This is our hope and this is
our prayer that the Lord will fulfill this promise and this
passage. Isaiah chapter 40 begins with
the Lord telling the prophet Isaiah what his duty is, what
his responsibility is in preaching. And he says to the prophet, comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and
cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. That's the gospel. That's the gospel. Our enmity
with God, our warfare that began all the way back there in the
garden when we and our father Adam raised our fist against
God, has been accomplished. The man of war, the Lord Jesus
Christ, has paid the debt for our sin and he's established
his righteousness for his people. Warfare is accomplished. And tell her that her iniquity
is pardoned. When the Lord Jesus Christ bowed
his mighty head on Calvary's cross and said, it is finished,
he put away the sins of his people. He satisfied divine justice and
he pardoned us by his shed blood. For she hath received, do you
notice the tense here? This is all past tense. She hath
received of the Lord's hand, double of all her sins. The double blessing is the imputation
of our sin to Christ and the imputation of his righteousness
to us. God made him who knew no sin
to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. The voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight
in the desert the highway of our God. Every valley shall be
exalted. Those that have made low by sin
should be lifted up when they are brought to see what Christ
has done to put away their sin. And every mountain and hill shall
be made low. Those that are proud and self-righteous,
when they hear the gospel, are going to be put in the dust.
And the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places
plain. And the glory of the Lord shall
be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth
of the Lord has spoken it." And the boy said, here's God speaking
to the prophet again, cry. And the prophet says, What shall
I say? Where do I start this message
of accomplished salvation? And the Lord said, all flesh
is grass. Tell them they're sinners. Tell
them they have no righteousness in and of themselves. Tell them
they're completely dependent upon me for everything. That's
where they need to begin. All flesh is as grass, and all
the goodliness thereof is the flower of the field. The grass
withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord
bloweth upon it. Surely, surely, surely the people
is grass. God's people rejoice in hearing
that, because that's what causes them to not look to themselves
for anything. How can I find anything in grass?
I've got to look outside of myself to find the hope of my salvation.
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God
shall stand forever. Oh, Zion, that bringest good
tidings. Get thee up to the high mountain.
Oh, Jerusalem, that bringeth good tidings. Lift up thy voice
with strength. Lift it up and be not afraid.
Say unto the cities of Judah, behold your God. That's the message of every gospel
message, isn't it? Behold your God. Look to Christ. Don't look to yourself, you grass.
Look to Christ. Behold, the Lord God will come. Here's the promise that we that
we pray will experience the fulfillment of this weekend. Behold, the
Lord God will come with strong hand and his arms shall rule
for him. Behold, his reward is with him
and his work before him. the Lord Jesus Christ, the only
one that could recommend himself to God by sending his work ahead
of himself. You and I try to do that and
we'll be eternally separated from God. He shall feed his flock like
a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with young. Let's pray together. Our merciful
Heavenly Father, what glorious hope and promises we've been
given in your word. What a, what a salvation, an
accomplished salvation, a salvation that has already secured for
your people the putting away of their sin, the satisfying
of your justice, the fulfilling of your law, Lord, we. We pray that Christ would be
lifted up this weekend. At our hearts and minds would
be drawn to him. That you would cause us to set
our affections on things above where crisis seated at the right
hand. We would find the hope of our salvation in his accomplished
work of redemption on Calvary's Cross. Thank you for our brother
Donnie. Lord bless him with liberty and
clarity and compassion and simplicity. Lord, bless our ears to hear
not the voice of a man, but the very voice of God. Lord, you
said that your sheep will hear your voice and they will follow
after you. Lord enable us to hear from you. Open the windows
of heaven, come down. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. What's the number again? 21 in
the spiral hand note. 21. Let's stand again. God the Father and the Son and
the Spirit, three in one. In eternal ages past, made a
covenant sure and fast. God, my Father, chose His own
in the person of His Son, and ordained that I should be one
with Him eternally. God the Son agreed to come in
the flesh to bring me home. ? He would keep God's holy law
