Thank you, Pastor. I can think of nothing in the
world more difficult to bear than a tormenting, screaming,
guilty conscience. A conscience that keeps you tossing
on your bed day and night for fear of just damnation, a guilty
conscience that causes the fires of hell to burn in the souls
of the damned. A guilty conscience that's described
in the Word of God as a worm that never ceases to gnaw at
the damned in hell. Fire that cannot be quenched. And that guilty conscience, I know by experience, causes your refuge of lies to
vanish before you. Makes the bed on which you have
made yourself comfortable too short to stretch yourself on.
The blanket you wrap yourself in too narrow and there's no
hiding from God. And the only, the only, the only
remedy for a guilty conscience is the revelation of Christ in
your soul. The revelation of Jesus Christ
crucified as your substitute, bearing your sin, satisfying
the wrath and justice of God on your behalf. putting your
sin away and making you righteous before God. It is my prayer that
before you leave this building tonight, you whose consciences
torment you will be made to rest easy in Christ our Redeemer and
the blessed knowledge of the forgiveness of sins by his blood. John Newton wrote a hymn I love
to read, recite to myself, and recite to others, and I do so
often. In evil log I took delight, unawed
by shame or fear, until 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 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, and helped to nail 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. Will you turn with me tonight
to a very familiar passage of Scripture and just hold your
Bibles open on your lap at 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. I keep praying, I keep praying
before I leave this world. God will allow me once. to declare
the message found in this portion of Holy Scripture as it ought
to be declared in the power of His Spirit, with understanding
and with clarity. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. For He hath made Him to be sin
for us. who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him." I remember many years ago when Brother Henry
Mahan published his first Bible class commentary, there were
a number of reviews that came out that I saw. One of them came
out one day while Brother Mahan was in our home, and the reviewer
wasn't real happy with the commentary. He said, all Mahan does is tell
us what the text says. Brother Mahan was real happy
with the review. All he does is tell us what the
text says. Now I want you to hold your Bibles
open on your lap tonight. And I want to declare the message
of this text in the very words before your eyes. And I pray
that you will hear what I'm about to declare to you as the word
of God, the Holy Ghost. All right, let's look at our
text. Four, Paul is here urging sinners
to be reconciled to God, to quit fighting God, to quit resisting
the plain revelation of God in Scripture. to bow before Jesus
Christ, being reconciled to God by faith in Him. He says, we
pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. And the
basis for that is that God Almighty has already accomplished reconciliation
for sinners throughout the world by the sacrifice of His Son.
God was in Christ reconciling the world. not reconciling everybody
in the world, but reconciling sinners throughout the world,
chosen sinners, by the sacrifice of his Son, reconciling the world
unto himself. So that when Christ cried at
Calvary, it is finished, there were some people who were reconciled
to God by the sacrifice of God's Son. brought into blessed union
with God Almighty that can never be altered, perfect union by
the sacrifice of Christ. Paul says, now I'm urging you
to be reconciled to God because the work is all done. I'm urging
you to be reconciled to God because Christ has put away sin. I'm
urging you to be reconciled to God, for this is the only way
you can ever stand before God righteous forever. Be reconciled
to God, believing on his side. And that's the only way you can
be reconciled to God, is to trust the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at
the next word, he, he, God. Does that refer to God the Father,
or God the Son, or God the Holy Ghost? Yes, that's what it's
referring to. He, the triune God. God who swore as He revealed
His glory to Moses, I will by no means clear the guilty. God,
the triune God who swore that He will not forgive iniquity,
transgression, or sin. The God who swore that he is
gracious and yet who swore himself sovereign and just. And at the
same time, declared that he does forgive iniquity, transgression,
and sin. He will by no means clear the
guilty, but he does. He will not forgive sin, but
he does. He will not receive the transgressor,
but he does. He found a way. And that way
is found in the sacrifice of his darling son, the Lord Jesus. He says, deliver him from going
down to the pit for I have found a ransom. And that ransom he
found in Jesus Christ. He hath, hath. At one time in the past, This
is a finished work. This is not an ongoing process.
