationships with It's harder, it's harder to reach out,

it's harder to be a little bit more engaging with people who are different

from us, or people who are new. And we ought to be the

place where we are eagerly and joyfully engaging with the socially awkward, even if

the socially awkward order us be okay with not being the guy who has all

the answers and has all the funny jokes. We don't have all the jokes,

because that's how Christ has welcomed us. We once regarded him according to

the flesh, but He has made us in him a new creation. There's

something something different, and it means that we're going to be engaging in relationships

across age brackets, from the season Saints to the crumb countries, all across

all these boundaries. Because we're a part of a body that engages every age

and stage together as new creations. It means that we're we're a family with

kids, that our home is just as open to singles and just as open

to the aged with grandkids, just as much as it would be to those

who have kids. And our same kids's Crossway Kids classroom said kids a whole

lot there. But you get the idea. It's the world that tribalizes people

based on some of those external things that according to the flesh. That's the

world that values people according to the flesh. These things should never be happening

in the company of the Redeemed. We've been made new creations in Christ,

and that ought to be the thing that binds us together and that we should

continually be seeking to build on because of what's happened to us in Christ.

Rightly see each person in and outside of Christ. And then secondly, in

verse eighteen, we pick it up. In verse eighteen, he says,

all this is from God, all all this work, all this gospel work.

Rightly see our role. He says specifically five times in verse eighteen through

twenty, you see the word reconcile. So it's not particularly hard for us

to figure out what he's talking about. I mean, what he's trying to

get across at some level. I just don't think we're very predisposed to like

it. So if I if I walk up to you after the service and

I say it's okay, I forgive you, what are you going to be

wondering? You're going to be wondering. I didn't know you. I didn't

know you were mad at me. I didn't know there was anything to forgive,

right, have you ever? Yeah, that would be weird. I'm

not going to do that, but it would be weird if I did.

I feel like sometimes when we start talking about the Gospel, we start talking

about how God has reconciled us to himself, and we don't actually get to

the fact that you're not reconciled with God at your birth. Like we're born

in sin. We're born separated from God, and we confirm that as soon

as we get an opportunity. Right, we are those who are not merely

born in sin, but we continue to send we sin because we're sinners,

and that's across the board, even for those who were in Christ. That's

who we were, right And so when he says that God has reconciled us

to himself, I think that's part of the offense of the Gospel. When

you begin by saying it's okay, look, you're a sinner. That's a

hard thing to swallow, right, especially in a culture where we don't really

talk about those kinds of things very very much or very well. But Scripture

tells us very clearly that we have offended the perfectly holy Gods. He has

every right to our allegiance and worship, and we don't give it to him,

not apart from his work in us through cross made He made the world

perfect, He made every part of it perfect, he made it without sin,

and he put mankind in it. And I don't know how long we

get between Genesis one and two and Genesis three, but it doesn't look like

it's very long before they decided to question the word of God, question the

person of God, and rebel against God. And ever since then we've been

stiff necked rebels, alienated from and hostile to Him from birth. That's that's

who we are. So when he says that He has reconciled us to himself,

that he threw Christ has reconciled us to himself. Well, we know

that's good news because we've read the rest of the story. But many of

the people that we're going to be engaging with the gospel don't really know that.

They don't get them. They're not grasping that part. You are right

now at enmity with God, and that is offensive. It's a big deal

when angels show up on the scene and looke chapter chapter two and say peace

on earth among those with whom He is pleased. We are a people who've

never met a rule we didn't want to break. We have never heard or

read a law that we couldn't be tempted to kind of get really close to

or transgress. And even those in the sound of my voice who are not

followers of Jesus, if you're here and you know you're not following Christ,

we are so glad you're here. But even you who have not yet taken

that step of faith and become a new creation by faith in Jesus, even

you know there is there's something in your heart that you know is not right.

You don't do the things that you that you think you should do.

You know that there's a standard that you have that you have transgressed against.

You know that there are standards that you don't meet. And Isaiah tells us

that there's not really anything that you can do to fix that. He says,

your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your

sins have hidden his face from you, so that he does not here.

And you turn on the radio or the television, and all the gurus of

the world want to help you out of these guilt feelings by telling you that

the first thing you need to do is to forgive yourself, which is false

and un biblical, because the one you need to be reconciled to is the

God who made you, not your own understanding of yourself. And the wise

according to this world continue to preach a message with no offense of the gods,

that trying to remove every aspect of the offense of the gospel. Where

to the point where a God without wrath brings men without sin into a kingdom

without judgment through the ministrations of Christ's Christ without a cross. Let's try to

fix the problem not by removing the offense of offense, because each of us

have offended God and his standards of perfect holiness and never and they never will

be changed, which is why it's important you see in verse eighteen. All

this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself. He didn't change.

