Well, it is such a great delight
to me to be with you tonight. Some of you I haven't seen in
a long, long time. It's good to see you again. I've
been looking forward to being here since you first began to
meet here, and I'm thankful that God has brought you to this place
and thankful that He's knit your hearts together in the cause
of our Redeemer and continues to do so. When your pastor asked
me to come and preach to you tonight, I thought immediately
that I knew what the Lord would have me to bring, the message
He would have me to preach, and began preparing it. And for me,
that is a very unusual thing. I normally don't know much ahead
of time what I'm going to preach. I work and study and prepare,
but usually I'm up late, late, late on Saturday night, finishing
up Sunday morning and Sunday night. I thought, I believe I'm
going to bring The same message from the same text as I did the
first time I preached for Brother Mahan here in Ashland. It's been 31 years ago. I was
26 years old the first time I came here to preach. It was on a Wednesday
night. The first people to meet me at the door, I think they
were the first ones there after I got there, were Ham and Ruth
Adkins. They introduced themselves, we
visited a little bit, and Ruth asked me a question. I can hear
it clearly right now. It was a question I had often
considered, but a question I had never read anyone ask, and I
had never heard anyone ask, but a question I thought needed to
be asked a lot. She said, Brother Fortner, Just
how good does a person have to be to get to heaven? And when I gave the answer, she
beamed like a child with a bag full of candy. I said, as good
as God. As good as God. How can that be? It is my prayer
before I finish tonight. Your soul will beam anew with
the blessed knowledge of how that is accomplished for you
and me, such sinners as we are, and for you whose souls have
never beamed with the knowledge of the living God in Jesus Christ. I pray He will grant you that
this hour, giving you faith in His soul. is 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse
21. After I finished writing my message
out late last night, I thought, I'm going to look up my notes
from 31 years ago. And I wasn't very surprised,
but I was very delighted to realize that what I had prepared and
written out and preached to you 31 years ago was almost identical
to what I prepared and wrote out and prepared to preach for
you tonight. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. If God
will enable me, I want to show you something about Christ our
substitute. The text begins with a very important word, full. Full. The Apostle Paul began
in chapter 4, verse 18, pointing us to eternity. He said we look
not at things which are seen, but things which are unseen.
Things which are seen are temporal, but things which are unseen are
eternal. And then he speaks of the immortality
of our souls and our standing before God immediately after
death and urges us, recognizing the severity of divine judgment,
to flee to Christ. And throughout this chapter he
is speaking with urgency Speaking with urgency because the message
is urgent. You must know God in Jesus Christ
the Lord. You must know Him. You must know
Him. Not about Him, but Him. I've so many times heard Brother
Mahan say, and when I was a young man I used to think, why does
he say that? He said, you don't arrive at Christ through doctrine. You arrive at doctrine through
Christ. You can know all the doctrine
in the world factually, truthfully, in complete orthodoxy, and never
know God's Son. You've got to know Him. And if
ever you come to know Him, your doctrine will get straight. But
it won't work reverse. You've got to know Him. And Paul
is urging us, he says, therefore knowing the care of the Lord,
we persuade men, persuade you to trust the Son of God. And
he's telling us if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. New creature. Old things have
passed away. All things have become new. You
sometimes wish that you Could deal with your life like you
used to with those old VCR tapes? Push the rewind button and start
over? Oh, yeah. You can't, but God
does. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Old things have passed away.
Behold, all things have become new. And he says, this is of
God. All this is of God. This is God's work. And He's
committed to us this word of reconciliation. And now, we as
God's ambassadors pray you in Christ's name, be ye reconciled
to God. Quit fighting God. Trust His
Son. And here is the basis of it all. For He, the Lord God Almighty, The Lord Jehovah, God the Father, but more the
triune God, hath at one time made, and this word made, very,
very strong word. It means calls to become. It has the idea of create. hath made him his darling son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, singing." Now, I read that deliberately. The two words,
to be, are in italics. That's an indication as you read
your King James translation, in my opinion, the best translation
there is. But the translators added the
words, and they want us to know they added the words simply to
make the text read more smoothly. They're telling us there are
no such words in the original. Anytime you read an italicized
word in your King James, that's the meaning. Here, adding them
to the text is harmful. He hath made him see it. who knew no sin. Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, knew no sin. God, in all His majestic, wondrous
being, has made His darling Son who knew no sin, sin, that which
is most contrary to His that which is most obnoxious to him,
that which he most hates and loathes and despises. He hath
made him sin for us who knew no sin. And he did it for a reason,
that we might be made. And here he uses a different
word. This word is in the present tense. And this word means really
that we might continually be caused to be. The first word
made, where it says he was made sin, has the idea that he who
was made sin participates in the act. This word is a completely
passive word. God made his son sin for us,
he who knew no sin, that we without any participation in the deed,
without contributing anything, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Now that night, thirty-one years
ago, I was twenty-six, thirty-one years ago, I raised and answered
seven questions. I'll attempt a few of them tonight.
