Pastor. Open your Bibles, if
you will, to Ephesians chapter three. Ephesians, the third chapter. I would very much encourage you
to be here tomorrow morning, and I would encourage you to
bring with you anyone you can persuade to come. I subject tomorrow
will be stronger doctrine than predestination, election, limited
atonement, God's sovereign purpose, doctrine far more difficult for
folks to receive and embrace. And you pray for me. I've got
a message I'm certain that will benefit your souls if God will
enable me to deliver it. So you be here tomorrow. Ephesians
chapter three, for this cause, for the calls
of the salvation of God's elect to the glory of God, which he's
been discussing in chapters one and two. For this calls I, Paul,
the prisoner of Jesus Christ, the prisoner of Jesus Christ,
a prisoner to the government of his land, insignificant. He was the prisoner of Jesus
Christ, suffering the things he suffered because he was the
prisoner of Jesus Christ, enduring difficulties because he was the
prisoner of Jesus Christ. He was happy to endure whatever
God in his providence placed upon him and put him through
for the glory of God and the service of his people because
he was the voluntary, willing prisoner of Jesus Christ. And
that's what it says for you For you The text says for you gentiles. He was the apostle to the gentiles
This is god's word to you paul the prisoner of jesus christ
for you These things god has taught me These things I experience
by which god teaches me I experience and now I convey them to you
because i'm god's prisoner for your sake read on He have heard
of the dispensation of the grace of God given me look at the next
line now to you would This whole service of the gospel God has
given it to me to you It's that from which I benefit most certainly
but it is that which God has given me so that you may benefit
from it Have it by revelation He made known unto me the mystery
as I wrote afore in a few words. You remember Paul told the Galatians
he didn't receive the gospel by me and he was given direct
instruction from Christ himself. The Lord Jesus himself taught
the apostle Paul the gospel of his grace. And so it is with
all who are born of God. If God saves you by his grace,
it will be by Christ being revealed in you. He does it through the
preaching of the gospel. Yes, he does it through instrumentality. Yes, but God himself must reveal
Christ in you. No man can do it and no faithful
man will pretend to do it. We recognize that centers come
to know God only by special divine revelation. Verse four. Whereby when you read you may
understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ Which in other
ages was not made known under the sons of men as it is now
revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit a
mystery is that which was hidden but is now made known and now
revealed to us. In the Old Testament it was hidden
under the types and shadows of the law and was not fully revealed. Don't ever imagine that the gospel
was not revealed in the Old Testament when God took Moses up into the
mount and revealed to him the pattern of things in the heavens
by which he built the tabernacle. What Moses saw was Christ Jesus
crucified. God showed him how he would save
his people from their sins. And everything in the tabernacle,
all the furnishings, all the instrumentality, all the priesthood,
all the sacrifices, the tabernacle itself, all of that was the display
of redemption and salvation by Christ Jesus. So the gospel was
revealed in the Old Testament but revealed in types and pictures
of the law so it was not fully and clearly revealed to men as
it now is in the gospel of our Redeemer. Verse 6, that the Gentiles,
the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and
partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. This is something
the Jewish believers had a difficult time grasping even in our Lord's
day. The Gentiles were purposed of
God to bring forth his people as were the Jews. God scattered
his people in the loins of Adam, from the loins of Adam, through
all the nations of the earth. So that God's elect, the Israel
of God, is made up of Jew and Gentile. There is no advantage
to being a Jew as opposed to being a Gentile, any more than
there is advantage to being white as opposed to being black, or
male as opposed to being female, not in the kingdom of God. This
is God's mystery, hidden in the Old Testament, or the types and
shadows of the law, because the law was given just to that physical
nation. But it was never God's intention. It was never God's purpose. His
people be limited to the physical seed of Abraham, but rather that
the Gentiles be in the same body partakers and heirs of the same
covenants as were the Jews verse 7 Whereof I was made a minister. I was made a minister a Gospel
preacher is not a man who decides to go into the ministry A gospel
preacher is not a man who prepares and educates himself to get ready
to go into ministry. A gospel preacher is made such
by the gift of God and the calling of God. This is according to
the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual
working of his power. What an astounding way to describe
