Go with me, if you would, back
to 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5. Verse 21 is a very defining
verse of Scripture. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. is a very defining verse of scripture
on the gospel. Second Corinthians 5 21. It is
a very defining verse of scripture on the gospel. There are a lot of different
opinions on this verse of scripture. And I'm going to tell you none
of them. I'm only going to tell you what
it says, who it involves, and what it
says about those who are involved. The title of this message is,
He, Him, and Us. That's the title of the message.
He, Him, and Us. That's who is involved. He, Him, and Us. This is what 2 Corinthians 5
has to say about He, Him, and Us. Verse 21. For He hath made
Him to be sin for us. That is the summary of this whole
book. That right there is the summary
of the whole book in one verse. It truly is. Every Old Testament
picture tells us that. That's the point. That's where
we're going. Every Old Testament story is
about that. Adam and Eve. It's all about
that. That's what it's all about. Cain
and Abel, all about that. Noah and the Ark, all about that. Jacob and Esau, all about that. And we could keep on going. All
the Old Testament stories are about this right here. He, him
and us. The entire law of God, the whole law of God points us
to that. It's all about that. All of the prophets, every prophet
in the scripture, Isaiah, A man just read Isaiah 53. Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Jonah, all the prophets point us to
that. All of the apostles, they wrote
letters. All of these books in the New
Testament are letters except for the first four concerning
our Lord's time on this earth. beginning with Acts, and the
rest of the scripture is letters. I'm going to write a letter.
All of these letters declare one message. That. Every single
one of them. The entire book is about He making
Him to be sin for us. Now, let's acknowledge something
about he, him and us. All right. He. Is the sovereign
God. When we read this verse of scripture
and see he. That is the sovereign God. Just
a minute ago, we looked at verse 18, which says all things are
of God. All things are of God. He is
God. He's God, the absolute, just,
holy, sovereign God. He's God. He's God. Turn with me over to Psalm 115.
Psalm 115. Psalm 115 verse 3 says, But our
God is in the heavens. Now watch this part right here.
He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. He's done whatsoever
He has pleased. He's God. He's God. He does not do what men let Him
do. He does whatever He pleases.
He's God. He does whatever He does, it's
because He wanted to do that. He does whatever He pleases. Look at Psalm 135. Psalm 135
verse 6 says, WHATSOEVER THE LORD PLEASED,
THAT DID HE IN HEAVEN, AND IN EARTH, IN THE SEAS, AND ALL DEEP
PLACES. We've had a little turmoil in
the seas lately, haven't we? WHATSOEVER THE LORD PLEASED,
THAT DID HE IN HEAVEN. God does whatever He wants to
do in heaven. That did he in earth. God does whatever he wants
to do in the earth. That did he in the seas. God
does whatever he wants to do in the seas. And in all deep
places, he's God. He's God. Daniel four says he
doth according to his will in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or
say unto him, what doest thou? He's God. He's God. He has done and He will do whatever
it has pleased Him to do. Now, what has it pleased Him
to do? He does whatever it pleases Him to do. What has it pleased
Him to do? Turn with me to 1 Samuel 12. Back a few books towards Genesis
to 1 Samuel 12. 1 Samuel 12 verse 20 says, And
Samuel said unto the people, Fear not, ye, fear not, you have
done all this wickedness. Yet turn not aside from following
the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And turn
ye not aside, for then should you go after vain things, which
cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain. For the Lord will
not forsake his people for his great name's sake, because and
watch this part right here. It hath pleased the Lord to make
you his people. That's amazing. We ought to go
back about three minutes. He's God. He does whatever he
wants to do with the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of
the earth. He's God. What did it please
Him to do? It pleased the Lord to make you
His people. That's amazing grace. That's amazing grace. God is
a sovereign God. He is a controlling, ruling God,
but He's a loving God. He is a God of justice. He's
a God of holiness. He's a God of wrath, but He is
a God of mercy. He's a God of grace. And it pleased
this loving, merciful, gracious God to make you His people. How did He do it? Go to Isaiah
53. Isaiah 53. Verse 10 says, Yet it pleased the Lord. Now He does whatever it pleases
Him to do. He's God. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. He does whatever He pleases.
