Turn with me, if you would, back
to 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter 2, I was working on a message
this week for tonight. on prayer from Matthew 6. We were there in the Bible study
and the next portion of Scripture is on prayer. And if the Lord
is willing for me to finish that, maybe we'll look at that Wednesday
night. Because I woke up Saturday morning with this thought and
this Scripture consuming my mind. I wanted so desperately to finish
my message. I needed to finish my message
and I couldn't get on it because I could not get this out of my
mind and I dwelled on it and dwelled on it until it finally
hit me. This has to be my message. This is the message I have to
preach tonight. So I pray the Lord will use this and I pray
he'll bless this for his glory. The text is going to be verses
21 to 25, but let's back up a few verses
like we read a moment ago so we can see the context of what
he's saying here. 1 Peter 2, verse 18, he said,
servants, be subject to your masters. Servants be subject, be in subjection,
be subject to, that means yield to, obey your masters. Verse 18, servants be subject
to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle,
but also to the froward. Those who are not so good and
gentle. Verse 19, for this is thankworthy. If a man for conscience
toward God endure grief, suffering wrongly. He said, this is thankworthy. If a man for conscience toward
God endure grief, suffering wrongly. wrongly. Verse 20, for what glory
is it if when you be buffeted for your faults, you shall take
it patiently. He's saying, why would there
be any glory in that for you? Why would that be such a, such
a good thing that you've done if you were wrong and you were
chastised for it? And you stand there and take
your chastisement patiently. Well, you should have taken it
patiently. You were wrong. You deserved
chastisement. Verse 20 for what glory is it? If when you be buffeted for your
faults, you shall take it patiently. But if when you do well and suffer
for it. You take it patiently. This is
acceptable with God. If you did not do the wrong,
but you suffer patiently for the wrong. The end of verse 20
says, this is acceptable with God. That word acceptable means
graciousness. This is graciousness with God. And the word with means from. This is graciousness from God. He said, if you stand there and
take it patiently, This is graciousness from God. It means this is a
divine influence upon the heart from God to you. This is a benefit from God. This is favor from God. What he's saying is that's God's
grace to you. That's His joy and His sweetness
and His loving kindness in you. That's what that means. Verse
21 says, for even here unto where you called, because, all right,
now here's where our text is gonna begin. This is the reason and this is
the ground for everything He just said. Verse 21 says, because
Christ, because Christ, that's why, that's the grounds of why
he said everything that he just said. And that's the title of
this message, because Christ. That's the same thing as saying,
but God, same thing. But God, that is the grounds
of hope. That is the grounds of hope. I am looking, we are looking
with the ministry of the gospel and the message of the gospel.
The Lord uses this message, He uses preaching. This is the means
that His Spirit uses. And he is with his gospel message
all knowingly in search of his sheep and he will go find them.
He'll leave the 99 and he'll go find each one that was lost.
And when this message comes to one of his lost sheep and they
hear it, they're gonna hear hope. This is the grounds of hope. This is the foundation of the
gospel. Verse 21 says, because Christ
also suffered for us. Christ also suffered
for us. You know what the word for means?
It means in the place of us. Instead of us. It means on our behalf as us. I'll tell you what men and women
struggle. And I know this because I did. And I have conversations with
people. I know other people do. They
struggle so much with trying to get their mind around, okay,
I understand God is holy. And I understand I'm a sinner.
And I understand that God can by no means clear the guilty.
So tell me again, how am I gonna get to go to heaven? What must
I do? Where's the... He suffered in the place of us. He suffered instead of us. People wanna know, What about
my sin? As I go back into the Rolodex
of my life, that's filed away in my mind. What about all that
stuff? How's that gonna be taken care
of? He suffered on our behalf as
us. Hold your place right here and
turn to Hebrews chapter seven. This is one of my favorite portions
of scripture. I only have a few other thousand
pages that fit into that category. Hebrews 7 verse 19, it says,
for the law made nothing perfect. That means we've all broken it.
The law could not perfect us, none of us. The law made nothing
perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did. by the
which we draw nigh unto God." We're actually able to draw nigh
unto God. And inasmuch as not without an oath, he was made
priest. Christ was made priest. For those
priests were made without an oath, but this with an oath by
him that said unto him, the Lord swear and will not repent. Thou
art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. By so much
was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. And they truly were
many priests because they were not suffered to continue by reason
of death. We had all these priests throughout
the old Testament and they'd live and die. And then the next
one would live and die. And the next one would live and
die. Verse 24 says, but this man, because he continueth ever
hath an unchangeable priesthood. Nobody's taken over. Wherefore
he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Watch verse 26 for such and high priest became us. became us." That is substitution. That is called substitution. He became us. The one who was, verse 26 says,
holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher
than the heavens. The one who was made higher than
the heavens became us." Now, you want to talk about amazing
grace? The glory of the gospel is how
Christ substituted Himself with His people. I mean, you can...
