2 Corinthians 5, verse 18. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18. And
all things are of God, are all things of God. That's what Paul
said in Romans 11, verse 36. He says, For of him, through
him, and by him are all things. all things of God, who hath reconciled
us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry
of reconciliation, and the witness being 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 ye reconciled
to God. 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." Substitution. Substitution. He hath made Him
to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. Now, God, in His sovereign mercy
and blessed will, gave us His book, gave us the Bible. And
the Bible's the very words of God Himself. It's not words about
God, though it tells us of God. But it is the very words of God
Himself, what God Himself has to say to us while we live in
this world. It's His mind and will and purpose
revealed to us, written out for us to see it, to read it. And
the greatest book on earth, the Bible, is God's will, His heart,
written out for us to see. to make his mind and will and
purpose known to us, legible, if you will. And here in this
verse 21, we see what God's heart is, God's will is, God's purpose
is, and we can understand how he saves a sinner and why he
saves a sinner. And when you go through the scriptures,
the word of God is full of substitution, the innocent being put in place
of the guilty. the just for the unjust. I read
Isaiah 53, and that's what it's all about. It's a call about
Christ being made sin for us. All about God's substitution,
God making Christ to be a sacrifice, making His soul an offering for
sin, and yet the Lord Jesus willingly doing it, willingly doing it.
Now, I want you to notice the first thing in this 21st verse here, 2 Corinthians
5 verse, three people, three people in this text. He, that's God, hath made him
to be sin, that's Christ, made Him, Christ, to be sin. Who did
He make Him to be sin for? Us, us, sinners. And there's three persons in
this business of substitution. There's the one who provides
the substitute, that's God. God made Him to be saved. And
I'll tell you this, God only accepts what He provides. And everything the sinner's ever
needed, God's provided. And He will only provide what
He Himself, only accept what He Himself has provided. When
you go through the Scriptures, the first place you find where
God offers a substitute, He offers it Himself. And he does it for
Adam and Eve to cover their nakedness where they can stand right before
him. And you see, that's what God
does with Christ. When Abraham went up on the mountain
and Isaac asked him, said, Lord, Father, where's that sacrifice?
Where's the lamb? And Abraham told him, my son,
God will provide himself a lamb. And God only accepts what he
himself provides. And men understood that. If men,
if preachers would preach it, people would understand it. And
so you see, he's the one who provides the sacrifice, and not
only that, but he accepts the sacrifice. And then there's the sacrifice
himself to substitute the Lord Jesus Christ, and then there's
the one that the sacrifice is provided for, the substitute
provided for, us. Us. Us. And we must know something
about these persons. We must know something about
God, what He requires, what He provides, what He accepts. We
must know something about the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that
was put in our place, that was put in our steps. We must know
something about why He was made a substitute, who He was made
a substitute for, the reason of His death, the bearing of
His death, why God made Him to be sinned. who He made Him to
be sin for. And if we don't know then something
about ourselves, if we don't know something about these three
persons, then salvation is utterly and absolutely impossible. It
is. And let's look at this first
person here. For He, God, that's who He is. God made Him to be
sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. The first person is God. God. Who is God? Well, I'll tell you what it says
there in verse 18, that He's sovereign. It says, for all things
are of God. Now, you find anything that's
not of God, and then you found something that God's not sovereign
over. All things are of God. When it says all things, Old
Spurgeon says that's high doctrine, some people call it. He said
it's just Bible doctrine. It's just Bible doctrine. It's
not high, it's not low. There's no such thing as high
doctrine, low doctrine. It's just God doctrine. And here
we have God who is sovereign. And I know that most people have
a God that they can manipulate, a God that they can act at their
own imagination. Whatever I would do, that's what
my God will do. Whatever I feel, that's what
my God feels. However I save a sinner, that's
how God saves a sinner. Whatever I would accept and whatever
I deem to be righteous, that's what God will be like. But that's
not the God of the Bible. He said, you thought I was altogether
one like and unto yourself. But not only is He sovereign,
but He's absolutely sovereign. And sovereign just means one
who reigns. And He has absolute authority, all absolute power,
absolute right. And the only rule is His only
free and mighty will. That's His only rule. Look with
me over to Psalm 115. I preached from this here a few
nights ago, a few weeks ago. Psalm 115. Look at it with me. And I tell you something, beloved,
God explains Himself to no man on His actions. He just said,
Peggy, we were talking the other day about this and she said,
I love the I wills and we shall. And that's what it does to God
says, I will and they shall, or I shall and they will. And
that's what he says. He just says, I will. And that's
what happens. As I purpose, so shall it stand. All my counsel, I'll do all things
after the counsel of my own will. But here in Psalm 115, it says
this. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy, for thy true sake. How can mercy and truth be reconciled? How can God be just and holy
and righteous and uphold his truth and at the same time show
mercy? And that's why the heathens say,
then, where is now their God? The heathen makes a distinction
between their God and our God. Freewheels make a distinction
between their God and our God. Pentecostals make a distinction
between their God and our God. We make a distinction between
their God and our God. And he says, but our God is in
the heavens. What does he do? Just anything
he pleases. That's what he does. And that's
why we're saying he's sovereign. And he explains himself to nobody.
