 the title of our sermon this morning, So Great a Salvation, So Great a Salvation. Christ is worthy of proclamation and praise. Amen? Second Corinthians chapter 5 verses 20 and 21. For those of us who have turned from our sin and are now trusting in Christ alone for salvation, not trusting any longer in our works, not living any longer in unrepentant sin. But for those of us who have turned from sin, have turned from our rebellion, have turned from our enmity against God, have turned from living life for ourselves. For those of us who have turned and abandoned our lives to live for him, and are now trusting in Christ, no longer trusting in our own works, no longer trusting in our own deeds, no longer trusting in our own righteousness, which the Bible says is as a filthy rag. But for those who are trusting in Christ alone for salvation, the Lord has placed us in an astonishing position of grace. Almost unimaginable when you consider the depths of our sin and disgrace, when you consider the wickedness of man and rebelling against the God who made him, the God who sustains him, the God who supplies him, the God who gives him everything out of his hand, the God who feeds him, the God who fills his lungs with air. We simply trust Christ for this position of grace, for this mercy in faith because the Word of God has simply said that it's so, not because the in and of ourselves were capable of that kind of faith or capable of that kind of trust, and God has lavished upon us grace. He says in his Word that I has not seen nor ear heard nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him, but God has revealed them to us through his Spirit. Having been justified, having been made right with God, having been reconciled to God by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, you are at enmity with God, an enemy of God by wicked works. You have God as your enemy. If you are still in your sin, God is mad, no matter what the billboards say. God is angry with the wicked every day, but having been made right with God, having been justified, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. If you just chapter 1 verse 3, an astonishing position of grace, he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, every spiritual blessing. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. If you're in Christ, you and I once before walked in the dictates of our own heart, according to the course of this world, sons of disobedience, children of wrath, sons of our father the devil, and it's that one that he has raised up in Christ. It's that one that he has seated in the heavenlies that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Wow. He predestined us to adoption as sons. If you're in Christ, you are a son or a daughter of the king. He made us accepted in the beloved. In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. That filthy, disgraceful, shameful, sin filled heart can be cleansed white. In him, we also have obtained an inheritance, a glorious inheritance, an unimaginable inheritance, a matchless, insurpassable inheritance, all to the praise of his glory. And now, 2nd Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 20, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us, astonishing position of grace. He's placed us in this astonishing position of grace in the most astonishing of ways for when we were still without strength, when we couldn't do anything for ourselves, when we were, so to speak, wallowing in our blood, wallowing in our sin and rebellion, wallowing in our arrogance, wallowing in our ignorance, wallowing in our pride, wallowing in our adultery, wallowing in our anger, wallowing in our fornication, wallowing in our rebellion, wallowing in our drunkenness, wallowing in our waywardness, wallowing in our unworthiness, our unprofitableness, going astray, each one doing what is right in his own eyes. When we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. He didn't die when you were godly. He didn't die because you were worthy. He didn't die because you were accepted. He died to make you accepted. God demonstrates his own love. This is the love of God. God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, our high priest, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, higher than the heavens. The Son of God himself offered himself up as a perfect sacrifice for sin once for all. He himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of heaven, the Son of God, he himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we, having died to sins in him, might live for righteousness by whose stripes we were healed. The righteous for the unrighteous, the just for the unjust, the godly for the ungodly, for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. What is man that you are even mindful of him? This almost asks that you take care of him, that you crown him with such glory and honor, that you set him over the works of your hands and put all things in subjection under his feet, that he would do this for wicked sinners, rebellious, astonishing, isn't it? Astounding, amazing, thrilling, faith-provoking. If it doesn't provoke you to hate your sin and turn to him, something's wrong in your heart. If it doesn't cause you to glory in him, glory in the salvation that he has provided for you in Christ, if it doesn't cause you to cherish him, it doesn't cause you to see him as precious. If it doesn't cause you to exalt in him and to deplore up whore your sin, there is something wrong in your heart. The Spirit of God warns that Hebrews chapter 2 verse 1, we must therefore give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard lest we drift away. So if the word spoken through angels proves said fast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how then shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? That's the question, isn't it? How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? There are those that think that the God of the Old Testament is fired up mad and angry, pouring out his wrath, pouring out his judgment, but the God of the New Testament is grandfatherly hat in hand, wooing sinners to himself. No, God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. How will we escape if those who strayed and disobeyed were judged? If every transgression and disobedience then received a just reward, then how will you and I escape having received so much light, so much grace, so much mercy? How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? That neglect is the bane, the scourge, the plague of most professing Christians in our day and age, neglect, indifference, apathy, and unwillingness, or an inability to separate themselves from the trappings of this world, from the entrapments of this world, from the deceptions of this world. Neglect. It is the plague of professing Christian men and women. It's the plague of the professing Christian businessman. It's the plague today in this context of the professing Christian wife or the professing Christian husband, the professing pastor or the professing Christian deacon. Today people suffer from a love for the things of this world rather than rejoicing in a love for the Lord Jesus Christ. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? What's the remedy? What's the remedy to this? The remedy to this is to see the glory and the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ, to behold Him. It's the knowledge of God, the knowledge of the Holy. It is that we might know Him and the power of His resurrection if by any means we might attain to the resurrection from the dead. For many of you here today it may be seeing Him for the first time. Never before have you considered your sin, never before have you truly considered God's gracious provision for your sin, never before have you considered the mercy and grace of Almighty God shown you at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. His sacrifice, the perfect, blameless, holy, spotless, sinless Son of God. Brothers, it might be a renewed look at our Savior. You know, we take our hearts and minds off the things of God and we place them on the things of this world and we forget. We forget how glorious He is. We tend to divert our attention from His sacrifice, divert our attention from all that He has done for us and to place our attention on the things of this world, our own priorities, worldly priorities, fleshly priorities. We need to consider this great salvation. We need to consider it continuously. Listen, brothers and sisters, we're going to consider it continuously in heaven forever for all eternity and we will never plummet steps. We need to see the filth of our sin. We need to see the grace of His salvation. That's the remedy, right? More of Christ, more of Christ, the more that you see Christ, the more that you see the filth of your sin, the more that you see God as holy, the more that you see the grace of His salvation. Paul says in praise and in worship, in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away, behold, all things have become new. A great salvation, amen. What lifts up the weary soul? What lifts up the apathetic heart? What lifts up the indifferent sinning Christian? What lifts us up from the drudgery of this world is a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done to save us, to save you, to save me. Look to Him. Look to Him. We need our hearts to be consumed with Him. There are many, many, even those that name the name of Christ who give themselves to causes, give themselves over to causes and causes that in and of themselves are good. Moms give themselves, give themselves to the cause of raising their kids, give themselves entirely to that cause. There are those that give themselves entirely to the cause of abortion, multiple times a week, at the clinics, on the sidewalks, confronting people, desiring to see that baby's life saved. There are those that give themselves to caring for the poor, caring for the homeless, that give away amassed fortunes to do just that, that start foundations, that visit hospitals, that pay for surgeries, that will give a kidney, right, give themselves to great causes, but the Christian is entirely given to one cause and that cause fuels the rest, mind you. Doesn't mean that we're not to give ourselves to ending the plague of murder at the abortion mill. Doesn't mean that we don't give ourselves to helping the poor or helping the homeless or ministering to someone in the hospital, but that all springs from our one cause as ambassadors for the Lord Jesus Christ. We must, as Paul was, we must be determined to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified. What good does it do if you feed someone for a day and they die and go to hell for eternity? What good does it do to save that life at the abortion mill if both mother and baby will wind up in hell forever? We need to consider our great salvation, we need to consider our great Savior and the glorious grace that God has bestowed on us through Him. Paul wants us to consider these things, this great salvation in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 20 and 21. It is a glorious text. This is a glorious salvation, a glorious responsibility. We are no longer our own. We were bought at a price. We are to glorify God. He wants us to consider this great salvation in terms of one, a great commission in verse 20, and then in terms of a great exchange in verse 21, a great commission and a great exchange. Look first with me at the great commission in 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. We are ambassadors for Christ. That is a high calling. Amen. It's a high calling. It's a lofty office. We would say it is a great commission. It is a great commission, especially considering the low state from which we have come to be put or placed there, the low state from which we have been raised. Paul said to Timothy of his gospel ministry that the gospel of the blessed God was committed to my trust, Paul said. Paul said I was formerly a blasphemer. I was formerly a persecutor and an insolent man, but God was merciful to me, Paul says. The grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Now, second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 20, we are ambassadors for Christ. You put your own list of sins in there, right? I was formerly a homosexual. I was formerly an adulterer. I was formerly a liar. I was formerly a thief. I was formerly an easy, believism, disobedient, so-called Christian, taking the Lord's name in vain. I was formerly those things. I was formerly insolent. I was formerly rebellious. I was formerly an enemy of God, but he was merciful to me, and now I am an ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice first with me, verse 20, the reason for this great commission, the reason for this great commission. Paul begins in verse 20 with the words, now then. That little transition connects verse 20 with Paul's ongoing train of thought that he began several verses before. In chapter 5 verse 14, Paul says, the love that Christ has shown for me and dying for me at the cross compels me. It constrains me. It drives me. It fuels me. I have come to this resolute, unwavering, uncompromising conclusion that if he died for me, then I died to sin, and I died to myself in him. And he died that I should no longer live for myself, but for him who died for me and rose again. Now notice in verse 14 and 15, he uses there the word, all, referring to all believers, all of us, you could say. So what you should do then, beginning in verse 14, is apply those words to yourself personally. Therefore, verse 17, in Christ, I am a new creation. Praise God. