Gospel: Getting the Order Right
2 Corinthians 4:7-18
1. People were created by God to live in joyful submission to God, Genesis 2:15-17
“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
-Genesis 2:15-17
2. All people are inherently sinful and therefore separated from God, Romans 5:12-14
“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.”
-Romans 5:12-14
3. Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the only way to a relationship with God, I Timothy 2:5-6
“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.”
- I Timothy 2:5-6
a) “which is the testimony given”- this is the Gospel we testify to
b) “at the proper”- proper means “one’s own”
c) “time”- a fixed and definite time, the time when things are brought to crisis, the decisive epoch waited for
4. God is currently at work in the world to reconcile all things, 2 Corinthians 5:18-6:1
“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.”
-2 Corinthians 5:18-6:1
a) “world”- refers to any aggregate or general collection of particulars of any sort
b) “vain”- destitute of spiritual wealth, of one who boasts of his faith as a transcendent possession, yet is without the fruits of faith in this life.
Mental worship…
When people listen to you talk what do they conclude that you believe?
Do you live in the freedom you were created for?
If you wanted to make spiritual progress should you stop believing something or start believing something?
What is your “message of reconciliation” in fifteen seconds or less?
Of the four things we were asked to believe today, which one is hardest for you?
What do you most need to do after hearing what you heard this morning?