Now open your Bibles with me
to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. My text this morning will be
verse 21, one passage that is very, very familiar with all
of us. The title of the message is The
Ground of Reconciliation. The Ground of Reconciliation.
Let's read verse 21. For he, that is God the Father,
hath made him, that is God the Son incarnate, the Lord Jesus
Christ, to be sin for us. And it's been pointed out by
many, and rightly so, that the words to be are in italics, which
means they were not in the original writing. but they've been added by the
translator. So you could just as well say, he hath made him
sin. The word for sin there is the
most common word used in the New Testament for sin. It's the
same word as in Romans chapter three, where he says, for all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And he says
for us or in our behalf. It could be translated either
way. And then, who knew no sin? That's referring back to Christ.
He did not have a personal knowledge of sin as we who are sinners
do. And we'll talk about that. That,
in order that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. I've preached on this passage
so many times. I just finished doing, in Ashland,
doing a expository series through the whole of 2 Corinthians 5.
And I noticed on the website here, there was a TV message
that I did called Christ Made Sin from 2 Corinthians 5 21. This has been a a verse of controversy of late. I think needless controversy,
but it's there, so you have to deal with it. And I had a few
more thoughts in studying on this that I want to bring to
you today. And this verse here, verse 21,
it's been said this is the heart of the gospel. It is. It speaks
forth of the ground of salvation, or as I call it, the ground of
reconciliation, because that's Paul's subject here in 2 Corinthians
5. Sinners reconciled unto God. And so I want us to look at this.
This speaks of substitution. He says it there, he hath made
him to be sin for us, in our behalf. So it speaks of the substitutionary
work of Christ, his obedience unto death, Not for himself,
but for his people, whoever his people are. You know, the Bible
says, he shall save his people from their sins. Whoever those
are, they're saved from their sins, his people. And we'll talk
about that, but this is the substitutionary work of Christ. This speaks of
the doctrine of imputation. Now, most people, when you say
imputation today in most churches, they'll look at you like you
got a third eye. What in the world are you talking about?
Imputation, impute, what does that mean? Well, and I've often
said to people today, I said, if there's any generation who
ought to know what impute means, it's this generation. And I'll
just show you two words that'll give you the meaning. Charge
it. That's imputation. But you know,
imputation is a fundamental truth of the gospel. And if you sit
there and you wonder, well, if it's such a fundamental truth
of the gospel, then why haven't I heard it if I've grown up in
churches all my life? Well, that's a good thing for
you to ask yourself. I asked myself that when I first
was confronted with it. It's kind of like learning your
ABCs without the B or something like that. You say, well, why
haven't I heard of that B before? I've heard the A and the C. It's
all your life you've been leaving out the B. Well, imputation is
a gospel fundamental truth. We can talk about representation.
What does that mean? I mean, Christ represented a
people. We can talk about substitution. What is that? Christ stood in
the place, took the place of his people. And then imputation
comes into effect. How could he do that? How could
he stand in my place and die for my sins and God be just?
There's only one answer and that's the doctrine of imputation, but
hold on to that thought. And then we can talk about satisfaction. And that's not you being satisfied
with him or me being satisfied with him, that's God being satisfied
with what Christ did on the cross. God's law being satisfied, God's
justice being satisfied. But I would just suggest to people
today that if you have any concern for your soul at all, and I know
we're all busy people. I know we've got other things
to do. We've got a lot to do, don't we? This society. I know sometimes during the week
you probably feel like you're torn in 20 different directions.
But I'm going to tell you something. There's coming a time. in your life when it's all gonna
stop. Some of you will be well up in
years when that happens. Some of you, it may be in the
prime of your life. But the Lord's just gonna say,
stop. And how he'll say it to you, I don't know. It may be
through some dreaded disease. It may be through some tragedy
of life. Don't know. But I would suggest
to you that in the meantime, that you give these things some
thought. And use no excuse. Don't say you don't have the
time. Don't say that you will get to it later. Don't say you're
too dumb or too smart, because that's not going to get you by.
You give these things some thought. Because what I'm talking to you
about this morning is the heart of the gospel, the heart of salvation. Average lifespan, I don't know
what it is now, it might be 80, I don't know, it's getting higher.