That's it. That's it. All these other things,
you can cut it all off and get down to this right here, how
Christ substituted Himself with His people. That's what it means
when it says back in our text, turn back over to 1 Peter 2,
verse 21, it says, for even here unto where you called, Because
Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you
should follow his steps. What were they? What were his
steps? Verse 22, who did no sin. Now this is the glory of the
gospel. I'm telling you, this is the glory of the gospel. Everything
we're about to read is about Christ. It's all about Christ. When we are on Him, we are on
the gospel. When we're not on Him, we're
not on the gospel. He is the gospel. He is the gospel. And this is what the gospel says
about him. Verse 22 says, who did no sin. That is, that's amazing. This is just amazing. That's something worth pondering.
You know, I love how the scripture says Mary pondered all these
things in her heart. That is something worth pondering.
Who did no sin? He never did sin. Not one time did he ever commit
a sin. Hold your place and go to Isaiah
53. Isaiah 53 verse 9, it says, and
he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death
because he had done no violence. That means no wrong, no damage,
no injustice. When He came and walked this
earth, He did no violence, no wrong, no damage, no injustice. Never one time did He do anything
that was an injustice to anyone or anything. Verse nine goes on to say, neither
was any deceit. That means no falsehood, no fraud,
Not one lie found in his mouth. Pilate said, I find no fault
in him. I love that too. Here he is going
to the cross to suffer for the sin of his people. And Pilate
said, before he goes, let's let it be known. Let's put it on
record, write it down. I find no fault in this man. Go with me back to first Peter
two. Verse 22 says, who did no sin,
neither was guile. That means trickery, bait, subtlety,
decoy. That's what it means. Whenever
you go duck hunting, you set out decoys. I don't know if any
of you men or women do much duck hunting, but when you go duck
hunting, you set out decoys. And it makes the ducks think,
well, this is a safe spot. There's other ducks, brings the
ducks in. When you go fishing, you throw
out a lure with a hook in it. That's guile. If you want to
know what guile is, whenever we read in the scriptures, it
talks about guile. That's guile. Throwing out something
with a hook in it. Setting something out to deceive. It's working subtle trickery
to accomplish your will. And we are so good at it in the
flesh. Working subtle trickery to accomplish
your will. Our Lord never did that. Well, come see a man. This man
is so wonderful. He never did that. This is all
he did. He just told the ravens, go feed Elijah by the brook.
And they did it. He didn't trick them. He didn't
catch ravens in a crate, you know, and tie something to them.
He just said, go feed Elijah in the brook. And they did. He
just told all the fish, get in Peter and John's net. And they
did. No trickery. at His Word, at
His Word. So verse 22 says, Who did no
sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. Who, when He was
reviled, reviled not again. When He suffered, He threatened
not. but committed himself to him
that judgeth righteously. When he was reviled, he was reviled
wrongly, accused and mocked and put on
trial. It was all wrong, but he took
it patiently. at the command of his, he was
obedient to his master. The father said, you behold my
servant, you just watch my servant. Servants, obey your masters. Whatever happens, you take it
patiently. And that's exactly what he did. He took it like
God commanded all of us to do. Everything that he did was well
pleasing to God, his father. Thankworthy. Everything he did
was thankworthy to God the Father. Verse 23 says, who when he was
reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. That right there ought to give
us more assurance of our hope of salvation than anything else.
Anything else, if anybody ever feels like they need more assurance,
that right there ought to give us more assurance than anything
else. Everything that Christ did and
everything that Christ was judged for, it was all judged rightly. Rightly, now see if you can enter
into this. I know all of us can. Have you ever done something
that you know was not done right? Not done right according to the
law, not done right according to justice. Maybe you didn't
acquire the proper permits or get the proper inspections. You
know, you're gonna have something done and I will just do it. You don't go down to the city
and get all the... You're thinking you won't get
caught. You're hoping you won't get caught.
Right? But something in the back of
your mind says, if they come, if the city shows up and inspects
me, I'm probably gonna get caught. And they're probably gonna slap
a fine on me. I'm gonna get reprimanded for this. You have a fear, until
it's all hidden and tucked away, you have a fear lingering somewhere
in the back of your mind, and there's no assurance in that. That feeling, a lack of assurance,
it's a lack of assurance. But when the permits have been
pulled, and when all the inspections have been done, when everything's
to code, and the city comes in and says, we're going to do an
inspection, you can, with a clear conscience, very confidently
say, come on in, inspect whatever you want to inspect. I have nothing
to hide. Assurance comes from knowing
it was done correctly, according to judgment, according to the
law. That's where all assurance comes
from. And that's where our assurance
before God comes from. It's in the fact that everything
Christ did for us As us, all of it was done rightly. It was
all done according to justice, all according to the law. Romans
3 says, he was just in justifying his people. He was just and justifier. And what that means is the permits
were pulled, the inspections were done. He didn't smuggle a bunch of
sinners into heaven. He didn't. You know, people think,
well, I know I'm a sinner, but somehow I'm gonna sneak on in,
you know, somehow he's gonna get me past the gates and I'll,
that's not how it works. The law dealt its justice on
the guilty. And the law declared its pardon
on the innocent. All right, let's answer the question.