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things in Christ have become new. Chapter 5 verse 18, he has reconciled me to himself through Jesus Christ and has now given me, he has entrusted to me the ministry of reconciliation. Chapter 5 verse 19, God is reconciling to himself of people out of every tribe, tongue, and nation through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is doing that in Christ by not imputing or crediting or reckoning their trespasses, their sin to them. And he has entrusted me. He has deposited with me the preaching of the gospel as the means through which they might be saved. Now then, chapter 5 verse 20, I am therefore an ambassador for Christ. Do you see Paul's logic as he works through the argument? We are ambassadors for Christ. The reason given here for this glorious commission is the fact that you and I, we ourselves have been reconciled to God through him. And now that we've been reconciled, we are entrusted with this message of reconciliation. Chapter 4 verse 7 calls this message of reconciliation a great treasure. It is a light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And we are the weak vessels, the weak earthen clay pots with which it has been deposited. That's the reason for this great commission. Look at our role in this great commission in verse 20, our role in this great commission. Now then, Paul says, we are ambassadors. We're ambassadors. Having been entrusted with both the ministry and the message of reconciliation with God, the gospel treasure has been deposited with him. Paul then applies a high dignity, a high honor to that responsibility by using the word ambassador, using the word picture here, or the analogy if you will, of an ambassador. Notice that he doesn't connect the word to his office as an apostle. Paul doesn't say, listen, I am an apostle. And as an apostle, I am an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul doesn't do that. He separates those two offices. He separates those roles by using plural pronouns, referring to both he and the Corinthians and by implication, all believers, all believers, those who have placed their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, all believers are ambassadors. Ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ. When I was a kid in our church at the time, they had a kid's group, young men called royal ambassadors. It was part of what I remember as being a part of that group was sort of the lofty designation. We were royal ambassadors. That's true if you're in Christ. You are a royal emissary of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are a royal ambassador. Look at verse 18. God has reconciled us to himself. Speaking of all believers, Paul there not merely referring to himself and his co-labors, but to himself, his co-labors and the Corinthians and you and I, if we're in Christ by repented faith. God has reconciled us to himself, all believers. Verse 19, he has committed to us all believers the word of reconciliation. Verse 20, now then, we, a plural pronoun referring to all believers, we are ambassadors for Christ. The role of an ambassador, or what might have been called in that day and age an imperial legate, an imperial delegate, the role of an ambassador in the ancient world was an office of extremely high importance. It was an exceedingly high honor to be entrusted by the king, today a president, a prime minister, then a king or an emperor. It was an extremely high honor, a high position of trust, a position of immense authority, immense responsibility. An ambassador is one who represents his king, represents his country, his government in a foreign land. The king himself couldn't be there, couldn't continuously live there, and so the king then commissioned a trusted spokesperson to live there in his stead to represent him to that foreign land, to represent his interests, to represent his will. He would be delegated the authority to speak and to act on behalf of the king, to speak and to act on behalf of the government. And in as much as he faithfully adhered to the words and interests of the king, he faithfully discharged the duty of his office. The words of the ambassador were the very words of the king himself. That being the case in his official capacity, the ambassador wasn't allowed to speak for himself. In his official capacity, he wasn't to push his own agenda or to exert his own influence. He spoke for the king. His is a declarative role and his authoritative message does not originate with him. His voice is authoritative only as he faithfully communicates the king's intent, saying only what he has been authorized and commissioned to say. His life, you could say, in that foreign land is bound up, wrapped up, concerned with the interests of his home. Further, you could say that the importance or the honor of this ambassador's role is measured by the honor and importance of the state or the kingdom that he represents. And we can see that today. The ambassador of the United States to the United Nations gets heard more readily than maybe an ambassador from a state or a country with far less influence. You know what I'm saying? His role measured by the honor or importance of the state that he represents. And that states interest and influence. This is the high position to which God appoints those who enter his kingdom through faith in Christ. This is the word chosen by the Spirit of God to describe those who are now by faith in Christ ambassadors of his, ambassadors of the kingdom of God. And this is the way that we should see our role. We should see ourselves as ambassadors for the Lord Jesus Christ. We should see that as a lofty, high calling. Even when the citizens of this world, the citizens of the kingdom of darkness despise it and disdain it and mock it and deride it, doesn't change who you are in Christ, doesn't change our identification with Christ. We should esteem his view of us far greater than their view of us, right? Amen. Rather than fearing their faces, we are ambassadors for the King. The Spirit of God ascribes this honor to it. To be an ambassador, you have to be an actual citizen of the kingdom that you represent. Citizenship in this kingdom, in God's kingdom, is for those who have been born again. Jesus told Nicodemus, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Paul says of those who have been born again, God has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of his love. No longer given to the interests and pursuits of the kingdom of darkness. There is a clean break. Amen. If you find yourself given to the interests