Matthew couldn't have picked
a better song. He sang about what I want to
talk to you about tonight, substitution. Turn with me to a familiar text,
Genesis 22. Genesis 22. I want to use this for a launching
pad to do what I encourage all men who come here and preach
to us to do, and that's to exalt the Savior. And it came to pass
after these things that God did tempt Abraham and said unto him,
Abraham. And he said, Behold, here am
I. And he said, Take now thy son,
thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest. and get thee into the
land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon
one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of.' And Abraham rose
up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two
of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clathed the
wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went into the
place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham
lifted up his eyes and saw the place of Pharaoh. And Abraham
said unto his young man, Abide ye here with the ash, and I and
the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you. And Abraham
took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son,
and he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went, both
of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham
his father, and said, My father. And he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire
and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And
Abraham said unto him, My son, God will provide himself a lamb
for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together.
And they came to the place which God had told them of, and Abraham
built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound
Isaac his son, and laid him upon the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his
hand and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the
Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham. And
he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand
upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For now I
know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son,
thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes,
and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket
by his horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram, and offered him for a burnt offering, in the stead of His
Son. Most of us, if not all of us,
are very familiar with this story. We've listened to numerous gospel
preachers expound this text time and time again. And it's a story
that never gets old, because it is a picture of the very essence
of the gospel of Christ's crucified substitution. The term, in the
stead of, that word that we find at the end of verse 13, is the
same word as our word instead. It means in the place of something
or somewhere else previously mentioned as a substitute or
an equivalent. And that is a word that we love
so dearly, substitute. But did you know that neither
of those words, substitute or substitution, is found anywhere
in Scripture? Not a single time in this book
do you find either of those two words. Does that mean that we
shouldn't use them if they're not in Scripture? Certainly not.
Because they describe the situation that is talked about through
this entire book of Christ standing in our place Now, I have nothing
to say that is new to you. I'm going to talk to you about
something you've heard a thousand times. But even though you've
heard it again and again, the telling of it and the hearing
of it never gets old. It is the story of how Christ
died for our sins. Now, those of you sitting here
tonight or listening over the streaming that have never been
shown your guilt before God, You're rightful, deserving of
the sentence of death. You're probably going to be bored
with what you hear. But for those of us who delight
in God's decision to show us mercy, we will have a delightful
time again remembering the goodness of God to his people. How Christ
became the object of God's fierce wrath in our stead. We never get bored with hearing
that story. It's our only message as it was the Apostle Paul's,
as he told the Corinthians, for I am determined not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. But if somebody
asks, why was it necessary for Abraham to sacrifice his son?
The bigger question is, why was it necessary for God to sacrifice
His Son? And the answer to that is God
is infinitely holy beyond anything that we can imagine. And He cannot,
He will not overlook sin. It must be punished. There must
be a sacrifice made for sin. Two texts that we find state
this clearly. Job 10.14, If I sin, then thou
markest me and thou wilt not acquit me from
my iniquity. And in Nahum 1.13, the Lord is
slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the
wicked. Sin must be, it will be punished. There will be no trial where
the defendant is accused of violating God's law, where the verdict
will be not guilty. Every man and every woman that
have ever been born have been born guilty, under the curse
of death, except one. But even he, by way of imputation,
became guilty. And that one who was born without
sin is the one I want to talk to you about tonight. There's
an old saying, familiarity breeds contempt. And it simply means
this, that the more acquainted we become with someone, the more
we know about this person, about his or her shortcomings, the
easier it is to dislike this person. And many times that's
true. And I personally find it true
concerning myself. The more I see of myself the sicker I get myself. Sometimes you just wish you could
just take a break from being around yourself. I certainly
do. And you're the only one that
thinks like that. But Paul thought like that because he cried out a wretched
man that I am. But when it comes to the person
of Christ, familiarity does not breed contempt. It breeds an
ever-growing love and adoration. Now, we're severely limited by
this flesh of being able to love Him as we ought, and to understand
who He truly is. But the more we see of Him, it's
not contempt that grows. but it's love as we become more
fond of Him and His person because we're shown that He is our only
hope. Our adoration of Him is pathetic
compared to His love for us, but it's there, it's real. Now,
this word acquit that we found in those two verses that I just
read means to find not guilty of a criminal offense. to release
or discharge from an obligation such as a debt. Our God's holy
nature demands that he punish sin wherever it's found, even
when it's found on his beloved son. And clearly, from scripture
and our own experience, we know that we stand guilty before God's
holy law. Believe it or not, There are
folks that I have talked to, and you probably have too, over
the years who believe that at least since they've been saved,
they've kept God's law. And if you ever run into someone
like that, don't waste your breath trying to convince them otherwise.
