PRECEPTS FOR LIFE
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Precept Ministries International
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The following is an actual transcript of the PRECEPTS FOR LIFE Broadcast. For the purpose of filling transcript requests quickly, they have received only light editing. If you have questions concerning the material covered in this broadcast, Kay has published a number of books explaining the Scripture in depth. These books may be ordered by contacting the telephone number or address printed above.
SERIES: NWC 03 Ministry Of Reconciliation
TITLE: Program 2 – NWC 03 Ministry Of Reconciliation, Part 2
WEDNESDAY (1/13/10)
OPEN
Do you long to know that your life has significance? That there‟s something important about the fact that you have lived on the face of this earth. Well, Beloved, as we continue the message on the ministry of reconciliation you‟re going to see what it means to be an ambassador for Jesus Christ.
PART ONE
The gospel is this. Christ in you the hope of glory. It‟s you in Christ never to be separated from Him again because you are bone of His bone and you are flesh of His flesh because you are the body of Christ. He‟s the head and we‟re the body and we are going to live with Him, in Him. We in Him, He in us forever and ever. You aren‟t what you used to be because you‟re a brand new creature in Christ Jesus. When I got saved at the age of 29, I was married. I was divorced. I shook my fist in the face of God and I said, “To hell with you, God. I‟ll see you around town. I‟m going to find someone else
to love me.”
And so what I did was I went out and I looked for love. That song, looking for love where? In all the wrong places. You know what I‟ve been through. You know and you understand because you, many of you, have done the same thing. I‟m amazed at all the women that say to me, “My life was just like yours.” And my heart breaks for them. And as long as that was just like mine it‟s all right. It can‟t continue to be like mine because Jesus came to set you free.
I was so hungry for the Word of God and I had to work and I had two boys and I was a single Mom and I would prop my Bible, don‟t do it, but I would prop my Bible on the steering wheel and I would drive and read. And I remember when I found this verse. Whoo! I‟m telling you I thought, “Oh, oh, oh, oh! I‟m a brand new creature in Christ Jesus. I‟m a brand new creature. Old things are past away. All things have become new.” I didn‟t understand fully what it meant but I knew I weren‟t what I used to be.
Because I was in Christ and because Christ was in me. All right, he says in verse 18, “Now all these things are from God….” Listen. You did not do it. If you come to Jesus Christ today do you know why you‟re coming? When you get old enough and mature enough in the Word of God, you‟re going to find out that God said to you, “Hey, you didn‟t choose Me. I chose you. God is the one that draws us. We‟re sinners.
All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned each one to his own way. God though laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all and God it says, in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has chosen us in Christ,” when, “before the foundation of the world.” You come because He is drawing you and you just submit to His love. He says, “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ….”
All right now, when you look at how you mark “reconcile,” it‟s like two U‟s. One U coming down from heaven and then one inverted and going up from earth and you see them linked together. To be reconciled means to get rid of the enmity between two people and make them friends. When you‟re reconciled you‟re no longer separated. It is your sins that have separated you from God. God has never moved but we‟ve moved. We‟ve chosen to go and sin farther and farther and farther our way.
We have chosen to do our own thing. We have gone like this to God. “Leave me alone. I‟ll do what I want to do. I‟ll live the way I want to live. You leave me alone.” And so we‟re the ones that have walked away from God but God loves you. And so God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Watch what He says. Mark the word “reconciliation,” verse 18. “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself,” how, “through Christ….” Who does the reconciliation? God.
What are we reconciled to? To Himself. How are we reconciled? We are reconciled through Jesus Christ. “…and He gave us the ministry of reconciliation….” So the ministry of reconciliation is the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The good news that you can have forgiveness of sins and that you can live eternally with God forever. So that‟s the good news. What are you going to put over “ministry” there? Yes, it‟s going to be the megaphone. Now listen. He reconciled you and He has given you a ministry and the ministry is a ministry of reconciliation.
Does mean you have to be on a platform. Does not mean that you have to have a business card. It does not mean that have to officially notify everybody that God has called you into ministry because every child of God has been given the ministry of reconciliation. What is reconciliation? Reconciliation is you and I finding people and bringing them to the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ that they might be reconciled to God. That they might die with Christ, be buried with Christ, be raised to walk in newness of life to become a brand new creature and have forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those that are sanctified.