We change. We were the ones that left. We were the one

that needed to be reconciled to himself. He reconciled us to himself by the

means of Jesus Christ. He didn't move. He brought us near by the

blood of Christ, reconciling hopelessly lost centers to himself and enlisting those very same

reconciled centers in the same ministry of reconciliation. That's your role, That's what

he says. Look at verse eighteen. Again, he reconciled us, that's

those who are in Christ to himself and gave us. That's those who he

reconciled the ministry of reconciliation. So often we use the words, and at

some level I think we can you know, in the ministry. This tells

us that all of those who are reconciled to God in Christ are and have

a ministry of that very same reconciliation. There's none who do not because of

a ministry of the Spirit, of a ministry of righteousness, a ministry of

the New Covenant, whatever else you want to call it, He calls it

here a ministry of reconciliation. Therefore, verse twenty, we are ambassadors for

Christ. Is that an aspect of your identity? Do you see yourself wherever

you go as an ambassador of the message that you have received in Christ?

Wherever whatever else your life's work may consist of, every reconciled saint is an

ambassador and a minister of that reconciliation in the world. Last year, several

of us had an opportunity to go to Hope Church in Ireland, and we

have been given specific instructions to go and preach the word, to give them

to train this church. There were some things that they need to learn how

to do that we as a church do very well. So we sent Seth.

Of course that's important because Seth knows how to do all the things.

And but several of us went and we got to go and again preach the

gospel, trained the church, encourage the church, and get to know those

people. We were sent with that purpose and I actually heard from some of

those people this week, got to hear again from the couple who kept us

while we were there, and they're doing well, doing well, very well.

Actually. But if we had gone and gone there and spent some time

there, we get off the plane in Ireland and do whatever, and we

come back and you ask us, how did it go? How did the

chrip go? All you want to know is how's the church? How did

it go? What was the preaching? Like? How's the church? Like?

Is it strong? Is going well? If I had said the church,

oh yeah, you know what, we actually didn't get to connect with

the church. We figured, since we were in Ireland, we're probably only

going to get one shot there. So we we saw a lot of castles

and we ate a lot of food. It was great, But now we

didn't really, we didn't really connect with the church. You would be right

to call me out on that, first of all, and you would be

right to be rather concerned because I'd been given a particular task, a particular

opportunity as an ambassador, as a representative of Crossway Bible Church. I had

a responsibility in that field, and by God's grace, we got to do

it and we got to have that. I take those opportunities and that was

so sweet. But you have a similar opportunity wherever you're since, and we

don't want to get to the end and be like, ambassador, Oh,

yes, that's right, you did reconcilement to yourself. That's you're right.

I was supposed to be doing some of that. I was supposed to order

my life sets that others could see and know. Your glory. Yeah,

I had a good job, made a lot of friends, I got to

be famous, I got a lot of stuff, boats, guards, whatever,

whatever you think is. I don't want to get there on that day

as he talks about this judgment seat of Christ, which you just talked about.

I don't want to get there on that day and realize that I've missed

the one thing that I can't not do. Whatever else we might do,

we must see our life's role as being that of an ambassador of Jesus Christ,

the minister of the same reconciliation that we have received. It's been entrusted

to us, It's been given to us. The language here is explicitly clear.

It's been given to us. He gave it to us. It's entrusted

to us. God makes his appeal through us. That's the means that He's

given through the foolishness of preaching. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the

Word of Christ. So in your parenting, are you teaching and discipling as

one who has deeply experienced the reconciliation that you've received in Christ? Are you

spending your time reflecting the fatherly care that God has shown you, patiently and

lovingly calling your kids to be reconciled to the God who they are in et

enmity against, or are they more likely to live in panic over whether or

not they're reconciled to you? In mutual ministry life, are you likely to

call others to receive and to live as what He calls us here a new

creation in Christ? Or more likely to make excuses for sin in your own

life or in the lives of others as mere personality quirts and then not speaking

the truth and love in your regular life an ambassador. Remember, in your

regular life, would other people who know you from other spheres and other places

of your life, like the work, or school, or the gym or

whatever. Would they be surprised to see you here? Would they be shocked

if at the end of this service you take communion as a believer in Jesus,

or does your ambassadorial role permeate that such that they would even know that

you are in Christ as a new creation. Because God and reconciling you to

himself, made you a minister and an ambassador of that same reconciliation. Rightly

see what your role is. Lastly, rightly see God's grace verse twenty one.

For our sake, He made him to be sin, who knew no

sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. This

is true, and it's true of you. There is no way that cannot

have an impact on the rest of your life. If God in Christ has

taken your sin, nailed it to the cross, and then he gave you

his righteousness in exchange, it cannot not have an impact on you. And

if you are here and you're hearing this message and it's still new to you,

then along with Paul in the second half of verse twenty we implore you

on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He's made this way.