Now I want you to see another verse of Scripture. Romans chapter
9. Talking about he explains himself to nobody. He's the God
of predestination. And predestination just means
that there's a destination preordained for things. I've got a predestination
this evening. I got a predestination Tuesday
evening. I got a predestination Wednesday
evening. I got a predestination Thursday. I predestinated. Me and Todd
said, well, we're going to go up to sunset. Now, there's something
that can hinder me from getting where I want to go. But there's nothing that can
hinder God's destination beforehand. or what He destined for His people
to be at any given time. He predestinated us to be conformed
to the image of Christ. Will we be conformed to the image
of Christ? He predestinated us to the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ Himself. Will we be adopted children of
Jesus Christ? And oh, look what He says here.
This is what people say. This is the first thing they'll
say. Romans 9.23 They'll say, well, name an old
man who I doubt that replies against God. Paul already knows
man. He says, when we start talking
about God, saving whom He will, having mercy on whom He will,
showing compassion to whom He will, the first thing people
are going to say, well, that's just not right. That's not fair. What about my will? What about
my choice? What about my goodness? Well,
if you had any of those things, you'd have something to argue
about. But since you don't, that's what they say, oh my, shall the
thing report? Who part the old man that replies
against God? And that people ever had any
clue who God is. That's one thing God does. He says that every mouth may
be stopped. When God stops a man's mouth
is when he sees God. If he ever sees God, he'll shut
up. If he ever sees he has no righteousness, he'll shut up.
If he ever sees he's a sinner, he'll shut up. If he ever sees that he's a worm
in the earth, he'll shut up. And until he sees God in himself
and Christ in his glory, he'll keep running that mouth. Oh my, what shall the faint form
say to him that formeth? Why do you make me like this?
Oh, people would argue, God, if God ever shuts your mouth,
He shuts it good. Oh, bless His. And this is the
God. This is the God we adore. Back open our text. He determines
all. Oh, had He not determined to
save me, who would I be? I'd be doing the same. I'd be
doing what I always do. Sinning. Rebelling. And no, not only is He sovereign,
but He's just. He is just. God hath reconciled
us to Himself by Jesus Christ. God made Him to be sin for us
who knew no sin. His sovereignty is proved by
the words that He hath made Christ to be sin. The word sovereign
is proved that He has not only made Christ to be sinned, but
made us to be the righteous who got in Him. Who else could do
that but Sovereign God? But the fact that He is just
tells us that He made Christ to be sinned. Oh my, shall not
the judge of all the earth do right? The great salvation that
God in Christ and justice provide, His first thing to do is devise
to satisfy infinite justice. God's justice, beloved, demands
that the soul that sinneth it must die. He must die. And all, beloved, God's justice
is inflexible. Inflexible. Ain't that what is
said there in Isaiah 53, 11? Ain't that what he says there
in Isaiah 53 11? Where he says there, you know,
that he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. God must be satisfied. What satisfied? His justice must be satisfied.