He hath, the triune God, hath made, made. And when you read the scriptures, understand that in any language,
We have words that are used, words that are spelled the same
and pronounced the same that mean different things. In our
English language, there are three different words in the Greek
text that are translated made. This particular word made means
wondrously, mysteriously. unexplainably, created, or caused
to be. It is a word that speaks of that
which was done in the past, caused to be. He hath made. But understand, you will never
understand this. You will never understand this.
How could these things be? We have just read this text,
and we're going to read the rest of it here again. How can it
be that God, holy, just, and true, has made His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, sin? How do you explain that? Now,
I study theology. I've been doing it a little while.
I like to study theology. I read good books. And the theologians
try to explain things in terms that will not contradict reason,
that will not contradict other things clearly taught in scripture.
So they come up with definitions and they come up with words and
phrases that explain away rather than explain. That take the plain
declaration of gospel truth and make it muddy by trying to explain
it. God here speaks, God the Holy
Ghost here speaks, and deliberately uses this word, which means wondrously,
mysteriously, unexplainably, caused to be, or created as,
He, the triune God, hath made Him. his own darling son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy
Lamb of God, the God-man, our mediator, our covenant surety,
that one who before the world began assumed all responsibility
for his elect, all responsibility. That mean Paul met him before
the world began God Almighty never looked to you for anything. And He does it now. And He does
it now. The Son of God as our covenant
surety from everlasting stood as our covenant surety and totally
assumed responsibility for our souls. He hath made him the Lord
Jesus who knew no sin. The only human being ever to
walk on God's earth who knew no sin. He did not know it by nature
for he's born of the virgin. Conceived in the womb of the
Virgin as that holy thing which should suffer as our sacrifice
for sin in due time. Conceived in the womb of the
Virgin without the aid of a man by God the Holy Spirit. He knew
no sin by nature. He knew no sin by experience. He never sinned. Never had a thought he shouldn't
have had. Never had a passion that was
wrong. He knew no sin. He never understood by experience
what it is to sin. He never knew. He never knew. He knew no sin. Our Lord Jesus
must be both God and man in one glorious person. Otherwise, he
could never have satisfied the justice of God for us. He must
be God because only one who is God is of infinite worth and
infinite value to satisfy the justice of God. Only one who
is God can bring in a righteousness that is infinite worth and infinite
value to meet the requirements of God that it must be perfect
to be accepted. Only one who is God can bear
the wrath of God at one time and with one tremendous draft
of love, drink damnation dry. Only one who's God who can do
that. But he must be a man. A man just
like you. A man tempted in all points just
like you. A man with all the feelings and
emotions of humanity, just like you. A man who's endured all
the trials and temptations of humanity, just like you. He must
be a man, a real man. Not a phantom, not an imaginary
spirit on the earth, a man. Jesus Christ, who died at Calvary
2,000 years ago, is the God-man, the man-God. He is God in the
flesh. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. And we beheld His glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. How could God become a man? Would you like to try to explain
that? The theologians say this, you must be careful not to confuse
things. God did not become a man, God
assumed human nature. That's not what the book says.
They call it a hypostatic union. Does that help you any? No, the word was made flesh. I haven't any idea how, but Todd
Nyberg, God became what you are, flesh. flesh, in Him, that God-man
who sits in glory dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead in
a body. All that God is, He is, for He
is God. And all that man is, He is, for
He's a man. And man had broken God's law. Man had transgressed. Man had
sinned against God. Man committed iniquity, transgression,
and sin. And so he who bears the wrath
of God as the sinner's substitute and surety must be God and he
must be man. He hath made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin. He hath made him, you'll notice
the words to be are in attacks. Our King James translators were
very honest men, unlike modern translators. And I didn't say
that without thought. They were very honest men, unlike
modern translators. When they came to a passage that
they thought could be read two different ways with equal honesty
to the text, They put a marginal reference there, or they came
across a passage that needed a word or two put in to make
the translation read smoothly, they put it in italics. So that
you would know there's no corresponding word for these words to be in
the original text. Now, there's nothing wrong with
that translation, but it takes away a little bit of the force.
