 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I'm going to set my timer here on this phone so that I don't go too long. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. All things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf be reconciled to God. For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And so as we look at this as is my natural manner of teaching, let me remind you of a few things. Paul had just written, therefore, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. He had said that in verse 11. And as I was giving that study earlier, I mentioned to you that the term the terror of the Lord is a term that speaks concerning awe. It speaks of reverence of God. You see, it's a reverence that keeps a thoughtless man from desecrating that which is sacred. The biblical and proper fear of the Lord, because there are those who speak concerning it and all in they say fear of the Lord. What do you speak about when you talk about the terror of the Lord or the fear of God? Well, the biblical and proper fear of the Lord has been described as a cleansing fear. It is a fear that provokes us to live in such a way that our lives are purified from sinning in a casual way. You see, in our day, the idea that a man should fear God, well, in our day, that's looked at as being backwards. That's looked at as being primitive. Non-Christians think that it's a superstitious way of thinking. The thought that there's a God that's all powerful is very often ridiculed and rejected. And without knowing it, their attitude is actually something that reveals their nature. You see, there's the Psalm, Psalm 36 in verse 1. It's been referred to as the Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord. And the heading is an oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked. And then he writes, there is no fear of God before his eyes. That is an oracle, he said, within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked. There is no fear of God before his eyes. You see, this fear is actually one of the things that God requires from those who serve him. If you take notes Deuteronomy 10, verses 12 and 13, says, now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes, which I command you today for your good. You see, by the fear of the Lord, man avoids being and doing that which the Lord forbids. The lack of the fear of the Lord is evidence that someone doesn't know God. In the book of Romans chapter 3, verses 16 through 18, it reads destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. And he goes on to say, there is no fear of God before their eyes. And this is the kind of fear that we are commanded to have that results in a holy life. And it's the kind of fear that actually produces satisfaction. Proverbs 8.13 says, the fear of the Lord is the hate evil. Proverbs 19, verse 23, the fear of the Lord leads to life and he who has it will abide in satisfaction. And so Paul has been speaking of his own sincerity. And as I've been mentioning to you, as we've gone through 2 Corinthians, he's responding to various accusations that have been lodged against him. Now, why would he even respond to accusations? Every one of us whose follower of Jesus Christ, every one of us, will have an accusation lodged against us. It just happens. People do that. Just this week, as a regional overseer, as a member of the Calvary Chapel Council of pastors who oversee Calvary Chappals worldwide, I received a letter just this week from somebody out of state who was basically accusing a pastor, a Calvary Chapel pastor who lives next door, accusing him of various things. And so I contacted the pastor and communicated with him and asked him, actually, I sent him the letter that was sent to me, the message that was sent to me and asked him to respond to it. And as I suspected, the charges were not true. The charges were not true because people have a tendency of lodging charges, and very often they'll charge people who are doing well with something that's malicious and wrong. If you're a believer in Christ, if you haven't had somebody say something about you yet, you will. You just aren't old enough yet or just haven't been following the Lord for very long because all of us receive charges. All of us will have accusations. And most of the time, almost all the time, really, we just progress. We just move on. If there are false charges, why waste our time trying to address every one of them? So why is Paul addressing this? Well, in his case, as an apostle, one who is representative of the kingdom of God, an ambassador for Jesus Christ, he has to respond to these things because he's guarding something. He's guarding the purity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Remember in the book of Philippians in chapter 1, verse 17, how that Paul said that he was appointed for the defense of the gospel. And Paul's view, the gospel was on trial, and he had strategically been placed in the position to defend it. And he knew that his message would be listened to in the context of his character. And for this reason, he knew that he must be a man living a life without reproach. So somebody says, well, why should he care about what people thought? Is it not more important for us to be authentic, for us to be real, to be real before people? Why should he care if people misunderstood him? Why should he care if people brought charges against him? And why should we care? Why did he care? But why should we care? Is it not more important for us to be real? Well, we do care. We care because believers should avoid not only evil, but even the appearance of evil, lest anything make others think less, not of us, but of the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, when you're appointing somebody to lead a church in 1st Timothy chapter three, verse seven, Paul was laying out certain requirements that were really character traits. And in 1st Timothy three, seven, he had said he must have a good testimony among those who are outside outside of the church. He