9 for our scripture reading this
morning. We're so blessed to have Zach
Myers home. And he's going to be leaving
for Japan September the 16th. And I know his family's delighted
to have him here. Job chapter 9. I wanna look in
verse chapter eight and start at verse 20 and read down to
verse 14 of chapter nine. Behold, God will not cast away
a perfect man, neither will he help evildoers. till he fill
thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with rejoicing. This
is Bildad speaking. Now they that hate thee shall
be clothed with shame, and the dwelling place of the wicked
shall come to naught. Then Job answered and said, I
know it is so of a truth. Yep, God would never cast away
a perfect man. I know that is so of a truth,
but how should man be just, be perfect, be accepted of God? If he will contend with him,
he cannot answer him, one of a thousand. God, he is wise in
heart, mighty in strength, who hath hardened himself against
thee, and hath prospered. Which removeth the mountains,
and they that know not, which overturneth them in his anger.
Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof
tremble. Which commanded the sun, and
it rises not, and stilleth up the stars. Which alone spreadeth
out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea. which
maketh Arcticus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the sound,
which doeth great things past finding out, yea, and wonders
without number. Lo, he goeth by me, and I see
him not. He passes on also, but I perceive
him not. And behold, he taketh away. Who
can hinder him? Who will say unto him, what doest
thou? If God will not withdraw his
anger, the proud helpers do stoop unto him. How much less shall
I answer him and choose out my words to reason with him? 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 15
says this, but sanctify the Lord God in
your hearts. Now that doesn't mean that you're
going to make God holy, that means He's set apart in your
hearts. He's set apart in your heart.
Your heart is set apart to Him and His You set him apart in
your heart. That's what it means. The Lord
is in your heart. We don't make him more holy.
We don't make him more sanctified. Here it means separate the Lord
God in your heart. Sanctify him in your heart. And
when you do that, God's in your heart. Be ready always to give
an answer to every man that asks you. A reason of the hope that
is in you. Every man ought to be able to
give, if he's been saved by the grace of God, ought to be able
to give an answer for what reason he has, that he has an eternal
hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. And do it with meekness and fear,
not argumentative, not debating, not coming with a harsh, critical
attitude, because you have a good conscience. Your conscience,
God has purged your conscience, cleansed your conscience, that
whereas they speak evil of you as of evildoers, say you're cults,
how could you believe predestination? How could you believe in election?
How could you believe and not believe in free will? How could
you not believe that man's got something good in him? They may
be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation or your
manner of life that you have in Christ. For it is better,
if the will of God be so, that you suffer for well-doing. If
God wills for you to suffer, let it be for well-doing, not
for evil-doing. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.
Now I want to ask the question, the subject this morning is how
do we get to God? How in the world can we go to
God? How do we get to God? How do
we get to God? Job, Bildad said to Job because
they thought surely God, he's done some awful sin or God would
not, he wouldn't be suffering the way he is. And God would
not cast away a perfect man. Job said, that's true. But how
in the world can a man be perfect with God? How can he approach
God? How can he be just with God? And you know, people say
all the time, you hear them say, well, we got so many saved in
our services. You need to get saved, or I got
saved. Preachers tell folks, you need
to get right with the Lord. You need to make peace with God.
Well, how does someone get saved? How does someone get right with
the Lord? How does someone get fixed up
for heaven? How does somebody go about making
peace with their maker? And all of these things have
some truth in them. Saved is a Bible word. I can
say that I'm saved. Saved. I can say I'm saved. I can say I have peace with God.