and pursuits of this world, given to the interests and pursuits of the kingdom of darkness, if you find yourself continuing to run in the same flood of dissipation, you are no citizen of that kingdom. The Lord's kingdom, you're a citizen of this one. You're a citizen of this world and he who would make himself a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. The genuine Christian is now identified with, consumed with the interests and pursuits of the kingdom of his dear Son. He can no longer live for himself. Now, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, he lives for his king, the one who died for him and rose again. He becomes, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, a living preaching epistle of the Lord Jesus Christ known and read by all men. Paul says there, we believe and therefore we speak. A citizen of the kingdom of God is an ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ. And that brings us to our third point. We've considered the reason, we've considered our role next our responsibility, our responsibility in verse 20. We are verse 20 ambassadors for Christ. We implore, we speak, we plead on Christ's behalf. Now our responsibility is to our sovereign. Our responsibility is to our king, the one who died for us and rose again. He is the one who commissions us. He's the one who has saved us. He's the one who has given us a new heart. He's the one who has indwelt us with his spirit. He's the one who has given us the treasure of his gospel. He's the one who has commissioned us as ambassadors for heaven, for the court of heaven in this wicked world, in this foreign land. We represent him. And when you travel, and maybe you get an opportunity to travel to other states certainly, especially overseas it becomes much more evident. But when you travel overseas, people have an impression of Americans, right? Sometimes that perception, they have a perception of Americans. Sometimes that perception is favorable and sometimes it's not favorable. And you can tell by the way they're looking at you. My wife and I were sitting on the train one time, had this couple across from us that were just looking us up and down. It was not favorable. It was not favorable. Anywhere you go, right? If you go to the workplace, if you go to school, certainly Americans having traveled abroad and going to other places, we leave an impression. We leave an impression. Certainly a Christian is to leave an impression. We represent God. We represent the Lord Jesus Christ. We represent his kingdom. We represent his interests. We represent his priorities, his pursuits, his cause. We represent his gospel. We represent his ministry of reconciliation. We should leave an impression. Despite the prevalence of self-will and derelict, so-called ambassadors, we are authorized to speak only his words. We don't speak words of our own wisdom. We don't speak worldly philosophy. We don't preach our own opinions. We don't preach our own imaginations. We preach what the word of God says. We don't mess with the semantics. We don't mess with the words. If the Bible says, repent and believe, you don't change that to ask Jesus into your heart. We preach the word of God and only his word. To change his words is to be derelict in your duty as an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't change or adjust the message to make it more palatable. If you change or adjust the message to make it more palatable, you corrupt and pervert the message to the damnation of souls. We don't suit the message to serve the interests of the foreign land that we find ourselves in. We don't get creative. We don't get innovative. We don't try to appeal to their carnal desires. We don't try to entertain them to get them in the door and then entertain them to keep them and then entertain them to get them to commit it. We are heralds for the Lord Jesus Christ. We are ambassadors. We speak in his stead. We speak on his behalf. We do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord. We don't get to mess with the message, right? We preach his word. Now notice with me a really important point about the grace and mercy of Almighty God in our responsibility here, verse 20. Verse 21, notice this. It is on our behalf that God made Christ to be sinned. Do you see that? In verse 20, it is on his behalf that now God makes us to be ambassadors for him. But think about that for a moment. What a glorious privilege. What a glorious honor. And would we be negligent in that? Think about it. Think about all that Christ has done for you, all that Christ has given. He's given everything, even to the point of death, even death on the cross. It's on our behalf that God made Christ to be sinned, the one who knew no sin to be sinned for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Now being in him, being identified with him, being in union with him through faith. It is on his behalf that we get to represent him here in this world. It's on his behalf that God makes us to be ambassadors of the kingdom. One commentator said it like this. His concern for us was so great that it led to the cross How much concern have we for Christ? If we loved him as much as he loved us, we should be zealous ambassadors indeed. And that is a tremendous understatement. This phrase on Christ's behalf could transform our ministry. There is no more powerful incentive in evangelism than the sake of his name. Has God in and through the death of Christ done all that is necessary for man's reconciliation? Then we should spare no pains to urge upon men persistently, earnestly, the necessity of being reconciled to God. It is an appropriate response, isn't it? So if Christ is our King and he is, and if we are citizens of his kingdom, if we are ambassadors for him in this world, then what does that make the church? Think with me for a moment. What does that make the church? Make the church an embassy. It's an embassy, an outpost of heaven in a foreign land. When they set up an embassy in a foreign country, recently the power embassy moved to Jerusalem in Israel. They built an embassy there. When you're on that land, you are on American soil. They consider it to be our territory, the location of that embassy. This is a little outpost of heaven right here, this local church. His church has embassies all over the kingdom of darkness, all over this world. This is a little outpost of heaven. This is heavenly territory, you could say. And we as ambassadors who dwell here at the embassy, we've been given a responsibility to speak for the king as his ambassadors to this area. We have a responsibility to this area, right? This is the little hill that he's planted us on. This is the area that he's given us responsibility for. This is where this church