Reconciled To God

Reconciled to God

by Joe Mack Cherry

I. Opening

A. God’s Word needs no embellishment.

1. As an aspiring songwriter years ago, I used to constantly work on hooks.

2. Hooks are catchy phrases or clever word spins used to get the attention of the listener whether it be a publisher, an artist, or an audience.

3. The story of God’s purpose to save mankind needs neither of the above. As teachers or preachers, we need to just tell it in its own beauty and simplicity.

4. Today’s lesson “Reconciled to God”.

B. Jo. 3:16-17

1. Vs. 16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

a. One of the first verses we learned as a child.

b. Who is the whoever?

• Murderer

• Rapist

• Thief

• Liar

• Sexual deviant - I Cor. 6:10-11

• Prodigal Son – someone who once renounced God/Christ and came back.

2. Vs. 17 – “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”

a. God loves us even at our worst and wants us to spend eternity with Him.

b. I think at times in our lives, we acknowledge this as truth but it doesn’t really resonate with us just how precious this gift is.

c. It is a sobering thought to think that WE cannot reconcile ourselves to God, only He can reconcile us to Him.

C. God does not need us but He wants us. How can this be?

1. God tells Moses to refer Himself as the I AM WHO I AM to the Israelites.

a. Yahweh - He is all encompassing, totally self-sufficient, and omnificent (possessing all creative power).

• Most used name for God in the Old Testament.

• Used over 6000 times.

b. Jews revered this word; they would not speak it aloud and if they wrote it, they would use all capital letters and leave the vowels out. YHWH (Tetragrammaton)

2. God could have destroyed Adam and Eve instead of just running them out of the Garden or ignored Noah and his family’s faithfulness and let them perish in the flood and never missed a beat.

3. God could have just said, “They ain’t worth the trouble and ended life and earth as we know it.”

a. As humans, we tend to give up on things like relationships and friendships with this mindset.

b. Why did God not give up on mankind?

c. The answer can be found in the following verses.

II. Reconciled to God

A. God has pursued man before man came into existence.

1. I Pet. 1:18-21 “…knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver and gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundations 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.”

2. Rev. 13:8 – “… Lamb (who was) slain from the foundation of the world.

3. How awesome is that people? This has never ceased to amaze me.

B. God’s Omnipresence allowed Him to do that.

1. He is not bound by time or space.

2. He sees all the yesterdays as clearly as He sees today and all the tomorrows.

3. After considering this, we can safely deduce that Calvary was a forethought, not an afterthought. Calvary was Plan A not Plan B.

a. As humans, we mess up and then we try to fix it.

b. God did not make a mistake and fix it with Calvary.

c. Reconciliation comes after a conflict or disagreement, not before. To us mortals that would be putting the cart before the horse!

d. Isa. 55:8 – “God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts.”

C. For there to be a need for reconciliation there had to be a separation.

1. That separation came as a result of sin.

2. God ran man out of the Garden and placed an angel there to guard the entrance.

3. Isa. 59:1-2 – “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear; But your iniquities have separated you from God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.”

a. God did not move, man did.

b. He waits for our repentance and return so reconciliation can occur.

4. How does sin separate us from God?