Some of you say I'm saved and I have peace with God. I have
peace with God. Well how in the world did that
happen? Multitudes at some point in their lives have tried to
get to God and they're still trying to get to God. Multitudes are even now seeking
to get to God, working their way to God. And they ultimately
hope that they'll do enough and they'll arrive at a right destination. They start out seeking God and
they hope they arrive at the very end to God and that by getting
at the end, they'll be saved. Or accepted into heaven. Most
folks have done what some preacher told them to do. Get up, get
down, pray through, get on the altar, make a confession, say
the sinner's prayer, raise your hand, join our church, get baptized
in our pool, learn to speak in tongues, all kinds of things
that they tell people to get saved or accepted ultimately
by God. But we have an obstacle. There's
a great, great obstacle. A great, great obstacle to get
to God. Great obstacle. Every man has
this obstacle. And it's common to every man
on the earth. And you know what it is? S-I-N. That's the great obstacle
overcome. Man can't overcome it by himself. There's great obstacles common
to every man. We're all sinners before God.
We're all like sheep have gone astray. There's none righteous,
no not one. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. They've all turned and gone
out of the way. You keep this and look over here,
keep 1 Peter and look over here in 1 John chapter 1 and verse
8. So it's, you know, there's this
great obstacle. And that, you know, and they
have what they call the Roman's road or the ABCs or the seven
steps. But what they say is that they'll
ask you, are you a sinner? The Bible says you're a sinner.
You say, yeah, I'm a sinner. The Bible said if you call on
the Lord, you'll be saved. Well, will you call on the Lord?
Yeah, I'll call on the Lord. So they call on the Lord. They
say, yes, I'm a sinner. Call on the Lord. Next thing
you know, they say, well, now confess it. So they confess it. Nothing's changed. The heart
hasn't changed. The will hasn't been changed.
The mind hasn't been changed. The heart hasn't been changed.
The soul hasn't been purified. But look what he said here in
1 John 1.8. If we say that we have no sin,
did you hear that? If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. There's not a just man on the
earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Ecclesiastes 7.20. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. Listen to this. If we say we
have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in
us. Do you know why we need Christ
continually and constantly all the time? is because of this
thing called sin, this thing called the flesh. And the critical
issue before us is how can a man, not how does a man get, you know,
how does he get saved, but how can a man be just with God? How
can man before God, who is holy, infinitely, perfectly, justly,
righteously holy, that cannot by no means clear the guilty
of a pure eyes than to behold iniquity. How can a man, when
all men are sinners, how can a man be just with God? How can
that happen? How can he be clean? That's born
of a woman. If a woman's born a sinner and
the husband's born a sinner, how in the world can those two
produce a clean thing? How can it happen? David said, when I consider the
stars, the moon, and the heavens that thy fingers hath made, and the heavens and the sun,
the moon, stars, he said, I say, what is man that you're mindful
of him or the son of man that you'd even come and visit him?
Who shall bring us to God? Who shall stand in his presence? God's holy, holy and reverent
is his name. Isaiah found that out real quick.
And the year the king Uzziah died, he saw the Lord high and
lifted up. And the seraphims cried, holy,
holy, holy is the Lord. And his train filled the temple. God inhabits, He's the high and
lofty one who inhabits eternity. And God's attributes, all of
them, are glorious and beauteous. But I tell you, the beauty of
all God's attributes is this, is His holiness. Is His holiness. That's what makes Him, He's holy. And all the angels says he's
holy. Everything about him's holy.
The chief attributes of God, the chief attribute of God is
holiness. Holiness. You find in Revelation
they say he's holy. You find throughout the scripture,
I'm the holy one of Israel. I am holy and there's none like
it unto me. When that high priest had that
mitre set upon his head, it said on the front of it, gold front
of it, it said holiness, holiness to the Lord. God dwells in the
beauties of holiness. It's his holy temple, they're
called his holy angels, his holy word. The high priest went into the
holy place and the holiest of holies worshiped the Lord in
the beauty of holiness. You know, it's in your Bible,
most of your Bibles, what does it say? Holy Bible. Holy Bible. Well, you know what
our chief attribute is? Sin. That's our chief attribute. We're called sinners throughout
the scriptures. We're called ungodly. We're called
dead. We're called worms. We're called
grasshoppers. And no man can say I've made
my hands clean and pure from sin. James said it like this,
if a man offends in one point, he's guilty of the whole thing. Well, who can bring us to God?