his work. Paul, this man who's in prison,
suffering what he suffered for the gospel sake. Says to me Was
this grace given? This what a marvelous thing God
And not only saved me by his grace God has been pleased in
his infinite mercy to take this worthless man and make me to
your souls a message of the gospel And this is only by the effectual
working of his power and watch how paul describes this verse
8 unto me who am less than the least of all saints, is this
grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the fellowship
of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been
hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. to the intent
that now under principalities and powers in heavenly places
might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. That's my subject this evening,
the manifold wisdom of God. I want to talk to you about the
manifold wisdom of God as it is set forth before us in the
scriptures in the redeeming work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul,
as I said earlier, said this is speaking of a mystery, a mystery
hidden in ages past under the types and shadows of the law,
a mystery hidden in the secret counsels of God from eternity,
a mystery hidden from men who believe not, whose eyes are blinded,
but a mystery now revealed to us by the gospel, by the preaching
of the gospel. God's reason for revealing his
secret counsels concerning the work of redemption by the gospel
According to our text here in Ephesians 3 10 is simply this
that he might make known his great wisdom God says this is
my purpose in the whole work of redemption is to make principalities
and powers as well as men to understand my indescribable manifold
wisdom. Paul calls it the manifold wisdom
of God because of the many facets of divine wisdom revealed in
the redemption of sinners by Christ Jesus. God's wisdom is
infinite. And we use that word, and sometimes
we use infinite as if it was a term of measurement. that men
can get their handles on. Infinite is a term used beyond
the scope of the human mind. It's a term that speaks of that
which is limitless. God's wisdom is infinite. So
when I get done preaching, there's going to be plenty of room for
more preaching. I'm not about to exhaust the subject. His wisdom
is infinite. We will spend eternity discovering
the infinite wisdom of God in His works of grace and salvation
on our behalf through and by the person of His dear Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Tonight I have one purpose in
my message. I want you to know God's eternal
purpose of grace to redeem sinners displays his wisdom as God. Redemption displays the infinite
wisdom of the triune Jehovah who alone is God. And we see
this in six things. Let me give them to you very
plainly. Number one. God's choice of his son to be
our Redeemer displays infinite wisdom. I don't pretend to understand
the deep, hidden mysteries of covenant grace, hidden mysteries
of covenant mercy, the proposals and the agreements and the oaths
of the triune Godhead. When the scriptures speak of
God dealing with us in terms of a covenant, Most people these
days hardly even know what a covenant is. Sometimes the word in the
scripture is translated covenant, sometimes testament. And the
translators did a good job making the distinction. When you read
the New Testament, particularly the book of Hebrews, when you
read the word testament, every time you read the word testament,
it's exactly the same word as it's translated covenant. But
why did they translate it differently? Because when you read the word
testament, it speaks of a sovereign decree. A sovereign will, such
as God's covenant. When it speaks of the word, uses
the word covenant, it speaks of an agreement, a compact. Now
we understand God is not a man, but he speaks to us in human
terms and uses human pictures to make us, give us some idea
of what he has done for us and who he is. God doesn't need to
make proposals and Christ make agreements, but the scriptures
reveal it just this way. The Lord God, Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost, before the world was, entered into a solemn compact
of grace, a covenant. A covenant is an agreement between
two or more persons. The covenant of grace is the
agreement of the triune Jehovah concerning the saving of our
souls. It's revealed in numerous places in Scripture, showing
the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Particularly,
the first chapter of Ephesians speaks of God the Father in His
purpose of grace, God the Son in His purchase of redemption,
and God the Holy Spirit in performing the work for us. All of them
having distinct, particular offices to fulfill as our great covenant
God. the father assuming all responsibilities
as the father, the son, all responsibilities as our surety, and the Holy Spirit
assuming all responsibilities as our divine comforter by whom
God is revealed to us, revealing Christ in us, taking the things
of Christ and showing them to us. Jeremiah chapter 31 particularly
speaks of that covenant. God says, I'll remember their
sins and iniquities no more. I'll put my law in their hearts.