has been placed. You have brothers and sisters here that you're responsible for, that you're responsible for ministering to. The Lord placed you here and he has given you responsibility to these brothers and sisters here. We understand that? Being an embassy of the Lord Jesus Christ in this dark world, you're also an ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ to the loss of this area. He's given us this area to conquer for the Lord Jesus Christ, to turn upside down with the gospel. Now that doesn't preclude us from worshiping God by spreading the gospel in our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost ends of the world. And so we like to plant embassies also, right? We want to plant embassies in other places that maybe don't have an embassy. But we have one here and we have a responsibility here. We need to share the gospel with the people here. We need to pray and labor to see this area won for the Lord Jesus Christ. We know our message is not always going to be well received. We know that. The Lord Jesus Christ prepares us for that, doesn't he? Understand the world will hate you. If it hated me, it's going to hate you. And know that when it hates you, it hated me first, right? We live in the city of destruction to pull a picture from John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. It is going to be destroyed. There is a torrent of God's wrath that is barreling toward it. And we are to tell people to flee the wrath of God, to flee to Christ, to flee to the one who reconciles, to the one who offers to them, extends to them an offer of peace. You're like a watchman who sits on the tower. You see destruction coming. You see the sword coming upon the land. And what do you do? You're to blow the trumpet. You're to warn the people. You're to plead for peace with the enemies of God while there is yet time to escape. You're to take Lot and his family by the hand and yank them out of Sodom. You are an instrument. You are a means of reconciliation. You are a minister of reconciliation. You have the ministry of reconciliation. It's interesting to me that oftentimes embassies in foreign countries are called ministries. They're called ministries. The ministry of this, the ministry of that. You have a ministry for the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a ministry of reconciliation. You are a means of reconciliation. You are his ambassador to this lost world. What if you don't speak for him? What if you don't warn when you see the armies coming? What if you don't blow the trumpet when the torrent of God's wrath hangs over their head? If you don't speak, if you don't speak as his ambassador, you are an unfaithful steward. You have abandoned your post. You have become derelict in your duty. What do you do? Do you get back to it? If you're in Christ, repent of that sin and get back to it. We're not to be unfaithful stewards. Paul said rightly, right, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. If we speak in error, if we deviate from or corrupt the message for whatever reason, for whatever end, for whatever motivation, we are unfaithful stewards at best. We are cut off at worst. True ambassadors, those appointed by God, those indwelt by God's spirit, those whose hearts have been changed, transformed, those who are given over to his cause, those who no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again. True ambassadors will speak. I believe, Paul said, therefore I speak, even though it's difficult, even though it's sometimes fearful, even when it appears that no one is listening, even when it appears that no one wants to hear, even though it's the 18th time you've had that conversation and the door comes open and you have it for a 19th time, even though you pray and you pray and you pray and you've been praying for years. You keep speaking. That's our role. We are ambassadors for Christ. We have a declarative responsibility. Jeremiah said this. Jeremiah chapter 20, verse 7. Jeremiah said, I am in derision daily. Everyone mocks me. Think about Jeremiah's statement there for a moment. Jeremiah is alone. He is alone. I am in derision daily. Everyone mocks me. I don't think we get mocks quite like that, right? Not by everybody. You can come here and get some respite, can't you? Maybe everyone in that one stream on Facebook mocked you. That's sometimes about as bad as it gets. Jeremiah said, I am in derision daily. Everyone mocks me. For when I spoke, I cried out, I shouted violence and plunder. That was the content of Jeremiah's message. Violence and plunder. Because the word of the Lord was made to me a reproach and a derision daily. Then I said, Jeremiah resolved within himself, I'll not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in my heart, like a burning fire, shut up in my bones. I was weary of holding it back and I could not. And Jeremiah preached, Lord, help us to have the heart attitude and the resolve and the devotion of Jeremiah at this day and age. Though we are held in derision daily, though everyone mocked us, that we would not hold it back. That brings us then to the ambassador's manner. We are an ambassador for Christ. In verse 20, we are confronted here with both the ambassador's manner and the ambassador's message, beginning with the ambassador's manner in 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. On verse 20, Paul uses two words to describe how the ambassador speaks. Paul says, we plead and we implore. We plead and we implore. Pleading is a word that refers to making an earnest appeal. We entreat, we persuade, we exhort, we urge. And it's earnest, it's zealous, it's fervent, it's not dispassionate. It is pleading. Do you see? Imploring is a Greek word often used for begging, begging. Some of your translations say beseeching. In other words, this is not arguing. It's not fighting. I'm not going to take your Bible from you and beat you over the head and shoulders with it until you agree with my position. I'm going to plead, I'm going to entreat, I'm going to implore. It's not about winning a fight. It's about winning their soul. In Mark chapter 1 verse 40, a man with leprosy came to the Lord Jesus Christ and he begged him. He, in the New King James, implored him. In some of your translations, he beseeched him. If you are willing, Lord, you can make me clean. He begged him. Do you see? Luke chapter 9 verse 37, a man begs the Lord to look at his son, his only child. A demon had possessed him, was convulsing him, throwing him into the fire. And he begged the disciples to cast it out and they could not. And so then he begged the Lord Jesus Christ to look at his son. This is no cold. This is not calculated. It's not indifferent. It's not passionless. It is not impersonal. It's not take