If God's like this, and if He's holy, dwells in the beauties
of holiness, and we're nothing but sin. Joe McSherry said the other day,
I'll tell you since he ain't here, we was doing some things
and he said, Donnie said, I'm so thankful. I laid in bed last
night and said, I said, Lord, I thank you that I've got a comfortable
bed to lay down in and I've got a pillow, a comfortable place
to live, a comfortable bed to lay down in and a pillow, a place
to lay this old sinful body down. And he said, I don't know what
other people think about themselves, but I'm from sin from the bottom
of my feet to the top of my head. That's a man fixed up. That's the people. The man don't
know that until he sees God. You don't see your sin then go
to God. When God comes to you, you see your sin. So who can bring us to God like
this, in this condition? I know beyond a doubt that there
are some things that will not bring us to God. Will not do
it. Cannot do it. The law can't do
it. The law can't bring us to God.
And I tell you, you see these Ten Commandments everywhere.
Folks fight to keep the Ten Commandments in places. Let them do, let them
fight. You know why the law, the Ten
Commandments was put inside that ark and then the mercy seat was
put on it? It was put in there because it
was broken. And God put it in there and he
put it under a mercy seat so that a man, when he come into
God's presence, he had a mercy seat between him and that broken
law. But you keep the first Peter
there, and let's look over here. Let's look over here in Galatians
3.10, Galatians. Look in Galatians with me, chapter
three. Look in Galatians with me. Shirley and I saw this sign,
big old billboard. He said, Jesus is the only person
who can make you live a good, holy life. Christ is our holiness. But oh,
look what he said here in Galatians 3.10. For as many as are of the
works of the law, Oh, I've accepted Jesus. I've joined the church. I believe the five points of
Calvinism. But I also believe that we got
to have the law as our rule of life. For as many as are of the
works of the law, if the rule of life or anything else, are
under its curse. For it is written, God wrote
this, in Deuteronomy. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. You fell in one point, you're cursed. But that no man,
listen to this, but that no man is justified in the sight of
God's law, in the sight of God by the law, and that's where
it counts, in the sight of God. It's evident that the law don't
justify a man in God's sight. For the law just shall live by
faith, not by law, but by faith. Now listen to this, and the law
is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall
live in them. You can't have faith in law.
It's either faith or law, one or the other. And that's what
he said, the law won't bring us to God. I'll tell you something
else that won't bring us to God. The church, the church won't
bring us to God. And you know who the church is?
That's us. The church is us, a called out assembly who've
been brought to God. That's what a church is. Church
is not a building. The church is not an organization.
The church is not a denomination. When Judas denied the Lord Jesus
Christ, he didn't sin against a building. He didn't come out
of a building. Demas, when he hath forsooken
us, he didn't forsake a building. He didn't forsake a denomination.
He forsook Christ. He forsook the gospel. When Simon
Magus said, Lord, I'll give you this money if you'll give me
this gift. And he says, your money perish with you. He didn't
sin against a building. He didn't sin against a denomination.
And the church, the church, us, people like us, as much as we
love one another, as much as we love sinners, as much as we
want to see people brought to Christ, we cannot bring them. We cannot bring them. We can't do it. As much as we'd like to, as much
as we want to, as much as we want to see folks come to Christ,
we can't bring them. We can bring them to God in prayer. We can tell them the gospel.
We can witness to them, but we can't bring them to God. And
good works, good works are wonderful in their place. Oh, yes, thank
God for good works. And if we have any good works,
it's God which worketh in you both to will and do of his good
pleasure. And he created us in Christ unto good works. And if
we have any good works at all, God's the one that works them
in us. We don't know we even have them. But good works will
not bring us to God. That rich young ruler came to
the master. And he says this, Master, what
good work must I do? And this is what he said, to
be saved. What good work must I do to be
saved? And they said to the Lord Jesus
Christ in John chapter seven, they said, what good work must
we do? What is the work of God that
we may do it? What is the work of God? And you know what our Lord said
to him? He said, this is the work of God, that you believe
on him whom God has sent. He didn't say for you to do the
work. He said, what is God's work that we may do it? He said,
this is God's work. This is what God does in men.
