Brother Clay Curtis, pastor of
the Sovereign Grace Church in Ewing, New Jersey. Many of his
folks are here. That congregation been dear friends
to me for a long time, since their inception, actually before
they started. They were friends and God brought
our hearts together in the gospel and sent Brother Clay up there
to be their pastor. What's it been, 10 years ago now? 10 years
ago. An Arkansas boy gonna live and
die in New Jersey. Boy, that's missionary fever. And my friends from New Jersey
understand my delight. Brother Clay Curtis, one of the
biggest men I've ever known. One of the biggest men I've ever
known. Utterly committed to the gospel of God's grace and preaching
of the gospel of God's grace. And for that, I thank God for
him and preach to us. If I can remember, I will say
a few words when the message is over, but I want to get right
to my message this morning. I want you to turn with me to
2 Corinthians chapter 5. Verse 19 of 2 Corinthians 5 says,
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them. Why not? Why will God not impute their
trespasses unto them? Verse 21, for he hath made him
sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Our subject is the blessing of
imputation. Verse 19 declares that due to
the fact that God has reconciled his people, unto himself in Christ,
God will not impute their trespasses unto them. And verse 21 declares
the reason. For he hath made Christ sin for
us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. the blessing of imputation. Now according to the use of imputation
and all its forms in scripture, God only imputes to a man what
the man has in fact been made by a prior act. Let me say that again. According
to all scripture, God only imputes to a man what the man has been
made by a prior act. If God enables us to cease leaning
to our own understanding and he'll give us grace to bow and
believe God's word, this will bring every believer the utmost
joy and assurance in the righteousness of God in Christ our Redeemer. I guarantee you that. The very
reason Christ came to this earth is to manifest the righteousness
of God. That's why he came. To declare,
I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. We all want a righteous
judge. We want a right judge. If we
go into a court of law, I want a judge that's just. And Moses said he is the rock.
His work is perfect. All his ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity. A just and right is he. Elihu said, yea, surely God will
not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert judgment. When we read how God instructed
the judges of Israel to judge, we behold how God judges. He said if there be a controversy
between men and they come under judgment, that the judges may
judge them. then they shall justify the righteous. The man who comes into the court
and he's righteous by a prior act, he's to impute righteousness
to that man and justify the righteous. And he that is wicked, he's to
impute wickedness to that man due to his prior act and he's
to condemn the wicked. Judges shall judge the people
with just judgment. Thou shalt not rest judgment. That means not bend it, not stretch
it, not alter it in the least degree. Thou shalt not rest judgment. Thou shalt not respect persons,
not even if the person is your only begotten son. Neither take a gift. God cannot
be bought to pervert justice. That which is altogether just
shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live and inherit the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee. And God's just judgment
in Christ on the cross is the only way his people could live
and inherit the land that God freely gives his people. It's the only way. Brethren,
my desire in preaching this is for us to behold that the judge
of the whole earth shall do right. And I want for every believer
here to enter in to the joy of knowing how God imputes. I want you to know how God imputes
according to the scripture. Now here's my first point. According
to scripture, God only imputes fact. He only imputes fact. God only imputes what a man is
by a prior act that made him so. God will not impute what
the man is not. Now let me show you a few examples
in scripture. Let's go to Leviticus 17 and
verse 3. We need to look at several scriptures. What man, Leviticus 17 3, this
is the Lord speaking, what man soever there be of the house
of Israel that killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat in the camp,
or that killeth it out of the camp, and bringeth it not unto
the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer an
offering unto the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord. Now,
by that prior act, right there, this man became a shedder of
blood by that act right there. And due to this fact, look what
God said, blood shall be imputed unto that man. Why? He hath shed blood. Blood shall be imputed because
it is a fact he hath shed blood. And then he will be justly punished. And that man shall be cut off
from among his people. 1 Samuel 22, 15. Let's go there. 1 Samuel 22, 15. King Saul thought
that Elimelech committed treason by inquiring for David, inquiring
of the Lord for David when he knew David was his enemy. He
thought, King Saul thought Elimelech had committed treason. And so
Saul imputed treason to Elimelech because he thought it was fact.