All right now, watch what he says. He‟s going to explain it a little bit more. Verse 19, “namely, that God was in Christ….” Now listen to me very carefully. If you do not believe that Jesus is God, Jesus said, in John chapter 8, verse 24 you are going to die in your sins. So I know that you may be in Mormonism or Christian Science or Unitarianism or Jehovah‟s Witness and that but they do not teach that Jesus is God, one with the Father. And if you do not believe that Jesus is God then you are going to die in your sins. So this is a critical doctrine. It is a doctrine that determines the difference between life and death, between heaven and hell. He says, “that God was in
Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against Him, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”
So you want to mark it again. “Therefore,” here‟s another therefore. Since, “He‟s committed to us the ministry, the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ….” Each one of you, Beloved. If you are a child of God you are an ambassador for Jesus Christ. I remember years and years and years ago at the beginning when I was younger and this man was flirting with me on a plane as we‟re getting ready to get off and he was making these cute cracks and finally he said to me. I asked him what he did and everything cause I wanted to give him the gospel. And so finally he said to me, “And what do you do?” And I said, “I‟m an ambassador.” He said, “Whoa! You‟re an ambassador?”
And I said, “Yeah.” That man looked at me and he said, “Who are you an ambassador for?” And I said, “A King.” And you know he was just dying to know what king it was and I was just dying to tell him that it was the King of kings, the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I have a ministry. That‟s why it‟s so important that we behave and that we walk in the way that we should walk. One of you I heard about one of you went to some Bar & Grill to get food and when you left you wrote a nasty note on the check and you circled Bar and told them they were going to hell because they had a bar. You don‟t know how to be an ambassador for Christ.
You‟re an ambassador for Jesus Christ. There‟s a way an ambassador behaves and conducts themselves and the way that the ambassador behaves and conducts himself is the ambassador walks in robes of righteousness and the ambassador is filled with the Spirit. And the ambassador then gives the message. Verse 20, “Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
He made Him,” this is the most awesome verse. “He made Him,” Jesus, “who knew no sin to be sin for us, that you and I might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” Have you got that? Jesus was made to be sin for you. That you in turn might be made the righteousness of God. I would love to explain that more but I just want to take you to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 9 through 11 and I just want you to understand
something.
Read the text. Look at it. Meditate on it. Don‟t jump to conclusions and don‟t take where you are and try and make it fit the text, take the text and let it bring it alongside you. Its 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 9. “…do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?”
He‟s talking about lost people. He‟s talking about people that have not been made righteous because they have not believed in Jesus Christ. “…do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.” You say, “That‟s what I was. That‟s what I was.” Or, “That‟s what I am.” Now there‟s a big difference. Was you or is you? You know? If you is, you‟s in trouble. All right? If you is, you‟s in trouble.
If you was and you ain‟t no more, Honey, you‟ve got it made. Because you have been born again and you have received the righteousness of Christ because Christ took on your sins and when He died for you and was made sin for you and you believed in Jesus then Jesus would give you His righteousness. So now watch. Verse 11, “And such were some of you; but you were,” what, “washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.”
All right, he says, “you were washed. You were washed in the precious blood of the Lamb of God that takes away all your sins. You were sanctified.” Sanctified is the same word for holy. You were set apart. You were consecrated for God and not only that but you were justified. Justified means that you were declared righteous once for all. God took the righteousness of Jesus Christ and made you righteous.
PART TWO
Now what happened when God made you righteous? How are you who was a sinner going to live a righteous lifestyle? By His Spirit. Titus chapter 3, verse 4, “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in
righteousness, but according to His mercy,” how, “by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.”
When God formed man out of the dust of the ground and He breathed into Him the breath of life, the breath of life is the Spirit of God. When man sinned the Spirit of God left man. When man repents and comes to know and receive the Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God comes inside of Him and with Him breathes life into us. So this is what he‟s saying. “…by the washing of regeneration and the renewing by the Holy spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ so that,” get the so that, “being justified by His grace,” His unearned, unmerited favor, “we would be made heirs according to the,” what, “hope of eternal life.”
Now many of you asked questions can you lose your salvation? No you can‟t, because God is the author of your salvation. God is the one that chooses you. God is the one that opens your eyes. God is the one that turns you from darkness to light from the power of Satan to the kingdom of God. God is the one that puts His Holy Spirit in you and you can read Ephesians 1, verse 12 to 14 later and you can see that the Holy Spirit moves inside and honey, He ain‟t leaving, because He is God‟s guarantee to you that you are going to live with Him forever.
