While you're turning to Psalm
22 again, I'll tell you a cute story. Most of you know that
Spurgeon had the Preacher's College in the Metropolitan Church in
London for many years, and Spurgeon lectured regularly to the young
preachers. And they knew when Mr. Spurgeon
was to lecture that he might call on them at any time to stand
up and be prepared to preach. And he would call the roll, and
he'd get a name, and he'd say, all right, John, you come preach
to us. And they were to be prepared
all the time. There was a Scotsman, a small Scottish fellow, with
flaming red hair. Spurgeon gave him the nickname
Flame. And he got to this fellow's name
on the roll, and he said, Flame, you come up here and preach to
us. And Flame wasn't ready. And he turned to Luke chapter
19, talking about Zacchaeus, and he said, I've got three things
to say about Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a wee little man,
and so am I. And Zacchaeus was up a tree,
and so am I. And Zacchaeus made haste and
came down, and so shall I. Spurgeon said his best sermon
ever preached there. Well, I'm not a wee little man,
but I am up a tree, and I'm going to make Hastings come down when
I get done. We've got a flight out of Sacramento at 2.30, and
there's not another one until tomorrow, so we're going to leave
just as quickly as I get done preaching. Please forgive Mrs. Fortner for not lingering and
talking for a long time, as she is wont to do and as you want
her to do. When I walk by her, she's going
to follow me out to the car, and we'll be ready for Brother
Gene and Judy whenever they have finished saying goodbye to you.
And Lord willing, we will see you in July or in glory, and
it'll be all right either way. All right, Psalm 22. Everything recorded in these
verses, if I understand the psalm we have read correctly, was written
prophetically pinned by divine inspiration as the very words
of the Lamb of God, our Savior, when he hung upon the curse tree,
bearing our sins in his own body. If there is any portion of Scripture
that we might look upon more so than another as holy ground,
before which we should pull off our shoes in reverence, it is
this portion of scripture. Here, God the Son, in His agony, speaks to the Father
as our substitute, as He's suffering the wrath of God in our room
and in our stead. We'll begin with verse 1. Verses 1, 2, and 3 are the words
of our Savior when He hung upon the cursed tree, when He who
knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. Now understand, this is at the
apex of His obedience. This is at His greatest time
of sorrow. His greatest time of need. The Lord Jesus says to His Father,
My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? My God, My God, why hast Thou
forsaken Me? You remember the sun was turned
into darkness for three hours, and the Lord Jesus broke the
silence of that day of darkness with this cry that all around
him heard, this cry of one in horrid agony, in horrid sorrow
of soul, with a broken heart, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? That's the question I want to
address in this message. It is a message from three Psalms.
We'll look at Psalm 22, Psalm 40, and Psalm 69. I said this
is a question I want to address, not answer. Answer it, I cannot. I cannot explain what I don't
understand. But address this question I must. Why Was he forsaken? When our Lord Jesus was made
sin for us, he cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? And then our all-glorious Redeemer