And it pleased he to bruise him. That's what it pleased he to
do. He made him to be sin. Who is him? The Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, the equal member of God the Trinity, equal to
the Father, equal to the Spirit. What that means is Him is just
as holy and just as pure as He. Equal. God Himself. And the reason is because Him
is God Himself. Is all that making sense? Him is God. He is God, so is
Him. It pleased He to bruise Him. The spotless, pure, righteous,
perfect God. This chapter here in Isaiah 53,
the end of verse 6 says, The Lord, Jehovah, God, Father, Son,
and Spirit, the Trinity. He laid on Him, the individual
person, God the Son, the iniquity of all of God's people. He made
Him to be sin, who knew no sin. He knew no sin. The God-man never
committed one sin, never one sin, not one split second of
the time that he spent on this earth. Did he ever know sin? He never knew sin. Not in his body, not in his mind,
not in his heart. The God-man perfect, holy, spotless
God-man. The only one who ever earned
the favor of God Almighty, that's Him. The only man who God the
Father was actually pleased with, that's Him. The only one who
deserved to walk through the gates of glory, that's Him. God made him to be sin for us. Now, who is us? Let me tell you a little bit
about us. Us is the exact opposite of he and him. That's us. Everything we just said about
he and him, that's not us. We're so sinful. We're so saying
we know it, don't we? We're so sinful. We are in control
of nothing. We would just for once in our
life love to be in control. We are in control of nothing. We're unjust, we're unholy, unworthy,
spotted, unpure, vile, wretched. That's us. That's us. Every split second that we've
spent on this earth has been covered with sin. Every second
of it, it's dripping with sin, sin in the body, the mind, the
heart. Not one of us has ever earned
the favor of God. Isn't that right? We wish we
could. We wish we could do something
that he would be pleased with. But in this flesh, not one of
us has ever earned the favor of God. Not one of us has ever
done anything in this flesh that has ever been pleasing to him.
Not one. Not one. Not one of us deserves
to walk straight through the gates of glory. Not one. But
he said. Behold him. That's what he said,
behold him. God said, behold, my servant. Behold, my elect, the one I choose. God chose him, you know, that
God chose him. Pilate said, behold, your king. John cried, behold, the lamb. He made him to be sin for us. He made him to be sin for us. Now what does that mean? Christ
was made to be sin. What does that mean? Go back
to our text, 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21, if you'll
notice the two words to be, those two words are in italics. And what that means is the translators
added those two words to make it more readable. But originally,
it was not written with those two words. This is what it said
originally. For he hath made him sin. Christ was made sin. He hath
made him sin. I put an article in the bulletin
today by Brother Scott Richardson. It is so good. This is what he
said. When the water was made wine at the feast, at the marriage
feast. First miracle our Lord ever performed. He turned water into wine. He
said when the water was made wine at the marriage feast, The
water was not made to look like wine. The water was not made to taste
like wine. The water was not treated as
though it were wine. They didn't put a post-it note
on the water pots saying, wine. The water was made wine. And he said, when the Son of
God was made sin for us, He was not made to look like sin. You know, His visage was more
marred than any man. But when the Son of God was made
sin for us, He was not made to look like sin. treated as though
he were sin. He didn't merely have sin pasted
onto him. This is critical knowledge. Maybe that's what I ought to
title this message, critical knowledge. When the son of God was made
sin for us, he was not made to look like sin. He was not treated
from God the Father as though he were sin. He didn't merely
have sin pasted onto him. He was made to be sin. What that means is an actual
trading of places. We talk about him making a payment. He didn't just make a payment.
He traded places. The difference is enormous. The difference is life. Life
or death. An actual trading of places. What that means is he did not
just take the responsibility for sin. I tell you what, I'll
take that. HE DID NOT JUST TAKE THE RESPONSIBILITY
FOR SIN. HE TOOK THE SIN. HE DID NOT ONLY MAKE THAT PAYMENT. WE SAY THAT. THAT'S REDEMPTION,
ISN'T IT? A PAYMENT. PAID IN FULL, BUT HE DIDN'T JUST
MAKE THE PAYMENT. HE MADE THE SIN HIS OWN. HE WAS MADE SIN. DO YOU KNOW WHAT I AM? sin. I was conceived sin in the
womb. I was made sin. That's what I
am. It's not only what I do. It's
what I do. You know why I do it? It's because
it's what I am. He was made sin. This is so much
holier And I can stand here and declare
he was made sin. Turn over to Psalm 40. Psalm 40 verse 7, Then said I, Lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it is written of me. We read that to know this
is Jesus Christ speaking. This is Jesus Christ speaking.
