Alright, let's open our Bibles
to Revelation 18. Revelation chapter 18. I began in this chapter last week,
and I intended to get through the first eight verses, but I
didn't get past the fourth. That sometimes happens with me.
But I have to put up with it. And if I have to put up with
it, you have to put up with it too. So we'll put up with it
together. But I hope that I don't limit
myself to trying to just cover a number of verses. That's not
what I'm here for. I know when I study, you know,
I look at things and I see things and the Lord will give us light
on His Word. These are things that are edifying
to the people of God and certainly glorifying to God. But I want
to just continue on with this passage here on the subject of
come out. my people, come out my people. And of course, that's speaking
of God's people coming out of the city of man, the city of
sin, which is referred to in Revelation as the city of Babylon,
Babylon, which has its roots way back in the Old Testament
and the Tower of Babel. And you know about that. We won't
go over all that, but you remember what the Tower of Babel was.
It was man's attempt. to work his way up, build his
way up by his own power and his own works to God. And it's the
opposition to God's way of salvation by his grace through the Lord
Jesus Christ. And here in Revelation 18, the
angel, the messenger of God reveals to the apostle John the destruction,
the total and complete destruction of what is called the great harlot.
Babylon the Great, mystery Babylon. And this great harlot, this symbol
that pervades these chapters is a symbol of man's religion,
false, deceptive, deadly, poisonous religion that will sink a world
to hell. And it's there that God's people
are commanded under the preaching of the gospel and by the power
of the invincible call of the Holy Spirit to come out. come
out of her. Let's read the first few verses.
He says in verse 1, And after these things I saw another angel
come down from heaven, having great power, and the earth was
lightened with his glory. That's the light of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. For it's under that light that
God's people come out. The preaching of Christ and him
crucified, the preaching of man's philosophy will not do it. The
preaching of religion and morality will not do it. Learning how
to win friends and influence people will not do it. Working
hard to get right with God will not do it. The only thing that
will bring us out of Babylon, out of that false religious system
into which we are all born and sealed for that time period that
God leaves us there, is the light of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Just preaching the simple gospel
of Christ, who He is, what he accomplished on Calvary, why
he did it, and where he is now, how he reigns and he rules over
all things to dispose of all things for the glory of his Father
and the good of his people. And then he says in verse 2,
he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great
is fallen, is fallen. There's an emphasis there. Don't
ever doubt it. Don't ever question it. It's
fallen. It is fallen. It's spoken of
in the past tense. Now, in our day, it's future.
But it's spoken of in past tense because a promise from God and
the purpose of God is as good as done. Right? And it's fallen,
and he says, and it's become the habitation of devils and
the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and
hateful bird. We looked at that last week.
But that's what's going to be exposed. In other words, Babylon
in her fall is going to be exposed for what she is. Man by nature
can't see it. And the only way that we can
see it is by the power of the Holy Spirit in seeing this light,
this glorious light of Christ and Him crucified. Verse 3, For
all nations have drunk of the wine and the wrath of her fornication. And he's speaking of spiritual
fornication there. Her false doctrine, her false
methods. everything about her that promotes
her will and her way in opposition to God, in opposition to Christ
and the gospel. And the kings of the earth, all
nations, it says the kings of the earth have committed fornication
with her, all those in authority, in power, political, economic,
religious. And the merchants of the earth
are waxed or grown rich through the abundance of her delicacies. hurt, deceptive ways have made
merchandise of men's souls, and men have profited from it." You
know what? Think about this. Religion is
profitable. It is a profitable undertaking.
Religion is. Now, the gospel isn't, according
to the earthly things. It's profitable in eternal matters,
but not in worldly things. The men have profited through
the abundance or the power of her delicacies. In verse 4, here's
where we left off last week, and I heard another voice from
heaven saying, come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers
of her sins, that you don't be in fellowship with her idolatry
and her false doctrine and her false ways, and that you receive
not of her plagues, her plagues, that That symbol goes back even
to the plagues of Egypt, which destroyed Egypt and which God's
people were brought out of Egypt by the plagues. Well, this is
the final destruction. Now, there are several things
you need to notice about this. First of all, this calling to
come out. It tells us, first of all, where
we were by nature when we heard this call, this call of the gospel.