tells us how utterly, completely forsaken he was. So utterly forsaken
that the Father refused to hear his cry in his greatest time
of need. Read on. Why art thou so far
from helping me? I've never been there. I've never been there. There's
never been a time when God wouldn't hear my cry, when God wouldn't
help me. Never a time. But here is a man,
here is a man, the God-man, who cries, Why hast thou forsaken
me? Why are you so far from helping
me? And from the words of my roaring,
O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not, and in
the night season am not silent. I read those words, with utter
astonishment. I can't imagine, I can't imagine
what our Lord Jesus was experiencing. They seem to have astonished
Him as well. He seems to say in verses 4 and
5, God, you hear the prayers of others, you forsake not others, But me
you won't hear. Me you forsaken. Look at verse
4. Our fathers trusted in thee.
They trusted and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee and
were delivered. They trusted in thee and were
not confounded. But I cry unto you all the day. And through the night you brought
upon the earth. I cry and you hear me not. Why
hast thou forsaken me? These things are written in the
book of God for our learning that we might, through patience
and comfort of the scriptures, have hope. When our Lord Jesus
was made sin for me, he was utterly forsaken of God and put to death
as my substitute. And by His one great sin-atoning
sacrifice, He has forever put away my sins. Now this is the
one thing I want you to see in this message. The one thing I
have to declare, I hope you can enter into it. Oh may God give
you grace now to behold Him who died in our stead. I hang all
the hopes of my soul upon this one fact. When the Lord Jesus
Christ was made sin for me, he was utterly forsaken of God and
put to death as my substitute, and by his one great sin-atoning
sacrifice, he has forever put away my sins. He didn't merely
bear my sins in His own body on the tree. Bless God, He bore
them away. When you read this third verse,
our Holy Savior, when He was made sin for us, answers His
own question. He said, Why hast Thou forsaken
Me? And He answers Himself. My God, My God, why hast Thou
forsaken Me? but thou art holy, O thou inhabitest
the praises of Israel." Why was the Lord Jesus forsaken? Why
did God forsake His Son when He was made sin for us? Because
God is holy. of purer eyes than to behold
iniquity. This is what he says in Habakkuk
1, Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not
look upon sin. Our Savior was forsaken by the
Father when He was made sin for us, because justice demanded
it. Justice demanded it. Understand
that first and foremost. When the Lord Jesus was made
sin for us, he must be abandoned by God because God is just. He's a purer eyes than to behold
iniquity. God did not punish his son who
did not deserve to be punished. God did not punish his son, who
did not deserve to be punished. God punished our substitute,
his son, who fully deserved to be punished, for he was made
sin for us. You understand that? First thing,
God is just. God is just. to punish one for
those things of which he is not guilty is unjust in any court
anywhere. There is no possibility of an
innocent man, one who is demonstrated innocent, to be punished for
the crimes of another, not in a court of law. It can't be done.
You cannot transfer guilt. It cannot be done. Only the guilty
can be punished. And Jesus Christ, when he was
made sin for us, fully deserved to die. And this same God in
His justice, when He takes us to glory, doesn't take us to
glory as though we were righteous, as though He pretended us to
be righteous, because we are now just sort of weak that by
God and He's, well, come on in, I know you sin, but I'll forget
about it. But because by the sacrifice and the righteousness
of Christ being made ours, we are made righteous before God,
so that His name is Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. And
He calls us by that same name, Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our
righteousness. And when God takes us to glory,
He'll be right! Because God's just. He won't
behave in any other way. Here in verse 3, our Savior,
when he was dying under the wrath of God, justifies God in his
own condemnation, because he was made sin. He proclaims the
holiness of God in the midst of his agony. He is so pure,
so holy, so righteous, so just, that he will by no means clear
the guilty, even when the guilty one is his own darling son. Our Savior had no sin of his
own, understand that. He was born without original
sin, being from birth that Holy One who's spoken of in Luke 1,
the Holy Spirit. by His marvelous, wondrous work
in the womb of the Virgin, conceived in the Virgin's womb without
the aid of a man, a body for the Lord Jesus, a body, a holy
thing that would come into this world and live in perfect holiness
before God, so that all the days of His life our Savior walked
on this earth having no sin. No original sin, no propensity
for sin, no iniquity, no evil thought, no evil passion, no
coldness running through his heart, no malice, no evil in
him, and no evil done by him. He knew no sin and did no sin,
and in him is no sin. That's the language of Scripture.
But on Calvary, the Holy Lord God made him who knew no sin. to be sin for us, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. That passage I just quoted to
you, 2 Corinthians 5, 21. The Apostle Paul, writing by
divine inspiration, is giving us God's explanation of Isaiah
53, verse 10, where it says, when thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin. That's what Paul meant to say,
that he made him who knew no sin to be a sin offering. That's
not correct. Paul meant to say what he said.
