Start in verse 18. Give my testimony. I once was lost, but now I'm
found. Was blind, but now I see. How precious did that grace appear,
the hour I first believed. That's my testimony. Oh, that'll
do, and I'll get ready to leave this world, that'll do, that'll
do. Let me start reading in verse
18 down to verse 21. And all things are of God, or
all things 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 this is my text right
here, 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. Ptolemy messages
three persons necessary in substitution, three persons necessary in God's
blessed book, the Bible, it's the very words of God Himself
when we read the Scriptures, it's God speaking, it's what
God said, it's the words of God Himself, it's His mind, it's
His will, it's His purpose written out for us. It's the greatest
book on Earth, the Bible, it's the heart of God made legible. The Bible opens with, In the
beginning, God. In the beginning, God. God prepared
an ark to save one man and his family, Noah. And God bled the
Passover to teach us about the Lord Jesus Christ and His blessed
blood. But what it is, this book, the
greatest book on earth, the Bible, is the heart of God made legible
for us read, to see, and understand. And here in verse 21 is the heart
of God is read and understood of how He saves a sinner, how
He saves a sinner, and I m interested in how He saves sinners, I m
really interested in that. I want to be saved, I want to
be saved, and I m interested in how He saves a sinner, And
I'm going to look at these three persons necessary in substitution. And when I mean three persons
necessary in substitution, there's somebody that's got to provide
a substitute. Then there has to be the substitute,
and there has to be who the substitute is for. And so we, these three
people that's necessary, these three persons necessary, God,
He provided the substitute, Christ who is our substitute, and sinners
for whom He was made a substitute for. And oh my, and I tell you
something, beloved, we must know something about these three persons,
God, Christ, and us, a sinner. We must know something about
these three persons, unless we understand something about them
to some degree, salvation is utterly and absolutely impossible,
impossible. And the first person in this
text is God. What are we going to say about
God? Well, look what he says about
himself in verse 18, All things are of God. All things are of God. Oh, it
tells us who He is. When it says all things are of
God, that excludes everything that isn't. You know, I tell
you, He is sovereign. God says, you think I'm altogether
one like you, but I'm not. I'm not like you at all. And
God is sovereign, absolutely so. I mean, God's not a pretender
after the throne. He's absolutely so. He has absolute authority. He
has absolute power. has ABSOLUTE RIGHTS! He has ABSOLUTE
GREATNESS! Everything about Him is absolute,
everything about Him. There s three absolutes in the
Bible. God s an absolute sovereign,
absolutely God. Christ is the only and absolute
Savior in this world, and man is an absolute sinner, and if
God don t do something for him, he ll be a sinner all his life
and die a sinner. So I m telling you, Beloved,
three absolutes, and you can't deny that. And I'll tell you
the only rule, the only rule God has is His own free and mighty
will. He said, they asked David, said,
where's your God at, David? And like Tim preached last night,
they got idols, men's got idols. They got lots of idols. Free
will's an idol. Works is an idol. Marriage's
an idol. praying and making it to be something
it's not, that's an idol. But oh my, and they said, our
God is in the heavens. What does he do? Anything he
wants to do, anything he pleases to do. He said, listen, all the
inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And you know
what nothing is? Scott Richard says, it's a donut
hole. It's a hole in a donut, it ain't nothing. And you know,
we're a bunch of zeros, zeros, zeros. I don't care how many
zeros you put to it, that's all we are until you put Christ in
the equation. Just a bunch of zeros. And I'll
tell you, He said, our God's in the heavens. And He said,
oh, listen, all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing.
And He doeth according to His will in the armies of heaven. I mean, that means the armies.
I mean, He's got armies in heaven. Great host. He said, Oh, listen,
who can stay his hand or say unto him, what are you doing?