I'll cause them to be made new creatures. I'll take away their
heart of stone. I'll put a heart of flesh in
them. I'll take away their unfeeling hard heart and put a heart that
feels, the heart that senses the things of God in them. I
will put my spirit in you. He says, I will be their God
and they shall be my people. And the scriptures also speak
of certain proposals. God the Father made to his son
for the accomplishment of our redemption in John chapter 10
our Lord says other sheep I have Which are not of this fold them
also I must bring and there shall be one fold and one shepherd
He said I lay down my life. I have power to lay it down and
I have power to take it again and This therefore doth my father
love me because I lay down my life. He says this Commandment
have I received of my father? How could that be? Is there some
lack of equality in the Godhead? Of course not. Is Jesus Christ
somehow less than God the Father? Of course not. He is God over
all, blessed forever. But in the work of redemption,
the Lord Jesus voluntarily assumed responsibility as Jehovah's righteous
servant on our behalf. to accomplish our redemption.
And the father takes the son as his servant and gives him
a commandment to lay down his life for his sheep, to redeem
and save his people by his death, and to rise again from the dead. And the Savior says, because
I've done this, now I have earned my father's love as the surety,
the mediator, the representative of my people as Jehovah's righteous
servant. Let me see if I can illustrate
it for you. Most of you know my wife. She's a little bit smaller
than Melinda. And I can still whip if I want
to. I can still pick her up and carry her around. She's a lot
smaller than I am. And if I want to, I can about
force her to do anything if I want to. Sometimes I make the mistake
of giving her a honeydew day. You ever do that? And this is
the day, honey, Whatever you need me to do, I'll do it. And
I'm at her beck and call. Now, I'm not much good at it,
but she'll have me do things. I'll do chores and do this, that,
and the other thing. Particularly this time of year,
getting ready for conference, I'll run errands and all that stuff.
And she gives me a list of things. I'll go out the house, and I've
got a list. Do this before you get home. And I go do it. Not
because she can make me do it. Not because I'm afraid of her.
Not because I am physically inferior to her. But because I willingly
serve her interest on that occasion. So it is with our divine Savior. He who is one with the Father,
equal with God, who thinks it not robbery to be made equal
with God, because he is God. He became Jehovah's servant. In the Old Testament, in Exodus
chapter 21, chapter 25, you have a law given concerning the bond
servant. The bond servant is a man who is enslaved either
by his own debt or other means to his master. And the servant
is compelled by law to serve for six years the age of a man. He's compelled to serve by law
for six years, only six years. On the seventh year, the law
demands that he goes out free, except here's a condition. If
the master has given him a wife and she has children, then his
wife and children still remain with the master and the servant
can still go out free. But if the servant should say
on the seventh year, I love my master, I love my wife, I love
my children, I will not go out free. Then he'll go and have
his ear bored through with an all in a public place so that
the master and the servant Speak publicly before all the city
and say this man is my willing bond Servant because he loves
me. He loves his wife and he loves
his children. That's our Redeemer Thank God
he would not go out free. And the law was given specifically
to give us a picture of Christ as Jehovah's righteous servant.
He who, loving God, as the God-man, our mediator, loves his wife,
who was betrothed to him from eternity in sovereign election,
his wife, his children, all who are born of God by his spirit
in his church and kingdom. And for that reason, he refuses
to go out free. And he had his ear bored through
with it all. He set his face like a flint
to go up to Jerusalem and would not be deterred from it. And
the Lord Jesus, having pledged himself to this work, the Father
says, ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance."
God the Father proposed the conditions upon which redemption could be
accomplished. How can God save sinners? How
can God save sinners? How can God glorify himself in
saving sinners? How can God make himself known
in all his glorious character, in all the fullness of his attributes
as God, in saving sinners? He can do so only by certain
stipulations. We'll look at them in a little
bit. And God the Son said, give them to me. Give them to me.
I'll go. I'll redeem them. I'll save your
people." And the father says, all right, I accept you as the
surety of my people. And the father struck hands with
the son, our surety, and the work was done before the world
began. And God, the Holy Spirit, pledged
himself effectually to apply all the blessings of grace earned
by Christ's obedience to his elect. Now remember, I'm talking
to you about things that took place before the world began. No one, nothing existed, but
God. Not even the holy angels existed,
but God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In those great eternal
councils of grace, in those great eternal covenant transactions,
God sent his heart upon his own dear son and chose him to be
the person who would perform the great work of redemption.