? And retrieve me from the fall ? Christ in love so willingly
? Stood as my great surety ? For my price he offered blood to
appease the wrath of God. God the Spirit, heavenly dove,
promised to come down in love, bringing life and peace and grace,
to the chosen, purchased race. He seeks the lost, heals the
lame, and he brings us to the Lamb. By his mighty sovereign
call, God's elect are gathered all. This poor sinner is secure,
for God's covenant will endure. It is sealed by God's own word,
by His Spirit and His blood. Blessed Holy Covenant God, I
am yours by ties of blood, ties of grace and ties of love. Hold me to my God above. Please be seated. Again in a
spiral hymn book, just flip back to number five, number five. Come ye sinners poor and wretched,
weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus' bread he stands to save
you, full of pity. He is able, he is able, he is
willing, doubt no more. He is able, he is able, he is
willing, doubt no more. Come ye needy, come and welcome,
God's free bounty glorify. True belief and true repentance
? Every grace that brings us nigh ? Without money, without
money ? Come to Jesus Christ and buy ? Without money, without
money ? Come to Jesus Christ and buy Let not conscience make
you linger, nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness God requireth
is to have a need of Him. This He gives you, this He gives
you, Tis the Spirit's glimmering beam. This He gives you, this
He gives you, Tis the Spirit's glimmering beam. Come ye weary, heavy laden, bruised
and broken by the fall. If you tarry till you're better,
you will never come at all. Not the righteous, not the righteous,
sinners Jesus came to call. Not the righteous, not the righteous,
sinners Jesus came to call. Adam Cher is going to break special
music. O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you
seek. There's light for a look at the
Savior. and life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, so
I might see His precious face. And the things of earth will
grow strange and dim In the light of His glory and grace Through death into life everlasting
He passed and we followed there. For us sin no more hath dominion,
For more than conquerors we are. Turn my eyes upon Jesus So I
might see His precious face And the things of earth will
grow strained and dim In the light of His glory and grace
His word shall not fail you, He promised Believe Him and all
will be well Then go to a world which is thine
His perfect salvation to tell Turn my eyes upon Jesus So I
might see His precious face And the things of earth will grow
strange and dim in the light of His glory and grace. Thank you, Adam. As you were
singing that hymn, I was reminded of 2 Corinthians chapter 4, God
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our hearts the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our hope. And we'll see
the glory of God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Donnie
and I were talking last night or this morning, I don't remember
when it was now, but when we were meeting in the clubhouse
at Kingswood, It was the first time Donnie came with Bruce and
had a meeting there. That's been 23 years ago. And
we've had many opportunities over the last 23 years to be
together and to preach to you on several occasions. And we're
so thankful for you. And I know you brought a bunch
of your folks with you. Joyce said she couldn't believe
she came all the way to Florida to hear you preach. Truth is, nobody she'd rather
listen to preach than you. And she loves you, and we love
you, and we're so very thankful for you. So you come and share
what the Lord's put on your heart for us. That is something, you know,
if you hear me all the time, and then they come to Florida
and have to listen to me again. 2 Corinthians 5, 2 Corinthians
5. I tell you, I am so blessed by
this building. This is just, God has so blessed
you. This is just absolutely wonderful. Wonderful. You know, your pastor
was up preaching for us one time and he brought a message on what
is faith. And I'm telling you what, he
hit the pulpit at a dead run, and he started, and it was one
of the best messages I ever heard on faith. And what is faith? God really blessed him. And I've
heard him preach. I mentioned to him last night,
he preached up at Willersburg, Ohio, and he don't remember it.
But boy, that day the Lord set his heels on fire. He really did. It was wonderful.
But I want you to look here at 2 Corinthians 5 and look in verse
18 with me. May God have mercy on us and
help us tonight and meet with us and come among us. And all
things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,
and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit that
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word
of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead be you reconciled to God. And then he tells us how God
does it. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. I want to talk about three persons
in substitution. Three persons in substitution.