must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach in the snare of the devil. Because a church, it will be judged by its representatives, and therefore anybody who is leading needs to be without reproach. When Paul was writing in Romans two, verse 20, 24, he said, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. There are people who watch the way we live and will make their judgments on whether or not the gospel is true based on what they see in us. So why is that important? Because the gospel is the message of life. You see, to this day, when somebody desires to live for Jesus, people can think that that person's a bit off, that that person's weird, he's fanatic, she's a fanatic. That's a normal response from the world and is very often the response of those who profess to be Christian but are really lukewarm. I have found it odd but true that it's more acceptable to paint our faces with our team colors and go crazy at games than it is for us to be in love with Jesus Christ. Paul knew that Jesus had given us, had been given as a sacrifice for us, and that knowledge caused him to love Jesus and to serve him with all of his strength. And Jesus died not only for Paul but he died for the sin of the whole world. In 1 John 2 verse 22, John said, Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. As mentioned, we have some 65, maybe even more now, countries watching. He died for you too. No matter what country you are in at this moment, you need to know that. Jesus died for your sins also and if you've never given your heart to Christ, today is the day of salvation. Today, I encourage you to do that. You see, this understanding should motivate us to no longer live for ourselves but to live for the Lord. As we're looking at the verses prior to the ones that we're about to address, he had closed in verse 16 by saying that he didn't make judgments using fleshly standards at one time. He did, he judged according to the flesh, he says, but he now no longer does. And why is that? Well, because the world's standard of value made Jesus and his message worthless. That's how Christianity is viewed today. I've said this several times because it's disturbed me that deeply that we're living in a country that you can, some places, are opening up their bowling alleys, their gyms, their marijuana dispensaries. They're opening up abortion clinics, liquor stores, but they want the churches to remain closed. We're worthless. We are not essential. We don't matter. We who love the Lord, it's become even more clear than ever before that we have no value. I went to a Starbucks as I was mentioning earlier to you who are here with me right now. But Marie and I stopped at a Starbucks and you don't go in, you have to go through the line and young man asks me, what are you doing? And I said, well, I'll be having my coffee and then I'll be going to the office to go to work. And he said to me, he goes, what kind of work do you do? And I told him I'm a pastor and I'm part of those who are non-essentials because the church is really non-essential. People like you, people like me, believers gathering together, worshiping the Lord, guys, we are regarded as non-essential. We are not as important as an abortion clinic. Think about that for a minute. We're not as important as a liquor store. Think about that. We're not as important as a bowling alley. Consider that. We are non-essential. We are nothing to some, but we are everything to Jesus. We need to understand that today. And so when people use their fleshly standards to make judgments of Jesus and his message to them, it's worthless. That's because according to verse 12, they only judge according to outward appearance, which is the normal way of making an evaluation. Paul had at one time evaluated Jesus using fleshly means, but he went on to tell us that he no longer did so because Jesus had spoken to him on the road to Damascus, and that's how he had gotten saved. And that salvation encounter with Jesus Christ completely transformed him. And that's what he's speaking about here in verse 17. That was your introduction. Let's get into our study when he says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation, old things have passed away behold, all things have become new. And so Paul is beginning here to speak of what it means to be born again. At one time, according to verses 14 and 15, we were all spiritually dead, but Jesus died for all so that we could live. And now he's going to expand on what that means. And he makes it clear that salvation has created an entirely new person. We have not been refurbished. We are entirely new. The power of God revealed in the gospel makes it possible for us to be transformed because we need to be transformed because we have what is called a sin nature. And I'm going to develop that with you for just a moment. You see, there are many who believe that human beings are basically good. Many say that it is our upbringing or its economics. It's our culture, our race, our education or lack thereof that determines our evil or our goodness, our value. We're simply a product in many people's eyes, or the product of our environment, where the product of our living conditions. And so in that kind of model, and that's the model of the world, and in that kind of model, good is relative. What is considered good by the majority becomes good for everybody. And we normally have a way of enshrining that goodness in what we call our laws. So what becomes legal also becomes moral. And so our society is basically based on what is acceptable being good. When they make these decisions and all, when these things begin to be the way things simply are, what isn't taken into consideration is human nature. For some reason, many find it hard to believe that people are not born intrinsically good. And the ones who believe that, the most of the ones who've never had children, they find it hard to believe that people aren't just born good. It doesn't answer the question related to why people