Who can say that? Oh, my. And I tell you, God explains
himself to no man or his actions to nobody. He just says, I will
and you shall. Oh, man, they want to, you know,
he works all things after the counsel of his own will. But
man, when you start preaching that God has mercy on whom He'll
have mercy, compassion on whom He'll have mercy, and it's not
of Him that willeth, it's not of Him that runneth, but God
that showeth mercy, man will jump up and say, that's not fair,
that's not right. And you know what? The only answer
you got is, who are that old man that replies against God? Man wants to set in judgment
on God. Man wants to make God to be something
that they decide what He can do, and they decide how much
He can act. They decide, but I tell you,
God does not give an account of himself to nobody, not to
me, not to you or anybody else. If he wants to do something,
he's going to do it for me, you or anybody else. If he wants
to kill us, we're going to die. If he wants to make us an idiot,
we're going to be an idiot. He's God. Oh my, you know, he
said, let the potions of the earth strive with the potions.
but woe unto him that striveth with his master. Oh, who in the
world are we to set in judgment on God Almighty? God Himself
sets on a throne, and I tell you what, all He had to do to
create the world, just say, speak! That's all He has to do to save
a man, speak! That's all He has to do, don't
have to do anything else. Oh my! His will determines all. This is the God we love, this
is the God we adore, this is the God we worship. He declared
the end from the beginning and from ancient times, the things
never been done, saying, all my counsel and all my will, I'll
do it my good pleasure. Here's another thing about God.
First person, He's just. He's just. Not to many people,
but He's just to me. And I believe He's just to you.
And I tell you, He's infinitely so just, infinitely so. I tell you, He is sovereign,
proved by the words that He hath made Christ to be something,
made Him to be sin. Only God can do that. Only God
can make something to be sin. Only God can make something. And I tell you, He's the one
that made Christ to be sin. And oh, the judge of all the
earth must do right. and the great salvation that
God purposed how to save His people. He made it in such a
way that He could be just, satisfy His infinite justice, and uphold
His holy righteousness in His nature, and He turns around in
His infinite justice, and God s justice is inflexible. And
I tell you what, and this is the most blessed word in the
gospel to me. I'm going to tell you what it
is to me. It's called SATISFACTION. Oh, I can lay down at night and
take that pill of satisfaction and go to sleep. And what does
satisfaction mean? That God, when He made Christ
to be sin, His justice and His inflexible law was poured out
on His Son. in such a way that God said,
I saw the travail of his soul. I saw the pain of his soul. I
saw the agony of his soul. I saw the trouble of his soul,
the sorrow of his soul. And he said, I'm satisfied. I'll
not ask for nothing else. I gave everything that I had
and I will not ask for nothing else. I won't ask for nothing
else. The death of Christ, you got
to view it two ways. And the first way you got to
view it is how God does it. What God has to do about it.
The first reason Christ came to die was to satisfy God. Whether
man, God, Scott Richardson say all the time, God's got to do
something for himself before he can do anything for us. And
the first reason for the death of Christ is for God. THAT BURNT OFFERING THAT WAS
PUT ON THAT ALTAR WAS FOR GOD! GOD'S GOTTA HAVE, HE GOTTA BE
SATISFIED! HIS WISDOM AND HIS JUSTICE AND
ALL OF HIS ATTRIBUTES HAS TO BE UPHELD AND HONORED! OH MY! AND THIS, THE SECOND WAY
WE LOOK AT IT IS US, TOWARDS US, TOWARDS MAN! AND WHAT IS
THAT TOWARDS US IS A SUBSTITUTION! A SUBSTITUTION and a SATISFACTION. There used to be people who used
to sing an old song back in the day, and I guess they probably
still sing it. I WONDER IF GOD, I HOPE GOD IS
SATISFIED WITH ME. ARE YOU REGULARLY SATISFIED WITH
ME? NO, TEN THOUSAND TIMES NO. GOD IS SATISFIED WITH ONE MAN
ON THIS EARTH, AND THAT WAS THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. OH, BLESS
HIS HOLY NAME. You know, some people are deceived
by sin into believing God won t punish sin. Oh, my God s a
God of love. Oh, yes, He is, yes. I tell you what, when I get to
the end of the way, I know I ll have enough to give me by. Oh,
they believe that God won t punish sin. Some people think that He
can be pacified with a few good words, a few good words, He said,
A MAN MAY SIN AGAINST ANOTHER MAN, BUT IF YOU SIN AGAINST GOD,