Now, this come out of her, my people, is the call of the gospel. It's the invincible call of the
Holy Spirit. That's what he's talking about.
It's that calling which no man or no woman will or can or want
to refuse. It is the power of God unto salvation
in the preaching of the gospel when the Spirit gives life, when
the Spirit gives us ears to hear and eyes to see and hearts and
minds to understand and know and embrace Christ and trust
Him. It's the calling of faith. But
when he says, come out of her, my people, it shows us where
we were before God called us. Where were we? We were citizens
in the city of man, citizens of Babylon. We were under her
deceptions. We were under her false doctrine. Now, some of us may have been
raised under the preaching of the gospel, but still by nature
and in heart, that's exactly where we were until God made
it effectual to our salvation. Isn't that right? And that's
why I tell the children of our church, don't depend on mom and
dad's salvation to be yours. It's not. You must seek the Lord. You must be brought to see the
God of glory. You must be born again. Just
like Nicodemus, just like all of us, we must be born again
or we cannot see or enter the Kingdom of Heaven. There's no
hope for any of us except we come out of Babylon. Over in
Isaiah chapter 52 that Brother Terry read, There's a great analogy
to this. He's speaking of Zion. Now, what
is Zion? Zion is the city of God. Babylon
is the city of man. Zion is the church. It's the
body of Christ. Christ is the head, the foundation,
the center, the heart. And Babylon is the city of man. That's who rides upon the beast,
who is inspired by the great dragon, who is Satan himself.
And he says here in verse 9 of Isaiah 52, "...break forth into
joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem. For the
Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem."
God has redeemed a people. His Son shed his precious blood
on Calvary to pay for our sins. to drink damnation dry, to satisfy
law and justice and give us a righteousness that answers the demands of God's
law and justice. And it says in verse 10, the
Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all nations.
That's the gospel being preached to every tribe, kindred, tongue,
and nation. Why? Because God has a people
out of every tribe and nation. And it says, and all the ends
of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. Now, who's he talking
about there? He's talking about his elect. His sheep. Christ
said, My sheep, hear My voice. He's talking about the very same
ones that He's issuing this call to. Come out of her. Who? My people. You see, this is not
a general call here. This is a specific call. This
is a call that has its aim and mark upon a specific goal. The
people of God. He says, Come out of her. My
people. What we're learning here from Isaiah 52, who are they?
They are the redeemed of God. All whom God chose before the
foundation of the world, all whom Christ redeemed on Calvary
and justified by his righteousness imputed, shall be called, invincibly,
irresistibly, and they shall come out of Babylon." Now, come
out. And he goes on, he says in verse
11, Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from this, touch no unclean
thing, go ye out of the midst of her, be ye clean that bear
the vessels of the Lord. Come out, come out. And look
at verse 12, this is interesting. He says, For you shall not go
out with haste, nor go by flight. You know what he's saying there?
It's not going to be fleeing with fear. It's not going to be running
away scared like a coward. It's not going to be running
away in haste and anxiety, anxiousness. It's not going to be that kind
of like leaving a house on fire. He says, here's the way it's
going to be. For the Lord will go before you. It'll be leaving
a city who's been laid waste and leaving it with victory.
Leaving it in honor. For the Lord's will go before
you, and the God of Israel will be your re-reward." Reward after
reward after reward after reward. He's all the reward we need.
We're not trying to earn our rewards in heaven. He is our
reward. He is our re-reward. That's what
that says. Look back at Revelation 18. So
where were we before God saved us and brought us out? We were
in the city of Babylon. Her streets are the deep miry
clay that James sung about. So he lifted us out of that deep
miry clay and he set our feet upon a rock, a solid rock, Christ
himself. On Christ the solid rock I stand.