He imputed treason to Elimelech. But Elimelech said this, verse
15, did I then begin to inquire of God for him? Be it far from
me. Let not the king impute anything
unto his servant, nor to all the house of my father, for thy
servant knew nothing of all this, less or more. Both of these men
knew that to impute is to impute the fact of what a man is. Both
of these men knew that. Saul only imputed treason to
Elimelech because he thought it was fact. And Elimelech said,
don't impute treason to me because it is not fact. Let's go now to 1 Samuel. You
go to 2 Samuel 19. And I'll give you the background
as you turn in there. And you go to 2 Samuel 19. Now
in 1 Samuel, Shimei came out and cursed King
David. And he cast stones at David.
And he said, come out, come out, thou bloody man, thou man of
Belial. Now that was the prior act by
which Shimei was made sin. And in 2 Samuel 19, verse 19,
after David became the king, Shimei said unto the king, let
not my lord impute iniquity unto me. Neither do thou remember
that which thy servant did perversely the day that my lord the king
went out of Jerusalem, that the king should take it to his heart.
For thy servant doth know that I have sinned. Now that prior
act, Shimei knew he had sinned, and he knew. that David was just
to impute sin to him, because that's what he was. Psalm 106.30,
Psalm 106.30, it says there, it says, then stood up Phinehas
and executed judgment. When nobody else would do it,
God said Phinehas stood up and did a righteous act. He executed
judgment. That was a righteous act. He
killed two people of noble birth in the act of fornication, and
the plague was stayed. And that was counted, that's
imputed, that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all
generations forevermore. Due to the fact that it was a
righteous act, it was imputed to Phinehas what it was, a righteous
act. That's what it was. Phinehas
was a type of Christ. Did you see this morning or yesterday
in Brother Frank's message at the very end of Psalm 22? It
says, a seed shall serve our Lord. and it shall be accounted
to the Lord for a generation. It shall be accounted to the
Lord. They shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto
a people that shall be born that he hath done this, that it is
finished. Now let me ask you, does our
accounting to the Lord Jesus that he has finished the work
and made his people righteous, does our accounting that to him
make it so? No, we account it to him because
it is finished. It is so. Paul said in 1 Corinthians
4.1, he said, let a man so account, let him so impute to us as of
the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. He says,
let a man impute us to be what God has made us to be. Peter said, account that the
longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. Account, impute that
the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. Do we make God's
longsuffering to be salvation by imputing it so? No, we impute
what it is. The longsuffering of the Lord
is salvation. God only imputes to a man what
he's been made by a prior act. Let's go to Romans 5 now, Romans
chapter 5. And I want to see something here.
It's very, very good. Romans 5. Now this is how we
were made sin and the reason for which God justly imputed
sin to us. Romans 5, 12. It says, wherefore
as by one man sin entered. By one man sin entered into the
world and death by sin. And so. Death passed upon all
men. Why? For that all have sin. Because in Adam, all have sin. Now listen to this next verse.
For until the law, sin was in the world. But sin is not imputed
where there is no law. From Adam until Moses, God gave
no law. And God will not impute sin where
a person has not been made sin under law. That in itself tells
us God doesn't make anybody sin simply by imputing sin to them.