They're out of 2 Corinthians 5.21. You know, God's blessed
word, the Bible, is the very words of God Himself. When you
open this book and read it, it's God speaking. It's God speaking. And it's the words of God, it's
his mind, it's his will, it's his purpose written out, made
legible for us to have some understanding of who he is and what he's done. You know, you start out with
Genesis and it says, in the beginning was God. And God always, all
the way through the scriptures, he saved everybody that was ever
saved, saved Noah, Passover saved Israel saved Isaac
because he provided him a substitute and Here in verse 21. We see
the very heart of God is read and understood as how he saves
a sinner how he saves the sinner and the Word of God is full of
the blessed truth of substitution and What it is the innocent for
the guilty? the just for the unjust. So let's
look at this verse 25 and look at these three persons in this
one text. And these three persons are necessary
in substitution. And the first person is, these
three persons is, first is God, God hath made him. Second person
is the Lord Jesus Christ. And the third person is us, sinners. Sinners. Substitution. The very
heart and soul of the gospel. And I know this, that we must,
must know something about these three persons. We must. We have to have some understanding
of them to some degree or salvation would be utterly impossible.
It'd be impossible if you didn't know God. Certainly be impossible
if you didn't know Christ. Certainly be impossible if you're
not a sinner. So this Bible is written to make us understand
how God saves sinners. It takes God, it takes Christ,
and it takes a sinner. And that's what it takes. And
the first person we look at here is God. God. Back there in verse
18 it says, All things are of God. Do you know what that means?
That means that nothing else is except what God wills. It's His absolute sovereignty.
He is sovereignty. Jesus, you know, and it says
all things are of God. People get upset over diseases
and viruses and all the things that could happen, but there
ain't nothing gonna happen that God wills not to happen. He is
sovereign over all things. He is, you know, David said it
like this. He said, you, God told David,
said, you think I'm just like you. That's your problem. You
think I'm like you. A lot of people, they started
talking and talking about God and talking about their brother
and talking about their preacher and talking about, and they said,
God said, you know, he said, listen, you think I'm too much
like you. And that's man's problem. He thinks God is too much like
him. And God's not like us at all.
You know, he measures the waters in the hollow of his hand. He
put the stars in the sky and calls every one of them by name.
We was in that airplane yesterday and I said, look at all them
clouds. I said, it looks like you could get out and walk on
them. And he said, yeah. And I said, you know what they are?
They're the dust off God's feet. That's what the scripture says.
So when we're talking about God, we gotta absolutely know from
the beginning that he's not like us. And he is sovereign. And when I say he's sovereign,
I mean he's absolutely sovereign. He has no rivals. He has absolute
authority. He has absolute power. Absolute
knowledge of everything and everybody, of all that has happened, all
that is happening, and everything that will happen. He was, was,
He is, and He always has been, and He'll never be any different.
What He was but is in eternity by Himself, He is right now,
and when eternity continues, He'll be just like He is today.
He's sovereign. And I'll tell you, and He's got
absolute rights to do with somebody what He will. He can save you
or leave you alone. He can do something for you or
do nothing for you. He can make you a vessel of honor
or make you a vessel of dishonor. He can make you a beautiful clay
pot or he can make an ashtray out of you. And it's in his hands
to do it. Ain't that right? I'll tell you,
I love him like that. I wouldn't have him any other
way. There's three absolutes in the scripture. See if you
think I'm not right about this. Three absolute, God is absolutely
sovereign. All power. Christ is an absolute
Savior. There's no other Savior. No other
Savior that God ever, ever said, listen, this is the person who
saved you. Only Christ, His blessed Son. And then sinners are absolute
sinners. Absolutely so. I mean, from the
top of their head to the sole of their feet, from the inside
of their soul to the outside of their skin, there's not a
good spot you can find on them apart from the grace of God.
I mean, men are absolute sinners. Not gonna be sinners. They're
born that way, they'll live that way, and they'll die that way
if God don't have mercy on them. And I'll tell you something else
about him when we're talking about God. His only rule is His own
free and mighty will. That's the only rule. You know,
we have to follow rules. People set up rules, you gotta
do this, you gotta do that, you gotta stand in this line, that
line, all that. People have rules. But the only rule that rules
God is his own free and mighty will. They said, now David, where
is now thy God? He said, our God's in the heavens.