We saw in Romans 3 last night, him hath the Father, hath God
set forth. The word is foreordained to be
a propitiation for our sins. He is the Lamb who verily was
foreordained before the foundation of the world. Turn back to Ephesians
1, just one page back if you will. Christ the Redeemer of
God's own choosing was called my elect, my servant in whom
I delight. God set his eye upon his son,
choosing him to save his elect. He said, with regard to all his
elect, deliver him from going down to the pit, for I have found
a ransom, an atonement. I've laid help upon one that
is mighty. I've exalted one chosen out of the people. In the wisdom
of God, the Lord God trusted his son. When Robert Hawker had preached
the gospel for 50 years, he lay dying. And he had someone reading
to him the first chapter of Ephesians. And they got down to verse 12. That we should be to the praise
of his glory who first trusted in Christ. And Hawker said to
his friend, and who first trusted in Christ. And the friend stood
there and looked at him like, well, you're going to answer
that kind of like you're looking at me. Who first trusted in Christ? He said
the triune God first trusted in Christ. God trusted to his
son all his glory, all his name, all his will, all his people,
all his creation. And he trusted him as our surety. Now look at it. that we should
be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ,
in whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation. The Lord Jesus is that one set
forth as the surety of the covenant. The surety is the one who assumes
total responsibility. Again, we hardly have any similar
term in modern English. The, uh, when I was 15 years
old, I had the job and had the money to do it. And I wanted
to buy a car and I couldn't buy it. I couldn't legally register
it. And I had to borrow just a little
bit of money. It wasn't $225. I had to borrow about a hundred
of it. And, uh, the bank wouldn't loan me any money. I was 15 years
old. They got good sense. So I talked my dad into signing
the note. He became the surety. But in
our terms, that's just a guarantor. That means if you don't pay the
bill, I've got to. That's all it means. If he welches,
I'll take care of the bill. That's just a guarantor, not
a surety. A surety is one who assumes total
responsibility for another. Now listen to me, children of
God. Before the world was, God the Son, as our covenant surety,
stepped forth and assumed total responsibility for our souls. Oh, if that don't float your
boat, nothing will. He assumed total responsibility for our
souls. So that from eternity, when the
father struck hands with the son, God never looked to Clay
Curtis for anything. He looks only to his son, only
to his son. But you've got to have your sin
punished. He looks to his son. But you've
got to have perfect righteousness. He looks to his son, but you've
got to be saved. He looks to his son, but you've
got to be made a new creature. He looks to his son, but you've
got to persevere. He looks to his son, but you've
got to withstand temptation. He looks to his son, but you've
got to continue in the faith. He looks to his son, the whole
responsibility for his people rest entirely and alone on Christ,
the surety from everlasting. God Almighty trusted him whom
he could justly trust with our souls. Can you get that? He trusted him. And that's the
one whom we trust, that one whom the Father, whom the triune Jehovah
has trusted from eternity. The Lord Jesus is in every way
a fit and proper person to be our Redeemer. He who undertakes
to redeem sinners, to satisfy justice, to make reconciliation
for transgressors, to atone for sin, must have certain things
possessed only by Jesus Christ, the God-man. He must be himself
God. None but God could be equal to
the work of redemption. He must be one who is a man. Man had sinned. Man must be punished. Man was fallen. Only man could
recover. Man owed a debt. Only man could
pay. Not the holy angels. Only a man
could pay it. And so the Lord Jesus takes on
himself our nature and becomes a man that he might redeem us.
But he must be more than that. He must be a perfectly holy man. He must be conceived in the womb
of a woman without the aid of a man and brought forth from
a virgin's womb as the firstborn. You remember the law of the firstborn
in the Old Testament? When you read the Old Testament
scriptures, when you read it, you go, what's that mean? What's
that? I'll guarantee you something.