God only imputes sin when one has been made sin under law. Nevertheless, verse 14, death
reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned
after the similitude of Adam's transgression. Even over them
that had not broken a known law like Adam did, God imputed sin
to them and death reigned. How on earth could God be just
to do that? Because in Adam, all have sinned. sin and Adam all broke a known
law and were made sin and therefore God imputed sin to us. When God
imputes sin to us, now let me ask you this, when God imputes
sin to us, is he treating us as if we're sin? Not hardly. And God doesn't make
us sin by merely imputing sin to us. It says, by one man's
disobedience, many were made sinners. And for that fact, God
imputed sin to us. As truly as Levi was in Abraham,
when Abraham paid in his loins, when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek,
we were in Adam's loins when Adam broke the law in the Garden
of Eden, and we became sin. And for that reason, God imputed
sin to us. You know, when an accountant
totals up how much money a man has in his 401k, he imputes,
he accounts that amount of money to be in that 401k. Now, he doesn't
put that money in the 401k by counting it to be so. Some of
us would like to find an accountant that could do that, but he doesn't
do that. He imputes what is actually the
fact He accounts what's the actual fact in that account. That's the definition the Greek
lexicon gives of imputation. But more importantly, as we've
just seen, that's the definition scripture gives of imputation. Now our text says here, here's
the second thing, verse 19, back to 2 Corinthians. Our text says,
God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them. Now why would God not impute
their trespasses unto them? Verse 21, for he hath made him
sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. We've been going through 2 Corinthians
and this is just where we are in 2 Corinthians. but this message has been a long
time in the making. There's been many faithful men,
faithful men, many past and present, many well-meaning men, past and
present, who have said that Christ was made sin by imputation, who
said that God imputed the sin of his people to Christ, and
he treated Christ as if he were sin. But according to scripture,
God won't impute sin where one's not been made sin under law. God imputed sin to us due to
the fact that we were in Adam and sinned in Adam. That was
the reason he imputed sin to us. But now think of this, we're
not the federal head. Christ was not in us. And Christ
was not made sin by our disobedience and therefore due to that fact
God imputed our sin to Christ. That wasn't how it was. Christ
is the head. Christ is the head. And the scripture
says Christ knew no sin. Christ knew no sin. He's the
head of his people, the last Adam who knew no sin. Now brethren, I understand I
understand this completely. Believers do not want to say
anything at all about our Redeemer that would in any way dishonor
Him whatsoever. We want to be careful not to
say anything that will dishonor our substitute. But this right
here was Christ's perfect obedience. This was Christ's righteous obedience
manifesting the perfect unbending righteousness of God. This was
Christ's obedience manifesting that the judge of all the earth
always does right. He always judges right. This is Christ's obedience manifest
in how God can be just, how He can by no means clear the guilty
and at the same time have mercy on sinners. This is the spotless Lamb of
God. He had to be the spotless Lamb
of God. This is the just laying down
his life for the unjust. How so? By presenting himself
to the Father at the appointed hour to be made sin for us. This was the hour and the reason
for which he said, now is my soul exceedingly troubled. This
is the hour This is the cause, the reason
why he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood. And see it in the scripture,
that God only imputes what a man's been made by a prior act. And
I'll tell you this, I've looked up every form of them all through
the scripture. This is how God imputes. The
one exception is where Paul said, if Onesimus has has offended
you or he owes you anything, put that, impute that to my account. And that's what Christ did in
eternity as our surety. But when it came time to pay
it, God will not impute sin unless that man has been made sin by
a prior act. And that prior act that made
him sin was he hath made him sin for us who knew no sin. That was the prior act. The Lord
hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. With men, it's absolutely
impossible for one man to bear the crime of another man. And for the law to say he's the
only one guilty of that crime, that's impossible with men. And
so for that reason, we have a tendency to want to object because we
can't logically reason this thing out and can't understand it.