Well, what's he doing there? Doing just what he pleases. He
does as he pleases in the sea, in the earth, in the sea, in
all the places. You know, a heathen king even
said this about him. He said, all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. And try to stop him if you can. Oh, and I'll tell
you something else about him. He explains himself to no man
or his actions. He doesn't do that. And that's
what people want to do. They'll say, well, my God's not
that way. Of course he's not. Of course
he's not. He don't explain himself to no,
he just says, I will. He says, I will, and you shall.
That's the way God operates. He said, I will, and you shall,
or I shall, and you will. He's, listen, a sovereign don't
ask people to do anything, he makes commands. And I tell you,
the scripture says this, who art thou, old man? People want
to question God, and people want to set in judgment on God. He
said, who art thou, old man, that replies against God? Will
the thing formed say to him that formed him, why did you make
me the way this way? Let the potions of the earth
thrive with the potions of the earth. but oh, woe unto him that
striveth with his maker. Oh, listen, he works all things
after the counsel of his own will. And he's the God of predestination. I believe in absolute predestination,
absolute predestination. Now, me and you can predestinate
ourselves to go somewhere and do something. Bought an airplane ticket, A
few weeks ago to come down here. A lot of things could have happened. I was predestined to come down
here. I made all my plans. This is where I'm going to end
up. There's a lot of things that could have kept us from being
here. But there ain't nothing going to keep God from carrying
out his will. You all ever seen this in Isaiah
46? Look over here with me. Look
over here with me. I could quote this to you, but
I'm not going to. Isaiah 46. Oh my, look there in verse nine. You know, as many as he ordained,
that word ordained means predestinated, as many as he ordained to eternal
life, what happened to them? They believed. Could they have
not have believed? No, no, if he ordains them to
believe, they gonna believe. That's what he says. He determines
all, his will determines everything. Look what he said here in verse
nine. Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there's
none else. I am God, and there's none like
me, declaring the end from the beginning. Now what in the world
you reckon that means? He declared what the end of this
thing's gonna be when everybody leaves this world, the goats
stand on the left and the sheep on the right, and God snaps his
finger and judgment's done, and everybody, the goats gonna go
one way, and we gonna go to that kingdom that was prepared for
us from the foundation of the world. He's got it all. We read the back of the book.
I know the end of this thing. Because God said the ending,
look what he said. And from ancient times, the things
are not yet done. Things that ain't even happened.
My counsel shall stand and I'll do all my pleasure. This is the
God we adore. This is the God we worship. This
is the God that absolutely we just delight to hear Him, rejoice
in Him and give thanks to Him. And I'll tell you what, why would
anybody want a God that's not like that? What good would he
do? What good would he do if he's
not this way? He couldn't save you. He couldn't keep you if
he did save you. You don't know what's gonna happen
to you from one day to the next. You either live by chance, live
by luck, or live by misfortune or fate. Now, which one would
you rather live by? The will and power and grace
of God Almighty, a sovereign who ordered all things, that
even cares so much about us that he numbers the hairs on our head?
That's my God. Let me tell you something else
about him here in 2 Corinthians 5.21. Not only is he sovereign,
but he's just. And he's infinitely just. And
his sovereignty is proved by this way. He hath made him to
be sin. for us. Now how in the world
could anyone that didn't have any sin be made to be sin? How
can that happen? God made him to be something
he had never been. And I tell you what, here he
is. He is infinitely just. The judge
of all the earth, he must be right. The great, great salvation
that's in God and in Christ His justice prevailed over it. And here's the thing, it's devised
first and foremost to satisfy Himself. You know, the death
of Christ in God's justice is inflexible. Inflexible. He's
a just God. He may show mercy, but He's just.
He may be gracious, but He's just. And His justice is inflexible. He said, God shall see the travail
of his soul, and he shall be satisfied, and by his righteous
servants shall he justify many. Let me tell you something. I
know your preachers preached this many times to you. The death
of Christ was not primarily for me and you. The death of Christ
first and foremost was for God himself. God had to have something equal
to himself. holy as himself, righteous as
himself, powerful as himself, and sinless as himself. And where's
he gonna get somebody like that? God'll provide it for himself.