This is by and end, by faith in Jesus Christ. You repent of

your sins. Place your trust and your hope fully on Him as your only

means of righteousness. Not because you think you're going to figure it out one

day, not because you think you're gonna be able to do enough good work

so you're gonna get enough grace, or you're gonna finally just pick yourself up

by your own bootstraps. But because he who knew no sin was made sin

for you, that in him you might become the righteousness of God. The

only hope that we have for the righteousness of God is that it come from

outside of us and be given to us. And this verse tells me that

that's exactly what he does in the Cross. This verse tells me that's the

gospel. This verse tells me that's how you're reconciled to God. And in

verse chapter six, verse one, he says, be careful. We appeal

to you not to receive this grace of God in vain. This book,

no doubt, was written to Christians, right so, friend, chapter one,

verse one, he's talking about to those who are saints and those the

saints in all of a key of the whole area wasn't just to one particular

church. It was to Corinth. But but yes, it was written primarily

to Christians. But what he's saying here is that there are it's a possibility

that those who hear his voice would be able to hear and receive this grace

in some sense, receive this word in vain. Don't do that. Today

is the favorable time. Today as the day of salvation, he says in

chapter six, verse two, Today is that day. There is a chance

that someone would think that they have received the grace of God, and yet

they are not. As he says in other places, obedience to the gospel,

don't let that be you. The right response to the gospel is a

lot more like bowing than nodding. It's not just sort of a a sense

like yeah, sure, that's true, but rather much more like I'm going

to put my head on the ground before the glory of the one who saved

me. The essence of this message is that God made his righteous son sins

that he could make his sinful image bearers righteous. And just as on the

day of Atonement, sin had to be atoned, for which he did.

And just as on the day of Atonement, it was covered over and sin

was forgiven. But unlike the day of atonement. We get more than that

because we receive the righteousness of God in Christ. All they had, they

had to keep doing that over and over every year, consistently, coming time

and time again. And this tells us that we receive the righteousness of Christ

because He took our sin, and we get his righteousness. And when we

understand that that cannot not have an impact on us. It cannot not change

the way that we worship. It cannot not change the way that we speak

to people, and the way that we are an ambassador of this very same

message in the world. Guilty, viole and helpless, we spotless Lamb of

God? Was he full atonement? Can it be, hallelujah? What a

savior? And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's

blood? Died he for me, who caused his pain, for me,

who him to death, pursued amazing love. How can it be that God,

Thou, my God, would die for me? And on and on

and on for all of eternity. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to

receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessed and

friends, we will never get over this never for all of eternity, because

offending the infinitely Holy God racked up a debt that we couldn't even fully pay

by dying, and our eternal reward hangs in the balance alongside of what we've

done for this grace of God revealed in Christ. So what kind of an

impact has grace had on you? We have what I call a big family.

I don't know that it's that big, certainly not by South Texas standards.

We grew up in a situation where, like most of our friends had

one to one and a half kids. I don't know how you have a

half kid, but you understand what I mean. Two was a full quiver.

And so here we have four of them. And so they as they've

grown and developed and gotten older and learned, you know, to had jobs

and stuff like that where they realize the actual value of a dollar. They

have over time taken on this sort of like they have. They have more

of an understanding of what they cost and what that means. What that means

is that they actually like they are more aware. When we sit down at

a restaurant, they kind of look over at me like should we get water?

And I'm like, yeah, absolutely, you should get water. That's

always the answer. I didn't cover And they're like, Okay, I want

this burger? Can I Can I have this burger? And I'm like,

no, you need to have that, you know. But they have an

understanding of this, and thankfully, by God's grace, and I asked them

if I could pick on them like this, but thankfully, by God's grace,

they're not grumbling about it, right, And that's just so sweet.

It's so sweet because it's just the nature of life. Right. You don't

want you want to give them everything that they want, but you can't do

that. That'd be bad for them and bad for you, right, But

there's a there's a sweetness to recognizing that even though you're not paying that cost,

it was paid for by one that you love. Right. There's a

sweetness to recognizing that even though Christ took Harrison on the cross, from the

perspective of heaven, I don't pay for that, but it was not free.

So that should impact the way that we deal with sin. I don't

want to just slough it off and pretend like it's not a big deal,

because I recognize, even though I'm counted righteous in Christ, I am not

just sort of flippant about it because I know that it wasn't free. Even

if it's free for me, the grace of this substitutionary exchange always leaves evidence.

So how do you deal with a handle sin? It's an offense against

your heavenly father. Even though you're not paying that cost, it was covered.

So Paul's talking about when he talks about sinning that grace may abound.

Let's not do that just because I'm not paying for it, doesn't should not

devalue the real cost in my estimation, And I'm time to unpack this,

But this grace motivates obedience. Grace motivates obedience. If we had time to

look back up at the first eleven through fifteen, he talks about how to

love of Christ controls us, the mercy of God revealed in the Gospel.

The love of Christ controls us. It's not about guilt. It's not about

guilting us into He gave his life for you. What have you done for

him? That's not the point. The point is He gave his life for

you so that you could be righteous in Him. Now, for the rest

of your life, you're going to be living out of that the inequity of

that exchange, the love of Christ controls us. It's evidence that that love

and that grace has impacted the way that you live, in the way that

you walk,