You will not change their mind. But you know what? There's one
who can change their mind, and that's the sovereign God that
we worship. Before the Lord appeared to him on the Damascus road,
Paul threw into that category of folks who think they can keep
God's law. He told the Philippians as much
in chapter 3 in his letter to them. He said, though I might
also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that
he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. Circumcise
the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,
A Hebrew of the Hebrews is touching the law, a Pharisee. Concerning
zeal, persecuting the church. Touching the righteousness which
is in the law, blameless. Blameless. But after God showed
him what he really was, he had a completely different line of
thought. He said, For what things are gained to me, those I count
in loss for Christ, yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For whom I have suffered the
loss of all things, and do count them but done, that I may win
Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." John Bunyan,
that man who spent 12 years in Bedford jail in Britain, simply
for the violation of preaching the gospel. That man who was
so mightily used of God, he wrote the book, The Pilgrim's Progress,
which was the most read book, most published book other than
the Bible for hundreds of years. He thought the same thing. He
made the statement that before the Lord showed him who he was,
that he thought in his self-righteousness he pleased God as well as any
man in England. But after God showed him the
truth about Himself, and especially about Christ, he came to realize
that he was but a filthy sinner in need of a mighty Savior. Now,
our Father Adam was created a perfect man. God gave him dominion over
all beasts. He reigned over all of God's
creation in the sense of having dominion over all things. He had perfect communion with
his God. There was no sin. The ground
brought forth all manner of food without being tilled by human
hands. There was no sin. Adam and his
wife had everything they needed at their fingertips. Peace and
tranquility ruled the earth, but something happened. The serpent begot Eve, and she
gave her husband to eat of the fruit that God had forbidden
them. And that single act of disobedience brought upon the
entire human race a sentence of death, eternal death. The wages of sin is death, we're
told. Wages are something that you
earn by your working. Something that is owed you for
your actions. But the Scriptures tell us, but
the gift of God is eternal life. Now, a gift is something that
you have not earned, something that you did not work for, but
rather something that was given you by another, something that
was paid for by another. So in order for God to give sinners
the gift of faith and eternal life, someone else had to make
the purchase of that gift. And we know who that person was,
the blessed Son of God, our great substitute. Christ was, by imputation,
guilty of all offenses committed by us. When our sins were laid
on Him, God's holy law demanded His death, as we read of in Matthew
26, who demanded His death upon the cross. When the high priest said to
that angry mob, you have heard his blasphemy, what think ye? They answered and said, He is
guilty of death. So God's holy law when it viewed
Christ as He had our sins laid upon Him. That scapegoat we read
of in Leviticus 16. That law could render but one
verdict. He is guilty of death. But Pilate protested to the crowd,
I find no fault in him. And he was right, there was no
fault in the person of Christ. He's described as holy, harmless,
and undefiled. Why then, as an angry mob, did
God's law demand his death? We know the answer to that, don't
we? It's found in that also familiar text. In Isaiah 53, the Lord
hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. And as a result of
our iniquity being laid on Him, He must, He must be wounded for
our transgressions. He must be bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
must be upon Him. He must be brought as a lamb
to the slaughter. He must be stricken for our transgressions. And His soul must be made an
offering for sin. When God's holy law viewed Christ
with our iniquity laid on Him, it could render but one verdict.
He is guilty of death. And once God finds a man or woman
guilty of violating His holy law, there is but one outcome. Ezekiel 18, 20 tells us what
that outcome is. That soul that sinneth, it shall
die. Now, when we're reading God's
Word, if something shall happen, it absolutely will come to pass. You can be sure of it. And when
it says, the soul that sinneth, it will die, it means just that. Now, all sins that we commit
are committed in our body. And yet, the Scripture said it's
the soul, not the body, that shall die. But someone says,
well, the body dies too, and that's true. It does. It dies
and decays away. But it is the unredeemed soul
that dies an eternal death. Forever dying, but never dead. Eternal punishment is carried
out on the souls of men, not their bodies. This body will
go to the ground and return to dust. But our soul lives forever,
either in the eternal bliss, singing praises to the Savior
who redeemed it, or in eternal agony, cursing the God of glory. And I know the Scripture tells
us that we will be given a new body, and it will be just that,
a new body in which there is no sin. The body we were born
in will grow old and die, but the soul that we were given at
birth lives forever. And when our blessed Savior was
found with our sin laid on Him, His body was broken, and His
blood was poured out. Indeed it was. But we read in Isaiah 53, 10,
that it was His soul It was made an offering for sin.
