Storms Creek Church 4-9-2023

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Episode Transcript

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Good morning, and welcome to StormsCreek Missionary Baptist Church this Sunday morning radio
program. This morning, we'll bejoining Pastor Kenny Hurts as we once again
open the scriptures and study God's work. Okay, this morning, we're going
to be once again in the Bookof Colossians. We are in chapter one

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and we're going to read verses twentydown through verse twenty three as we conclude
talking about being reconciled to God throughreading from Colossians chapter one and verse twenty
and having made peace through the bloodof his crowd by him, to reconcile

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all things into himself. By him, I say, whether they be things
in earth or things in heaven,and you they were sometimes alienated and enemies
in your mind by wicked works.Yet now hath He reconciled in the body
of his flesh through death, topresent you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in

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His sight. If you continue inthe faith, grounded and settled, and
be not moved away from the hopeof the gospel which you have heard and
which was preached to every creature whichis under heaven. Whereof I Paul and
made a minister on September the second, nineteen forty five, aboard the United

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States battleship Missouri, representatives from theUnited States and Japan signed what was called
the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, andthis treaty put an end to World War
II. We know the United Stateswon the victory, the Japanese surrendered under

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them, and when this treaty wasbeing put together, the United States did
not ask the Japanese for their input, for any suggestions on what they would
like to see go into this treaty. No, the United States won the
war, so it was up tothem to set the terms of Japan's surrender.

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But some Japanese soldiers refused to surrender. They were called Japanese holdouts.
In fact, we're told that forseveral months, even years, Even this
is hard to believe, even upto the nineteen seventies, there were Japanese

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soldiers who refused to surrender and whowere still fighting as if the war were
still going on. But they're fighting, their fighting was all done in vain
because the United States had already wonthe war. Was a point out last
week in verse twenty, we havethe good news of how God has made

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peace through the blood of his cross, by him speaking of Christ to reconcile
all things and to himself. Hehas through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on
the Cross. It's through his victoryover sin and Satan in this world that
now there can be peace between Godand man. This peace treaty that was

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signed two thousand years ago wasn't signedwith ink, It wasn't signed on a
piece of paper. No, itwas signed there at the cross. It
was signed with the precious blood ofJesus Christ. And because Jesus was the
victor, he's the one who setthe terms of peace. You see,

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God didn't ask man for his suggestion, for his input, any more than
the United States to ask the Japanesefor their suggestions on how to put the
treaty together. No, it wasthe Lord who won the victory, and
it was the Lord who decided whatwould be the terms of peace. But

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see, now man and God canbe reconciled, can live together in peace.
There's no need for any more fightingto go on. But sadly,
just like with those Japanese holdouts atthe end of World War II, there
are many holdouts even today. Foryears they continue to fight a battle that,

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for all intents and purposes, isalready over, but they refuse to
surrender. And it's because they eitherdon't want to be reconciled to God or
they don't want to be reconciled onGod's terms. And I think that's probably
more true. It's not that somemen don't want to be reconciled, it's

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they don't want to come on God'sterms. They want to set the terms.
Well, if you don't come onGod's terms, result it is is
you're going to endure eternal suffering.You're not going to be reconciled to God.
You're still going to be in yoursin. But it doesn't have to

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be this way, my friends.God has provided a way for there to
be peace. The treaty is alreadysigned. You just have to put your
faith in trust in Jesus Christ.Well, we're going to conclude this series
of messages that I have been lookingat, going all the way back to

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verse fifteen through verse twenty three.We're looking at Him of praise that Paul
has written now in verses fifteen throughtwenty the keyword was pre eminent, and
that's what Paul was writing about.That's what he was focusing on the fact
that Christ is pre eminent. Andwhen I say that Christ is pre eminent,

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I'm simply saying that He is supreme. He's supreme over all creation.
He's the one who made all things. He's the one who sustains all things.
He's the one who is redeeming apeople one to himself. He's the
one who is very much at workin this world that he himself has made.