Just like Abraham and Isaac, they went up that mountain, started
up that mountain. Isaac had the wood and he had
the knife, and his father had the fire. And he said, Father,
I know we're going up there to have a sacrifice. He said, where
is the lamb? He said, my son, God will provide
himself a lamb. When it's time for a sacrifice
to be offered that'll satisfy him, he will provide it himself. And you know what the lamb is?
Himself. Himself. Oh my. The death of Christ is satisfaction. And to my way of thinking, Satisfaction
is the most blessed word in the gospel. That God is satisfied. And if he's satisfied with what
Christ did, his sufferings, his death, his agony, his pain, his
tears running down his holy face, if God's satisfied with him,
then everybody that's in him, God is perfectly satisfied with
him too. That's what's so sad about people.
They're trying to satisfy God themselves. But all in the death
of Christ, first and foremost, is towards God. That's why God
said, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, it's not when
you see it, it's when I see it. And then for you and I, it's
a substitution. It's a substitution. God putting
somebody else in our stead, in our place. That's what it is.
It's God taking Christ and putting Him in our place, a substitute,
a substitute, someone else to bear our sin, someone else to
bear our judgment. And I know, beloved, and I know
you know this as well as I do, some people are so, sin is so
deceitful. It'll make you think that you're
doing what's right when everything you're doing is utterly wrong
in God's sight. You know, sin is so deceitful.
Sin so deceives people that they don't believe God would punish
sin. A loving God would not send people to hell. He just would
not punish men. How could a God who is so loving,
how could he ever send all of us to, you know, let anybody
perish? Well, that's the first thing
that Satan told Eve, he said, oh no, no, you're not gonna die.
God's not just. He's such a good God that you
know, listen, I'll tell you what, go ahead and eat that fruit.
You ain't gonna die. God's not just. You're not gonna
die. And then some think he can be
pacified and make peace with God with a few good works that
they do. Well, my neighbor's house burnt
down and I'll tell you what I did. I went over and gave him $500.
That's got to count for something. People look to anything to count
for something. You used to tell me about the guy, you know, closed
the place on Sunday. He wanted you to say, boy, that's
a good work. That's a good work. Listen, man ain't never ever
done anything that God could look at and say, that's good.
There's not anything you've ever done that didn't have sin in
it. You never prayed a prayer that didn't have sin in it. You
never shed a tear that had sin in it. You've never sat under
a gospel preacher and not have sin sitting there while you listen
to it. And then man must think, well,
listen, I'll go out here and do a few works. I'll go visit
my neighbors. I'll go knock on a few doors.
I'll pass out a few tracts. And I'll go to church. My little brother told me one
time, he's a year younger than me, he said, you know, when I
go to church and I put $5 in the plate every time I go, I
come home, I feel so good about myself. So, you know, if he wants
to feel good about himself, he needs to go every Sunday, put
his $5 in there and go home, feel good for a whole week. $5.
But he says, what he said, he said,
that made me feel so good about myself. But that's what man wants. He wants to feel good about themselves.
They don't care what God thinks about them, how God considers
them. But oh my. And they think, boy,
if I utter a few good prayers, a few good words in prayer, God
will hear me. But he will by no means clear
the guilty. He will not at all acquit the
wicked. He won't do it. He can't do it. The God of the
Bible is as severe as if he were not merciful, and as just as
if he were not gracious. And yet he is as gracious and
merciful as if he were not just. Huh? Now here's the third thing
I want to say about God. He's sovereign. All things are
of God. He's just. He made Christ to
be sin. And then he's the God of all
grace, because he made him to be sin for us. Oh, He's called the God of all
grace. The God of all grace. God who
must punish sin is also of unlimited love. And love has to be expressed. It cannot not be expressed. They
say, well, God, He don't have to love. Yes, He does. He said
He is love. People say, my God is a God of
love. God's not. What you're saying
is, is that my conception of love, my God's like my conception
of love, but that's not the way it is. It just says, God is love. There's no love outside of God.