do evil. It just provides an excuse for doing evil. Obviously these things contribute to the expression of evil, but don't provide its origin. Evil, iniquity originated with Lucifer. In Ezekiel 28, 15, Lord God says, you were perfect in your ways from the day you were created till iniquity was found in you. So he's speaking to Lucifer. Lucifer is also known as Satan. And he had entered into the garden and he tempted Eve and Adam and Eve to come to the temptation. And that's how sin was introduced to mankind. When you use theological terms, Adam, the first man is called the federal head of humanity. And the children he had, had what he had, a sin nature. And in the book of Romans chapter five, verse 12, it says, sin entered the world through one man and death through sin. And in this way, death came to all men because all sinned. In Adam, we received his nature, all sinned. When he fell, we received his fallen nature. Remember that Adam was created perfect, but he fell through willful disobedience. So we receive a fallen nature, a nature that is in total rebellion against God. Romans 519 says, through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners. The sin nature is the reason for evil because all human beings have sin natures. In Ephesians in chapter two, one through three, Paul said, you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature children of wrath just as the others. They were once spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. We have physical biological life, but spiritually we have no life in us. When we speak of physical death, if you're physically dead, that speaks of the soul when it separates from the body at death, you're physically dead. But spiritually dead speaks of the soul being separated from God. And before we were saved, certain things revealed us to be spiritually dead. He spoke of it again in chapter two of Ephesians and he used the word transgressions, which speaks of falling and failing to resist. That word is used some 21 times in the New Testament. He also speaks of sins. And the word sins is a very common word. It's a Greek word that means to miss the mark. It's used in the New Testament very often and it's used something like 250 times. So we're in transgression and sin. And so by nature we're rebellion, rebellious, we're constantly at war with and we're hostile to God. And the Bible makes that clear in Psalm 51.5, I was brought forth in iniquity and sin, my mother conceived me. And Paul said in Romans 8 verse 7, the sinful nature's always hostile to God. It never did obey God's law. It never will. Ecclesiastes 7, 20, there's not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. The Bible's very clear that we have what is called an endemic nature. It's a sin nature, a fallen nature. And we do evil because it's natural for us to do that. And Paul is addressing that in Ephesians. He says, you used to live in this way when you followed the ways of this world and of the rule of the kingdom of the air. The Spirit, he says, who is now at work and those who are disobedient. In other words, life was consistently lived in trespasses. Trespasses are always, always willful. Transgressions, trespasses, always willful. Sins are not always deliberate. You can sin without even knowing you're doing it. And Paul says we wandered aimlessly. We had no stability. We had no direction. Ultimately, we had no satisfaction. We wandered aimlessly. Why? Because we were spiritually blind. We didn't know why we were created. What is our purpose? And we followed the ways of the world. The ways of the world speaks of the flow. And this is a flow that is directed by Satan, who is referred to again by Paul as the prince of the power of the air. When he speaks of him being the prince of the power of the air, the air is a picture of that which separates heaven from earth. And so there needs to be a connection. And so Jesus Christ came as the one who connects heaven and earth. And for Timothy chapter two, verse five, there's one God, one mediator between God and men. And that's the man Christ Jesus. It's been pictured as sin having a being a gulf and there's a cliff that just stops and has a drop off. Then there's a gulf. Then there's the other cliff that's facing. And then you have a picture of the cross that is placed in that gulf. And you cross over from one place to the other through Jesus Christ. That's why Jesus came. He is the ladder from earth to heaven, Jacob's ladder that you find in the Old Testament. He's the one who makes that connection. And that's why we go to God through him. But prior to Christ again, and I'll finalize a couple thoughts out of the Ephesians passage I quoted, we once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh as a result of that. And we fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And he said we're by nature children of wrath, just as the others. So lust of the flesh is doing what feels good. It actually speaks of deliberately choosing to sin. People sin because sin for a moment brings pleasure. That's why you sin. They enjoy it because it has a momentary pleasure that's involved with it. But what happens is we begin to live a life that is just pleasing our flesh and we become kind of like animals. We satisfy our basic needs. And that's what animals do. Jesus made it clear that man is concerned about what we eat, what we drink, and what we put on. Which is the stuff that all commercials that you watch on TV is based on. What you eat, what you drink, and what you wear. Your material pleasures. The world knows these things and that's why if you watch television, that's why they are constantly pushing you to eat at a certain place to drink a certain thing or to dress in a certain way. Because what we eat, what we drink, and what we put on are the things that are most important. But it's kind of like being an animal. And what happens is we just live for the moment. You see the sinful nature in us craves to satisfy our own inclinations and we'll do whatever we choose to do or want to do because we're fulfilling, as he said in Ephesians 2-3, we're fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. By nature, we crave to satisfy our own inclinations and we do whatever we want to do. And so the result of that is we are by nature children of wrath. We're worthy of receiving just punishment for our sinful lives. And under these conditions, we were hopeless, helpless to save ourselves. But God, who is rich in mercy and because of his great love, God saved us by his grace. And he made us alive together with Jesus Christ. And in Christ, we have the power to resist. And in Christ, we have the power to change. And in Christ, we have the power to please him. And that's what he's talking about here in 2 Corinthians 5-17, when he speaks of being in Christ. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, is a new creation. All things have passed away behold. All things have become new. Before we were in Christ, we were children of wrath. But now in Christ, we have a new nature. In Christ is a way of saying that we're saved. It speaks of our position. It reveals the depth of a new birth and how incredible it is to be a Christian. It reveals the security that we have because Jesus bore in his own body our judgment. It communicates a participation in the family of God, what he calls the church. We're no longer members of the community of the world. We are now the body of Christ. And even though we were completely antagonistic to him, he showed us his grace. And that's because he is intimately aware of how weak we are and how needy we truly are. There's a Psalm you might want to note this Psalm 103 verse 14, where he simply says, he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. That's what we are. We're weak. But that's why I need a savior. And so when I heard that message of the gospel, we'll see this more clearly in a moment. When you heard the message of the gospel, a message that offers us forgiveness, a message that reveals to us what love is, a message that promises transformation, transformation. That's why we received that message. So we could be new. So we could be brand new in Jesus Christ. A new creation, the old things pass in a way. Being in Christ fulfills God's eternal purpose and creation. As new creations, our life is completely transformed and it's all by the grace of God. This new creation has a purpose. We are to bring glory to God. Ephesians 112 said it like this, we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory. You see, old things, according to verse 17, have passed away. Behold, all things have become near. That word, behold, is intended to grab your attention. It's like, isn't this amazing? When I was young, and this is something not said anymore, but maybe it is, I don't know. We would say, check this out. That's what we would say. And that's kind of what, in a paraphrase, that's what he's saying. When he says, behold, he's saying, let this grab your attention. Isn't this amazing? He's saying, if anyone's in Christ, he's a new creation, all things have passed away. And behold, like that is that, that word of wonder, he's brand new. You're not refurbished, not rebuilt, you're not redone. You're recreated. This is what is called a note of triumph. Everything is passed away. You're new and you can live. And this, I think, is where the church has really failed to grab hold of this, frankly. You can live as a completely different person. Without going too far into this, I'm trying to be as brief as I can in my study today. But there are quite a number of people that I've encountered, including myself in my earlier walk with the Lord who did not grab hold of this. I didn't grab it. I did not see it. I didn't see it. The way that I do now, it's different. That I can be an entirely different person, not trapped by my own inclinations of my own flesh. That I can be brand new, not the same person. There are just too many Christians who say that's the way I was raised. That's how I was taught to do things. That's just my temperament. I'm telling you, you know how you change, guys? This is real quick. It's not in my notes, but it comes to mind. Do you know how you change? You hate what you were. You hate what you were. If you go to the point where you hate what you were, hate that lifestyle, hate what it did to others, hate how you hurt other people, hate how the gospel is really spoken ill of because of the way we live. When you get to that point, the life changes. But when you make excuses for yourself constantly, it's just the way I am. People have to get used to it. If they don't like it, that's too bad. That's the most selfish thing that you can do. It's the most selfish way of thinking. It's just pure selfishness. That's what it is. It's self-centeredness. It's narcissism. I hate the way I was, and I don't want to be less than what God wants me to be. How about you? I want to be that new creation. I want all things to be passed away. I want all things to become new, and they have. And that old way of life, that temperament that I yielded to, people like to say, oh, you know, he's got that Latin temper. No, it's just a temper and it's flesh. But they use, oh, you know, and we cultureized sin. It's just, no, we have to love the things God loves and hate the things he hates, and we need to understand that Jesus died on the cross to set us free from the things that we want to remain with. They won't want to keep. It's like, I have a house, and I gave him permission to work in every room except for one closet. And he stands at the door of the closet, and he says, I want entrance there. No, no, no, no, you can have every other element of my life. You can have every other room, the front room, the bedroom, you can have, you know, the kitchen, you have everything, but I want to keep this closet for myself. Because in that closet, I have my special sins that I want to open up for myself on occasion, not every day, not all the time, but every once in a while. And he says, I