The streets of Babylon are the crooked ways, the broad ways
of destruction. He took us off that crooked street
and he put us on the straight and narrow way, Christ and him
crucified, the way of grace. That's right. The city of Babylon
is built upon sand. And he took us off that sand
and put us upon the rock. All of that, you see, that's
where we were. Secondly, in verse 4 here, he says, come out of
her who? My people. My people. They're his people. They're his
by divine election. He chose us. Somebody says, why
did he choose me? I don't know. I don't know why
he chose me. I can't tell you why he chose
you. I know this. As our Lord said, for so, Father,
it seemed good in his sight. It's not that we seem good, but
his choice of us was good, because whatever God does is good. He
never does anything wrong. God has never and will never
do anything that's unfair. You know, people, they hear about
God's sovereign electing grace and say, oh, that's unfair. Oh,
no. God never does anything unfair. That's what Paul wrote in Romans
chapter 9. He never does anything that's unjust. He never does
anything evil, he never does anything wrong, and nothing takes
him by surprise. That's the God we worship and
serve. He's in control, he knows exactly what he's doing, and
he chose a people. And we're his people by divine
election, the election of grace. Look over at 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. We read this passage quite a
bit going through Revelations because it's a parallel verse
concerning this issue. He says in verse 13 of 2 Thessalonians
2, but we're bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. Whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." The only difference
between a sinner who is set strong in the city of man Babylon, deceived
by her delicacies, and a sinner saved by the grace of God who
has come out of her is the grace of God itself in Christ. By the
grace of God we are what we are. We have nothing to boast in except
Christ. And that's it. He's it. And he's
enough. He's more than enough, isn't
he? But this is a specific call. Look at John chapter 10. We're
his by divine election and we're his by redemption. In John chapter
10, Christ points this out so clearly. He says in verse 14 of John 10,
I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine. Now look back up in verse 11.
He says, I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his
life, for who? For his sheep, for the sheep. He bought us, lock, stock and
barrel. He paid for us. We're his, we're
not our own, you see. His blood was the redemption
price. And in exchange for our sins,
he gave us his righteousness and made us accepted in himself
before a holy God. We belong to him. He said in
verse 15, he says, as the Father knoweth me, even so know I the
Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. Who are these
sheep? He said it back in John chapter 6. He said, all that
the Father giveth me shall what? Come to me. And here in verse
16, he says, and other sheep I have which are not of this
fold. Now they belong to him. And what does he say? Them also
I what? must bring, not might bring,
but he must bring them. And they shall hear my voice,
and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." So it's a specific
call. He says, come out of her, my
people. And then another thing about this is this, that it's
not only coming out of somewhere, but it's also going to somewhere.
It's going to Christ. That's what it is. He said, they'll
come unto me. He said, I know them. They know
me. He said, I must bring them. They
shall hear my voice. You see, coming out of Babylon
is not just leaving some place and that's it. It's going somewhere. Somewhere glorious. Somewhere
there is salvation. Someone coming to Christ. Come
out of her my people means coming to Christ. Christ said, come
unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden. I'll give you
rest. It's coming to him for salvation. Coming to him for
rest. Coming to Him for blessedness. All of these things. You see,
it's like faith and repentance. They come together. You can't
believe in Christ without repenting of your own dead works and your
own idolatry. And you can't repent of your
own dead works and idolatry without coming to Christ and believing
in Him and resting in Him. You see, this is not limbo land
here. This is not noise new ground, as my dad used to say. This is
coming somewhere specific. It's going from Babylon to Zion,
the city of man. From the city of man to the city
of God in Christ. So he says, come out of her,
my people. Look back at Revelation 18 now. And the reason we come
out is so that we will not be partakers of her sins. Now, that
word partaker, I dealt with it last week. It means to be in
fellowship with Babylon. We're not in fellowship with
Babylon anymore. One time we were. When we were
dead in trespasses and sins, when we didn't know any better,
when we were in unbelief, when we were unregenerate, even though
chosen from the foundation of the world, even though redeemed
and justified at Calvary, we were still alienated and enemies
in our minds by wicked works. And we were in fellowship with
Babylon, but now our fellowship, John writes, is with the Father
and the Son. Now, think about that. That's
a glorious thing. Our fellowship is with the Father
through His Son, with the Father and the Son. We've been made
partakers of the divine nature. I brought that out last week
in 2 Peter 1, verse 4. That means we've been brought
into fellowship with divinity itself. God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit through Christ. We're in fellowship
with the Godhead. We're partners with him in this
sense that he's the redeemer, we're the redeemed. He's the
king, we're the subjects. He's the head, we're the body.