it or leave it. It's not out to win a mere theological fight. This is earnest. This is heartfelt. It is sober minded. It is pleading and imploring and begging. Do you think about the difference? Saul, before Paul, served as an ambassador for the Pharisees, didn't he? An ambassador for the Sanhedrin. He was an ambassador who pursued God's people to drag them back to prison, consenting even to their death. There was no pleading. There was no imploring. There was a my way or the highway attitude. It was dogmatic. There was absolutely no heart in it beyond a heart of hatred. And yet he was entirely wrong. Paul on the road to Damascus became a new creation. Old things passed away. Behold, in Paul, all things became new. Paul had a new heart. Paul had a new spirit within him. Paul had a new demeanor. And Paul's demeanor as an ambassador of Christ was much different, wasn't it? Notice how Paul characterizes it in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 20. It is as though God himself were pleading through us. Now, what a beautiful, a glorious picture of the condescension of Almighty God to think that, right? Almighty God, your Creator, the one who has knit you together, the one who has fashioned all your days for you, the one who has breathed his very breath of life into you, is the one who condescends to plead with you to turn back to him. But that says an immensity about the glory of God. But that also says volumes about the depravity of man. It is as though God were pleading through us, that God must plead and implore men to believe in his Son. Isaiah chapter 65 verse 2. The Lord says, I have stretched out my hands all day long to a rebellious people who walk in a way that is not good according to their own thoughts of people who provoke me to anger continually to my face. It's often said that God hates the sin, loves the sinner. No, God hates the sin, and he hates the sinner. He hates the divisive man, the Bible says. He hates all workers of iniquity, the Bible says. Don't confuse general grace with special grace, common grace with special grace, right? The fact that God cares for his creation is seen in the fact that it reigns on both the just and the unjust, that God provides food. Paul said, God provides gladness of heart to just and unjust, to pagans, to those that reject him, to those that blaspheme his name. God shows kindness, God shows compassion, God shows patience and long suffering. Stretching out his hands, Isaiah 65 verse 2, all day long to a rebellious people who walk in a way that is not good according to their own thoughts of people who provoke me to anger continually to my face, to my face. The same God who spared not his only Son but delivered him up for us is the same God who now pleads and implores through us. He stretches out his hands through us. Incidentally, if you consider this manner of the ambassador and what it is to be, this is a key difference today between preaching and simply teaching, right? Key difference between preaching and teaching. Preaching the gospel or biblical preaching is not simply an exchange of information. I'm not here just giving you some nice platitudes for you to know, right? To expand your mere intellect. Preaching is an appeal. Preaching is an imploring. Preaching is a begging. Preaching is an exhortation. Preaching is an urging. Preaching is earnest. It's fervent. It's zealous. It is pleading for sinful men, sinful women, sinful young boys, sinful young girls to take action, to turn from their sinful ways. The ambassador presents the word of God which, according to Paul, rebukes and corrects and instructs in righteousness here at all the time of biblical preaching. That is just not much grace in that. It's full of grace, biblical preaching. It is the grace of God to tell you you need to turn from your sin and trust him alone. It is the grace of God to tell you where you're sinning against him. How you need to change what you need to do. It is the grace of God to exhort you to live the Christian life. Listen, it is the grace of God. If you're sitting here today and you're living in your sin, you're living in some unrepentant sin, then it is the grace of God for me to tell you on his behalf as his ambassador, turn from your sin and trust Christ where you will die and you will perish in your sin and go to hell for all eternity. Turn to him and be saved. Be converted that your sins may be blotted out. That is the grace of God to you. People say I don't like hellfire, brimstone preaching, but you don't like biblical preaching. You don't like, you don't like the preaching that is going to jackhammer through the rebarb and forced concrete you've built around your heart so that you can be saved. That's the preaching you don't like because it messes with what you're doing, messes with your life. It metals with you, right? Submit to the Word of God. Accept the word diagnosis of you. Submit to him and turn from your sin. Paul knows that the Word of God is a means of God to change wicked hearts. He knows that the Word of God is a means of God to sanctify his people. And so he calls his hearers to do what they hear, not being mere doers or hearers of the word only, deceiving themselves. The Word of God, the preaching that is biblical challenges God's people and it should challenge lost people. He pleads with them. He implores them. He warns them. If they are unconverted, then we plead with them. Beg them. Shake them. Grab them by the coattails. Pay to even the garment defiled by the flesh. Plead with them to be converted. If they are converted, we plead with them to love Christ, love the Lord Jesus Christ's whole mind and strength. Abandon your life to him. Live for him who died for you and rose again. Live the Christian life. God intends through his ambassadors to bring his word to bear on their need. What is your need this morning? Are you apathetic? Are you indifferent? Wake up, brother. Wake up, sister. This life is a paper. Turn to Christ. Are you here this morning and you're unconverted? What are you doing? Why will you die? The condemnation of God hangs over your head. The wrath of God is about to be poured out. Hell beneath is excited to receive you. Turn from your sin. Trust Christ. So often, as sinful and ignorant people, we must be convinced of our need for change before we'll ever, ever consider changing. And how is it that we're convinced? The Spirit of God to the Word of God through biblical preaching, pleading and imploring. And even then, even then when his word goes out and his word goes out and his word goes out, I've been told before I get repetitious. Okay? Well, let me say it again. And again, and again, God is gracious to repeat himself often. It's the patience of God. I'm going to say it to you