His holiness must be satisfied. His justice and God's justice
that demands the soul that sin if it must die. And that the
Scripture just says that God will by no means clear the guilty? He can't clear the guilty. He
will not at all acquit the wicked. In this world, the wicked get
acquitted all the time. But if you're guilty, and if
you're wicked, God cannot clear you. He can't acquit you. The only thing He can do is punish
you. inflict death upon you. That's
all he can do. He can't do anything else. That's
all he can do to anybody. And the death of Christ, this
is what people need to understand, the death of Christ is a first
and foremost reason for Christ to die. And God made him to be
sinned. It's for God. is to satisfy God,
to be a propitiation. And a propitiation means one
who appeases the wrath of God. And why should not God be angry
with the wicked every day? He made us, and what do we do?
Use His name in vain. He made us, and what do we do?
Talk about how good we are. He made us, and what do we do?
We talk about how righteous we are. He made us, and we talk
about the good works that we do and the good deeds that we
do. He made us, and we say, well, if I had my way, I'd go here
and I'd go there and I'd do this and I'd do that. And we don't
never stop and say, what is God's will? What is God's purpose for
me? What do I think about myself?
And oh, God's love flows in this world, and He just didn't use
us. Boy, we talk about how good we
are, and all mine. Oh, the first thing is that God's
got to be satisfied in His justice, and His wrath must be taken away. Huh? No wonder that's why God
said, He said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Huh? He entered into the holy
place, what? With His own blood. God had no pleasure, no satisfaction
in the blood of bulls and doves. But he says, when thou preparest
me a body, what did he prepare him a body
for? That he, by the grace of God, should taste death. Amen. And oh, beloved, listen, I'll
tell you something, not only is the death of Christ first
and foremost for God, as old Scott said so many times, God
must do something for Himself before He can ever do anything
for us. And people say, well, you make God to be mean. You
make Him to be bloodthirsty. You take Him any way you want
to. I'll tell you what the Bible says. And then the death of Christ
for us, for us, toward man, was a substitution, was substitutionary. God's justice must be satisfied.
The soul is to be filled with God. How's he going to acquit
the wicked? He's not. He's going to punish him. Rat! God made him, Christ, to be sinned. Put him in our stead. Put him
in our place. And, oh, beloved, he is the substitute
for us. And that's why, you know, when
they put that blood on the doorpost and over the lintel, God says,
when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And Christ entered
into a holy place with his own blood. And, beloved, God says,
when I see the blood. Now, some are deceived by sin. And sin is deceitful. In the
believing that God won't punish sin, they think, you know, that
just because... And how many times have you heard
people say, If I'm lying, let God strike me dead. If God exists,
and I remember saying this in Vietnam, and I'm so ashamed of
it, but I tell you, I was in such a state of mind when I was
just 19 years old, and I remember raising both hands to God and
saying, Oh God, if you exist at all, just destroy me, because
I tell you, this is the most miserable place in the world
to be, and let me die today. and used the awfulest language
ever was. Because He didn't strike me dead,
I said, well, it must not be. But, oh, beloved, God don't punish
sin in this world. He punishes it in the next. And
He don't punish it just for a little time. He punishes it for all
eternity. And I'll never forget when God
made me see my sin. The rebellion I had against Him.
And when I see Christ bearing my sin, being punished for me,
you're talking about a heartbreaking thing. Something that God can be pacified
with just a few good works. Help the poor a little bit. Give
somebody some money when their house burns down. Give them a
few of your rags whenever they're lose all their clothes in the
fire, some here, let me take a few of my old clothes over
there, you know, it'll look like they'll fit them. But the God of the Bible is as
severe as if he were not merciful, and he's as just as if he were
not gracious, and yet he is as gracious and as merciful as if
he were not just. Oh, bless His holy name. Not
only is He a sovereign God and a just God, but bless His holy
name. He's a God of grace. Oh, bless His name. He's a God of grace. Look over
to 1 Peter 5. He's a God of grace. Oh, He's
a God of grace. And he's the father of mercies.