The very soul of the God in this universe was made an offering
for sin. When Christ came into this world,
He was born in a human body. That body was created, as all
bodies are created, with a soul. I spoke to several men who we
know well and who have been preaching the gospel for a long time, and
I ask them, is this correct? Am I thinking this correctly? Did Christ not have a soul as
we know it before He was born in the human body? Because I
was puzzled about that. And some of them said, I'll get
back to you. Most of them said, I'll get back to you. They said,
I've never really thought of that before. But I think unanimously
they said that yes, Christ did indeed. His soul was born with His body. So when Christ came to this earth,
He came as any other human being. and was created with his soul.
And even though Christ in his body bore unimaginable sufferings
and agony, sufferings that would have killed the strongest man
who ever lived, it was his soul that bore the punishment of the
full measure of God's fierce wrath. It was his soul that suffered
the punishment due to the souls of the elect. the punishment
of those souls that should have suffered through eternity were
it not for Christ standing in our stead as our substitute.
He told the disciples, my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even
unto death. And this was even when he was
sweating great drops of blood and suffering unimaginable physical
agonies. He said it was his soul that
was exceedingly sorrowful. Now if you think about it, this
was something new that our Lord had never experienced. Until
He had a human body, He didn't know what hunger was. He didn't
know what pain was. He didn't know what fatigue was.
But He learned all that when He became flesh and blood. Previous
to that, he dwelt in majestic serenity with the Father. But here's the most amazing part
of this story. Christ did this for us when we
were yet enemies. Enemies of everything holy and
righteous. When we were yet sinners, the Scripture tells us, Christ
died for us. Romans 5 tells us that Christ
died for us is how God commendeth His love toward us. This word,
commend, means to express approval of, to represent as worthy, qualified,
or desirable, to call us to be worthy of recommendation. Because
Christ died for us, we are now seen as worthy, as qualified
to receive every good thing that our God has to offer, and that
list of good things is infinite, as is our God. David tells us in Psalm 34.10,
the young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the
Lord shall not want any good thing. In Jeremiah 33, verse
14, we read, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I
will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the
house of Israel and to the house of Judah. And what is that good
thing that he speaks of here? He tells us in the very next
verse. In those days and at that time
will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David, and he
shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall
Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this
is the name wherewith she shall be called the Lord our righteousness."
We have this name, the Lord our righteousness, the same name.
The exact same name by which Christ is called in chapter 24
of Jeremiah, because Christ stood in our stead, at our substitute,
and now we're clothed in the same righteousness that he possesses. There is no finer clothing to
be had than this, the robe of the righteousness of Christ. Wearing this robe we shall never
be found is that one that we read of in Matthew 22, 11, 14.
That guest who came into the wedding without a wedding garment. Starting in verse 11 we read,
And when the king came in to see the guest, he saw there a
man which had not on a wedding garment. And he said unto him,
Friend, how came it so in hither not having a wedding garment?