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So pre eminence is the key wordin those first verses. But now
as we look at verses twenty throughtwenty three, the key word is reconcile
or reconciliation. So that's why we'relooking at how to be reconciled to God.
And in verses twenty through twenty three, we're looking at five important truths

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that have to do with how we'rereconciled to God. And I'll quickly go
through the first three because we lookedat those last Sunday. First of all,
we saw the need for reconciliation.We see that in verse twenty one,
where it sus and you that weresometimes alienated and enemies in your mind

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by wicked works. Yet now hathhe reconciled See here we have a threefold
description of not just the Colossians,but really all mankind. It's because of
man's sin that we are separated fromGod. It's because of sin, because

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eve all sinned and come short ofthe glory of God. Because of that,
we need to be reconciled that Godis because our sin causes us to
be an enmity with God. Sothe need for reconciliation is the need that
we all have, every single oneof us, because we're all born into
this world in sin, separated fromGod. The second truth that we see

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here is the means of reconciliation,and we see that at the beginning of
verse twenty it says in having madepeace through the blood of his cross,
and in verse twenty two, inthe body of his flesh through death.
Friends, It could not be anyclearer than what it is right here.

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How is a man reconciled to God? How is it possible for God to
be reconciled with sinners? How canwe be at peace with God? It's
not because of anything that we do. It is because Jesus Christ, God's
son, came into this world,took upon himself human flesh, lived a

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perfect and sinless life, and willinglywent to the cross and let wicked men
crucify him, and then three dayslater he came forth from the grave.
That is how we are reconciled toGod. That's how we are at peace
with God. There's there can bepeace between not only God and man,

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but to one another. It's becauseof Christ and Christ alone. So the
means of reconciliation is the death ofChrist on the cross. And then number
three the purpose of reconciliation, andthat's in verse twenty two. At the
end of the verse, he says, to present you holy, unblameable,

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and unreprovable in his sight. Godhas a clear purpose in offering peace to
sinful men, to reconcile sinners untohimself. And it isn't just so that
we can be forgiven of our sins, as important as that is. Not
just so that we will not haveto go to hell, as important as

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that is, but so that oneday we can stand before him, we
can stand in his presence. Andhow do we stand in his presence?
And how will we stand in hispresence? Because we will be holy,
unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight. That's how Jesus is going to present

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us to the Father. That's howwe're going be able to stand in God's
presence one day, because if westand in our own righteousness, we won't
be able to do it, becausethat which is unholy cannot stand in the
presence of a holy God. Theonly way that we'll be able to stand
before God, the only way we'regoing to be able to live with Him

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for all eternity, is that weare closed with the perfect righteousness of His
son. And the reason why hereconciles us is so that we will be
holy and unblameable and reprovable in hissight. And that doesn't just mean in
a future time, even now.There's a sense in which that is to

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be working out in our lives today. And so that was the last time.
There are two more truths that wesee here, and that's what we're
going to pick up with this morningand finish. And the fourth truth is
the evidence of reconciliation. He saysin verse twenty three. If you continue

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in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel which you haveheard and which was preached to every creature,
which is under heaven. So howis it then that people, these
people that Paul's right in all ofus, How is it that we can

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continue to be at peace with God, to be reconciled with God? How
can we know for sure that we'restill at peace with God and we're still
reconciled to him. I mean,could it be possible that God all of
a sudden will say, Okay,because of your sin, you're no longer
reconciled. You're back at enmity withme once again. So we can continue

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to be at peace with Him andcontinue to be reconciled to him, he
tells us in verse twenty three.He says, if you continue in the
faith, See, that's the condition. Yes, there's the condition. There's
a condition for us to remain tobe at peace with God and to be
reconciled to Him. And the conditionof peace is we have to continue in

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the faith. We have to continueto believe, we have to continue to
trust Christ in Christ alone. That'sit. That's all there is to it.
It's that simple. That's something thatwe all need to keep in mind.

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And that is, after we havebeen reconciled to God through Christ,
that doesn't mean that we're still notgoing to be involved in a battle a
conflict, because we will. Buthere's what we need to understand. The
conflict isn't with God that we've beenreconciled to God. The conflict is with

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Satan. You could say we swischsides. We were a part of his
kingdom. Now we've been delivered andwe've been made a part of God's kingdom.
We were in his family, butnow we've been translated and now we
are in God's family. We didbelong to him, but now, praise
God, we belong to God.And because we are now on God's side,

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we're Satan's enemy and he is goingto battle with us and he wants
to do nothing more than to destroyus. That's why we have to continue
into faith. That's why we haveto continue to trust Christ for our salvation.
And that means that we can't letsomebody come along and tell us,

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yeah, you can believe the gospel, but you know you have to do
more than that. Oh yeah,you can put your faith in Christ.
But there's more to it than justthat you have to do certain things in
order to be saved. See,that's what was happening in the Church of
Colossi. There were people that weremaking their way into the church who were
telling the people that there was moreto being saved than simply just put in