1 Peter 5 and verse 10, look what it says. But the God of all grace. All grace. You got grace? God gave it to you. Somebody across the world got
grace? God gave it to you. You got grace in the morning?
All grace. Saving grace. Sustaining grace. Eternal grace. Suffering grace. Substitutionary grace. But the
God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by
Jesus Christ, after which you have suffered a while. make you
perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you to He'll be glory
and dominion forever and ever. Oh, the God of grace, God who
must punish sin, never pardons sin without punishment, is also
a God of eternal love and everlasting grace. God Himself says, I have
no pleasure in the death of the wicked. I have no pleasure in
it. God don't get no pleasure in punishing sinners. He is love. Let me tell you this, the God
of grace, He is love. He's not the God of love, where
men decide what love is and God rises to whatever that is. He
is love. All love. If you're a mother
and you've got natural love, God gave you that love. Because
there's a multitude of people born without the ability to love.
He's the God of all love. He's the God that, how can it
be, how can it be that thou, my God, should die for me? Should see his sons for Spare me, forbear
me, the chief of sinners. Spare death and mercy. Can there
be mercy still reserved for me? God commendeth His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And not only His love, but He
delights in mercy. Delights in it. Oh, I get delighted
in some things. We got a little old grandbaby.
We get out of the little bed. She just cackles and laughs.
And last night she had landed a mile out just cackling, laughing,
tearing on. And I said, oh, I said, sweetheart,
you're bringing a tear to poppy's eyes. It's just such joy. It's
so delightful to hear. And oh, God delights to hear us. To hear a sinner cry out, oh,
have mercy on me. Bartimaeus said, have mercy on
me. Christ stopped dead in his tracks. You know what will cause him
to stop? Listen. Bartimaeus said, have mercy.
Bring him over here. Tell him to come. Mercy of that
cry of mercy will stop him when that publican smoke his breath
and say, God be merciful to me. The Lord said, that man went
down to his house justified. And oh, he's full of grace. Full
of grace. He had grace from eternity. He's
full of grace now. And He'll be full of grace throughout
all eternity. And we show us the riches of His grace towards
us in Christ Jesus. Oh, full of it. You need grace? He's got handfuls of it. You
need grace? He's got an eternity full of
it. You need grace? For whatever happens in this
world, He's got a heaven full of it. Oh, and this is the God
we worship. He's sovereign. All things are
good. He's just. He made Christ to
be sin. And He is gracious. He is gracious. And it is Him who made Christ
to be sin for us who knew no sin. Let's look at the second
person here in our text. We've seen God. Let's look at
the second person. For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin." Who is him and who is he? Who
is him and who is who? Him and who? The second person,
he who knew no sin. It says there, you know, that
God was in Christ. God was in Christ. When Christ
came into this world, God was in him, and he was in God. And
who is this second person, the Lord Jesus Christ? He's the only
begotten of the Father. He's not created as Adam was. And this is the mystery. This
is the mystery that God has. That the Father and the Son are
eternally the same. When we have children, we're
always the father and older. But not Christ. He's eternally
the Son. He wasn't begotten. Never was
a time that He wasn't. But when it's all about Him being
the only begotten Son of God, that means we broke into time
through the womb of a virgin. He wasn't begotten in eternity.
He was begotten in time. through the womb of a virgin.
And He's same as the Father. Is the Father eternal? So is
the Son. Is He equal with the Father?
Is God Almighty sovereign? So is Christ. Is God Almighty
just? So is Christ. Is Father existent
from all eternity? So has the Son. Is the Father
infinite? So is the Son. He's God, very,
very God. And not only is He the begotten
of the Father and eternally generated, but He's also the Son of Mary. Mary's first son. When the angel came and said,
that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be the Son
of God, Immanuel, God with us. And the scripture says he was
made like unto us and accepted. And oh beloved, listen, let me
tell you this. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the fact
that he became a man, had to be a willful, voluntary act on
his part. For him to come down and subject
himself to the womb of a virgin, and subject himself to being
born, subject himself to growing and learning. You see, he was
a man subject to the infirmities of human nature. He had to learn. He had to grow. He had to learn
how to walk. And yet, he was the eternal God.