He's the one, we're the many. And all things in him. He rules
over us. He supplies us. He protects us. He keeps us. He carries us. All
our salvation conditioned and fulfilled in him. So that we're
not partakers with Babylon. So we come out. Come out of her,
he said. Over in 2 Corinthians chapter
6, look at this. This is what Paul is writing
to the Corinthian church, because they lived in a city that was
so full of idolatry. And he says in verse 14 of 2
Corinthians 6, he says, but be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers, like oxen, like two oxen that are yoked
so that they can go the same direction, plow in the same field. One not going this way and one
not going that way. Well, you can't be yoked with
Babylon. And he says, with unbelievers.
For what fellowship? Now, that word fellowship there
is the same word, another form of partaker. What partnership,
what participants do you have Or, for what fellowship hath
righteousness with unrighteousness? We're made righteous in Christ.
Those who are in Babylon have done. And he says, and what communion
hath light with darkness? John said it this way in 1 John
1, if we say we're in Christ, if we say we're children of light
and walk in darkness, we're liars and do not the truth. Verse 15,
he says, what concord or concordance hath Christ with Belial? Belial
is a symbol of idolatry. Or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? An infidel is an unbeliever.
And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? We're here
to worship God, not to exalt men and idols. For you're the
temple of the living God. He's speaking of the church here.
The temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell
in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they
shall be," what? My people. So what does he say? Come out from her, my people.
So he says in verse 17 of 2 Corinthians 6, Wherefore, come out from among
them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you,
and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
That's taken from Isaiah 52. We cannot have religious fellowship
and partnership. We cannot be yoke fellows, as
it were, with Babylon. Look back at Revelation 18 now. reward and the just deserts of
all her efforts and works, which is death. Sin demands death and
she will have it. And my friend, our gospel is
a gospel of life for Christ is our life. Sin demands death. Righteousness demands life. Our
sins have been borne away by our savior and he gave us his
righteousness. We don't want to be partakers
of her plague. Now look at verse 5. Now here's
an issue that I believe, this is real interesting. What he's
showing here in verse 5, look at this. It says, For her sins
have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
What he's saying here is that God will judge Babylon and all
who follow her by their sins. When they appear before God,
they will appear before God God who is a just and righteous judge,
who judges according to truth, who will judge each one of them
based on their sins. The Bible teaches the law of
God cannot curse a person where sin is not charged. But to them,
sin will be charged. Sin has been charged. And the
reason is, is because they have no mediator. They have no savior. They have no redeemer. They have
no justifier. They have no righteousness. They
have no blood that will wash them clean. And therefore they
stand before God on their own, in their own case, each one individually. They have no representative except
Adam. And they'll die in their sins
because their sins have reached unto heaven. Now let me show
you this. Thank God. that our sins, we who are in
Christ, we who have been redeemed by his precious blood and justified
by his righteousness, we who have been called out of Babylon,
thank God, that our sins do not reach unto heaven. Now, that's
our hope. Now, how can you say that our
sins do not reach unto heaven? Well, let me show you. Look at
2 Corinthians chapter 5. Now listen, what he's talking
about there, when he says, her sins have reached unto heaven,
he says, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Now, that's language
that's difficult to explain and understand, because you know
God never changes. He's the immutable God. And He's
not like us. Like, you know, somebody asked
me, my mother and I were trying to remember a fellow's name that
I saw down at a funeral home, and I could not think of that
name. I couldn't remember it. And then she remembered it. And
there are things like that. We forget and we remember. That's
not what that's talking about with God. It's not like, well,
he remembers something, then he forgets, and later on he remembers
it again. This remembrance of sin has to
do with charging sin, accounting sin, marking sin. Let me show
you what I mean. Look at 2 Corinthians, chapter
5, and look at verse 17. Now, the Apostle Paul writes
here. Therefore if any man be in Christ." Now you see that? There's your key. In Christ he's
a new creature or a new creation. Created in Christ. Now think
about this. Now he's talking about what Christ
accomplished on the cross here. Now I'll show you that. He says,
old things are passed away and that's past tense now. That's
not That's not a, you know, sometimes you'll read a verb construction
in the New Testament and it'll seem like it's past tense, but
what it means is something that is in the process of either dying
or going away. That's not what this is saying.