And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants,
bind him hand and foot, and take him away. Cast him into outer
darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many
are called, but few are chosen. And in the book of Revelation,
chapter 19, we read of another wedding taking place, the marriage
of the Lamb. And in verse 8 it is stated,
and to her, to the bride of the Lamb, to the elect people of
God, And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine
linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness
of saints, the brightest clothed in righteousness, which is again
the very righteousness of Christ our substitute. His righteousness
became our righteousness. In the eyes of an all-seeing
God, it is one and the same. That is absolutely miraculous. That we stand in the sight of
God's holy law, in the sight of God the Father Himself, as
righteous as His Son. That Him says with His spotless
garment on, Holy as the Holy One. There will be no casting
out of those who attend the wedding feast wearing the proper garment. And there can be no condemnation
for those who are found wearing that robe of righteousness, paid
for and provided by our great substitute. There is therefore
now no condemnation. to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. And there
can be no condemnation because of the two reasons found in that
same chapter, Romans 8. First, because it is God that
justifies. The judge of the universe justifies
us. There is no greater authority
than God. Therefore, if He justifies us,
there is no one who can condemn us. And reason number two, it
is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is ever
at the right hand of God, who maketh intercession for us. And
our great substitute, standing in our stead, bearing our sins,
died under the full, fierce wrath of a holy God, bearing away forever
all the sins, and all the wrath that was due to those sins. Hebrews
10-12 tells us, but this man, after he offered one sacrifice
for sin, sat down forever at the right hand of God. No condemnation
now, I dread. I am my Lord's, and He is mine. Alive in Him, I live in Him,
and clothed in righteousness divine. Now, if a person commits
a murder and is sentenced to death, if he were willing to find another
person in the state allowed it to die in his place, that would
be a life taken or given for a life taken. But there would
be no justice in that, because the one who actually did the
crime will walk away shot free. But that is not the case when
Christ took our sins upon Him and suffered the punishment of
those sins. It is true that we will never personally suffer
the wrath of God that would do our sins. When we say that He
was our substitute and that He bore the wrath of God, do those
sins. But here is the difference from
one human dying in the place of another and Christ dying for
us. The Scriptures tell us that we
have been in Christ since before the foundation of the world.
As the true church was in Abraham in his loins, in his seed. So if we have been in Christ
from eternity, so we were in Him as He suffered the holy wrath
of God at Calvary. When He was punished, we were
punished. So that when Christ died, we
died. And when Christ arose, we arose,
one with Him eternally, from eternity past to eternity future. There is no greater authority
than our God, and if He justifies us, there is none that can condemn
us. Now when our Lord laid down His
life and gave Himself to be crucified on that Roman tree, it was not
the end of His work as our great substitute, When that verse tells
us in Romans that He also maketh intercession for us, it means
that He continually is there to plead our cause before the
Father, as we're told in Hebrews 7. But this Man, because He continueth
forever, hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore He is able
also to save them to the uttermost. that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest
became us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,
and made higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily as those
high priests to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then
for the sins of the people. For this he did once when he
offered up himself. Our great substitute is also
our great advocate. 1 John 2.1 offers this for our
comfort. My little children, these things
write I unto you, that ye sin not. But if any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. This word, advocate, is a blessed
word. It means one who pleads the case of another, specifically
one who pleads the cause of another before a tribunal or a court. We have an advocate, we're told,
with the Father. This means that he is both our
go-between with the Father and that he is in the presence of
the Father. And the fact that he's in the
presence of the Father is proof that his sacrifice was accepted
of the Father. His father told him, son, your
work is finished, your sacrifice is acceptable, now sit here on
my right hand while I make your enemies your footstool. He has
the Father's ear forever advocating on our behalf until that day
when we will actually be in the presence of the Father, beholding
the face of our Savior. As Abraham slew the ram that
was caught in the bushes in the stead of his son, So our God
slew His Son in the stead of His people. Because of that great
sacrifice, we now stand complete in Him, lacking nothing to be
accepted by a holy God, to be allowed in His presence. So for
those of you within the sound of my voice that have never been
given saving faith, I would encourage you to plead to God that the
work of that great substitute would be yours. that it would
be counted on your behalf, that God would make you one of His
and give you the gift that Christ purchased, that gift of faith. And God's Word makes it clear
that sin will be punished. Either God will count you righteous
and guiltless because of the work of that great substitute,
or you will forever pay for those sins in separation from God. And we're told in His Word that
He delights in mercy, because our great substitute can, or
our sub-great substitute, the work He did, God can be just
and also justify the ungodly. So I would encourage you, lost
sinner, if you can, to plead with Him today to show you mercy,
to make you an object of His mercy. Sinners, those who sit here trusting
Christ for all your righteousness, I would encourage you, as Paul
did, to rejoice. We have so much to rejoice over. As Bill said in his prayer in
the back, we have so much to be thankful for. Too many times
we tend to have that woe is me attitude when the least little
thing goes wrong. And yet we're encouraged to rejoice
in that great substitute. And we do have much to rejoice
in. I hope the Lord has blessed that to your heart. Lord willing,
Cody Hanson will be with us this coming Lord's Day. And Frank
Tate, I believe, will be with us a week from tonight. So be
in prayer for those men as they come to bring God's Word to us. Lord bless you. You're dismissed.