But I know of a man who lived to be 969 years old and never,
as far as the scripture tells us, knew anything about eternal
life, named Methuselah. The only thing it says about
Methuselah is number one, he lived 969 years, and number two,
he died. It didn't say he died in the
faith or he died in the Lord. It just says he died. So whatever years I have or you
have, that's not the issue here now. I hope that you young people,
I hope you live a long, prosperous, happy life with your children,
grandchildren, I hope so. But I know, and I'm beginning
to feel it, that there's coming a time when the Lord's just gonna
say, stop. Stop. And if you hadn't thought
about eternity, you'll begin thinking about it then. And I
just hope that it won't be too late. But you think about these
things that I'm telling you now. Let me give you the context of
this. Look back at verse 14 of 2 Corinthians 5. Now he says, the love of Christ
constraineth us. And what he's talking about is
motivation, inspiration there. In other words, I do what I do,
because of the love of Christ. I believe he's talking about
the love of Christ for him, which is an unearned love. It's a love
that has no, how do you say, it's a love that has no consideration
for its objects. Think about that, you can't love
like that, I can't either. It's like when a young man falls
in love with a young woman. There's something that draws
that young man to that woman, in her, and vice versa. But with
us, when it talks about the love of God towards his people, and
I know people like these feel-good sermons, you know, oh, you smile,
God loves you. I'm not going to preach that
to you. All right? Because I'm not going to lie
to you. I'm telling you right now, I don't care what any preacher
tells you, From this book here, if you want to be a recipient,
if you, listen, if you want to have an honest understanding
of the love of God, it comes in Christ. And without Christ,
there is no love of God for you or me or anybody else. Period. And if you, listen, if you can
be comfortable with a love of God that resides in hell, then
I feel sorry for you, because you're not thinking according
to this book here. Now that's so. But here's the love of God. He
said in 1 John chapter 4 and verse 10, hearing his love, not
that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to
be the propitiation. You ever thought about that word?
Propitiation? In the New Testament, it's spelled
out like three times, but it's in there more in other terms.
It means satisfaction. It means reconciliation. He sent
Christ to be the satisfaction for our sins. Now whose sins? The ones whom God loves. And
who are they? Well, look at 2 Corinthians 5,
14. For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge. Here's our judgment of things.
That if one died for all, if Christ died for all, now who
are the all there? Well, look at it. Then we're
all dead. Literally, that would be translated
this way. If Christ died for all, then all died. In other words, whoever he died
for, they died with him. That's what he's saying there.
When he died, they died. You say, how is that possible?
He's their representative. He's their substitute. Their
sins were charged to him. That's imputation. Their sins were imputed to him.
You say, I don't want to use the word charge. Their sins were
charged to him. You know what sin is in one form? I'll show you that. Look over
at Hebrews chapter two. Now, every one of us can understand
this next word that I'm going to use. There's not one of you
in this audience who cannot understand what I'm saying. You might not
believe what I'm saying, and you might not even care for what
I'm saying. It may not really mean anything to you, but you'll
understand what I'm saying. This word, debt. You understand
debt? I think every one of us kind
of understand debt. We've all got some kind of debt, don't
we? Usually, that's the case. We owe some money, all right?
And that's what sin does. When we sin against God, we run
up a debt. We liken it to a criminal. Somebody commits a crime, we
say that they owe a debt to society, all right? Well, when we sin
against God, we owe a debt to God. And here's the thing, it's
a debt to His justice that we cannot pay. What is that debt? What would pay that debt? Well,
the Bible says the wages of sin is what? Death. And what would
it take to pay that debt? It's called eternal death. In
other words, it's like a never-ending thing. You know, people in hell
will never pay their debt. You know, it's just not possible.
because God is such an infinite God. But look at verse 17 of
Hebrews chapter two. Wherefore, in all things, it
behooved him. You ever heard that word, behooved? Well, literally, it's the Greek
word for debt. Wherefore, in all things, he
was indebted. That's Christ, that's talking
about Christ. To be made like unto, who? Brethren, his brethren. That's his people. He shall save
his people from their sin. In other words, he is a brother
who took upon himself to be charged with the debt of all his brethren. Some of you, if you have a debt,
let's say your brother come in to you and said, I've already
paid your debt. I told him to put it on my account.