If that's the case, how in the world did we get in? If that's
so, knowing what sinners we are against the law in our flesh,
how in the world were we granted eternal life into the Holy Kingdom
of God? All that innocence that we just
read about, all that innocence, all that purity, all that perfection
that we just read about in the Lord Jesus Christ, He made us
to be that. Everything we just read about
Him, He made us to be that innocence. If you want to know what we are
in Christ, read that. He made us to be His innocence. And he did that by making himself
to be, he made himself to become our guilt and our sin and our
error and our wrong and our deceit and our trickery and our guile
and everything that God hates and everything that God must
punish. Christ made himself to be that
for us. as us. God cannot. He will by no means clear the
guilty. Let me stress this right here.
Let me stress this. What if a payment is made on
behalf of the guilty? He still can't clear the guilty.
Doesn't matter what anybody pays. You can pay and pay and pay and
pay. Well, let's make a payment on it. You're still guilty. You're
still guilty. What if a man commits murder
and is sentenced to 20 years in prison and pays it and gets
out? He's still a murderer. Well,
he paid his dues. Yes, he did, but he's still guilty. That didn't come off of his record. And it does not matter if a payment
is made on behalf of sinners. God cannot clear, and He won't,
He will not clear the guilty. God is absolutely holy, and His
holiness demands that the only payment that can be made for
the guilty is death and destruction. That's it. He cannot by any means
let a guilty man go free. He can. And I'll tell you something
else that he cannot do. Because he's holy, he cannot
and he will not punish and condemn and slay an innocent man or an
innocent woman. He will not do it. Cannot do
it. His justice will not allow it.
Justice will not allow a guilty man to go free and it will not
allow an innocent man to be condemned. So Christ made us to bear, he
made us to own, he made us to take ownership of his innocent
righteousness in our body, inside our body, that we might be holy In Him, I am looking at a bunch
of holy, perfect, spotless people that we might be holy and live
unto God. And He did that by making Himself
to bear. That means to own and completely
take ownership of the vileness of our sin in His own body. Not just on a record somewhere,
not just on account. He didn't get His checkbook out
and say, how much is the payment? I'm gonna keep a record of that
in my stub book right there. In His own body. inside His own
body. This is why He said, I am sorrow. He said, Father, I am this sorrow
I'm feeling inside. I could almost die from it before
I even go to the cross. Inside His body. And He did that. He made Himself
to be what we are so that He could become guilty. You know
how holy this is, what I'm saying? This is fearful. I say this fearfully. Do you know what he made himself
to be? Guilty. That's what he made himself to
be. Not just responsible, guilty. As though, you know, somebody
commits a crime and the person's father shows up to the judge
and says, well, I'll be responsible. No, no, no. He made himself to
be guilty so that He could die before the condemning law of
God. Holiness inspected the whole thing. Justice cried, the guilty
must be punished. and the innocent must be set
free. This is how the judgment's gonna
go. The guilty one is going to be punished and the innocent
is going to be set free. That's why Christ died and that's
why we live. That's the whole reason. Verse 24 says, who his own self
bear our sins in his own body on the tree. That we being dead
to sins, that means they're dead to us. That means
they don't, they're not here. When somebody dies, they're not
here anymore. And they're removed. That we
being dead to sins should live unto righteousness, His righteousness,
by whose stripes You were healed. There is assurance in that. Let the law inspect it. You say,
now at the judgment, the law is gonna inspect it. Let the
law inspect it. Let justice make its decree.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
Our sin in Him His holiness in us. There's no condemnation now. None whatsoever. And it's because
He rightfully made Himself to be everything that we were worthy
of being condemned of. Everything. and He bore that
condemnation for us, and it's over. It's over. Sin is gone.
It is gone. The only way that He could die
was He had to truly be made what we were. He had to be. He had
to be. If He did not become sin, there's
no way. Holiness would not allow it.
Holiness will not allow it. God would have to be unholy before
He could kill an innocent man. God would have to be unholy and
unjust before he could look at an innocent man and say, I'm
going to kill you anyway. He had to be made that in order
to die. And then the glorious flip side
to that is. the only way we can live. God
would be unholy and unjust if he looked at a sinner and said,
I'm gonna let you live. You say, well, that's mercy.
God is holy. Mercy is in the substitution
of Christ, dealing justly with us. The only way we could live was
we had to truly be made what Christ is. Beloved, John said,
it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when
he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him
as he is. As we were, so was he made to
be in this world. He came down. As we were, so
was he made to be in this world. Therefore, as he is. So are we
made to be in this world. That is glorious. That is glorious. Verse 25 says, for you were as
sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and
bishop of your souls. Amen. Amen. That is the glorious
news of the gospel. Amen. All right, Brother Dwight,
you come.