Let me tell you something that I came across the other day and
I preached on this, but I didn't realize when I preached on it
that what God was doing to give me something to use for this
message. But in 1 Kings 20, God's word to King Ahab, oh wicked
King Ahab, God's word to King Ahab was, for him to slay Ben-Hadad,
the king of Syria. But when the time came, Ben-Hadad
came to Ahab begging mercy. He came begging mercy, and he
came saying he would restore cities to Israel that he had
taken. And so Ahab reasoned to himself
and thought, well, it just don't make sense. to slay him. He came here asking mercy, begging
mercy, and he's going to restore us the cities. We're going to
profit from this. And so instead of obeying God's
word, because it didn't make sense to Ahab, he showed Benidad
mercy and made a covenant with him. In the very next verse,
God did something very strange. The very next verse, God tells
his prophet, he said, you go to your neighbor and tell your
neighbor, smite thee, smite me, I pray thee. And you know that
prophet didn't understand that. That didn't make any sense to
that prophet. But he went to his neighbor. even at his own
hurt and said, smite me, I pray thee. He obeyed God's word. He submitted to God's word even
when he didn't understand God's word. But the neighbor to whom
he said it did what Ahab did. It just didn't make sense to
him to smite one of God's prophets for nothing. And so he didn't
smite him. And God told his prophet to tell
that neighbor, because thou hast not obeyed the voice of the Lord,
behold, a lion shall slay thee, and God sent a lion and slew
him. And he was teaching Ahab, this
is, you should have obeyed my word. Even though you didn't
understand it, even though it didn't make sense to you, just
bow and submit to it. And brethren, we're to believe
the word of the Lord, even when it goes beyond our reason. Fact
of the matter is, we ought not ever divide over a scripture
like this, over a doctrine like this. We ought never make this
a point of division and call somebody a heretic because they
don't agree with us. I got brethren that don't agree with me on this.
We're just fighting with one another. We want Christ to have
the glory. That's all that matters. Because
the point of the matter is, We're like little kindergartners learning
their one, two, threes, compared to Einstein. That's what we're
like. When we get done, we're going
to find out we just have the tip of the iceberg. We don't
have the fullness of this. So why on earth? Can you imagine
if some kindergartners get mad because one said 1-2-4 instead
of 1-2-3? Not one faithful man I know preaches
that by being made sin, Christ was made a rebellious sinner.
Not one. Christ was made sin, and at the
same time, he never sinned himself. How could that be possible? The
things that are impossible with men are possible with God. God
did what is impossible to men in that he made Christ bear our
sin, our crime itself. You read through scripture, it
says he bore our transgression, he bore our trespass, he bore
our offenses, he bore our sin. Somebody said he lists all those
different kinds of sin to make certain we understand that he
bore every kind of sin of all his people at one time. God made him sin, that's impossible
with men, and the God-man did something that's impossible with
men. He suffered under the justice of God because he was made sin,
guilty before God, and yet he never ceased looking to the Father
to fulfill his covenant promise to justify him when it was finished. He said, I hid not my face from
shame and spitting, for the Lord God will help me. He is near
that justified me, who will contend with me. And you read through
the Psalms and you'll find he never ceased praying the Father. The first Adam was made sin by
his disobedience to God. The last Adam was made sin by
his obedience in presenting himself to God to make him sin. After
the first Adam was made sin, he experienced the shame of sin.
It said they were naked before and they were not ashamed. And
as soon as he sinned, he knew he was naked and he made fig
leaves to cover his nakedness. And when he heard God's voice,
he tried to hide himself in the garden, in the trees of the garden. The last Adam, after he was made
sin, Scripture says he endured the cross, despising the shame. And while he did so, he said,
mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so they're not able
to look up. That's shame. I'm not able to
look up. They're more than the hairs of
mine head, therefore my heart faileth me. And he prayed, be
pleased, oh Lord, to deliver me. After the first Adam was made
sin, not until then did God impute sin to him when he came to him
and he said, have you eaten of the tree of the garden in which
I told you not to eat? And only after the last Adam
was made sin did God number him with the transgressors. After the first Adam was made
sin, he was made a curse and cast out of God's presence. And
after the last Adam was made sin, and not until then, he was
made a curse and forsaken of God for three hours on a cursed
tree. Now believer, when you and I
experience just a little bit of the offensiveness of sin,
When we cry unto God and we beg God to have mercy on us, when
we need His help and we cry unto Him
and we experience a little bit of the shame of sin, just remember that Christ has
experienced it infinitely more than we have. The scripture said this, I'll
just, the scripture said this. In all things, in all things, it behooved him to be made like
unto his brethren. that he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God. Number one,
to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. And number
two, for in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he's
able to succor them that are tempted. He was in all points
made like unto his brethren. Scripture says, Though he were
a son, yet learned he, experienced he, obedience by the things which
he suffered. His people were made, his people
were flesh, he was made flesh. His people were under the law,
he was made under the law. His people were sin, he was made
sin for us. His people experienced the shame
of our sin, just a little. He experienced it as one who
knew no sin. He experienced what it is to
cry unto God with strong crying and tears. You ever do that?