I mean, if you love your wife, God gave you that. If you love
your children, God gave you that there's cause you know how many
people in the world without natural affection. And so listen, he's
unlimited love. He himself said, I have no pleasure
in the death of the wicked. Grace chose us, given us in Christ
Jesus before the world ever began. Grace provided us a lamb. Grace
come and called us to himself. And then after grace saves us,
grace keeps us, grace keeps us. Now he is love. He delights in
mercy, and He is full. He's the God of all grace. He
is full of grace. It's the God we worship. It's
the God we adore. Sovereign, just, and a God of
grace. Here's the second person. Look
what it says here. For He hath made Him to be sin
for us who knew no sin. The Lord Jesus Christ, the second
person. He who knew no sin. And it talks
here about God being in Christ. In Christ. Who is the Lord Jesus
Christ? The begotten of the Father. He's
not created as Adam was. He is eternal generation. This is one of the mysteries.
You know the greatest, I asked Henry and Scott Richardson one
time, over in Cherokee, North Carolina. I said, what's the
greatest mystery? that you two men can think of.
And both of them said exactly the same thing. Great is the
mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh,
huh? Justified in the spirit, seen
of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, and received up into
glory. Now you tell me how God the Son
is as old as God the Father. But he is how, how in the world is a son,
the only begotten son, how can he be as old as his father? Because
he is his father made flesh. I don't know how else to say
it. He is the only begotten son,
not created. It's a myth. It's an eternal
generation. He's same as the father. He's
as eternal as the father. He's equal with the father. He
existed as long as the fathers existed. As long as God's existed,
Christ has existed. He was always there, and listen,
and here's the mystery of it, that God, who is pure spirit,
has no arms, no legs, no eyes, no ears, that God himself would
come down here and assume a body. He says, thou hast prepared me
a body. Why did he need a body? so that God can come down here
and be one with us and identify with us. It took a man to identify
with a man. But he could not be related to
Adam, because if he was, he couldn't do nothing, he couldn't even
save himself. But oh my, the Father's infinite,
so is the Son. When you saw Him, the only God
you and I will ever see is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the
only God we'll ever see. We won't see no other God. That's
the only one we'll ever see. Not only is He the eternal God,
but He's also the Son of Mary. A man like unto us, a man subject
to the infirmities of the flesh, and the infirmities of human
nature. Oh, y'all put it in your song
this last week or maybe this week. Is it nothing to you that
pass by where the wrath of God is poured out on me, his fierce
anger is poured out on me? Is it nothing to you? Isaiah
said, who hath believed our report? Y'all believe what I said? He
said, I've been telling you about Christ. He said, do you believe
it? He said, he shall grow up before
him as a root out of a dry ground. And then when we look at it,
there's nothing beautiful about him. No gumbliness about him,
no beauty about him. There's nothing about him that
would make us say, boy, what a beautiful man. And then when
we come into this world, he's despised and rejected of men. despised and rejected of men?
Let me give you some illustrations. Here's a man of suffering. A
man of woe. Our Lord Jesus Christ. You go
through the Scriptures, you see this yourself. I know you've
seen it. God don't sleep. He does not sleep or slumber.
But the Lord Jesus Christ would sleep. He was on a ship one time. Fell sound asleep. Got down there
and laid down and went to sleep. Well, big, big storm come up. Big old storm come up. Waves
went rolling over the boats about that boat and over there. Lord
just kept on sleeping. They run down there and said,
Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, wake up, wake up. We're going to perish. Now God don't sleep. But the
man Christ Jesus did. But he got up and said, peace
be still. And that storm stopped that quick.
Man don't stop storms. Only God does. So we got a God
and a man in one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew what
pain was. He knew what pain was. He knew
what trouble was. You read in John 11, two times
his soul was troubled and he groaned within himself. He knew
what temptation was. Satan himself took him. Him and Satan went toe to toe
to toe. And he walked away from Satan
and he hadn't eaten anything or drank anything for 40 days.