This is saying old things are gone. I mean, they're out of
the way. All right. And then he said,
behold, all things are become new. That's a past tense phrase
there. Now what is it? Well, verse 18,
now all things are new. Old things have passed away,
they're gone. All things are new. Now verse
18, and all things. Now what are the all things here?
All things that are made new. These all things that are made
new are of God. You see, not of man, not of your
works, not of my works, not of your efforts, not of my efforts,
not of a committee of men, but they're of God. This new creation
is of God, salvations of the Lord. And he says, "...who hath
reconciled us to himself." Now, what is it to be reconciled?
That means there's peace. That means God's at peace with
them. Now, where sin is charged, God
is not at peace. There's wrath and judgment. That's
what Babylon's going to get. That's what he's talking about
here. Her plagues. God hath remembered her iniquities.
Where sin is charged and accounted and laid to your account, there's
wrath. So he says here that God who
hath reconciled us to himself, now he's talking about a people
who've been reconciled to God. God's at peace with them. How? Look at it. By Jesus Christ. Peace made by Jesus Christ. He's the Prince of Peace. That's
right. He is our peace. Somebody says,
pray for the peace of Jerusalem. That's Old Testament. God's at
peace with Jerusalem. Did you know that? I'm not talking
about that city over there in the Mideast today. He's at peace
with heavenly Jerusalem. That's His people. That's the
city of God. Same as Zion, His church. Now,
how was God reconciled to me, a sinner? I'm a sinner. How can
God be reconciled? By Jesus Christ. Now, you see
it? Now, follow along. "...and hath
given to us the ministry of reconciliation." In other words, our ministry
is to preach peace. How? By Jesus Christ. Our ministry is not to stand
before people and say, now, you all better get busy and give
your every service and give your tithe and get baptized and walk
these aisles and get out of here on Thursday night and visit in
order to make your peace with God. I've heard preachers say,
and you've heard it too, talking about giving their tithes. He
said, you better give it to God or he'll carry it out in the
back of the church in a pine box. Does that sound like peace
to you? And when they give their tithes,
does that give them peace? Now, how was peace made? By Jesus
Christ, the Prince of Peace. We preach the good tidings, the
gospel of peace. That's what he read in Isaiah
52. How beautiful are the feet of
those who come in preaching the tidings, the message, the gospel
of peace. Our feet are to be shod in the
armor of God with the gospel of peace. What peace? Reconciliation. That's what Paul's talking about
here. How peace was made between God and sinners by Jesus Christ. Now, he says in verse 19, now
here it is, to wit. What does that mean? That means
namely. That means this is what it's all about here now. That
God was in Christ. How was God in Christ? Well,
the Bible says it this way. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Christ is the revelation and
representation of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
in their fullness of deity. He is God. And He is man. And God was in this person. God
engaged every attribute of His nature in this person. God set
forth all His glory in this person. In other words, if you could
say it this way, somebody said, well, God's glory was on the
line. Yes, sir, in this person. And
that made it a sure thing. You see, this was no dice game
here. God wasn't just rolling the dice. All the promises of God are in
Him. Yea, and in Him. Amen. Sure and certain. So God was
in Christ. Now look at it. Reconciling the
world unto himself. Now when he says the world there,
some people will go a different way and say, well, that's talking
about every individual without exception. Well, first of all,
it can't be. Because I'm going to show you some people whom
God is not at peace with. We just read about them. It's
called Babylon. The city of Babylon. And it says
here, God hath remembered her iniquities. It says here that
her sins have reached unto heaven. So he cannot be talking about
every individual without exception here. If he is, there is a contradiction
in the Bible. And we know that's not so. Well,
God was in Christ, it says, reconciling the world unto himself. Now,
who is this world unto whom God has reconciled? Now look at it.