This is what God does in people's hearts. This is what God does
in people's minds. God works in a man to believe
on him that God has sent. Our Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew
7, 23. This is an amazing statement here. This is an amazing statement
that our master made over here in Matthew 7, verse 23. He said, what good work must I do
to be saved? Our Lord told him, said, you
won't be saved by good works? Well, keep the law. Oh, listen,
I've done that all my life. Done that all my life. He said,
okay. If that's it, you want to really
be perfect? Do you really want to be perfect?
Because that's what salvation demands, perfection. God demands
perfection. That's the only way you can be
just with God, being perfect. He said, if you would be perfect,
You got a lot of stuff. Oh my goodness, you got a lot
of stuff. You got money in the bank. You got this huge house. You got all these wonderful cars. You just running over. He said,
now you take everything you got and sell it. And take all your
money and give it to the poor. And come follow me. That's just too hard. That's
just too hard. That's just too hard. And here in Matthew 7,
23, excuse me, verse 21, let's start right there. Matthew 7,
21. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven. But he that doeth the will of
my Father, which is in heaven. Oh, that's the first thing. You
gotta do God's will. Many will, Many will say to me in that day,
have we not prophesied in thy name? Have we not preached in
thy name? And in thy name have we not cast out devils? And in
thy name done many wonderful works. Now listen to this. Then will I profess unto them,
I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
in it. They bragged about what they
were doing, and Christ said you didn't do anything but sin, but
sin. They that are in the flesh cannot
please God. And one reason why the flesh
can never please God, because the flesh has been cursed. And
the flesh could never have a pure motive. I tell you what else
can't bring us to God. Coming to the front of the church
cannot bring us to God. Christ is not in the front. Christ
is not over there on that bench. The first person, what was his
name? Oh, slips my mind right now,
but the first person who ever used what they called a mourner's
bench. Oh my, real big revivalist. But anyway, the first person,
he believed in moral persuasion. He had been a lawyer and he thought,
boy, if I could, like he said, if I'm in a courtroom, if I can
morally persuade a person, get them on my side. He said, man,
everything's bound about him but his will. Everything's depraved
but his will. And if I can just convince a
man and persuade a man, and get him to come to the front, then
he'll be saved. So he took a bench, a church
bench, an old wooden bench, and turned it around backwards, put
the back up here and the front up there, and says, now, if you
want to accept Christ, you know, make a public profession, you
want to make an effort, come down here to this mourner's bench.
And that's what he called it, a mourner. You're a mourner?
Come down here and mourn. And it went downhill after that.
I'll think of his name eventually. But anyway, God's Christ is not,
this is the thing, Scott Richardson used to say this all the time,
men come to Christ without moving a muscle. Every one of us, at one time
I listened to some of the best preaching this weekend, and I
come to Christ so many times this weekend and hearing preaching
that I can't count them. Every time somebody says something,
I'd say, yeah, go right to that. Go right to that, yes. Pray in
the sinner's prayer. Listen, if you ever become a
sinner, you won't nobody have to teach you how to pray. If
God ever opened your heart and you see Christ and you see your
need of him, nobody has to teach you how to pray from then on.
You'll know how to pray. You'll know how to approach God.
You'll know what to say in the presence of God. But those things
won't bring us to God. We'll bring us to God. If we
didn't know how man can come to God and who can bring us to
God, we've got to go to the scriptures. Go to the scriptures. Go to scriptures,
and oh, God said this, he said, I am the Lord, and I change not. So if he doesn't change, well,
how in the world, if we're gonna find out how we can go to God
and be brought to God, we gotta go to scriptures. And in the
Old Testament, in the Old Testament, there were three essential things
for those who would come to God, those who would come in the presence
of God. First, there was a tabernacle, God had a place. where I'll meet
with you, a tabernacle, a place where God would meet with me.