I'll guarantee you something. Somewhere it's talking about
Christ. It's talking about Christ. That's the reason the law was
given. The firstborn, God said the firstborn is mine. Every
child that opens a mother's womb, that's mine, firstborn. Every
beast, doesn't matter whether it's an ass or an ox, opens a
mother's womb, that's mine. But the fact is, nothing born
of woman opens its mother's womb. The womb is opened in conception,
not in birth, except for one man. Jesus Christ, the virgin
born son of God, opened his mother's womb when he came forth in the
world and said, Lo, I come to do thy will. Oh, my God, this
man must be one of infinite ability. The work of redemption requires
great and mighty deeds. Only the wisdom and power belonging
to God could perform. And the man who redeems must
be infinitely dear to God. In order for God to place infinite
value even upon His Son, the Redeemer must be dear to God,
infinitely dear. The beloved one of His Father's
heart, the apple of His eye, the darling of His affection.
God so loved the world. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish but have everlasting life. Imagine that. God so loved
our souls. God so loved his people through
all the ages of time, scattered in all parts of the world. He
loved them to this degree. He gave his darling son into
the hands of divine justice. under the penalty of the law
and gave him up to death that we might have eternal life in
him. Behold, what manner of love the
father had bestowed on us. Our dear Redeemer must also be
a person who has the right to redeem. Again, the law of the
Redeemer, the kinsman Redeemer in the Old Testament, the man
had somehow lost everything and sold himself into a bondage.
He could be redeemed by a kinsman, a kinsman who had the ability
to redeem because the kinsman himself is debt free. He owes
nothing. And our Lord Jesus has the ability
to redeem our souls. He has the ability to fulfill
all the responsibility he took upon himself. Now, though Christ
freely became Jehovah's servant, to do the will of God in redeeming
us. He's not in any way less than
God, but rather he is God himself. Jesus Christ, the man, is not
like God, not merely a representative of God, not merely the servant
of God. This one who is Jehovah's servant,
who is the revelation of God, the word of God, the wisdom of
God, the righteousness of God, he is himself God. He is himself God. We sing a
hymn. Isaac Watts' hymn. And that's very accurate. But that's not how Watts wrote
the hymn. Men changed it because they feared somehow Watts had
misstated something. This is what Watts wrote. And
shut his glories in when God the mighty maker died
for man the creature sinned. But God can't die. You're right,
he can't. But the God-man can and the God-man
did. And God redeemed the church with
his own blood. Acts 20, 28. Our Redeemer had
to be a person of infinite love and grace. No one else would
undertake a work so costly. for creatures so worthless. Behold
how he loved us. And the Redeemer, the one chosen
to be our Savior, must be a person of infinite, indescribable truth
and faithfulness. Immutably true, unalterably faithful. Otherwise, he couldn't be trusted
to carry out the work. Here is the great singularity
of our faith. the great singularity of our
faith. Nowhere in the history of humanity
is there any form of religion that comes close to coming up
with such a scheme of redemption, grace, and salvation. Nowhere. Here is God, the only true God,
who finds a ransom in his own darling son, A ransom by which
God makes all the sacrifice. A ransom by which God does all
the work. A ransom altogether depending
upon God, altogether giving honor to God, altogether the work of
God. This is wisdom. God found a Redeemer
for sinners in the person of his dear son. But there's more.
The only fit person to be our Redeemer is Christ the Lord.
The only way sin can ever be put away is by the sacrifice
of God's darling son. No mere man can make atonement.
God himself could not make atonement as God. No angel could make atonement. God the Spirit could not redeem
us. Only God in human flesh could fulfill the law for sinners,
satisfy justice for sinners, and save sinners by the sacrifice
of himself. Who but God, infinitely wise,
could have thought to make Christ our Redeemer? Here's the second
thing. God's wisdom is revealed in His determination to accomplish
redemption by substitution. Having chosen Christ to be our
Redeemer, God condrived a way in which He would accomplish
redemption. And the way He devised, indeed the only way He could
devise for this purpose, substitution. God the son was made to be and
voluntarily became the surety, representative, substitute for
the accomplishment of redemption for our souls. Before the world
began, God's own son stood in our stead as our substitute. And God determined that his son
must have the sins of his people made his sins. God determined
that his son must take our guilt, our shame, and our blame and
make it his own. God determined that his darling
son must suffer all the utter extremity of his holy law to
the full extremity of divine justice for the satisfaction
of justice for his people. Not only did God determine to
make his son our substitute, he made him our substitute from
eternity. And he accepted him as our substitute
from eternity, and the work was done from eternity. The work
was done from eternity. I would just get upset with that
and argue with that and say, well, that means the work that
Christ did on Earth was unnecessary. No. No, it makes it certain.