Verse 19 of 2 Corinthians 5. Not imputing. Not accounting. not charging their trespasses
unto them. In other words, there's a people
out of this world to whom God does not charge with their sins. Now, that's amazing. Now, you
think about that. Since you've come to church tonight,
have you committed any sins? Well, you know you have. There's
not a second in your life that you can say, I'm perfect within
myself and righteous within myself. And yet if you're in Christ,
God has been reconciled unto you. He's at peace with you and
he cannot and does not charge you with your sins. They're not
laid to your account. It's like this. It's like if
you could say it this way, there's on the ledger. On the account
of God's law book, when he sees your name, the slate is wiped
clean. And it's replaced with something.
All right, let's go on. He says, and hath committed unto
us the word of reconciliation. That's what the gospel is. It's
the word of peace between God and sinners by Jesus Christ,
by the blood of Christ, the blood of his peace. And he says now,
verse 20, now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did
beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead,
be ye reconciled to God. Now, what does that mean? Well,
God was reconciled to his people at the cross when Christ said
it's finished. But we're not reconciled to God
in our minds and in our hearts until the call comes. Come out,
my people. Come out of her. Then he lets us in by the power
of his spirit in the preaching of the word that peace has already
been made at the cross of Calvary by Christ. Redemption has already
been accomplished. Justification has already taken
place when God imputed Christ's righteousness to all of His people,
right there on Calvary. And the Holy Spirit comes, and
He lets us in on it. He tells us what happened. And
not only that, He makes us desire, because He shows us our sinfulness,
our wretchedness, and drives us to Christ. And at that time,
we're reconciled to God. On what ground? Look at verse
21. For God hath made him, Christ,
to be sin. Now, if he didn't charge him
to us, what did he do with him? You know, he's a just God. God
is just. God can by no means clear the
guilty. The soul that sinneth must surely die. And without
the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness, there's no remission,
there's no pardon, there's no peace, there's no reconciliation.
God cannot just say, let's forget it. He can't just take a pen
or pencil and erase it off the books and say, let's act like
it never happened. He can't do that. He's holy. He's just. If he could do that, he wouldn't
be God. He can't show mercy without justice. He can't make peace
without his holiness being honored. He must be a just God as well
as a Savior. He must be a righteous judge
as well as a loving father and a redeemer. He's got to be both. And any message that puts any
part, any attribute of God, His justice, His mercy, His righteousness,
His love, His truth, His grace, at odds to where God either ignores
them or they're canceled out is not the gospel of peace. It's
not the Ministry of Reconciliation. In other words, and I'm going
to tell you something now. This is how God got my attention.
And I studied religion upon religion. I mean, I almost became a Muslim. I didn't become a Muslim. I tell
you what, I almost became a Buddhist. Looking around at Eastern religion
because I always felt like people were more hypocritical and I
was so self-righteous and tied up in my own self. But I studied
that stuff, and I studied Christianity, and to be honest with you, what
I thought was Christianity, there wasn't that much difference.
The only thing that seemed different to me about what men call Christianity,
well, you're walking out, you accept Jesus as your personal
Savior, you get baptized, and then you work hard to keep it.
And I went around saying, once saved, always saved. But I tell
you, I will always live, if you're not doing, you're dying. Now,
that was my motto. If you're not doing, you're dying. But when I heard that message
of how God can be just and justify the ungodly, I said, now that's
something in all the reading I've done and all the religions
I've studied, I've never heard anything like that before. This
is something special. And God used that to get my attention.
And I said, I've got to know more about this. I've read a
lot of philosophy, read a lot of theology, read a lot of religion.
I've never heard anybody even pose that question. How can God
be just and justify? How is that possible? I told
a man one time, I said, I didn't even know that he had to be.
I'm serious. I thought I knew all the answers.