I'm not as long-winded as I used to be. You'll be thankful. Who made Christ see? He. God the Father, yes. But when the Scripture speaks
of something being done by God, Oftentimes there are specific
things set before us that's done by the Father, something done
by the Son, something done by the Spirit. But more often than
not, it's telling us this is done by the whole Godhead, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. Your pastor read in Isaiah 53.6,
the Lord, Jehovah, the triune God, hath laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. God the Father, before the world
was, made His Son sin. When He looked on Him as our
surety, our mediator and our substitute, He made His Son sin
for us because His Son stood forth as our covenant surety
before the world was, and the Father trusted the Son as the
land's slave and the foundation of the world, and this whole
affair was done. I don't mean it's as though it
were done, I mean it was done. So that's the way God sees things. Now listen carefully, this is
deep, deep, profound theology. The way God sees it, that's the
way it really is. Did you get that? The way God
sees it, how God looks at you, how God declares you to be, that's
how things really are. We just peek in and look at things
and see a little bit. That's the way God sees it. That's
the way it is. Before the world was, He said,
you're justified, you're sanctified, you're glorified. Before the
world began. Because before the world was,
the Lord God laid on His Son the iniquity of His people and
accepted Him as our substitute, our sacrifice and our surety,
and accepted us in the beloved. The time came when he was executed
under the severe penalty of divine justice at Mount Calvary, and
the Lord God made his son sin then. But as I said, this word
made suggests the idea of a participation. The Son of God willingly took
our sins. He, his own self, bear our sins
in His own body on the tree. As willingly as a thirsty man
drinks cold water, He took our sins. And with one tremendous
draft of love, He drank damnation dry. He was made sin by His own
hand. He took our sins His own self. and took into His being all that
we are that He might redeem and save us by the sacrifice of Himself. And when God reveals His Son
in you, there came a time, pastor, when the Spirit of God came and
revealed Christ in you. And when He did, the Holy Spirit
laid all your sins on His Son. That's what happens when God
gives a sinner faith. I spent a good bit of time struggling
with the terrible load of guilt, the terrible load of guilt, a
sense of God's just wrath upon me under the horrible, terrifying
sense of judgment on my soul until one day I saw Jesus Christ,
God's Son, bearing my sin and I was made to see. My sin was
on Him and it's gone from me. And if it's on Him, it can't
be on me. If it's on me, it can't be on
Him. He, the Father, the Son, and
the Spirit have made Him sin. And then the text speaks of Him. Who was it that was made sin?
He, Him who knew no sin. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God,
holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. He knew no sin. He knew no sin by nature. For he is that one who is the
virgin-born son of Mary, the virgin-born child, that one who
came into this world without the aid of a man, his body, that
body especially prepared by God the Holy Spirit in the virgin's
womb to be a sacrifice for us, was a body prepared without the
contribution of a man so that his body was fit to be a sacrifice
for us. He knew no sin. He never experienced
it. He never thought it. He never
felt it. He had no comprehension of sin. No knowledge of sin. He knew no sin. He never had his heart run cold
with malice or heart with passion. Never did wrong and never thought
wrong. He knew no sin. who bears our sins under the
wrath of God as our substitute and surety must himself be without
sin. But not only is he without sin,
this man who bore our sins is God in human flesh. He is himself God the Son. That makes his sacrifice. That
makes everything about him, everything he does of infinite worth and
infinite value. This man and this man alone is
able to fully satisfy every demand that God Almighty can place upon
any man or all men. And he can do it by one act of
obedience unto death. The full age of a man, here is
a man of infinite worth. He who was made said is Jesus
Christ, the man God. I didn't say they're wrong, I
said they're right. The man who is God, the God-man, he came
into this world and assumed our nature, took our nature into
union with himself. I like to read good theology. I like to study after men who
had some knowledge of things. And since I was 17 years old,
started to read about the Incarnation, started to read about the manhood
of Christ, and the theologians came up with a great, great term.