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your faith in Christ. And someof them were even teaching that you cannot
put your faith in Christ because hedidn't actually die on the cross, because
he didn't have an actual body,He was only a spirit being. See,
all these heresies were coming into thechurch there, and so they needed
to know that know for them tocontinue to be at peace with God,

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they didn't have to add anything towhat they had already done. It was
their faith and faith alone. Itwas Christ and Christ alone that made them
reconciled to God. His Paul says, our hope is grounded and settled.
It means it doesn't move. Wecontinue to look to Christ, to hold

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on to Christ again, he says, if you continue. Now, don't
read that and say, well,then that means that it must be possible
for us to lose our salvation,Because he says, there if you continue,
meaning there's the possibility that you couldbe saved. But you don't continue,

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you lose, You fall away fromthe Lord. That's not what he's
saying because that would contradict other passagesof scripture. He says, the evidence
that you have been truly reconciled toGod is you're going to continue to look
to Christ. He's going to continueto hold you up. And if you

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don't continue, you know what thatmeans. That means you were never saved
to begin with. You were neverreconciled to God to begin with. You
only thought you were. No,you have to continue. You see my
hope of salvation, of my standingfaultless before the Lord one day, as

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verse twenty two tells us, isnot because of what Christ is doing in
me. It's what Christ has donefor me. And there's all the difference
in the world between those two phrases. Is not what Christ is doing in
me, is what Christ has donefor me. Now, once Christ works

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for me and reconciles me to God, then yes, He's going to work
in me to make me holy andwithout blemish, to make me more into
the image of Christ. But that'snot the reason for my being reconciled.
No, it's because of what Christhas done for us. You know,

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one of the most solemn passages inall the Bible has to be Matthew Chapter
seven, verses twenty one through twentythree, And every time I read this
passage, it just causes me tostand back and just kind of just do
a lot of serious soul searching,because what this passage is saying is not

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everybody who says they're saved is actuallysaved. And it goes even further,
not everybody who preaches. Not allpreachers are saved. There's many who are
not going to be saying. Listento what Jesus writes here. Not everyone
who saith under me, Lord Lord, shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

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But he that doeth the will ofmy Father, which is in heaven.
Many will say to me in thatday, Lord Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name, and inthy name cast out devils, and in
thy name done many wonderful works?And then will I profess unto them I

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never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. See he's
this saying here that there's going tobe many one day, as they stand
before him, are going to saythat they were saved, that they claimed
to be saved, that they said, Lord Lord, that they even did

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many good works and prophesied in hisname. That means there are many who
are going to have been preachers whopreach the Word and yet listen to me
preachers. And yet Jesus says tothese preachers, I never knew you.

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Depart from me, you work,you workers of iniquity. Now, if
I don't know, if if thatpassage doesn't get your attention, I don't
know what would. So this isnot just for some Christians. This is
for even some preachers who say theyare saved, but they're really not.

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You say says that we have tocontinue in the faith. That word continue
simply means to persevere. And herecomes up the doctrine of the perseverance of
the Saints. The perseverance of theSaints means that all those who are truly
born again will be kept by God'spower and will persevere as Christians until the

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end of their lives. And onlythose who persevere have been and truly born
again. So this definition has twoparts. All those who are truly born
again will persevere to the end.That's the preservation of the Saints. John

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chapter six and verse thirty eight.For I came down from heaven not to
do mine own will, but thewill of Him that sent me. And
this is the Father's will which hathsent me, that of all which he
hath given me, I should losenothing, but should raise it up again
at the last day. And thisis the will of Him that sent me,

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that everyone which seeth the Sun andbelieveth on him may have everlasting life.
And I will raise him up atthe last day. And then the
other part of this is only thosewho persevere to the end have truly been
born again. We see this inJohn chapter eight and verses thirty one and
thirty two. Then said Jesus tothose Jews which believed on him, if

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you continue in my word, thenare you my disciples. Indeed, that
sounds a lot like Colossians chapter oneand verse twenty three. You see how
you distinguish between those who are trulyreconciled and those who just made a profession

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of being reconciled, but who aren't. If you continue in the faith,
Jesus, if you continue in thefaith, then you are my disciples.
See one clear evidence, and thisisn't the only one, but the one
that's being brought out here of aperson being reconciled to God. Is this

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do I have a present trust inChrist for my salvation? Did you hear
me? Do I have a presenttrust right now? What am I trusting
in right now that will enable meone day to stand faultless before the Lord?