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO? SIN AGAINST GOD! OH, 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 HE IS NOT JUST, AND WHAT A BLESSED GOD THAT IS! THAT'S
A GOD WE WORSHIP, THAT'S A GOD WE ADORE, That's a God we bow
down to, and you can worship a God like that. You can worship
that God, and I mean you, your heart can just be humbled in
His presence and be glad it's done that way. And let me give
you one other point about Him. Sovereign, just, but He's also
the God of all grace. He s the Father of mercies. God,
who must punish sin, NEVER forgives or pardons a sinner without punishment. He won t do it. And I tell you,
He s of unlimited love. God said, I have no pleasure
in the death of the wicked. You know, it was God s grace
that chose us, God s grace that provided Christ for us, God s
grace that called us. And he is love, he is love. He delights in mercy and he is
full of grace. This is a God we worship. This
is a God we adore. This is a God we just say, oh
Lord, oh Lord, under thy glory be name, not under ourselves,
but under thy name be glory and thy glory alone. Oh, you deserve
all the praise, all the glory and honor that a man could possibly
give you in this world. And oh my, this is a God we worship,
sovereign, just, and gracious. And it was Him who made Christ,
God did make Christ to be sin for us. And then look at the
second person here. He hath made Him to be sin for
us. Who is it? The Lord Jesus Christ,
who knew no sin. God was in Christ. Let me tell you something about
Him. I know you've heard all this stuff. I've been pastoring
46 years where I'm at. Now they've heard everything
I got to say 10,000 times and they still come here. I don't
know why. But oh my, God was in Christ and Christ who knew
no sin. He was the begotten of the Father.
He's not created. He s eternal generation. I don
t understand this. The Son is as old as the Father,
as long as God has existed, which He s never been when He s not. What He was, He is, and what
He is, He shall always be. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
eternal as His Father. Now, explain can't do it. But I'll tell you one thing,
that's what you call the MYSTERY OF THE GODHEAD! GOD! ETERNAL GOD! GOD WHO IS A SPIRIT THAT NO MAN
HAS NEVER SEEN, DWELLS IN A LIGHT THAT NO MAN CAN APPROACH UNTIL
HE SAID, I KNOW WHAT I'M GOING TO DO! I KNOW HOW I'M GOING TO
MAKE MAN KNOW ME! I KNOW HOW I'M GOING TO SAVE
MEN! I'M GOING TO SEND MY SON! God was manifested, God, God
was manifested in a body. Figure that one out. Just back
up and say, Lord, bless your name. That s all you can do.
Now, oh, He s the same as the Father. The Father is eternal. He s equal with the Father. He
existed with the Father. The Father is almighty, so is
the Son. The Father is infinite, so is
the Son. He is very God, a very God, but He's also the Son of
Mary, a man like unto us, sin accepted, sin accepted. A man, oh, this is something
I just can't get. A man, subject to infirmities
of human nature. He's a man of sorrows, sorrows. Oh, how could he be a man of
sorrow? A man acquainted, so acquainted
with grief. A man of suffering. A man who
said, Oh, is it nothing to you that pass by? To look on me and
see the wrath, see how God has poured out his fierce wrath on
me. Oh, my. And oh, listen, he was wounded,
wounded, nails, spear in his side, crown of thorns on his
head. He was wounded, but who was he
wounded for? For our transgressions. God laid
the stripes on both sides of his back with those Roman soldiers.
Who was he striped for? for our iniquities, for our lawlessness. He knew what pain was, knew what
trouble was, knew what temptation was, knew what trial was. He was crucified in weakness
but raised in power. He knew what death is. He's bone
of our bones and flesh of our flesh. He is God and man. He wasn't
God humanized. No, no. He wasn't man deified. He's God, God, purely, purely
God, essentially God and man. And He's purely man. And once
He became a man, that's who we'll see when we get to glory, the
Lord Jesus Christ, and we'll see Him as a man. Oh, this is more than my poor little
heart can take, I tell you. Oh, what a sacred union of this
God in Christ that says He knew no sin, knew no sin. He did no sin. He knew no sin. He knows what sin is in humanity. He knows what sin is in US! He
knows the CONSEQUENCES of sin, which is DEATH! And He saw sin in others, but
He did not know no sin! No, no! No sin, no way, no how! He was pure, spotless, holy,
harmless, and undefiled! Now, some people can explain How Christ, who knew no sin, God manifest in the flesh. Think
they can explain what it means for him to be made to be sin.