It was a tent. It's a tabernacle. And then you
had to have a priest. You had to have a priest. At
that tabernacle, there had to be a priest there. And only the priest could approach
God, and only the priest could offer sacrifice. You had to have
a place, you had to have a priest, and you had to have a tabernacle.
And that tabernacle was just a big old tent, stretched over,
and it was a badge, made out of badger skin. But when you
got inside of it, it was beautiful, it was glorious. And I'll be
starting through Exodus when I get back from vacation, but
I'll tell you, beautiful inside, glorious. And when you first
went in, there's the holy place. There's a curtain there, beautiful
curtain, blue curtain. And then, listen, you go through
that curtain and there's the holiest of holies. There's where
the mercy seat was. And then that high priest, he
got up every morning, and he put on a beautiful white linen
robe every day, and he had a linen bonnet that he put on, set on
his head. And he started offering sacrifice.
He offered early in the morning, he offered a lamb. Late in the
evening, he offered a lamb. And people kept bringing sacrifices
to him. And those linen clothes would
be covered in blood. But on the Day of Atonement,
one day out of the year, he'd put on them great glorious robes,
gold ephod hanging on him, names of the children of Israel engraved
in stones on his breast and on his shoulders. Beautiful gold
appearance. woven gold, all the needlework
in it was all gold, straightened out and woven into it. And oh,
he was impressive when he put that on. And that he went behind
the, had bells on the bottom of them, made like in the form
of a pomegranate. And when he went into that high
priest, behind that veil, he's dressed like that. One day a
year. And then that sacrifice. They
had a burnt offering, that mean God got all of it. And then they
had a sin offering, and that was where the blood was shed,
put on that mercy seat, or put on that brazen altar. Let's look
at Hebrews 9. Look at Hebrews 9 with me for
a little bit. Hebrews 9. You know, we had to
have those three things. And the Jews don't have that
now, so I don't know how in the world. Most folks that come to
a service, they don't have a clue of any of these things. The next preacher you run into,
or the next church member you run into, and they start talking
to you about religion or something, ask them, say, have you got a
place, the place that God's appointed, the only place He's appointed
where you can worship Him? Have you got a high priest? The
only one that can approach God. Have you got a sacrifice that
God himself will accept? If you don't have those, you
ain't got nothing. Look what he said in chapter,
verse six up here. Now when these things were ordained,
the priest went all ways into the first tabernacle, into that
holy place, accomplishing God's service. but into the second
by holiest of holies with the high priest alone once every
year, but not without blood, which he offered for himself
and then for the sins of the people. Oh my. But now listen,
let's go down here in verse 11. Here's what we got now. First
they went into that tabernacle, there you had the tabernacle,
there you had the priest, and there you had the offerings and
the blood. Look down at verse 11. But Christ,
being high come and high priest of good things to come. Eternal things, heavenly things. Of good things by a greater,
and listen to this, greater and more perfect tabernacle. A tabernacle not made with hands
like that one out in the wilderness. And neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy
place, into God's place, having obtained for us eternal redemption. Oh, listen, now we got a high
priest, we got a sacrifice, and he done been into the holy place
for us. And when he come out, they come
out with redemption for that day or for a year. Christ got
it for us eternally. Now let me tell you something.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is all three of these things. He's the
tabernacle of God. God, Christ come and tabernacled
among us. The word was made flesh and dwelt,
that means tabernacled, among us. He is called, in Revelations
21, he says the tabernacle of God is with men talking about
Christ. And I tell you the tabernacles
where God met men and God only meets men in Christ right now. The tabernacle is the only place
of worship. Christ is the only place where
God will accept our worship and where we can worship. The tabernacles
where the glory dwelt, where justice was satisfied in the
sacrifice and put on the mercy seat. Christ is our tabernacle. And he's our high priest. He sat down at the right hand
of God and is our high priest. He entered into heaven itself
now to appear in the presence of God. Now the high priest,
Aaron was the first high priest. Then his son Eliezer became one. Then it passed from father to
son, to father to son, to father to son. Oh, down, down, down
through millennia, went down, down, down. But Christ is one. Our great high priest and his
priesthood don't change to anybody else. Oh, you see these Catholics
getting old with all their big robes and all their finery and
they put it all on and they really try to impress people. Listen,
they ain't no way in God's, under God's heaven that they could
ever Make anybody acceptable to God,
much less themselves. Christ, our great high priest,
has entered into heaven for us. And he, by himself, purged our
sins and sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.