Verse 12 says, For innumerable evils have compassed me about,
mine iniquities. He did not say their iniquities
have taken hold on me. He said my iniquities have taken
hold upon me so that I am not able to look up. They are more
than the hairs of mine head therefore my heart faileth me. He made him sin, the one who
knew no sin. He took ours and laid it on him, pressed it
into him, made it his. made it his actual total substitution. What was the result of that substitution? What was the result of what he
made him to be for us? Go with me back to second Corinthians
five. Verse 21 says, 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. Not made to look like the righteousness
of God. Not treated as though we were
the righteousness of God. We didn't merely have righteousness
pasted on to us. We were made the righteousness
of God in Him. The spotless. You know what He
is? I told you just a second ago
what I am. You know what He is? Not just what He does. You know
what He is? Spotlessness. Perfection. He is worthiness. He was not just worthy. He is
worthy. Not because of what he did, because
of what he is. Purity, holiness, justice, goodness,
a sweet savor. That's what he is. He smells
so good to God. Life. That's what he is, life,
eternal life, absolute total substitution, a complete trading
of everything, a complete exchange of everything, a new man, a brand
new man. Now, just before I moved here, we were over it, still in Rocky
Mount. And we were over at Henry and
Doris's house one afternoon and sitting at their table. And Brother
Henry said, I want to give you an illustration, and I want you
to use it. And I said, OK. He said, no, I'm serious. He
said, I don't want you to forget it. I want you to use this one. Make sure you use it. And I said,
OK. He said, promise me. And I said, I promise. So I wrote
it down immediately. As soon as he told it to me,
I went and wrote it down. 7-1-12, July the 1st, 2012. Five years later, now I'm going
to fulfill my promise. He said that years ago he was
preaching in Lake Charles, Louisiana. And he met a man while he was
down there named Sid Horn. I knew he'd smile. I love that. I tell Brother Henry's illustrations
and Bob's heard them, you know, but this one's a good one. Sid
Horn. This is a true story. And everybody knew that this
man was a Jew. He was a Jewish man, born a Jew. And Brother Henry got to talking
to him and In the course of conversation,
he asked him, he said, You're not a full-blooded Jew, are you?
He said, Horn is not a Jewish name. And the man said, Oh yeah, I'm
a full-blooded Jew. But he said, Here's what happened. He said, My grandfather in 1918 was 18 years old. He was born
in 1900. And by the year 1918, World War I was going strong. And his last name was Bernstein.
Born a Jew. And his name was Bernstein. And
he knew that he was going to be drafted to go fight against
the Americans. And he told his parents, it's
a losing war. We're not going to win this.
And he said, I don't want to go fight against the Americans. And he said, I want to live. I don't want to march off to
my death. So I'm leaving. I'm just leaving. And he said, you know, people
can think of me what they want to. But I'm leaving. So he got some food, a little
bit of food and water, and he set out toward Switzerland. And after three or four days
of extreme rural Germany, there's nothing out there. He's out of
food. He's out of water. He's starving.
He's dying of thirst. And he finally comes on this
little house out in the middle of nowhere. And he had no choice. He knew I have got to go to this
house and see if they'll give me some food and some water.
And as he was walking to it, he was trying to think, how am
I going to, what am I going to say? He said, I'm just going
to tell them the truth. I'm not going to try to lie to
them. I'm going to tell them this is who I am. This is what
I'm doing. And I'm going to cast myself
on the mercy of this house and see if they'll give me something
to eat. So he knocks on the door and
this man and this woman open the door and they can see he's
he's about to faint. He's starving. He's thirsty.
They bring him in. They give him some food and some water.
And while he's eating, he told them, my name is Bernstein. And he said, here's what I'm
doing. I'm going to be drafted to go fight against the Americans,
and it's a death sentence. And I don't want to go. I don't
want to die. I want to live. And I'm trying
to flee this. I'm trying to flee this country
and get to Switzerland and leave all this. And, you know, think
of me what you will, but this is what I'm doing. And the man
and the woman had compassion on him in spite of the fact that
he was fleeing. And he said, my name is Horn. And he said, we just buried our
son. We just lost our son. He's about
your age. And he said, do you see that
tombstone back there? And Bernstein said, yeah. He
said, that's my son. He said, you give me all your
papers, your passport, everything that is registered to you. And
he said, I'm going to give you all his papers. And he said,
tomorrow, I'm going to go change the name on that tombstone from
Horn to Bernstein. And if anybody ever comes looking
for you, I'm going to tell them Bernstein is dead, but Horn is
alive. That's substitution. Absolute,
total change of man. Change of name, change of papers,
change of everything. Brand new life. Brand new life. He took our death. and gave us his life. That is the heart of the gospel. It's not a doctrine. It is the
heart of the Gospel. It is the heart of the entirety
of God's Word. It's the heart of the book of
Revelation. It's the heart of it all. This
is the reason Christ came into the world. That's the heart of
the reason Christ came into this world. And that is going to be
our glory for all eternity. That is what we will cry for
all eternity. Verse 21 says, 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 we're all then going to cry,
Amen. Amen. Alright, let's all stand
together.