And that's why Mary said she rejoiced in her Redeemer that
was in her birth womb. She called herself the handmaid
of the Lord before Christ was ever born. And, oh, beloved,
he was a man of suffering and woe. And you know what caused
his suffering to be so awful? Who it was that suffered. You and I suffer because of our
flesh, because of our sin. Christ would not have to suffer
unless he willed to do it, unless he submitted himself to it. I'm
going to read you a verse of Scripture. You all look it up
yourself when you get home. But it's Lamentations. Jeremiah's
Lamentations. And look what it says here in
verse 12 of chapter 1. I read this to Mary yesterday
morning, sitting out looking at my notes and going over it
with her. It said here in Lamentations
1 and 12, Is it nothing to you? Is it nothing to you, all you
that pass by? All multitudes are passing by.
Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which
is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the
day of his fierce anger." He is acquainted, the scripture
says he's acquainted. God says, acquaint thyself now
with me, but Christ, he said he was acquainted with grief,
acquainted with sorrow. How could he who is sinless be
acquainted with grief and sorrow? How who is he sinless endure
pain and trouble and temptation and trial and weakness and even
go to death? How can it be when he's bone
of our bone and flesh of our flesh? He is God and he is man. And let me tell you something,
beloved. He was not God-humanized. He's not like the mythological
gods that people have. He's not God-humanized, not like
Buddha and Mohammed and all these rest of these false gods. Like
the Pope, he's not God-humanized. And he's not man who was deified.
They took a man and then some god come and come upon him like
Mercury and Jupiter and those guys. No, no, He was God, purely,
eternally, essentially God, and He was man, purely man, and once
He become a man, now He's eternally man. Man, not more than a man, because
of His dancing. And He was God, not less than
God, because of His humanity. He was God, Not hindered by his
humanity, and he was a man? Not hindered by his dignity,
never sheltered from being a real man? And yet, there's one sacred
in him. Oh, how can it be? But this is what it took. He
had to be so identified with us. in order to die and bear sin.
And he had to be God and able to bear the justice of God and
the wrath of God. He had to be man to bear sin
and God to bear the justice of God. Or we couldn't be saved. Only God can save us from our
sins. And if of this God in Christ,
it says this, He knew no sin. It didn't say not that He did
know sin. It says he knew no sin. Now,
when it talks about knew no sin here, this means that he actually
had no sin about him. Never tasted him, never
entered him in any way. Now, he knew the effects of sin. He knew what God thought of sin. He knew the consequences of sin.
He knew the effects of sin on humanity. He knew his father's
hatred for sin. And he knew, beloved, what it
would be to die without repentance of your sin, because he stood
and wept over Jerusalem and said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often
I gathered you as a hen under a wing, but you would not. And he saw sin in others, but he did not know sin by experience until he went to the cross. He had no sin, no way, Under no circumstances,
he was pure, spotless, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners. And he said, which of you can
fix me a sin? This is the one that God made
to be sin. Let me just look at the third
person here now. We've seen God for healing. made Him, Christ,
to be sin for us, Christ who knew no sin, that we, we and
us, by me made the righteousness of God, were in Christ. The third
person, the sinner, for us, we. Who is He? He's us. He's me. He's you. Who is He? All you got to do is just look.
Look within yourself. Look within yourself. Could anybody
here deny being a sinner? Could denials being a sinner
in your mind, in your words, in your actions, in your thoughts,
in your attitude? Could you deny being a sinner?