I didn't even know the questions. I said, this is unique. This
is what grace is all about. And it's right here. This is
the heart of the gospel. And that's why I tell people,
don't mess with this. Don't confuse this. Don't rattle
with this. This is it now. For God hath
made him, Christ, to be sin for us. What's he talking about?
He didn't impute him to his people. He imputed him to Christ. He
didn't charge them and lay them to our account. He laid them
to the account of Christ and charged Him with our sins. He
who knew no sin. He did it for us. But He knew
no sin. He had no intimate knowledge
within Himself, within His psyche, within His heart, within His
mind, within His feelings. He had no intimate knowledge
with sin. And yet that did not make his
suffering under death because of sin any less real or any less
effective. It came down upon him for the
sins of his sheep. And he suffered, he bled, he
died. It was soul suffering. It was heart suffering. It was
suffering like we could never know and cannot describe. And
yet through all of it, it was perfect, sinless suffering. The
spotless Lamb giving Himself for His people. Why? To make
peace between God and sinners. There was not one point in His
life, whether He was walking on the earth, feeding 5,000,
walking on water, or whether He was hanging on the cross,
where you could say He was a God-hater. Not one point. He always loved
His Father perfectly. Even, now listen to me, and I
can't explain this to you, and you can't explain it to me, Even
when he was on that cross and he made this statement, he said,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? At that moment in
time, he perfectly loved his father. He never became one who sins. His separation from the father,
I can't explain that to you other than to say that he was charged
with our sins and he suffered the full punishment that was
due unto me and unto you. There's not one point in his
life, whether he was sitting down and fellowshipping with
his disciples, or whether he was giving up his last breath
on that cross, where he wasn't in perfect faith. He always believed
and always did the will of his Father. The whole time. And yet he was made sin. What
does that mean? He explains it in the context.
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing,
not charging their sins, their trespasses unto them. Where did
he put them? He put them on his Son. His Son who knew no sin. And
he did it, verse 21, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. In the same way that sin was
charged to him, righteousness was charged to us. in the exact
same way. Now, as a result of that, back
over in Revelation 18, we're called out of Babylon.
Come out of her, my people, that we might not be made partakers
of her sins. For her sins have reached unto
heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Well, my friend,
our sins will not reach to heaven. Our sins go no further than the
cross of Calvary. That's how far they go. And our
Lord bore them away, carried them off into the desert just
like the old scapegoat, never to be seen again. And that's
what that means. God who remembers her iniquity,
but he won't remember ours. I know I'm going over time, but
look at Hebrews 10 and I'll close with this. And here it is. Now, this is the same thing here. Talking about the work of Christ
on the cross. He says in verse 10, by the which
will we are sanctified, we were set apart, made holy through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ one time for all. Now
what's that talking about? His death on the cross. Our justification
at the cross. And every priest standeth daily
ministering, offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can
never take away sin, you see. The priestly office in the Old
Covenant couldn't do that. Blood of bulls and goats couldn't
put away sin. But this man, Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, he sat down on the right hand of God. His
work was done. It was finished. Sin was borne away. From henceforth
expect him till his enemies be made his footstool, for by one
offering he hath perfected forever. them that are sanctified all
whom God set apart were perfected forever right there by that one
sacrifice the Lord Jesus Christ for our sins whereof now look
here verse 15 now now where does the work of the Holy Spirit come
in here all right look at verse 15 whereof the Holy Ghost also
is a witness to us for after that he had said before this
is the covenant that I will make with them after those days saith
the Lord I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds
will I write them, and their sins and their iniquities will
I remember no more." What's he saying? The Holy Spirit sets
our minds on what Christ accomplished on the cross. That's what he
does. He leads us out of our sins,
and he says, their sins and their iniquities will I remember no
more. That's what the Holy Spirit testifies
to. God will not remember our iniquities.
He gave them to his son. He bore them away. They'll never
be brought up again in the eyes of God's law and justice. They
can never be held against you. That's what he means. And he
says in verse 18, now where remission of these is, there's nothing
else to be done. There's no more offering for
sin. That's it. That's it. Come out of Babylon. Why do you want to wallow in
the miry clay of Babylon? when you can stand safely resting
on the rock Christ Jesus in the world.