And he walked away from Satan and Satan was whipped right then
and there that day. I tell you, he knows what trial
is. He knows what trial is. He sat
there to have the last supper with his disciples and said,
one of you at this table is going to betray me. If the Lord told you and said,
one of you in this service tonight is going to betray me. How many
of you say, Lord, would it be me? Please don't let it be me. Oh, let anybody betray me, but
don't let me. I don't want to betray you. I
don't want to betray you in nature. I don't want to betray your person.
I don't want to betray your work. I don't want to betray anything
about you. Oh God, don't let me betray you.
Don't let me thank anything but the most highest glorious thoughts
of you that a man can possibly thank. Don't let me betray you. But our Lord said, there's one
of you sitting here with me. You're going to betray me. And
you know what you're going to get for it? A little bit of money. A little
bit of money. Oh my. Don't betray him. And then he knew what weakness
was. He got down in the Garden of Eden. And he got so weak down
there and he began to sweat great drops of blood. And the angels
came. And the scripture said they ministered
unto him. He got so weak that the angels
came. And I'll tell you something else he knew. He knew what it
was to die. He actually experienced death.
Death. Have you ever been around anybody
that's died and be with them when they died? I mean, the minute
their heart stops beating, they're cold as ice. Cold. Cold. Cold. Well, our Lord Jesus, when he
died, his body was as dead as anybody else's body ever was.
And he said he is bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh. When
I talk about him as God and man, he's not God humanized. He's
not man deified. God, purely, essentially, eternally
God. Man, purely, purely man. And now that he's gone to glory,
he's eternally a man at the right hand of God. Man, not more than a man because
of his deity, because he's God. God, not less than God because
of his humanity. Oh, what a savior. is our Lord
Jesus Christ, God and man. And that's what it says here.
If this God in Christ says he knew no sin, he knew no sin. He knew no sin in the effects.
He knew sin in the effects of humanity. He knew sin in the
consequences of sin. And he knew sin in the sense
that his father hated it. He saw it in others. but he'd
never ever had any sin of his own. He did not know sin by experience. And you know when he ever knew
anything about sin? It's when he's on that cross. That's where God made him to
be sin. And I'll say this, and I have no qualms about it. No
sin, no way, no how. He was holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners. And yet God said, I'm going to
take this holy man, I'm going to take this my blessed son,
I'm going to take this the son of my love, and I'm going to
lay on him the iniquity of all I gave him. I'm going to lay
on him the sin of all my elect. I'm going to bruise him for all
my people. I'm going to lay, I'm going to
put such weight on him that he will feel the weight of it and
he'll feel the pain of it and he'll feel what it is that he
even says, because I feel this sin on me. He says that my father
has forsaken me because when he looks at me, he can't see
me. All he can see is that sin he's
got to judge. Huh? Oh my. I don't know how to say it in
any other way than this, that Christ had no sin. It wasn't in His body. It wasn't
in His heart. It wasn't in His mind. And when
God made Him to be sin, He never made Him an actual sinner, but
He actually made Him put something on Him. All the sin of all of
God's elect from when the world is going to end and all of God's
elect from the beginning of time They all come and met like a
giant army on the Lord Jesus Christ. All the sins of all of
God's people at one time met on the Lord Jesus Christ. And if he left one undone, then
every one of us will be lost. He, by the sacrifice of himself,
put away sin once and for all. Huh? Well, let me give you the
third person. Look what it says here. Oh, bless
his name. For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. And I want you to look at that
little two little words for us. That's the third person. God,
Christ, and then Christ come to save somebody. He has made
sin for somebody. And that third person is the
sinner. That's us. That's us. Well, who is this
sinner? Well, who is he? He's us. Where
is he? I'm looking at him. Look, all you got to do is look
at yourself. Just look within. Sinners by birth? People say,
well, they're going to be lost. They was born lost. People say, sinners don't bet.