I paid it in full. Make you happy? It wouldn't be. And by the way, as he walks away,
he says, by the way, I put a million dollars in your account. I charge
that to you. You've got a million dollars
to the good. That's what the doctrine of imputation is all
about, you see. Your debt's wiped clean. You
don't owe a thing. And not only that, you've got a million bucks
to the good. That's pretty good stuff, isn't it? That's good
news, isn't it? Would that be good news? That's
what the gospel means, good news. I owed a debt to God's law and
justice. Christ paid it. It was charged to him before
the foundation of the world. And it says here, wherefore in
all things it behooved him. It was indebted to him. He took
the debt to be made like unto his brethren that he might be
a merciful and faithful high priest. The high priest of Israel
represented the people before God, presented the sacrifice
of the animal, Christ is our great high priest who presented
the price, the redemption price of his own blood. That's how
he paid the debt of his people. He gave his life. He died for
his people, paid their debt, and it says, in things pertaining
to God. In other words, this is what
he owed to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. And
that's when he died. All the sins, all the debt of
all his people were charged to him, and he died. And in essence,
we died too, because we died to the debt, we died to the law.
The law, listen, if you're in Christ, you do not owe a debt
to God's law and justice. It's been paid. and you have a righteousness
that answers the demands of God's law and justice. Look at verse
15 now of 2 Corinthians 5. I'm telling you, you need to
think about these things. In verse 15, and that he died
for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto
themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again.
In other words, all for whom he died will live and live unto
him. That's spiritual life. They're
gonna come to faith in Christ and true repentance. They're
not gonna die and go to hell. They couldn't. He paid their
debt. God would be unjust to send them to hell. In other words,
if your brother came in and paid your debt, like if you owed a
debt to the bank, could the bank come in and legally charge you
with the same debt that your brother paid? That would be unjust. You'd have a legal right to say,
no, I don't owe you a thing. That's being paid. And yet that's
what most people believe today. They believe Christ paid their
debt, but unless you accept it, you're going to hell. That's
not what the Bible teaches, folks. I'm sorry. And I'm not trying
to be mean or ugly or anything like that. I'm just telling you
the truth. I know it. I used to be in that. I started reading the scriptures
and studying the scriptures. Christ paid their debt, and they'll
live under him. Verse 16, listen to this, wherefore
henceforth know we no man after the flesh, yea, though we've
known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him
no more. In other words, you can't judge. I can't look at
you and tell by looking at you whether you're in debt or you're
free. I used to read a poem when I
was in high school called Richard Corey. And it was a poem about
a man that said, whenever Richard Corey walked down the street,
we people of the pavement, that's the way the poet put it, we common,
ordinary folk, we'd look at him and we'd envy him. Oh, if I could
just be like Richard Corey. Rich, lived in the big house
up on the hill, and the poem ends this way. And then one night,
Richard Corey went home and put a bullet through his head. You see, they were judging by
outward appearance. I can't look at you and tell
you whether you're in debt or not. And what he uses, he uses
an analogy here that's really nice because he really makes
a point. When Christ, the Lord of glory, walked this earth,
how was he judged by the sight of men? Now, who is Jesus Christ? He's God in human flesh. That's
what this book teaches. God in human flesh, the perfect
God. Well, did men by looking at him
judge him thus? No, they called him a criminal.
We put him on a cross and called him a malefactor. That's a criminal
between two thieves. Isaiah 53 in the prophecy, it
said, he's a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. We esteemed
him not. So he says, you can't judge this
stuff by looking. You know how people judge salvation?
They look at some guy or look at some girl and they say, well,
he looks like a pretty good guy to me. He must be doing something
right. Well, Job's friends looked at
him. As long as everything was going well, well, Job, you're
blessed of God. And when Job was on the dung
heap of Uz outside the city, scraping his boils, they said,
well, you must be cursed of God. And that's how they judged it.