There was no seat in the tabernacle. You know why? Because they was
offering sacrifices over and over and over. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is our great high priest offered one sacrifice. You know
what it was? That's the third thing he is, our sacrifice. He
offered one sacrifice. Once for all. And by that one
sacrifice, he put away sin once. Huh? Oh, my. His blood, the scripture said,
is a sweet smelling savor. Sweet, sweet smelling savor.
Oh, my. God said, oh, that's a sweet
savor to me. Huh? So, oh, now, let's look
here in verse 18. Let me make a few comments on
this right here as I go. Talking about being brought to
God. What can bring us to God? Three things necessary were a
tabernacle, a high priest, and a sacrifice. Listen to this now. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust. Now listen to it. That he might
bring us to God. Being put to death in the flesh,
but raised from the dead by the Spirit of God. Oh my, this is
how we're brought to. For Christ, who is he? Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son. Thou shalt call his name Emmanuel,
God with us. He is made of a woman, made under
the law to redeem us out from under the curse of the law. Our
Lord Jesus went to that woman at the well and he began to talk
to her. and exposed her, and she said,
I know that when the Messiah cometh, he'll tell us all things. And you know what our Lord said
to her? I speak unto thee. She forgot about getting water
and taking it back home to wash the dishes and cook. She throwed
her water pot away and said, come see a man, told me all things
that ever I did. All things that ever I did. And
then Christ, oh my, our blessed savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. God, the wonderful counselor,
the mighty God, the prince of peace. promised by the scriptures,
prophesied to be the one to come. And men were looking for him,
and then when he came, they missed him, they miss him. And look
what he says here now. Hath once, hath once, just one
time, hath once. One life, one offering. Hath
once, huh? Oh my. Those sacrifices under the law
could never make the comers there unto perfect. But Christ hath
once, one life, one offering. He appeared in heaven, he appeared
on the earth, he appeared again the last time without sin. And
I tell you what, beloved, we don't have to do like the Jews,
and we don't have to do like people that get lost again after,
you know, I don't, I never have understood that. I never have
understood that. How a man can come up and do what the preacher
tells him to do to be saved, and then that preacher turn around
and tell him that if he don't live right, he can be lost again. If you're saved, how could you
be lost again? Well, if you ain't got the right
sacrifice, if you ain't got the right priest, if you ain't got
the right place, yeah, you never was saved to begin with. But
here's the thing about it. We don't have to return every
year. We don't have to return every day. We don't have to return
and go to a high priest again, because Christ was offered once. Once. Christ can never be offered
again. He put away sin once. And that's
what the next thing says. He has suffered for sins. He's
the one that suffered. He's the one that suffered. This
is one of the damnable things that men say to people nowadays.
They say, you know, God, what he'll do is he'll purge you. He may have to do some awful
things to you, but he'll purge you of your sins and purge you
of your flesh before he takes you to heaven. You may have to
suffer an awful lot so he can purge your sins. Well, I got
news for you. There ain't been but one person
ever perched sin. There ain't been but one person ever suffered
for sin and done anything with it. That's not Lord Jesus Christ.