I can't. Sinners by birth. Born one. Born one. Sinners by nature. I grew up to be a sinner. I didn't become a sinner when
I started sinning. I started sinning because I was
a sinner. I'm a sinner by practice. We're sinners by practice. We
practice sin. We practice it. We'll do something
and say, why did I do that? And you know what was so sad
about it? When we were lost, we were proud of it. We were
gloried in our sin. Gloried in the things we should
have been ashamed of. Things we should have been embarrassed
about. I woke up this morning, I remember
being a Pentecostal. All the things that I've done
when I was a pedicaster, speaking in tongues, running aisles, making an absolute fool out of
myself, absolute fool out of God. I said, Oh Lord, thank you. God bless it be your name that
you saved me from such awful, awful darkness. Did you cross
my path with the truth of the gospel, the grace of God in Christ?
Did you cross my path with men? Oh, bless His holy name. Glory
in our sin. And this, this is who Christ
became sin for. Sinners. Us. We. Give you an illustration. We've
all come to the end of the way. We've come to the day that God
says, this is it. This is it. This is it. He calls
us. He's the judge now. He's the
judge. There he is. He's at the bar
of justice. Calls us forth. Calls us forth. Calls us before him to give an
account. Calls us before him to try us. for life or for death. Now, God is gracious, and He's
full of mercy. And He looks at the sinner, and He is full of love, and He
desires to save that sinner, that one that stands before Him.
But at the same time, He's just, and He looks at him, and He sees
all of his sin. And He's just, and He must punish
him for that sin. Well, the sinner is put on trial.
And if the verdict is guilty, and if the guilty verdict is
brought back, how will these conflicting attributes, the love
and mercy and grace of God, and the justice and righteousness
and truth of God, how are these going to be brought together?
How is He going to show mercy and grace and express His love
and save that sinner at the bar of justice, and at the same time
be just and punish him and uphold his truth and his righteousness.
How's this going to do? How's he going to save this sinner? How are these things going to
work out? His love and his will to express and say that he's
just and he must destroy him. The full penalty of the law must
be brought to bear upon him. They'll catch people murdering
somebody and give them three or four life sentences. How do
you give somebody three life sentences? But I'll tell you
one thing, God's just. He's the only person who can
give a man just exactly what he deserves. And the full penalty of the law
must be brought to bear upon him. Well, how then can the justly
condemned sinner be saved? This sinner that's been justly
condemned by God, how can he be saved? Man of sorrows. The very power and wisdom of
God is put on display to show how he can save the sinner, save
James Elmore, And at the same time, bring the
barricade full pin to the law on him at the same time. He'll show us how he can be both
just and punish the sinner to the fullest extent of the law,
and save the sinner, and make him righteous as if he fulfilled
the law before and at the same time. Huh? How can that be? Well, I'll tell
you how it's done. The Lord Jesus Christ is who
we stand before. We stand before the Father, and
He stands there in His inflexible justice. I've got to punish Him. I have no pleasure, but I've
got to. Love and mercy and grace over here. Oh, I'd delight to show mercy
to you. I'd love to commend my love for you, but you're a sinner.
Christ stands up and says, Father, Holy Father, Righteous Father,
O just God of all the earth, take me, take me, and treat me,
and deal with me, the way you would Him. Smite me, smite me just as hard
as you please. Draw out that sword of your holy
justice and plunge in just as deep in my heart as necessary. Take all the wrath that's stored
in your holy heart and expend it on me. and eternity's worth. Then, then, give them grace for my sake. Express your love towards them
for my sake. That way your justice will be
satisfied, your law will be honored, and the sinner, I'll give him
my righteousness. And you know, our Lord did this
voluntarily. He says, no man takes my life
from me. I have the power to let it down.
I have the power to take it up again. And yet He done it with
the determined counsel for knowledge of God. Christ stood in our place
that we can stand in His place. that we might be made the righteousness
of God. God makes us righteous. Where
at? In Him. This is where it counts, before
God. Before God. Our Father, O gracious God, in
the blessed, glorious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Thank
you for the gospel. Thank you for this substitution.
Thank you for this glorious salvation. For you can be just and yet justify
the ungodly. You can be just and clear of
all guilt those who believe in your blessed Son. Not only justify
Him, give them acceptance in the Beloved where they can come
as righteous as the Son of God Himself. Thank you. Oh, blessed
be your name. Amen.