I can't. I can't get my mind around that. But I am thankful
that it happened. I am so thankful that God did
that. Because if he hadn't have done that, that's the next one
of us. The third person here, there
s God, there s the Lord Jesus Christ who knew no sin. God s
the only one that can make him to be sin. And when God made
him to be sin, God Himself couldn t look on him. When our Lord Jesus Christ was
on that cross, the first thing He said, Father, forgive them,
they know not what they And our Lord, God, after our Lord was
on the cross three hours, God went up in heaven and pulled
down a curtain over him and it got dark. Something took place
in those three hours between the Father and the Son. And what
it was, I have no idea, but I do know that it says for us, God,
make Christ to be sin here's the third person for us who's
us us me just look at you sit made sin for us who is this person
who is he he's us he's us You don't have to convince me
I'm a sinner. I know I was born one. A sinner by nature. And I practiced
sin. And that was the time they're
just proud of it. Oh, no, it's my shame now. It's
my shame. It's my shame. And this who Christ
became sin for, sinner. God says, I'm a sinner. Christ
says, He came to save sinners. So Lord, here I am, sinner, a
sinner. I'm not proud of it. I'm ashamed
of it. I'll be so grateful when I'm
done with it. Oh, what a day that'll be, when I'm done with
sin. never have an evil thought, never
shed a tear again, never breathe a heavy sigh, never moan at night, loose sleep,
never again. This is who Christ became sin
for, us. can't get over it. After all
these years, it still just... Go with me, let's go to God's
bar of justice. God sat on His throne, He brings
us to the bar of His He calls us before Him to try Him, and it's for life
or it's for death. Here's the situation, God is
gracious, God is full of mercy, God is loving, He desires to
save that man, but He's just He s just, He s righteous, and
He can t let him go without punishing him. And when the sinner s tried,
and if a verdict is guilty, brought back, how will these conflicting
attributes work? His grace and His mercy and His
love, Here s His justice and His righteousness, how are these
conflicting attributes, how are they going to be worked out how they re going
to work in God s purpose and God s will. He is love, and He
WILLS to express that love. He is gracious and He s willing
to give that grace. He s merciful and He wants to
show mercy. But justice stands up and says, I can t let it be
done! It can t happen! I ve got to destroy The full
penance of the law must come down on that condemned sinner. But stand back, just wait a minute. Wisdom stands up and says, I know a way. I know
a way. I know a way. I know a way. I know how I can do it. I know
how I can do it. Wisdom stands up and says, I've
got the power to know how to do this. He'll show us how he
can both punish sin and the sinner to the fullest extent of the
law, and at the same time save that sinner and make him righteous. How's that going to work? Our
Lord Jesus Christ stands up and says, Father, smite me. Smite me. TREAT ME, TREAT ME AS IF I WAS
THAT MAN STANDING BEFORE YOUR BAR. TREAT ME AS IF YOU'VE GOT
TO PUNISH ME LIKE YOU'VE GOT TO PUNISH THEM. CURSE ME LIKE
YOU'VE GOT TO CURSE THEM. INFLICT DEATH ON ME LIKE YOU'VE
GOT TO INFLICT DEATH ON THEM. AND OH, TREAT ME AS IF THE SINNER
WERE ME. SMITE AS HARD AS YOU PLEASE. Pour out all your wrath on me
is all you please. And I'll bear it. I'll bear it. I'll bear it. I'll bear your
wrath. I'll bear your justice. I'll
honor your law. And then you can turn around
and show grace. Then you can show love. Then
you can show mercy because of me. what I did, what I did. And then, Lord, Father, take
my obedience, take my righteousness and give it to them. They're
naked, close them. Take everything that I am and
give it to them. Treat them like you treated me
before I was dead and thirsty. And listen, our Lord did this of His own
will and His own power, and He done it voluntarily. Nobody made
Him do it, but it came by the determined counsel FOR KNOWLEDGE
OF GOD, AND BLESS HIS HOLY NAME, HE STOOD IN OUR PLACE, THAT WE
CAN STAND IN HIS PLACE WHERE IT COUNTS BEFORE GOD. And I tell
you what, when I get to glory, I ll be no more righteous than
I am right now. When I get to glory, I ll be
no more holy than I am right now. That's what God did for us in
Christ. And Christ did for us the same.
What a gospel. What a gospel. Bless you, Tim,
when you come.