When it pleased God, that one who knew no sin was made sin
for us. Because you see, the word sin
offering, everywhere it is used, in all the Old Testament, If
you want to get a concordance, look it up. It'll verify what
Mr. Fortner's telling you. Everywhere
you look it up, the word sin offering is not sin offering. The word is sin. Everywhere you
look at it, everywhere in the Old Testament. And the Apostle
Paul, writing by inspiration, gives us the explanation of the
prophets and the law with regard to the sin offering. The sin
offering, that is the offering made for sin, was looked upon
in the law as sin. And now Christ Jesus comes, the
Holy One, and He is made sin as He makes Himself an offering
for sin. On Calvary, our Savior was made
sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Oh, Brother Don, how can we explain
that? Well, you've asked me to do something
I can't do. I can't do it. Just as the Lord Jesus in the
Incarnation is described for us in John 1, 14 with these words,
and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. That means God
became a man. He never ceased to be God, but
He became a man. All that God is, He is in humanity. The Word. God the Son was made
flesh. We like to use terms, the Word,
Christ assumed our nature. He took on Himself our humanity
because we were uncomfortable. saying God became a man because
people have the idea somehow that means that God limited himself
God became limited to humanity God took on him the weakness
of humanity God became flesh so that in him dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily I don't know how God could be
made flesh and never cease to be God but he did I don't know
how God could die and yet never die, but he did. We're told in
Acts 20, 28 that he purchased the church with his own blood.
I don't know how Christ, who knew no sin and did no sin, could
be made sin and yet have never sinned, but he was. Compare 2
Corinthians 5, 21. Turn over there if you will.
It then turned back to the Gospel of John, chapter 2. The Gospel
of John, chapter 2. Hold your hands in both places. In John, chapter 2, the Lord
Jesus was invited to a marriage feast in Cana of Galilee. And
His first miracle was performed here. He turned water into wine. He turned water into wine. And
we're told in verse 11 of chapter 2, this beginning of miracles
did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory,
and His disciples believed on Him. Now back up to verse 9.
When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made
wine, and knew not whence it was, but the servants which drew
the water knew, The governor of the feast called the bridegroom
the water that was made wine. Did the Lord Jesus, you reckon,
have some post-it notes and stick them on those six barrels of
water and say wine? No. He made the water wine. Did he pretend the water was
wine? No. He made the water wine. Did
he treat the water as though it were wine? No. He made the
water wine. Well, Brother Don, of course
that's what happened. He made it the best wine there was. Look
at 2 Corinthians 5.41. For he hath made him to be said. To be, you'll notice, is in italics.
The word is really stronger than that. He hath made him sin for
us. He didn't write out a piece of
paper and say, this is sin, and stick it on his forehead. He
didn't treat the Lord Jesus as though he were sin. He did not
pretend that the Lord Jesus were sin. Not even did he here declare
that he imputed sin to Christ. In fact, Read through the Word
of God. Yes, sin was imputed to our Savior,
but it was more than an imputation. Sin cannot be imputed unless
guilt is there. It cannot be done. Justice will
not allow it. Nowhere in the Word of God, nowhere
in Scripture is any legal term ever used with reference to Christ
being made sin. Not one place, Pastor. I've looked
everyone of them up. Not one place. Adam's sin was
imputed to us. Christ's righteousness is imputed
to us. And yes, sin was imputed to our
Lord Jesus. It was imputed to Him because
He was made sin. He was made sin. These are mysteries
beyond the reach of human comprehension, but they're facts of divine revelation
to which we bow with adoration. Hard as it is for many folks
to realize, and I know this takes a stretch for some folks, God's
bigger than you. And you're not going to stick
Him in your little mold and say, this is what God is. You're not
gonna cram Him into your brain and understand all that God is.
God is infinite! Infinite! Incomprehensible! We know Him only by revelation. And we bow to the revelation
He gives. Alright, turn to Psalm 40. Psalm
40. Here again, we're allowed to
hear the agony of our blessed Redeemer. His soul as He cries
out to God when He was made sin for us. His language in this
40th Psalm is even more specific in declaring that our sins were
made His. Here again, the Lord Jesus calls
our sins His own because He hath made Him to be sin for us. Now the one speaking in this
song is beyond all doubt the Lord Jesus our Savior. How do
you know that? Because the Holy Spirit tells
us so in the 10th chapter of Hebrews. He knew that being made
sin for us, He would be brought into the horrible pit and filled
with distress. And yet His love for us is so
great that He is ready to assume our nature, ready to become one
of us. And in verse 7, He declares His
readiness to do so, saying, Lo, I come in the volume of the book.