They called it the hypostatic union. You know how much that
helped me when I was 17 years old? Just about as much as it
does now. Well, what's that mean? manhood into union with himself,
but he didn't really become a man. Oh, no. Oh, no. What did the
book say? The Word was made flesh. It didn't just assume flesh. It didn't just appear in flesh,
but God took into union with Himself in such a way, in such
a real way, our nature, that God sitting on His throne sits
there as a man in our nature. He who is our Savior, our Redeemer,
our Substitute, our Surety, is and must be fully God and fully
man in one glorious person. That's He who was made said. Now what does the text say he
was made? Let me tell you what it doesn't say. Sometimes when
you read something, you read through things so fast, especially
if you're real familiar with them, that you presume it says
something it doesn't say. This text does not say that our
Lord Jesus appeared to be made sin. It does not say that sin was
reckoned to him. Well, was it reckoned to him?
Yes, but that's not what's written here. The text does not say that
sin was imputed to him. So this is a... I hear fellows
a lot of times say this word made is a legal term. You look
it up. There's not anywhere under the
shining sun you can make a legal term out of it. It doesn't have
anything to do with law. But was it sin imputed to him?
Yes. Sin was imputed to him because
he was made sin. Not the other way around. Let
me show you. Hold your hands here and turn to Proverbs 17.
Proverbs 17, verse 15. He that justifieth the wicked,
and he that condemneth the just, even they both are an abomination
to the Lord. He can't be condemned unless
he has made sin. He can't be condemned. Sin cannot
be imputed to him unless he has made sin. The text does not say
he was made a sin offering. Isaiah 53, the pastor read a
little bit ago. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. But
I'll give you an assignment. Get your concordance when you
go home. Every place in the Old Testament, look up every one
of them. Every one of them. And I wouldn't tell you to do
this if I hadn't already done it, but you can double check
me. Look up every one of them. Every place in the Old Testament
where the word sin offering is used. Look up and see what it
says. You have any idea what it says,
Mike? Sin. Every single place. Every single
place. Doesn't say he was made a sin
offering. What does it say? It says, He hath made him see. I can't tell you how it grieves
my soul to even think of myself trying
to look at this as some kind of a matter of pure doctrine
is infinitely higher than that. Indescribably more important
than that. That which He loves, that which
I am. All that I am. all that I am. He was made. He was made. Well, can you explain
how? When I can explain to you how
the Word was made flesh, I'll come back and explain this. There
are lots of things, Brother Darwin and I were talking about coming
up the road, Brother Darwin and Larry, most of the most important things
I believe, most of the things that are most delightful and
comforting to my soul, I can't begin to explain to you. I don't
know how the incomprehensible God could be comprehended by
a mother's womb, but He was. I don't know how God, who is
life, could die in our stead, but Acts 20, 28 says He did. I don't know how Jesus Christ
can live in me. But the book says he does. The
book says he does. Those things. And those are the
most blessed things I know about. And this is the most mysterious
of all. He who knew no sin would have made sin for us. Made sin. When our Lord Jesus Turned the
water into wine in the marriage of Canaan and Galilee, John chapter
2. He didn't make the water look
like wine. He didn't just make it taste
like wine. He didn't just make it appear to be wine. He turned
the water into wine. When the Word was made flesh,
He didn't just appear to be a man. He didn't just make men think
He had become a man. The Word was made flesh. And when our Savior was made
sin for us, that's what the book says. That's what the book says. And we're people of the book.
This is what the book says. More than that, this is the wonder
of substitution. Turn back to Psalms. Let's look at Psalm 40. Psalm
40. Just look at a couple of obvious
passages. In the 40th Psalm, we have our Savior's words given
when He came into this world. They're given back in the old
eternity in the covenant of grace when He pledged Himself as our
surety. He said, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O my God. The Apostle
Paul, writing in Hebrews chapter 10, tells us that this is what
he said when he came into this world. As he came out of his
mother's womb, he said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God. Now,
look at verse 11. Withhold not thou thy tender
mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy lovingkindness and thy
truth continually preserve me, for innumerable evils have compassed
me about. My iniquities have taken hold on me so that
I'm not able to look up. They're more than the hairs of
my head. my heart faithfully. We follow our Redeemer into Gethsemane. We hear Him cry three times,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. God give me enough grace and
wisdom not to pry into things I have no business even thinking
about. I don't pretend to understand all that transpired there, but
I know that my Savior was not asking that he might escape suffering
God's wrath. He came here to die. He created
this world to die. The whole world was created for
this event that took place at Calvary. But the Son of God began
to anticipate being made sin. And his heart broke within him
until he swept blood out the pores of his body, falling to
the ground as he anticipated being made that which was most
contrary to his holy being. He bore the consequences of our
sins. That won't break your heart. He bore the effects of our sins.