It makes it certain. But the scriptures speak plainly.
Whether we understand it or not, whether we can make it fit into
our brains or not, the scriptures are very clear. We were accepted
in the beloved before the world began. Is that what the book
says? Ephesians 1, verse 6. Accepted in the beloved. Accepted
as he was accepted. Accepted because he was accepted
Accepted in him because of him by our union with him one with
him Accepted as holy and righteous and just and sinless perfect
sanctified justified and glorified Because we were in him who is
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world Well, how can that
be that Christ is the lamb slain before the world began, that
we were in him before we were ever born, in the last Adam before
the first Adam was ever created? How can that possibly be? We're
talking about God. We're talking about God. We're
not talking about you and me. We're talking about God. This
is God's work. But we have an illustration of
it in a man. There was a man named Abraham to whom God gave
a son. One son, Isaac, this son that
he dearly loved. And God said to Abraham, you
take your son Isaac, your darling son, that son you dearly love,
and get to a mountain I'll tell you about, and there offer him
as a sacrifice to me. But I want you to think about
it for three long days. Abraham took Isaac and went to
Mount Moriah and he said to his servant I and the lad will go
yonder and worship God and We will come again here He's going
up there to kill his son and he says to his servant I and
my son whom I'm about to go kill We're gonna come back here and
we'll go home with you How could that be? He believed that God
would raise him from the dead. For Abraham understood that through
Isaac, Christ is coming into the world. And so he goes up
to Mount Moriah, and Isaac's walking along with him, and he
said, Daddy, we've got the fire for a burnt offering, we've got
the wood for a burnt offering, where's the lamb? He knew you
can't come to God without blood. And Abraham said, my son, God
will provide, listen to the language now, God will provide himself
a ram for a burnt offering. He didn't say God will provide
for himself. God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And Abraham had Isaac stepped
on the altar. Drew his knife back and there's
a ram caught in the thicket and Abraham said kill the lamb. Let
him go Get take a rap kill him. Let Isaac go Abraham's in this
call this place Jehovah Jireh and the scripture says Abraham
sacrificed his son Well, he didn't oh, yes, he did. Oh, yes, he
did ask God In his heart it was done Well, that wasn't real. Let me tell you something talk
about Abraham all you want to God said it was real And what
God did in his heart from eternity, God did. He sacrificed his son
in our stand. He slaughtered his son in our
stand. He accepted his son in our stand
and accepted us in his son, the Lord Jesus. Now, here's the third
thing. In the incarnation of Christ,
certainly we see a revelation of God's manifold wisdom. Behold,
A virgin shall conceive and be with child. You know the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that though he was rich, yet
for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty
might be made rich. Our Lord Jesus, who thought it
not robbery to be equal with God, came into the world making
himself a man. And he stooped to become a man
and stooped to become the servant of men and stooped to death as
Jehovah's servant for us because he came here to do his father's
will. Imagine the incomprehensible
things we think about with regard to the incarnation. God became
a man. I know I'm not supposed to use
terms like that according to my theology instructors. You're supposed to never say
God became a man This is what the book says the word was made
flesh The word was made flesh God the eternal son Became all
that we are sin alone accepted He who is the eternal Jehovah
became Jehovah's servant. He who is the eternal spirit
was born of a woman. The immortal God became flesh
and blood. God who is independent, self-sufficient,
and all-sufficient stood in need of food, clothing, and shelter.