Well, look at verse 17. He says, therefore, if any man
be in Christ, he's a new creation, a new creature. Old things are
passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. And that's talking about salvation. That's talking about
reconciliation to God. He doesn't, he's not talking
about material things here. He's not, you know, God may be
pleased to bless you with material things. He may be pleased not
to. Has nothing to do with this. This is salvation. And he said,
verse 18, and all things are of God. These all things in salvation
are of God. They're not of you. They're not
of me. They're not conditioned on you or me. They're conditioned
on Christ. Who hath reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ. Now you want to be reconciled
to God. You know what reconcile means? It means you're at peace
with God. You ever had somebody that you were at war with in
essence? Somebody that was your enemy? The only way you two can be at
peace or reconciled is on some common ground. Well, that's the
way it is with man by nature. We're the enemies of God by nature,
even in our religion. Think about that. That was taught
way back in Genesis. Cain was a religious man. Do
you know Cain was a religious man? He worked hard on the farm
and he gathered up the best of his crops and he presented them
to God to be accepted before God. And God had already told
Cain and Abel through Adam that it is impossible for any sinner
to be saved and accepted and made righteous before God based
on their works. But Cain disregarded that. Why? Because he's too proud. He's
too self-righteous, and he brought the works of his hands, seeking
reconciliation between him and God, and it didn't work. Now
Abel, what did he bring? You remember, he brought the
blood of a lamb. You mean animal blood will do
it? No. But that blood of animals was a picture, a type, a symbol
of something much greater, and that's the blood of Jesus Christ.
And that's what Abel was testifying of when he brought that lamp.
He's saying, Lord, I'm looking forward to the Messiah who you
promised would come and put away my sins by the shedding of his
blood. You want to be reconciled to
God? Come to Christ. Rest in him for all salvation,
all forgiveness, all righteousness. Don't look to yourself. Don't
look to your family. Don't look to your preacher.
Don't look to anybody but Christ alone. And he says here, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation, look at verse 19, to wit, that
means namely, that God was in Christ. God engaged himself in
this person, the Lord Jesus Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. Now, who is the world here? It's
God's people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation.
And what does it say here? not imputing their trespasses
unto them, not charging their sins to them, not charging their
debt, their sin debt to them, and hath committed unto us the
word of reconciliation, that's the gospel. Now then, we're ambassadors
for Christ. In other words, I'm not speaking
on my own authority here. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
Be reconciled to God. How do you reconcile? Believe
the gospel. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And here's the ground of it all, verse 21. For he hath made him
sin for us. Christ who knew no sin that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. Substitution,
I need a substitute. I need a sin bearer. I need somebody
to take my debt and pay it for me. I need somebody to work out
for me a righteousness that will measure up to God's demands,
that will equal the demands of God's law and justice. That's
what I need. My works won't do it. I've been preaching this
gospel for over 30 years now. Kind of shudders for me to say
that because I'm my age, you know. But I've been preaching
this gospel for over 30 years. Now all the sermons that I preached
will not measure up to the righteousness that God requires. You understand
what I'm saying? If I, listen, whatever it is
a person is trying to do or doing, in seeking to keep the law, to
do good, or to be good, or to give, or whatever, I'm telling
you, it will not measure up. And I'll say this to you because
this is so common today. Accepting Jesus as your personal
savior will not measure up. No, sir. You say, well, don't
we accept him? Well, if we believe on him, we
do. But that's not our righteousness before God. What is your righteousness
before God? You say, preacher, I'm trying
to be the best husband I can be or the best wife, best father,
best mother, best employee, best boss. I hope you are. I really do. You need to. But
it will not measure up. It will not make you righteous
before God. There's not but one thing that
will make you righteous before God. And that's Jesus Christ
and him crucified. Nothing else will do. It's his
obedience unto death. I need a substitute. I need a
substitute who will take my debt upon himself, make it his account. Like Paul said to Philemon, put
it on my account. On Nessimus' debt, put it on
my account. That's what Christ said to his
father, put their debt on my account, charge it to me. That's
why it says here, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Well,
if God does not charge me with my sin, who does he charge it
to? Well, the scripture tells us,
verse 21, for he hath made him sin. He charged it to Christ.
Now, is there doubt in anybody's mind in this passage in the context
that he's talking about imputed sin here? I don't understand
how people can do that. I mean, what do they do, just
throw out verse 19? The idea here is reconciliation
between God and sinners based on imputed sin and imputed righteousness. That's the whole idea here. Now
that's not to say that justification and reconciliation and salvation
are nothing more than legal matters. That's not what it's talking
about at all, but that's what it's talking about here. That's what he says, not imputing
their trespasses unto them. You see, Christ, who in himself
knew no sin, he was not a sinner. When he says here he was made
sin, it doesn't mean he was made to be a sinner. It doesn't mean
he was made sinful. It doesn't mean he was contaminated.