That won't break your heart. He paid the enormous debt of
our sins. That won't break your heart.
He was made sin and it broke his heart. Nevertheless, not my will, thy
will be done. Turn to Psalm 69. Our Savior,
we just read, owns our sins as his sins. Psalm 69. Again, it's obvious the psalm
is speaking about our Redeemer. In the fourth verse, the very
last part of it, he says to him, I restored that which I took
not away. You remember he quoted that over
in the book of John. O God, thou knowest my foolishness. The word is, O God, thou knowest
my guiltiness, and my sins are not hid from
thee. And as he bears that awful load,
his heart is fixed on us. Let them that wait on thee, O
Lord God of hosts, let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God
of hosts, be ashamed for my sake. Let not those that seek thee
be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel, because for thy sake
I have borne reproach. Shame hath covered my face. Jesus Christ, God's Son, our
Redeemer, was made to see. How far can you carry that for
the dawn? Let me give you a hint when you read this book. Anytime
you read something that seems just profound, it seems when
you, I dare not even think about that. I can't even imagine such
a thing. You carry it just as far as you
can possibly carry it, and you haven't begun to get close yet.
He made him. Because He could not be punished
for sin, except He be made sin. Justice won't allow it. Justice
won't allow it. He made Him sin. But what did
He do with Him when He made Him sin? covered the earth with darkness
for three hours. And the Son of God pierces the sky and cries, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why hast thou forsaken me? You read it as it's stated in
Psalm 22 and he gives the answer. Thou art of purer eyes than to
behold iniquity." The Lord God turned His back on His Son, forsook
His Son, abandoned His Son, and He did it when He was at the
apex of His obedience. The Son of God said, Lo, I come
to do Thy will, O my God. And now, as he hangs on the cursed
tree, dying in our room instead, he is at the very epitome of
his obedience to the Father. And in the epitome of his obedience,
God forsook him. When I've grown up, I didn't
have the privilege of having much of a family. And a lot of
it, most of it, my fault. I didn't often do anything just
to please my dad. I can only think of twice trying
to do so, and I messed up bad both times. My daddy bought a
brand new 1957 Cadillac. I was not quite eight years old.
I can remember it well. I can still show you the results
of it if you'd like to see them. I decided I'd wash that car for
my dad. And I'd never washed a car before.
And I cleaned it up. It was dirty. Been out in the
rain. And I got some comment. And I scrubbed that car from
bumper to bumper. And I don't know what they had
in common in those days, but it would cut glass. I found out. You couldn't see out any window
of the car. That shiny blue paint was dull and powdery. And now you understand why I
can still show you the results. My dad wasn't happy. And you
know, as well as I understood the reason for his anger at me,
I don't think I ever had experienced anything to break that little
boy's heart like the fact he was disappointed in me when I
was trying my best to please him. Now that doesn't come close
to telling you what I'm trying to tell you. When God's darling son, our covenant
surety, our representative, our substitute, at the height of
his obedience to the Father, was made sin, the Father forsook
him. And he cried, awake, O sword,
against one that is my fellow, smite and slay the shepherd."