It is written to me, I delight to do thy will, O my God. in the volume of the book according
to the ancient settlements of the triune God in covenant mercy
in eternity. He says now, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O my God. And in verse 11 and 12 he prays
for deliverance. Prays for deliverance. The Savior
prays for deliverance. 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. Mine iniquities, mine iniquities,
mine iniquities, mine iniquities, Mine iniquities, is that what
he said? God the Holy Spirit says that's
what he said in Hebrews chapter 10. Mine iniquities have taken
hold upon me, so that I'm not able to look up. They're more
than the hairs of mine head, therefore my heart faileth me. This is exactly the same thing
We read in John chapter 12 how Lord Jesus, as he anticipated
being made sin for us, he says, now is my soul troubled. What shall I say? Father, save
me from this hour, but for this cause came I unto this hour.
Father, glorify thy name. Why was the Son of God brought
to such a low, sorrowful state of agony and grief? He hath made Him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. Turn to Proverbs chapter 17. Our Savior could never have suffered
the painful, shameful, ignominious death of the cross as our substitute. He could never have suffered
the wrath of God. He could never have his blood
spilt by the sword of justice had he not been made sin for
us. Listen to what the book of God says here in Proverbs 17
and verse 15. He that justifieth the wicked
And he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination
to the Lord. What did he say? He that justifieth
the wicked, and he that condemneth the just. But wait. God has justified
Gene Harmon. He's a wicked man. Well, God
can't do that, not unless He makes you righteous. And now, God looks at Gene Harman
and his son, not just robed with the righteousness of Christ,
made the righteousness of God in him. And God declares Gene
Harman just. Somebody said, justified means
as just as if I'd never seen. No, that don't get it. Justified
means never seen. Never seen. Never seen. Well, you hear on TV, I've never
seen it. I've seen some advertisements
with regard to one of these TV police shows, and a fellow had
a shooting that said it was a justified shooting. It's a justified shooting.
What's that mean? Justified shooting. It was right.
It was right. Not, he murdered a man, but we're
going to declare his right. Not, he pulled out his gun and
shot a man in cold blood, but we're going to pretend that he
didn't do that. No, no. According to law, he
did what was right. That's what it is to be justified.
When the court declares you justified, it means you've done everything
right. And when God declares his people
justified in Christ Jesus, he's declaring them right. Justified,
righteous. They've done everything exactly
right. Because that's what Christ did
for us. He obeyed God's law in the totality
of his being, not for himself, but for us. And when he lived
in obedience to God, we lived in obedience to God. So, when
he says he that justifieth the wicked is an abomination to God,
can't be talking about God justifying me. God didn't justify me as
a wicked man, God justifies the ungodly, making them to be godly
in the totality of their being. Read on. And he that condemneth
the just, even they both are an abomination to the Lord. When God drew out his sword of
justice, and cried, Awake, O sword, against the man that is my fellow,
and smite and slay the shepherd. Did God slay his son, the just,
or did he slay his son, the guilty? You decide. You decide. If he slew his son the just,
God declares himself to be an abomination. Oh no, oh no. When he made his son sin for
us, God Almighty turned his back on his son, and his son cried,
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And God, refusing
to look on his son, says, Awake, O sword, against the man that
is my fellow! Smite and slay the shepherd! And justice slaughtered the Son
of God! Because He was made sin for us. Look at verse 12. The Savior is speaking, remember?
For innumerable evils have compassed me about. He will be set on every
side with evil. Countless Woes compassed our
great substitute, our sin-bearer. God made all the sins of all
His people in all the ages of time. They're all the world. And laid them upon His Son. in
such a way that his son was made something worse than one who's
committed sin, a sinner. His son was made sin. The horrid thing that he loathes
in his holy being, he's made to be. Mine iniquities have taken
hold upon me, he cries, so that I'm not able to look up. He had
no sin, but our sins were laid on him and he took our sins as
his own. He was made sin for us, and the
transfer wasn't a pretend transfer, it was real! It was real! Brother Don, how do you explain
that? I would not, for the life of
me, attempt to explain that. And I sure won't try to explain
it away. Oh, no. He was made sin for us. My soul,
what would our sins have done to us eternally if the friend
of sinners had not condescended to take them all upon himself? Oh, blessed Scripture, He hath
made Him sin for us. Oh, marvelous depth of love that
made the perfectly immaculate Lamb of God to stand in the sinner's
place and bear all the horror of great trembling and woe which
sin must cause in the souls of the damned in hell forever so
that Christ Jesus suffered all the fury of God's wrath all the
hell of infinite justice with one tremendous draft of love
and drank damnation dry there more than the hairs in
my head Therefore, my heart faileth me. They're more than the hairs of
my head. Therefore, my heart faileth me."