All the sufferings that we'll ever do has never, ever put away
one sin or even come close to putting one. God don't, listen,
God, we're all gonna suffer before we leave this world. There ain't
no ifs, ands, or buts about that. You mark her down, you're gonna
suffer. You're gonna suffer in your mind, in your body, in your
soul, in your spirit, your brain, some way, some other. You're
gonna have some sickness, you're gonna have some frailty, you're
gonna get sick. That's common to us. We're gonna
suffer as long as we're in this flesh. But we don't suffer for
sin. Christ is the only one that did
that. He suffered once. He suffered. He suffered in his
life when he came into this world. And he suffered, oh, how men
treated him so bad in his life. And he suffered in his death.
Oh, how he suffered in his death. But it was necessary. And, oh,
he said, is it nothing to you that pass by? How that the Lord
hath afflicted me in the fierceness of his wrath? And oh, and then it says for
sins, he suffered. But what did he suffer for? For
sins. Now it couldn't have been for any sins of his own. It couldn't
have been. Isaiah 53 and verse six says,
but he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity. The
chastisement of our peace was upon him. And so listen, when he suffered
for sins, it was in the stead of. How could he suffer for sins? He had none of his own. Well,
he suffered for other people. He suffered as a substitute in
the place of someone else. And you know how he become a
substitute? God made him a substitute. John said he's a lamb of God.
What's a lamb put for? In the place of a sinner. And
our Lord Jesus Christ himself made himself a substitute. He
offered himself without spot to God. And listen to this, listen
to this. So Christ also hath once suffered,
suffered for sins, not his own, but as a substitute for those
that were given to him. And then it says the just for
the unjust. Now this is how God can be just.
How can a man be just? This is how it's done. The just
for the unjust. Christ was the just. We were
the unjust. But he once suffered for sins. The just one, the holy one, the
righteous one. For those that were unjust sinners
without God, without Christ, do not hope. But this is how
God can be just. Christ had no sins, so he suffered
for the sins of his people, for his elect, for his sheep. Call
them what you want to. And this is how, when we come
to Christ, believe Christ, trust Christ, God himself, because
Christ was justified, and we'll get to that, quickened by the
Spirit, raised from the dead, And we, by his resurrection,
are justified. God charged our sins to him.
And if God charged him with our sins, God cannot be just and
turn around and charge us with our sins. If Christ bore our
sins, then we don't bear them. And if Christ suffered for our
sins, we'll never suffer for them. And if God accepts us for
Christ's sake, then God says you're just, is my own blessed
son. God made him to be sin, who knew
no sin, did no sin in any way. And then turn around and said,
we are made the righteousness of God. We're at in him, in Christ. Christ has made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And I tell you
what, he did this willingly. He did this voluntarily. No one
made him do it. He did it. He did it. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. And then look what it says here.
And this is where I'm getting to. The just for the unjust that
he might bring us to God. He, he brings us to God. You know what our master said?
He said, he told Phil, he says, no man, no man can come unto
the Father but by me. No man, no man can come unto
me except the Father which sent me drawing, and that he might
bring us to God. And as the shepherd, the good
shepherd, he laid down his life for the sheep. And as the chief
shepherd, chief shepherd, he seeks his sheep. He goes looking
for his sheep. And when he's found the sheep
that's lost, He says, rejoice with me, I found him that was
lost. And he brings him home. And then he's that great shepherd
of the sheep. Come again to get all of his
sheep. And the scripture says that,
boy, when this thing's wound up, sheep's gonna be over here
on the right, goats gonna be over here on the left. Sheep's
going into glory, goats going to hell. There's a great separation. And I tell you what, you don't
become sheep when you get converted. Here's converted because you're
already sheep. Christ only finds sheep. You
don't become a sheep when you get saved. You're saved because
you are a sheep. They come to our Lord and said,
oh, if you be the Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I've told
you, but you believe not. Why don't you believe? Because
you're not of my sheep. You're not of my sheep. I didn't
become a sheep, you know, when God saved me by his grace. He
saved me by his grace because I was already one of his sheep.
He laid down his life for me. He said, my sheep, here, here,
here. My voice. I know them. And you know what? They follow
me. They follow the shepherd. And
they won't follow a stranger. They'll follow the shepherd.
They'll follow the shepherd. Ain't that right?