want to go in and clean that one out too. That's what the Lord wants to do in you, by the way, and me. He wants to open up that closet of pet sins and clean it out with the blood of Jesus Christ so that you may know what it means to be a new creation in Christ Jesus. The old things really being passed away, the old way of life, the life that had its prejudice and its lust, its profanity, its sinfulness, that's gone. We haven't been rehabilitated. We haven't been refurbished. We've been recreated. You still look like the same person, but you're new from the inside. And that newness continues because it never grows old. You are everlastingly new. And that's good news. That's such great news that before Paul came to faith in Christ, he tried to destroy the gospel. The mercy of God and the newness of the life he had in Jesus Christ drove him to serve the Lord. And so he speaks concerning that in verse 18 and he says, all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. Those all things refers to the blessings of salvation, all things that pertain to it. God originated salvation. God is the author of it. It's His idea. He's made it possible for us to be reconciled. When it speaks of reconciliation, that speaks of a cessation of hostility. You see, sin goes deeper than missing the market. It speaks of a rebellion at its core. It's the desire of the creature to set itself in place of the Creator. It's the desire to place man at the center, the controller of all things. And that is not met with indifference. It is met with God's wrath against sin. We need to remember that God is the master and ultimate authority and He does not tolerate rebellion. In Psalm 7 verse 11, God is a just judge. God is angry with the wicked every day. Through mercy and grace, God unilaterally decided to deal with sin and He did it through His Son. At the cross, Jesus took the full force of God's wrath against sin and unrighteousness. The Bible says in Psalm 85 verse 10, mercy and truth have met together, righteousness and peace have kissed. Our war against God ended when we became reconciled with Him. And through Jesus, the work of reconciliation has been accomplished once and for all. You see, the gospel is the declaration of reconciliation, guys. The gospel is God's terms of peace. And this peace that we have with God is not a negotiated peace. The peace that we have with God comes through unconditional surrender. There's a difference when the United States became victorious in World War II and Japan surrendered there on the Missouri. We handed to the Japanese representatives terms of peace. And some of you may have studied this in school, and they were unconditional. There were no negotiated peace agreements. It was unconditional surrender where the sword representing Japan was handed to the United States. Unconditional surrender. And that's how you got saved. I don't know if you know that or realize that. You did not negotiate with God to keep certain pet sins because you enjoy them so much. You didn't say, God, I'm going to give you my whole life except for my Friday and Saturday nights because I like to go out with my friends and drink a little bit and party a bit. Or, God, I'm giving you my whole life except for my dating life because every once in a while I like to go to bed with friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, whatever. You know, God, I'm going to follow you, but I really enjoy smoking my marijuana and you have all these things that you keep to yourself. That isn't how it works. What I did and what you did when you got saved, maybe you don't realize this, is you said, I unconditionally surrender. You have my whole life, everything, every single thing about me, everything, including the secret sins that you're familiar with that I don't even admit in front of others. Even that area is yours. That's what the gospel of reconciliation is. You see, it's God ceasing the cessation of hostility between a rebellious individual and the victorious God. And Jesus died on the cross and the terms of peace are the gospel. It's unconditional surrender. Try and think for just a moment with me. Can you find a scripture in the Bible? Maybe you can. I haven't found it yet that says, love the Lord thy God with half of your heart or some of your heart, some of your soul, some of your mind, some of it, but not all of it. Anybody know a scripture that says you can be a partial believer? I don't. I don't know when where God says, commit yourself to me temporarily or part-time eight to five with the rest after five is your life. I just don't know where that comes in. Listen, I think that Christianity is weak right now in many ways because we have taken the spirit of the age and we've incorporated into our theological practices and it's become the way we live because we've adjusted our way of life with scripture to the point that we think that scripture can give us permission to continue in sin. And then we cover all of that with the word grace. And so I can continue in sin. God knows that I'm weak. He knows my framing. He knows I'm dust. It becomes an excuse instead of an awareness. I am aware of my own weakness and that's why I need Christ. For like Paul said, I can do all things to Christ who strengthens me. But Jesus said without me, you can do nothing. So people look at this kind of preaching. I'm probably losing some people right now as being hard and legalistic. That's only because you've been taught pablum and not the word. You've been taught people's opinions and you've been given permission to keep in sin. Jesus never gave us permission to sin. It's been said, and I like this illustration, it's been said that staying in sin and keeping sin in sin is like kissing the tip of the spear that was driven into the side of Jesus Christ. When you love sin more than you love Jesus, your heart is being exposed. You have to be careful. You need to yield yourself to God daily and God will work in you daily. That's not legalism. That's called Christianity. That's what Jesus said when he said, pick up your cross daily and follow me. It's a constant death to self. And that's what we're called to in this message of the gospel is the message of reconciliation. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Notice that in verse 19, not imputing their trespasses to them and he committed to us the word of reconciliation. So the Christian has been given a task to proclaim what is called the word of reconciliation. Our ministry of reconciliation is the ministry of proclamation. It's the announcing of good news. And that's why he says in verse 20, therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ as a God. We're pleading through us. We employ you on Christ's behalf. Be reconciled to God. So we, he said, are ambassadors. An ambassador is one who acts and speaks on behalf of the leader of another country. So in a sense, when the ambassador would speak, the one he represented is speaking through him. And this is because they are representing them and they are invested with his authority. You are an ambassador of Jesus Christ. It's interesting how in Matthew 10 verse 20, Jesus said, it's not you who speak, but the spirit of your father who speaks in you. When you quote the scripture with the authority of scripture, it's the Lord speaking to people. That's how it works. Over the years, I've been teaching for a while now, there have been on occasion, those who, well, that's your opinion. Well, if the scripture is rightly divided, then it's not my opinion. If the scripture is rightly divided, it's the voice of the Lord speaking through his word. That's what it is. That's how it works. That's what Christianity actually is. The key is, is it rightly divided? And so the Corinthians were to live out the message of the gospel that they might live in peace with God. But he's also letting them think about the fact that some of them are being influenced by false teachers. And because some of you are being influenced by the false, Paul would be saying, recognize our authority and that it's from God because we are his ambassadors. We are invested with his authority. You must obey God. And you must obey him through his word. And we who are his ambassadors have brought that word to you so that you might know the truth that sets you free and recognize the authority we have in God. Because remember, the false teachers have been entering into Corinth, calling into question the ministry and authority of Paul. And that's why he made it clear in verse 20. Again, that's why he made it clear we are ambassadors for Christ as though God repleted through us. And then he speaks and we implore you on Christ's behalf. Be reconciled to God. You have been rejecting the authority God gave to us. We are representatives of his kingdom. Influencers have come to try and undermine my ministry to you, but you need to understand that we've been called by God to give you his true word. And then he says, finally, in verse 21, he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. He made him who knew no sin. Jesus died for us. Jesus is the one who knew no sin. This is the witness of Scripture, 1 Peter 2 verse 22. Speaking of Jesus, he committed no sin. No deceit was found in his mouth. 1 John 3 verse 5. You know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins and in him is no sin. He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. He became the sin offering. He took upon himself the punishment that we deserved. Isaiah 53 says it like this in verse 6, we all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He takes away my sin and it gives to me his righteousness. Think about that, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Think about that, that we might become the righteousness of God, the righteousness of God. What is the standard of entrance into heaven? Perfection. Perfection. Who is perfect? No human being outside of Jesus Christ. How do I get to heaven? I recognize that I am a sinner in rebellion against God, that I have a need for becoming a new creation, a cleansing that comes through the blood of Christ and I need the power of God to be within me, that I might be his temple, that he might work within me and power me, gift me, that I might be sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise and that I might use his word to grow, to become deeper, to understand his ways and to live for him, to no longer make up excuses for the sins, but to turn from them knowing that those sins were what put Jesus on the cross and not to trust in my religious rituals that I might have gone through no matter how wonderful they may be, but to trust in the one who set me free, Jesus Christ, to have a personal knowledge of him and a forgiveness of sins that comes through him. And that's what Jesus would have spoken of as being born again. So if you're listening today, then I would take this scripture as an ambassador for Christ as though God replete through me, I implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. Get right with him today. Give your heart to Christ. Say, God, forgive me, I'm a sinner. I need you. I have been a sinner. I was born in sin. I sin habitually. I hate it. I want to be turned away. I want to come to you. I want freedom. You can have that today. And if your heart has been touched by that, the spirit of the Lord has spoken to you. This is your moment. And I want to pray with you. You need to open your heart to Christ. So let's pray. And if God has spoken to your heart right now and is said to you, it's time to get right with them. Open your hearts and God be merciful to me. I'm a sinner and ask the Lord to come into your life. You can say, Father, forgive me. I'm a sinner. Jesus died on the cross to save sinners. Jesus died to save me. Forgive me of my sins. Cleanse me. Give me a new life. I will follow you from this day forward every day in Jesus' name. Amen. And if you can do that, you've given your heart to Christ. Please contact us. Let us know. We want to follow up with you.