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Is it something I did twenty thirtyforty years ago? Oh? I
can remember. I walked the aisleand the preacher shook his hand and I
told him that I believe that Iwas saved, and they took me in
as a member and they baptized me. That was forty years there. Now.
I haven't been in church very oftensince then, but I can remember

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that day when I did that.And that's not what you're basing you're being
reconciled on. No, friends,it's what's going on right now, right
at this moment. What are youtrusting in? Are you continuing in the
faith? See, it has tobe Christ and Christ alone. Christ is

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my justification. He's my present sanctificationand he will be my future glorification.
Well, that's the evidence of reconciliation. Then real quickly we'll finish up with
this the ministry of reconciliation, becausehe says at the end of verse twenty

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three, Paul says that he hasbeen made a minister. He's a minister
of reconciliation. Those of us whohave been reconciled to God, we not
only have the responsibility, but wehave the privilege of proclaiming this message of
reconciliation. All who have been reconciled. We are to go forth as ministers

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of reconciliation. We see this inTwo Corinthians, Chapter five and verse eighteen.
It says, in all things areof God, who hath reconciled us
to himself by Jesus Christ, andhas given to us the ministry of reconciliation.
He goes on. He says toit that God was in Christ reconciling
the world and to himself, notimputing their trespasses unto them, and hath

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committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ.
As though God did beseech you byus, we pray you in Christ,
stead, be you reconciled to God. See in verse eighteen, he
says that he is given unto usthe ministry of reconciliation. Who's to us?

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He's talking about those in verse seventeenwho are now new creatures in Christ,
those who've been reconciled. See thosewho God reconciles, every single one
is to be given a ministry ofreconciliation. In verse nineteen, he talks
about the word. He says,we pray you in Christ stead be you

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reconciled to God. I'm sorry.Verse nineteen he says, and he hath
committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Word there is logoss. It talks
about something that's true and trustworthy,in contrast to something that's only a myth,
something that is being made up that'sfalse. See, we don't tell
people something that's false. We don'ttell people a fairy tale, a myth.

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We're not just telling people a cutelittle story that's not really true.
No, we're telling people the truth. We're telling people what the gospel is.
We're talking about a real person whodied of real death and rose again.
On the third day, Paul talksabout us being ambassadors. An ambassador
is both a messenger and a representativeof the one who sent them. All

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believers are ambassadors for Christ. Weare to go forth with his message,
and we're representatives of him, andwe go forth and proclaim the message that
He has given unto us. See, an ambassador is a citizen of one
country and goes and lives in anothercountry and represents his home country. Well,

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we as believers, we have acitizenship in heaven, but we live
here in this world as strangers andas pilgrims. To be called to serve
as an ambassador is both a greatresponsibility and it's also a great privilege.
So today God's message is a messageof peace and reconciliation. The friends,

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there's coming today when there will beno more opportunity to be reconciled with God,
to be at peace with God.There's coming today when God is going
to declare war on this world.He's going to declare war on all of
those who stand opposed to him,to all those who are in rebellion against

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him. So that's why it's importantfor us who are reconciled to go forth
and continue to proclaim this message ofreconciliation, to proclaim the gospel message,
to tell people how they can besaved. That's why the Bible so often

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tells us that today is the dayof salvation. Today is the day to
be reconciled with God. So Iask you, as we close, are
you at peace with God? Haveyou been reconciled to God? You have

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been only if you put your faithin trust in Christ. And there is
a time that you did that,that you put your faith in Christ.
And now today you continue to haveyour faith in Christ and you're seeking to
live for His honor and for Hiscord. Friends, be reconciled under God.

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We'd like to thank you for listeningto our program this morning. We
pray that God has used this messageto draw you closer to Him. Storms
Creek Missionary Baptist Church would like totake this opportunity to invite you to any
of its services. We have aSunday School which starts at nine thirty am,
Sunday Morning Worship ten fifteen, andour Sunday Evening service starts at six

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pm. We also have a WednesdayNight Bible Study which starts at seven point
thirty pm. Storms Creek Missionary BaptistChurch is also on the internet under Sermonaudio
dot com. You can go towww. Dot Sermon Audio, look for
Storms Creek Missionary Baptist Church and listento any of our sermons in full length

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audio. At the side. Again, we'd like to thank you for listening
this morning and make God bless youthroughout the week.