again. I'm going to give it to you again. Meet this guy on the road. He witnesses you. You go in the store. There's another guy over in the same church. I got this tract just 15 minutes ago, right? You go to the school, talk to this guy. Where do you go to church? Cornerstone. I got the tract from cornerstone. What happens on a regular basis around here? God is so gracious and so patient. Some of you, you're sitting here today, unconverted. You're living in your sin. You know it right now. You know it. You've been living in your sin for years. Maybe it's your second time at this church. Maybe it's your third time at this church. Maybe it's your 300th time at this church. And you still persist in your wickedness. Turn from your sin. You are going to die. God has said that it is so. Preaching that is devoid of pleading or devoid of imploring, devoid of begging on behalf of God, whether it's on the street, whether it's at the front door, whether it's in the classroom, at the office, or whether it's behind a pulpit. That preaching is not biblical preaching. That is not faithful preaching as an ambassador for Christ. Ambassadors for Christ plead as though God were pleading through us. We implore you be reconciled to God. If you are dispassionate, if you are matter of fact, if you are indifferent, apathetic, take it or leave it. And you're neglecting your post. Still called embassies of God. Churches today are filled, filled with people who do not speak his word, who do not preach the gospel. They do not plead with sinners. They do not implore sinners. They don't share the gospel with sinners. They don't talk to sinners. They themselves are one, most likely, but they're not sharing the gospel. Churches are filled today with people who call themselves Christians, who are not ambassadors for Christ. Those who presume to speak, often today we see speaking a message of their own devising. Or they speak a message that they have so watered down in order to keep for themselves or attain for themselves, favor with the kingdom of darkness, rather than favor with God. Favor with their king. It is a plague, a plague on modern day so-called Christianity. Let's say it's a plague on modern day Christianity. Let's say it's a plague with their king. It is a plague, a plague on modern day so-called Christianity. Let it not be named among us. You know, it's interesting to me more that you hear as time goes by. Other countries have begun in droves to send missionaries to the United States. We, to them, we are the mission field now because Christianity here has become so absurdly watered down and eviscerated and corrupt and perverted. Factories of false conversion, false professing Christians everywhere, every manner of waxed out weird perversions and corruptions and error. Biblical churches from Africa will be planting churches here. We are his ambassador. We need to be faithful to our calling. God himself makes us appeal through us. You bring terms of peace. You are a proclamer of God's peace and wrath is soon coming. You who are once a hostile, alienated enemy, one pastor said, yourself having received this gracious reconciliation are now put into service by the reconciling God to be the instrument of the reconciliation of other enemies. Praise the Lord, amen. What a high office. What a lofty calling. That brings us now to in verse 20, the ambassador's message. The ambassador's manner, now the ambassador's message. Verse 20, now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf. Here it is. Be reconciled to God. Be reconciled to God. When Paul says this in verse 20, he's referring to the general content of his preaching. The general content of his preaching is be reconciled to God. He'd already said in chapter five that he persuades men. Knowing therefore the care of the Lord, what do we do? We persuade men. It's another aspect of his ministry. Be reconciled to God. But it's also here, spoken of in a context where many of the Corinthians themselves, who are professed believers in the church at Corinth, they've departed from the clear teaching of the gospel, right? False features have come in, they have disrupted things in Corinth, and many are tempted now to turn away from Paul, and to turn away from Christ, to turn away from the gospel, and to follow off after false teachers. They're being tempted to stray. If they are unconverted, Paul would say to them, be reconciled to God. If they profess to be converted, profess to be Christian, Paul would say to them, be reconciled to God. Do you see? It's the content of his preaching, but it has valid import for the believers in Corinth. Don't stray away from Christ. Be reconciled. Be reconciled. Maintain a reconciled status, if you will. We're reconciled in Christ. The word here, be reconciled, is an heiress passive imperative. Now what that means is heiress, it's an action completed in the past. It's like a point in time where that action was done. In Christ, if you're in Christ by faith, you were reconciled, right? Paul is saying, be reconciled to God. Passive, you don't do it. God does it in you. God does it for you. You don't reconcile yourself, right? Be reconciled to God. Imperative. It's a command. Now, think on that for a while over lunch today. It's a completed act. We have been reconciled. It's passive. God does it to it and it's a command. Be reconciled to God. Cry out to him. Cry out that God would reconcile you to himself. Cry out that he would give you a new heart, a new mind, a new spirit to indwell you, that he would reconcile you. There's also a sense in which now that the believer is in Christ, we must persevere. We must pursue our sanctification. When we sin, not if we sin, when we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So what are we supposed to do? Knowing that our advocate sits at the right hand of the majesty on high, interceding for us. What are we to do? We're to confess our sin to him. And if we confess our sin, he is righteous and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from our iniquity. Praise God. Be reconciled to God. The word of reconciliation then is the message. It's the gospel. It's the message of what God has done in Christ to end the enmity that Christ put away by the sacrifice of himself. Second Corinthians chapter five, verse 19, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. How? Not imputing their trespasses to them and he is now committed to us the word of reconciliation. I want you to notice that this message is urgent. This message is urgent. Flip the page. Look at second Corinthians chapter six, verse one. Paul says we are ambassadors for Christ. We plead and we implore as though God we're pleading through us, be reconciled to God. Chapter six, verse one, we then as