It simply means that God imputed to him, charged to him, the debt
of the sins of his people. Christ had to make satisfaction
for my sins as my substitute, and in order to do that, God
had to charge him with my debt, had to lay it to his account. And as God-man, Christ experienced
a real and actual encounter with sin, even more than we do, because
in that all the sins of God's elect were made to meet on him.
Yet he knew no sin. He knew no sin by commission.
He knew no sin by infusion or impartation or contamination.
He knew no sin by temptation. He was tested, yet without sin,
the scripture says. All of this, you see. And he
did it, it says here, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. That righteousness might be accounted
to us. Our debt charged to him, his
righteousness charged to us, his people. Who are they? All
who come to faith in Christ. You see, the non-imputation of
sin in the Bible always includes the imputation of righteousness.
Now let me prove that to you. Turn to Psalm 32. I want to turn
to a couple of scriptures and then I'll close. Look at Psalm
32. Now this is a Psalm of David. And if you've read anything about
David or know anything about David, you know that David was
said to be a man after God's own heart. He was a believer.
He was a sinner saved by the grace of God. And this is what
David says in verse one. Psalm 32 verse one, blessed is
he whose transgression is forgiven. I need forgiveness. You do too.
But now God can't just inadvertently or just arbitrarily forgive sin. God's just. He must punish sin.
So it says, whose sin is covered. That means atonement. You see,
forgiveness of sin is based on what? The blood of Jesus, the
blood of Christ. There's where forgiveness comes
from. I heard a preacher in Atlanta, a Baptist preacher in Atlanta,
he said, the forgiveness of sin comes at the cost of your repentance. Oh no. Now let me tell you something. If you ever see that you're forgiven
from the scripture, you will come to repentance, you will.
It's a necessary thing. But forgiveness does not come
at the cost of your repentance. Forgiveness comes at the cost
of the blood of Christ. And that's a big difference.
and say, oh, you're just splitting hairs. Well, you keep thinking
that. I hope you don't. I hope you'll think about it
scripturally. So look at it again, Psalm 32. Blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the
man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, charges not iniquity,
in whose spirit there is no guile and is no dishonesty. Blessed
is, now, That's the non-imputation, the non-charging of sin. Now
turn with me to Romans chapter 4. Paul, the apostle, by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit quotes this verse here out of Psalm 32 in
verse 6 here, Romans 4 and verse 6. He's talking about how God justifies
a sinner, how God declares a sinner not guilty and declares that
sinner righteous. It's not by that sinner's works,
it's by the grace of God in Christ. It's by the blood of Christ.
And he says in verse six, even as David also describeth the
blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without
works, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven
and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Now if you read the Psalm 32
passage, David did not say the words impute righteousness without
works, did he? He just said, blessed is the
man to whom the Lord imputes not iniquity. But in the Bible,
in God's scheme of things, in the gospel ministry and message,
the non-imputation automatically means the imputation of righteousness. In other words, God charged my
sins to Christ, and he charged Christ's righteousness to me.
It's like the guy I told you. He paid your debt at the bank,
but he gave you a million dollars to the good. When you go into
the bank and he opens up your account, you're free and clear.
You owe no money and you've got a million dollars to the good.
Well, in the law books of heaven, in the account books of heaven,
all who are in Christ, when it comes to the dead of sin, we're
free and clear. And not only that, we have a
righteousness charge to us. And that's what he's saying here.
Now, back over here in 2 Corinthians 5, let me give you one more thought
here because I want to conclude with this. A lot has been made over the
fact. Now, if you go in and sometimes, you know, in these translations,
you've got to be careful. You know, I've had people ask
me, well, what are the best, what's the best translation?