God who created Mary and put milk in Mary's breast is a baby
hanging on Mary's breast who depended upon the milk in her
breast for his very life. The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. God who owns all things became
a man who owned nothing. He who upholds all things by
the word of his power lived upon the charity of men. God who knows
all things as a man had to learn to read and walk and write just
like you and I do. God, he who wrote the law and
gave it to Moses on the Mount Sinai, became subject to the
law and performed perfect obedience to the law as a man. The holy
son of God came under obligation and the sentence of the law as
a guilty sinner when he was made sin for us. He who is life, He who is life was made to die
when he was made sin. God, who is infinitely, immutably,
unchangeably happy, was made to suffer all the sorrow, pain,
and torment and ignominy of the most vicious criminal's death
to die upon the cursory. God, who is joy, said behold
and see if there's any sorrow like unto my sorrow. He who is
the object of the father's perfect love became the object of the
father's unmitigated wrath. The infinite omnipotent God became
a finite mortal man. The great sovereign of heaven
became a worm of the earth. The holy one, the holy God. was made sin. Made sin. Made sin. Really and truly made sin. The innocent lamb of God was
made guilty. The darling of heaven was made
the cursed thing when he was made a curse for us. No man can
grasp the reality of the incarnation, let alone understand it. But
God, in infinite wisdom, planned it, that he should be made of
a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the
law. Here's the fourth thing. The life of Christ, our Lord
Jesus, living in this world as a man, reveals the manifold wisdom
of God. If this gospel I preach to you
were the invention of men, Savior would have been born in a palace
raised in royalty trained with dignity surrounded with riches
Presented with all the pageantry of one of the devil's popes But
this thing is not a man This is God's work When God's Son
came into the world He was born in a cow stable When he rode
into Jerusalem to announce the inauguration of his kingdom,
he rode in on a coat the full of an ass with someone else's
garments laid across the ass and palm branches strode in his
way. Our Lord Jesus, when he came
to redeem his people, did so by the infinite wisdom of God. in all that affected his earthly
life, in all that was done in his earthly life by divine wisdom. He lived in this world in perfect
submission to and in perfect faith to God Almighty as a man. I can't even imagine perfect
submission. I can't even imagine it. I can't
even imagine Perfect, unrelenting faith. But this God demands of
you. Perfect obedience to Him. He
said, walk before me and be ye... Anybody know what it said? Holy. For I'm holy. He didn't
say, walk before me and be the best you can. He said, be holy.
You've got to be perfectly holy. You understand that, honey? You've
got to be perfectly holy. He said, Be ye perfect, for I
the Lord your God am perfect. What does God require of us?
All he requires is perfect obedience to the law's precepts and complete
satisfaction to the law's penalty. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
here to fulfill both. By his obedience in the world
as a man, We're told that the Lord Jesus was made perfect as
the captain of our salvation through the things he suffered.
What's that talking about? He was perfect before he came,
but he was made perfect as our mediator made complete as our
surety made perfect as our substitute when he had fulfilled all that's
required of us as he stood before God as our mediator and surety
the Lord Jesus did while he walked on this earth and lived in this
world by faith in God in perfect righteousness, always doing his
father's will. And when he did, he worked out
for us perfect righteousness. Daniel said when the Messiah
comes, he will bring in everlasting righteousness. Remember this,
it's important. The obedience of Christ in his
life. was as necessary to the saving
of our souls as the obedience of Christ in his death. He lived
as Jehovah's righteous servant, the full age of a man. He lived
as Jehovah's righteous servant, perfectly obeying God, the full
age of a man. Always doing his father's will,
the full age of a man. Never once deviating from the
will of God, even when he was conceived in his mother's womb.
He comes as Jehovah's service and says lo I come to do thy
will. Oh my god, and when he walked
on this earth Every breath he drew for 33 and a half years
was in complete compliance with his father's will He never deviated
Now let me tell you something. Oh God help you to hear me now When Jesus Christ walked on this
earth for 33 and a half years in complete compliance with God,
I obeyed God. I really did. So it's as though
you didn't know, I really did. Really? I'm one with Christ.
He he didn't do that for himself clay did it for us He did that
as our mediator in our name in our room in our step And it's
not as though God considers us doing it. God says we did it
We obeyed the law perfectly perfectly something we could never do in
ourselves Something Adam couldn't do in the garden, but we did
it in a mediator And then we see the wisdom of God, oh, how
we see the wisdom of God in the sacrifice, the sin atoning death
of Christ as our substitute. The Lord Jesus, God's darling
son, died upon the curse tree in the room instead of his people
as our substitute. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? The ungodly must be punished
until justice says that's enough. Until God says I require no more. Until God finds satisfaction.