workers together with him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. Corinthians, Cornerstone Baptist Church, believer, brother, sister, young man, young woman, don't receive the grace of God in vain for he says verse two, in an acceptable time I have heard you and in the day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. This message is urgent regarding our alienation from God. I've heard it explained beautifully that we have two problems. We have a bad record and a bad heart. You're here today and you're not in Christ. You've not turned from your sin to trust him. You have a bad record and a bad heart and notice the glorious grace of God in this. Listen to what I say. If you're here today, you've never turned from your sin to put your faith in Christ. You have a bad record and a bad heart. If you're here today, you turn from your sin to put your faith in Christ. You have a crystal, clean, beautiful, righteous record and a new heart. That's amazing, isn't it? That is amazing. Your record is clear. Not only is your record clear, but you have the righteousness of Christ. You've become the righteousness of God in him as if you had not only as if you had avoided any sin, avoided doing those things that the Lord said not to do, but it is as if you've done everything that you were supposed to have done. In addition to that, it's a beautiful, beautiful picture. But if you're alienated from God, if you're still here today, you're in your sin, your problem is you have a bad record and a bad heart. You have a bad record. You have sins stacked up to heaven, sins of thought, sins of words, sins of deed. You can't go a breath without sinning against God because you can't do anything in faith. You're not closed in the righteousness of Christ. You have no buffer between what you are and who he is. You have a bad record. Sin upon sin. You don't sin and then become a sinner because you sin. No, no, no. You sin because you are by nature a sinner. You have a bad record. Every bad word, every bad thought, every bad deed will be charged against you, held against you at the judgment seat of Christ at the judgment bar of God and you will give an account for everything done in the body. Not only do you have a bad record, you have a bad heart. You have a bad heart. You were born in Adam, having been born in Adam. David said, in sin, my mother conceived me. He was conceived in sin because of his bad heart. You have a bad nature. You are compelled by your nature to sin against God. You cannot do anything to please him no matter what you do. If your righteousnesses are as filthy rags to God, what do you think your sin is like to him? Give a bad record and a bad heart. God has sent me as an ambassador of Christ today to preach to you the divine remedy. Their brothers and sisters in this church, they will certainly preach to you as ambassadors of Christ, the gospel of the kingdom, the divine remedy for your bad record and for your bad heart. That remedy is grounded in, founded in, wrapped up in, bound up in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not found in psychology, not found in worldly philosophy, can't take a pill or get a shot. It's not in a set of rules, a set of do's and don'ts that you must do or don't. It's not in a work that you can do. The Lord Jesus Christ says, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me. He is the answer. He is the remedy to your problem. The remedy is centered in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not just that it's bound up in a person, but it's bound up in a person who is perfect, who is sinless. It's bound up in a person who went as a perfect, sinless sacrifice to the cross to die for you. Jesus took what sinners deserve. We were cursed. He became a curse for us. Without committing any sin, verse 21, he became sin for us. He bore our sins in his body on the tree. When he bore our sins, when he hung there on the cross, God did to him what God must do to sin, to deal with it in righteousness, to deal with it in justice, to deal with it from a standpoint of holiness. God did to him what he must do in order to deal with sin. He poured out divine punishment. He poured out undiluted wrath, undiluted fury, and he poured that out upon his own son in your place if you will turn from your sin and trust him alone for salvation. Do you want to be a Christian, young man, young lady, man, woman? Do you want to be a Christian? Do you want to have your sins forgiven? Do you want to be cleansed? Do you want to be free from the life of sin that you are now living? Do you even, do you desire to have your desire changed? I don't want to want that anymore because I know that it offends my Creator. Do you want to have your mind renewed? Do you want to be washed? Do you want to follow Christ? Do you want to have His righteousness as a free gift? To be accepted in the beloved, despite all that you've done? And listen, in Christ, you could be a heinously deplorable sinner as I was, just like any person here. And yet, it's not so much that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ can't cleanse you from it. To remove that guilt, to seat you in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, turn today, turn now at His rebuke. Now is the time. Today is the day for salvation. Turn from sin and trust Him. Moses, God's ambassador, said, See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. Choose life, choose life with a conviction that God Himself is pleading and imploring you through the very words that I now speak to you. I beg you, on behalf of Christ, turn from your sin. Be reconciled to God. Be reconciled to your Creator, the one whom you have offended with your sin, the one who even now is wrath and condemnation hangs over your head justly, righteously it is as it should be that you would be there. You can't do anything to save yourself. You can't cleanse yourself. There's no circumstance under which you can be right with God outside the one provision that God has made for you. You cannot withstand His fury, His power. Our God is a consuming fire. You have no defense. You have no excuse. God will not leave the guilty unpunished. Even now, even now, for many of you, again, He stretches out His hand to you through me, His ambassador, and offers you terms of peace in His Son. Why will you die? Why will you die? Set aside your rebellion against Him. Let the wicked forsake His way. Let the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts and return to the Lord. And what does the Bible say? He will have mercy on him. Let him return to God, for he will abundantly pardon. All praise, honor, and glory to the one who condescends with such grace and mercy and patience to sinners as vile as we. Amen. Let's pray.