Oh, what a word. We have a lady in our congregation
who, a few years ago, suddenly had a heart attack. A picture
of hell. Picture of hell. She fell over
at the steering wheel right in front of the place where the
ambulance was. If she hadn't been right in front of where
they had sent the ambulance to dispatch her, she would have died right
there. Got her to the UK Med Center. And they started asking
questions because they couldn't find out what was wrong. Asked
her husband if she had lost a son or daughter, mother or father
recently. No. And I learned something. People actually do die of a broken
heart. The heart just ruptures. And
they thought this is what happened to Regina. Well, there's no thought
about this. God's darling son died of a broken
heart. The reproaches of them that reproach
thee have fallen on me. Reproach hath broken mine heart." It was the thought of this in
Gethsemane's garden that caused our Savior to sweat, as it were,
great drops of blood falling to the ground. Read the words
of our sin-atoning mediator again, Psalm 40, 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. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me, so that I'm not able to look up. They're more than
the hairs of mine head, therefore my heart faileth me. Now look at Psalm 69. Again, everything in this psalm
is repeatedly referred to in the New Testament as being the
very words of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. The opening verses
of the psalm are clearly our Redeemer's words. Save me, O
God, for the waters are come into my soul. I seek in deep
mire where there is no standing. I'm come into deep waters where
the floods overflow me. I'm weary with my crying, my
throat is dried, my eyes fail while I wait for my God. They
that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my
head. They that would destroy me, be
my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. Then I restored that which I
took not away." No question is it, that's our Savior's vision.
That's who it is, isn't it? All right, look at verse 5. Oh
God, Thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from
Thee." The word foolishness means perversity. The word sins, if
you have a marginal translation, would be better translated guiltiness.
Our Savior, our glorious substitute, when he was made sin for us,
owns our perversity as his perversity, and our guiltiness as his guiltiness,
because it was made his. The first Adam hid his perversity
and his guilt. The last Adam owns ours as his
own, and does so before God it is as though he were saying here
lifted up upon the cross I suffer outside the gate for my people
as their substitute in such a way that I desire that my sins be
conspicuous to every creature in heaven earth and hell my sins
the sins of my people all now and forever are blotted out with
my blood for I being made sin for my people have put away sin
by the sacrifice of myself and all the while he intercedes for
us look at verse 6 let not them that wait on thee
O LORD God of hosts, let not them that wait on Thee... Wait? You're waiting on Him right
now if you believe Him. To wait on Him is to believe
Him. It's to trust Him. He that believeth on the Son
of God shall not be ashamed. He that believeth on the Son
shall not be confounded. He that believeth on the Son
shall not be confused. He that believeth on the Son
shall not make haste. Those are all translations of
the same word. Now, watch how he prays. He says,
Lord, I'm made a reproach. I'm brought to shame because
I've made sin. So let not those 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. Verse 7, Because for
thy sake I have borne reproach, shame hath covered my face. Oh, what a Savior! What a Savior! He who knew no sin was made sin
for me. He who never had a reason to
have shame died with shame! Shame which became His
glory with which he began to manifest forth his glory when
he was made sin for us that we might never have shame before
God read on, verse 19, Psalm 69 thou hast known my reproach and
my shame and my dishonor my adversaries are all before thee reproach
hath broken mine heart and I'm full of heaviness and I looked
for some to take pity but there was none and for comforters but
I found none why Was our Lord Jesus made sin for us? It was that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. John Newton wrote many great,
great hymns. Among those hymns, none is sweeter
and more blessed than this. In evil long I took delight,
unawed by shame or fear, till a new object struck my sight
and stopped my wild career. I saw one hanging on a tree in
agonies and blood, who fixed his languid eyes on me as near
his cross I stood. Sure never, till my latest breath,
can I forget that look. It seemed to charge me with his
death, though not a word he spoke. My conscience felt and owned
the guilt and plunged me in despair. I saw my sins, his blood had
spilt. My sins had nailed him there.
A second look he gave, which said, I freely all forgive. This blood is for thy ransom
paid. I die that thou mayst live. Amen. Amen.