God says I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth.
No pleasure in the death of the wicked. God's justice can never
be satisfied if all the human race were cast into hell to suffer
his wrath forever! But God in infinite wisdom found
a way to satisfy his justice for all his people in one man's
sufferings, the infinite God-man. And that one man, when he was
made sin for us, was justly punished for our sins. Now listen carefully
what I'm telling you. God could not and would not punish
his son for sins he had not been guilty of. God's law wouldn't allow it,
God's character wouldn't allow it, God's justice wouldn't allow
it, God's word declares it can't be done except by an abomination
to God. Well, how then can God say to
the sword of justice, awake, O sword, against the man that
is my fellow, smite and slay the shepherd? How can he do it?
Only because of this. He who knew no sin was made sin
for us, so that God now charges him with crime. All the crimes
of all his elect at one time. And this is how the Son of God
describes them. Thou knowest mine iniquities. My transgressions are great,
I cannot look up. That's how he describes them.
That's how he describes them. The Lord Jesus was made sin for
us. And when he was made sin for
us, with one tremendous draft of love. Oh, bless his name. He drank
damnation dry. Gone. Gone. So that God in justice,
God in truth, God, in consistency with his own holy character,
cannot punish his people for their sins. Can't be done. Payment God cannot twice demand. First at my bleeding surety's
head, and then again at mine. It can't be done. God is not
unjust, but he is just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. We see the wisdom of God in the
substitutionary sacrifice of his son. And oh, what wisdom
now to see the Lord Jesus, God's crucified son, our crucified
redeemer, exalted in glory at the right hand of the majesty
on high. There sitting on the throne of
the universe is a man who is God. Let me tell you what that means
that means everything is all right all the time Everything
is just right all the time He who rules the universe is God
our Savior and he rules it for the salvation of his elect How that ought to fill our souls
with comfort Our Redeemer is the God of Providence. Mr. Spurgeon, when he was a young
man, went to London, England, to pastor the church that had
been pastored by John Gill 150 years earlier. Renowned pulpit. And he had a
great hearing, a great hearing. So much so they had to find an
open place big enough to accommodate the crowds while they were building
the Metropolitan Tabernacle, where Spurgeon later met with
his congregation. I think it would seat like 5,000
people. But they were meeting at the Crystal Cathedral, Crystal
Palace, rather, in Crystal Cathedral. He wouldn't be called dead in
that place. The Crystal Palace. And they were meeting there,
and somebody thought he'd have a little fun. He yelled, fire,
fire! And people stampeded. Two were
killed, many injured. And Spurgeon was devastated.
He was just devastated. He couldn't bring himself to
preach for two weeks. Until just before time for him
to go to bed on Saturday night, the second week, he read the
second chapter of Philippians. Wherefore, God also hath highly
exalted him. and it found strength in the
exaltation of Christ in the face of great heartache to proceed
with the work God committed to his hands. Why? Because our Redeemer
sits on his throne. Everything's all right all the
time. Because he sits on the throne
of glory, we are assured a perpetual pardon and acceptance at God's
throne. If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And we're promised,
we're promised that we soon, who believe him, shall sit down
with him on his throne. Oh, what glory awaits the sinner
who trusts God's sword. People talk about what they give
up to follow Christ. What nonsense, what nonsense.
I never had anything in my life. Never had anything in my life.
Didn't ever thought of having a chance of anything in my life
until God saved me by his grace. And soon, are you listening to
me? Soon, we shall possess all the
glory that Christ our Redeemer possesses, because he earned
it for us in our name as our surety. He's gone to glory as
a forerunner. As a forerunner. Now, you can't
tell it by looking at me, but I'm not a runner. But I know
what a forerunner is. A forerunner means somebody's
coming after me. Sue. Bless his name, Sue. I'll take my place with my Redeemer
on His throne in glory because of the manifold wisdom of God. Amen.