I believe the King James Version and the New King James Version
are the best. They're closer to the original manuscript, but
they're not perfect. The word of God is perfect and
infallible. But I've always said, now listen
to me, the gospel is simple, but the Bible's not a simple
book. It takes some work. It's like digging for gold. You're
not gonna just find it laying up on the ground. If gold were
laying up on the ground, there's two things about it. You wouldn't
find it, because somebody would get there before you, and number
two, it wouldn't be as valuable, would it? So it takes some digging
to understand these things of the word of God. But a lot has
been made over this. Now, let's go back to verse 21
of 2 Corinthians 5, and I wanna show you something. It says,
for he hath made him to be sin. Who knew no sin? That word made
there, all right? That we might be made the righteousness
of God him. Now, if you were to pick that
up in the original Greek text, you would find that those two
words, made, the first made and the second made, are two different
Greek words. And that's right. The first mate,
for he hath made him to be sin for it. I'll tell you, it's the
Greek word, it's poeo, and we get our word poet and poetry
from that. It's translated a lot in the
scripture, even to do, it's doing something. And it's a creative
act. Somebody writes a song, writes
a poem, they're doing something, it's a creative act. All right,
that's what it means. Greek words are like English
words. They can mean different things in different contexts.
Now, I've seen preachers, they'll go to these and they'll put a
definition. Here's the word made means this. And then they indicate
to people, well, it means the same thing in every context.
No, it doesn't. I'll give you an example of that. If Randy was carrying a load
of wood, And I came up to you and said, I came up to Randy
and said, Randy, let me help you bear that load. Now that
means me take some of that wood and bear the wood, carry the
wood. But now if Randy was sitting
on his front porch just crying like a baby and I come up and
said, Randy, let me help you bear your burdens. Now how am
I going to bear that? Am I going to pick it up off
of his shoulders and carry it around? It's a different way
of bearing. The word bear has a root meaning,
but it means different things in different contexts. I'm gonna
bear that load of wood in a different way than I would bear your burdens.
So don't let some preacher who thinks he knows the Greek, you
know, whoever that is, and say, well, this word means this, and
you plug it into every context. No, no. Now Christ was made sin. This
was a creative act of God. This was the work of God, not
of man. How was he made sin? God charged
him with our sins. That's how he was made sin. And
he suffered and bled and died for the sins of his people. All
right? Now, he says that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. Here's a different one.
Some translations say that we might become the righteousness
of God in him, and that's a good translation. The word made there
is geneo, and it's a word that means generation. Alright? In other words, it's something
that comes out of something else. The word generation. Something
was generated here. Something was made here. Something
was created here. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creation. All things are of God. Generated. And all he's simply saying here
is out of Christ being made sin by a creative act of God, out
of that, Christ being made sin and dying for the sins of his
people, out of that was generated His people, made the righteousness
of God in Him, justified before God. Now, how were we made the
righteousness of God? In Him. He's not talking about
anything that happens to us by experience here. Now, there are
things that happen to us by experience as a result of this. We're born
again, we live under God, all that. But we were made the righteousness
of God in Him by righteousness being imputed to us, charged
to us. And that's the result of Christ
being made sin. It's what was generated out of
what Christ did. Now one more verse and I'll close.
Turn to Psalm 22. You see the fact that Christ
was made sin by amputation does not mean that he didn't experience
the sorrow and the pain and the death and even the hell. of what
we deserve. He did. He experienced it all
based on sin imputed to him. And the fact that we're made
the righteousness of God in him by imputation does not mean that
we don't experience the new birth and the love of God shed abroad
in our hearts, faith in Christ, the joy and the peace in our
experience, in our mind, our hearts, our affections, our will,
through the power of the Spirit. In fact, it demands it. But Psalm
22 is talking about Christ dying on the cross. This is a prophecy.
Starts off verse one, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Christ quoted that on the cross in Matthew chapter 27.
He quoted it from the original Hebrew when he said, Eli, Eli,
lama sabachthani. Showing that it came from this
passage. Why did God the Father forsake God the Son incarnate?
Because of sin imputed to him. That's why he did. He was forsaken
based on imputed sin. Now as a result of what God did
in making Christ sin, Christ being made sin, look at verse
30 of Psalm 22. It says, a seed shall serve him. What is that seed? That's his
children. That's what was generated out of his being made sin. They've been justified and they're
going to come to serve him. They're going to have life. It
shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation, his generation. Isaiah 53 puts it this way. He
shall see of his travail, he shall see his seed and be satisfied. Verse 31, they shall come and
shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born
that he hath done this. You see, these issues that people
wanna get into, are, I believe, designed by Satan to draw people's
minds away from the very heart of the gospel. Don't let it happen
to you. And you think about these things.
Now think about them. Don't just forget them when you
walk out of here today. Think about them and pray that
the Lord will make them effectual to your heart. All right.