Men don't become children. Don't become sinners till they
come of age. Oh, they're born that way. Conceived
in sin, shaping in iniquity. Sinners by nature. Sinners by
practice. And a lot of people are really
proud to be one. I don't know how many people
told me, when I go to hell, if I go to hell, I'll have lots
of company. I said, no you won't. You won't. But this, this is
who Christ became sin for. Sinners. For us. For us. Say we're, God calls us before
him. He calls us before him. He's this great eternal judge,
must always do right. He said, come up here. Come up
here. I'm going to put you on trial.
I'm going to put you on trial. And it's either for life or death.
Ain't going to be no middle ground. Well, when you get there, God's
gracious. Oh, he is so gracious. He's full
of mercy. He desires to save that man standing
in front of him. And yet also, he's a just God,
and that man standing in front of him, he must punish him for
his sin. And he puts that sinner on trial.
And if a verdict of guilt is brought back, and he's got the
sentence of death on him, how can God, who is full of grace
and full of mercy, and who is just and must punish the sin,
how will these conflicting attributes end up saving this man, giving
him life? How's it gonna happen? How will these conflicting attributes
work in God's mind? He is love. He is love. He wills to express it, wills
to save by it. And he is just. And yet, at the
same time, though he wants to express his love to this soul,
as he's just, he must also turn around and destroy him. And the full penalty of the law,
cursed is every one that continueth on, and the full penalty of the
law must be executed on that man. Must be. Oh, the penalty,
the soul that sinneth and shall, that has to happen. Now how then
can this justly condemned sinner, standing before God, convicted
of his sin, how can God be a just God and
punish him and want to be full of grace and mercy and love?
How's this going to happen? How's it going to happen? Oh
my, no wonder we sank a maze of grace. Stand in wonder. The first very
power and wisdom of God is put on display to show how it can
be done. He wills to show us how he can
both punish sin and the sinner to the fullest extent of the
law, be punished and turn around and save him and make him righteous
in the same stroke. How can he do that? Kill him
and give him life in the same stroke. Oh, my. Well, wisdom stands up. Said, I found a way. I found
a way. God in his institution said,
I found a way. I found a way. Our Lord Jesus Christ, and he
has the power. Wisdom said then, I found a way. I found a way that God can save
this man. Our Lord Jesus Christ said to the Father, in that eternal
covenant of grace, ordered and sure in all things, he said,
Lord, he said, Father, set this man aside. Take me and punish me. Lay your holy law on me, and you punish me as if I was
the sinner. And don't you dare spare, don't
you spare me. Smite, smite, smite as hard as
you please. Put the weight on me as much
as you want to. Put all their sin on me, the
sin of thought, the sin of word, the sin of deed, every sin, put
it on me. Bear it on me, put it on me.
Strike me and punish me and do me and treat me like I was a
sinner. Until I die, you do this to me. And then when you do that to
me, he said, I want you to turn around. And I want you to take
this obedience of mine, this righteousness of mine, this love
of mine, this grace of mine, this wonderful thing that I did,
I want you to take that and give it to them. Because if you do this, your
justice will be satisfied, your law will be honored and upheld.
And give the sinner my righteousness. And you know, our Lord did all
of this voluntarily. Nobody made Him do it. Nobody
made Him do it. He said, Lord, I'll do it. I
delight to do Thy will. Oh God, I delight to do Thy will.
And He did it voluntarily. with the determined counsel and
foreknowledge of God. And bless his holy name, had
he not stood in my place, then I'd have no place to stand.
I'd have no salvation. But if Christ did it all, then
I've got all that God could possibly ever give a man in this world.
And that's his blessed son and his righteousness. Ain't that
right? What else do we need? Huh? What else do we need? What else
could we possibly want? This salvation is, he hath perfected. You know what he said? He hath
perfected forever. To them that are sanctified. So God, there's God. There's Christ. And there's us,
and you know what was between us and God? Christ. Bless you, isn't it? Well, I hope that's a blessing
to you because, fella, I don't know if you read this, now we'll
stop. Fella said the other day, he's asking somebody, to your
four-point cavernous or five-point cavernous? He said, I'm a one-pointer.
He said, how in the world can you be a one-pointer? He said,
Christ's my only point. And that's it, ain't it? That's
the only point we got. Thank you, brothers. Lord bless
you all.