He knows as a man what that's like. And he had to wait to the accepted
time when justice was satisfied for God to answer. But God said
this in the text of Brother Don Red, he said, I've heard thee
in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored
thee. Behold, now is the accepted time,
now is the day of salvation. That's God speaking to Christ.
And so now, brethren, not only is our Redeemer able to be our
advocate with the Father, our propitiation with the Father,
he's also able to come to you and know the best way possible
to succor you when you need him. And by bearing our very sin itself,
our offenses and our transgression, our crime itself, God justified
his people and made us his own righteousness in Christ. For
he hath made him to be sin for us who do no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. You take a man and
he commits a crime and he's sentenced to say 10 years in prison. When
he serves his 10 years in prison, He's paid his debt. He doesn't
owe any more debt. But his crime is still on the
record book. Lord Jesus Christ, by being made
sin for us, took away not only our punishment and not only the
debt we owe, he took away the offense. Not as it was by one
that sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was by one offense
to condemnation. But the free gift is of many
offenses unto justification. To remove the crime, that's justification. So there's no record, that's
justification. Now lastly, here is the joy for
every believer And if you have not believed on Christ, I say
to you right now what the Apostle Paul said in our text. Be ye
reconciled to God. Surrender to God. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is the joy of every believer. When God declares that he will
not impute the believer's trespass unto him, it is because by Christ's
righteous obedience unto the death of the cross, It is a fact
that we have no trespass to impute. None, listen to the scripture.
In those days and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none. And the sins of Judah, and they
shall not be found, for I will pardon them whom I reserve. As
far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions
from us. Not just our debt, not just our
guilt, the record of our offenses are gone. Past, present, and
future. And he said, I, even I, am he
that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake and will not
remember thy sins. Brethren, you just think about
that. You just think about that. All we see in us is sin. But that's not what God sees.
Past, present, or future, God says, I don't see any record
that there's ever been sin. I don't remember there ever being
any sin. And when a believer has the righteousness
of Christ imputed to him by God, it's because Christ, by his obedience,
has made us the righteousness of God. That's a fact. As by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners, and for that fact, God imputed sin to
him. So by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous,
and because of that fact, God imputes righteousness to us.
Brethren, God only imputes fact. And because of that, God never
speaks to us in as if language. Never. Turn to Romans 6, and
I'll end with this. Romans 6. For, Romans 6, 10. For, now this is the act that
made it a fact. For, in that Christ died, He
died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. And so God says to you and me
who believe, reckon, that's impute, reckon ye also yourselves to
be dead indeed unto sin. but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. How come I can impute that to
myself? How come God says I can impute
that to be the truth about me? How come I can impute that to
be the fact about myself? Because Colossians 3.3 says,
ye are dead, and your life is here with Christ in God. Now according to God's own words,
The blessing of imputation is, it is fact. Amen. Thank you all so much. Everything
Larry said, 10 times. I appreciate it so much. And
y'all are all welcome to come see us in New Jersey. I keep
telling my southern brethren that. Some of them just flat
out or just straight up honest with me and say, it just ain't
going to happen. You don't know what you're missing,
though. It would remind you of this Kentucky hillside right
here. They don't call it the Garden State for nothing. We
live in the garden of the Garden State. And you would love the
breath in there, I guarantee you that. That's all I'll say about it.