And God, in His holy fury, buried the sword of His justice in His
darling son. Buried it. So that now He says
to Jacob, Fury is not in me. It's gone. It's gone. Because
God killed His Son. And He buried His dead out of
sight. And for three days, the Son of God laid in the heart
of the earth. He went into the grave as one
who was a transgressor, buried in the earth as one who died
because of sin, buried as a criminal, as he was executed upon the cursed
tree. And when he came forth from the
tomb, the scripture says he was justified in the spirit. He who was made sin came out
of the tomb without sin. with no sin, no guiltiness, no
iniquity, no foolishness, no transgression, no sin, because
he by the sacrifice of himself had put away sin. He put it away. And what's the result of that? There is therefore now no condemnation. to them that are in Christ Jesus. He was condemned. I can't be. He put away my sins. That means
they can't be charged to me. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord will not impute sin. Can you begin to get hold of
that? God won't impute sin to you. Never. He will never exact punishment
from you. Never. Oh, but Brother Don, doesn't
the Lord chase us for our sins? That's not punishment. That's
love. Ask any daddy. That's love. That's not punishment. He punished
our sins in our substitute. He will never punish them in
us. He vented His holy anger in our substitute. He will never
be angry with us. Did you ever notice over in 2
Samuel when David had taken Bathsheba and murdered Uriah? This is what
the book says about that. And the thing that David did
displeased the Lord. I wonder how come Gary doesn't
say David displeased the Lord? The thing David did displeased
the Lord. But David was in his son. And this is what it says about
his son. This is my beloved son. in whom I am well pleased." I'm
in Christ. And when it appears to me that
my Father frowns on me with displeasure, oh, I can't tell you how it solaces
my heart to read that He hath made him sin And He is always pleased with
me. I'm accepted into belonging.
Highly favored of God. All the time. It was that way
from eternity. And God never changed His mind.
We're one with His Son. Really and truly one with His
Son. What's the result of this? That we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Only we don't participate in
that. That we might continually be
caused to become the righteousness of God in him? Made righteous
when he was made sin and slain under the justice of God for
our sins? Yes. made righteous judicially
and legally? Yes. But he was made sin for
us and died under the penalty of divine justice for our sins
that we might be on the grounds of justice actually made righteous. Made righteous. And in the new
birth, God Almighty comes to dead sinners and does something
for them nobody but God can do. He gives them a new nature, and
it's called that holy thing. 1 John chapter 3. That cannot sin, because it's
born of God. And what is that holy thing?
That's Christ in you, the hope of glory. And one of these days, one of these days, I'm going
to, sure enough, be made righteous. in the experience of absolute
perfection in my very being when God raises this body in glory
and the Lord Jesus presents me faultless before the presence
of His glory with exceeding joy. Whose joy? His or yours? without blame, without spot,
without blemish, without wrinkle, without anything like the contamination
and the harm of sin. And He will wipe all tears from
these eyes. And there will be no more sorrow
and no more pain and no more sickness and no more dying because
the former things are completely gone. Darwin Pruitt,
he really did put away our sins. And he really has made us the
righteousness of God in him. I stand before God Almighty,
listen now, listen, a perfectly righteous sinless man. But that's how God sees it. Yes, sir, that's how God sees
it. That's how God sees it. He says,
Jeremiah 50 verse 40, you can look at it later, I'll look for
their sins and they shall not be found. I'll search for their
iniquities, and there shall be none. And this is the name wherewith
she shall be called. Jeremiah 33, verse 16. The name
wherewith his church, his bride, shall be called. Jehovah seeking
you, the Lord our We shall stand at the last day
and be judged, every man for his works, and we will receive
justly our due." Justly our due. Surely, surely he can't mean
that we're going to be accepted in heaven on the basis of our
works. I would never dream such a thing,
but that's what this book teaches. I fully obeyed God's holy will,
all His law, and satisfied all His justice in the person of
my substitute as one with Him. God demanded that I walk before
Him in this world, the full age of a man, loving God with all
my heart, soul, mind, and being, and loving my neighbor as And
I did. I did. I did. I'm one with Him. And God demands the soul that
says it shall die. And I did. And I came forth from the grave
with my Mediator and took a seat with Him in glory. I'm just waiting
for that body to get there. That's substitution. That's substitution. Why? Why did He do that? Why did He do that? Why did God
make His Son sin? Why did the Son of God take our
sins in His own body on the tree and make them His? Oh, hereby perceive we the love of
God. He laid down his life for us. Years ago, I heard Brother Mahan
tell about a missionary that had come to visit. I had no idea
who he was. Somebody from India. He said
the missionary told a story. walking along in the brush and
heard a very faint, faint cry. And said they made their way
to the person and the cry kept getting louder. And finally they
saw it a little clearer. An old man, leprous, covered
with leprosy, had just been put out to die, brought out there
to die. He was crying with the nubs on
the end of his hands Somebody please help me." And he said, that missionary
told him, sir, I thought to myself, knowing there was nothing I could
do for him, if somehow I could go over there to that man and
put my mouth next to his mouth and draw into myself all his corruption
and death Breathe into Him all my health
and life and strength. That's what Christ has done for
me. And now, we who are nothing but
sin are made the righteousness of God in Him and are made meat to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. Amen.