Now He‟s going to take you to the wood shed if you‟re acting like that. Because whom the Lord loves, He disciplines and He chastens every son whom He receives. And He says if you‟re without chastisement then you are not children of God. He says you are illegitimate kids because you don‟t know who your father is.
And once you come to Jesus Christ then you know who your father is. When you and I come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit of promise moves inside of us. You can read about it in Galatians chapter 3. But I want to take you back to the Old Testament for just a few quick minutes.
Ezekiel chapter 36 and oh I‟m telling you. I wish I just had hours to teach you this. Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 26, “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put,” what, “My Spirit,” where, “within you,” and when I put My Spirit within you what will I do? I will what? It‟s God speaking. He says, “I will put My Spirit within you,” verse 27, “and
cause you,”
God is the subject.
I, God, will cause you, “to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”
That is the promise. One day Jack and I were going on a mission trip. We told David, “Son, when we get home we‟re going to buy you a new car. Not a brand new car. We‟re going to buy you another car. Well you know who was at the airport and you know where he wanted to go with his Dad immediately, you know, because he‟s got to buy a car. And so they went to the car dealer to get it and as they were going in he looked and there was this gorgeous, gorgeous car there.
He looked at I said, “Oh Dad! That‟s the kind of car I want someday. That‟s the kind of car. Look at those lines. Isn‟t that gorgeous? I bet that cost a fortune.” And he walks around and he sees the ticket and the tickets the same price he has to pay. “Dad! I can‟t believe it. Look at that! Dad! That is absolutely awesome. Dad, can I get in it?” He says, “Sure, Son, get in it.”
He opens the car door. He slides in. Put his hand on the back of the seat. Puts his arm on the steering wheel and says, “Now is that GQ or not?” You know? And he says, “Dad, can I just turn on the engine?” He says, “You can turn it on.” And so he takes the key. It‟s in the ignition and he turns it. Cluck …… cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck. “Dad, it‟s not turning on. What‟s wrong?” He says, “Look under the hood.”
So David goes around. Gets to the front of the car. Lifts up the hood. “There‟s no engine in it.” There‟s no engine in it and because there‟s no engine in it, there‟s no power. It won‟t go rhum-rhum rhum-rhum rhum. It looks like a car. It has the frame of a car. It has the tires. It has the doors. It has the steering wheel but under the hood there‟s no power under the hood.
Many of you look like a Christian.
You‟re sitting in church. You‟re going through the motions but if you lift up the hood there‟s no Holy Spirit within you. The Holy Spirit is a gift that comes with salvation. John 3, unless you are born of the Spirit you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. In John chapter 14 Jesus is telling them that He is going to go away and they are sad because He is going away and this is what He says to them in verse 15. “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another,” what, “Helper.” Rhum rhum rhum rhum power, “that He may be with you,” for how long, “forever,” that is the Spirit of truth,
whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and He will be,” where, “in you.” Romans chapter 8 verse 15, “For we have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but we have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry, „Abba! Father! The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are the,” what, “children of God.”
Now I want to ask you a question. Are you a child of God? If you are a child of God then old things have passed away and all things have become new. If you are a child of God then the Holy Spirit lives inside of you. If you are a child of God then you have power rhummm-rhum rhum rhum to live righteously. So the question to you today is are you alive or are you dead in your trespasses and sins? Is the Holy Spirit inside of you? Have you been born from heaven?
If you have been born again then you have God‟s Spirit. For those of you that have not been born again now is the time to make that decision. Now is the time to yield to the Holy Spirit. But there‟s something else that I want you to see and something else that I want you to understand and that is that if you are already a child of God and if you receive Jesus Christ today then you are to walk by the Spirit. I want you to go to Galatians chapter 5.
Galatians chapter 5 in verse 16 and this is what he says. He says, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you shall not carry out the desires of the flesh.” You are to walk by the Spirit. It says, “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.” You can‟t coast as you walk out of here in neutral. This cannot be another high. This cannot be another woman‟s conference. This is a life-changing event and now it‟s in your court. The ball is in your court and you have to decide what will you do with Jesus? What will you do with everything that you have learned?
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