Read the text this way. He hath made him sin. He hath made him sin. Every time I try to not explain,
but just simply show what that is, I tremble. Tremble not that I fear overstating,
but understating what is written here. He hath made him see. Hold your hands here and turn
to the book of Habakkuk. I just read this again this afternoon. Habakkuk chapter one. In this prophecy, the Lord God
tells Habakkuk what he's going to do in the destruction of Jerusalem,
the public worship of God in the temple, with Nebuchadnezzar
destroying the children of Israel and their nation, carrying them
into captivity in Babylon for 70 years. After this destruction
of the temple, though the temple was rebuilt, the mercy seat,
the Ark of the Covenant, Five different elements of worship
involved in the worship of God were never recovered. Never recovered. The public worship of God was
here destroyed. It was destroyed as far as all
the symbolism is concerned. And it tells us how that God's
going to use these wicked Babylonians to accomplish it. But right here
in the middle of the first chapter, The Lord makes a declaration
to Habakkuk that seems out of place. As a matter of fact, I
would never guess what the text referred to, reading it just
in the context of Habakkuk, if the Spirit of God hadn't given
it to us a second time. In Acts chapter 13, the Apostle
Paul quotes this very passage. It's the only other time it's
referred to in all the scripture. And it's talking about what we
just read in 2 Corinthians 5.21. It's talking about the sacrifice
of our Lord Jesus. And Habakkuk is telling us as
God's prophet that God is saving his people and bringing to pass
this very thing by all the affairs of providence. Brother Bob and
I were talking today, Brother Bill Eldridge, about the things
going on in the world around us. Thank God he's on the throne. All the events of providence
are described in Habakkuk chapter three as his chariots of salvation. What's God doing? He's saving
his people. That's what he's doing every
day. But here in Habakkuk chapter one, verse five, look at this
prophecy. Behold ye among the heathen and regard and wonder
marvelously Don't look at this thing and just give it a passing
glance. Wonder marvelously, for I will
work a work in your days. Talking about this gospel day, which ye will not believe, though
it be told to you. Back in our text, here's the
work. He hath made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin. Christ was made sin. Not a sin offering. For John
wasn't Christ our sin offering. Of course he was and is. Not that he was reckoned to be
a sinner. Well, wasn't he reckoned a sinner?
Of course he was. Of course he was. But that's
not what's stated here. It doesn't say that sin was imputed
to him. Some will say, well, this is
a legal thing, a forensic thing. Such words are never used in
this connection. Nowhere in the word of God. Not
in the Old Testament, not in the New. This is the most stupendous. wondrous, glorious, mysterious
thing ever beheld by men or performed by God in heaven. He hath made him sin. That awful mass of iniquity,
transgression. That which deserves God's fury
and God's wrath. that which deserves the outpouring
of divine justice, that which deserves the consuming fire of
God. He hath made him sin for us,
for us who are by nature and by practice and by breath, with every breath
of our bodies, with every beat of our hearts, with every thought
of our minds, for us who are nothing but sin. Now, Brad Hartman, that's what
you are, and that's what I am. And we'll never get any better. We'll never get any better. Well,
I'm not like that anymore. I wasn't talking to you. I was
talking about us. I'm not being facetious. I'm
not being facetious. Until you find out what you are,
you will never seek the Son of God for mercy. Until you find
out what you are, you will never be reconciled to God. Until God
opens your heart before you and shows you the corruption you
are, you will never know His saving grace. But folks who've
seen the Redeemer have seen themselves, and all we are is sin. No words can be used as adjectives
to sufficiently describe the evil. No words can be used to
sufficiently define the corruption. No words could be used to sufficiently
define how utterly ignominious sin is before God Almighty. But here is a man The only man
who ever knew no sin. And pastor, he's the only man
who ever really did no sin. He's the only man who ever knew
sin as God knows it. Remember, he's holy, harmless,
undefiled, and separate from sinners. who is the God-man, looked upon
sin and looks upon sin, just as the triune Jehovah himself,
without the mediator, would look upon sin. Jesus Christ beheld sin as that
most loathsome to his soul. Most contrary to His character. Most hateful to His being. For He is the Holy Lamb of God. But He made sin. Made sin. What does that mean? Turn back
to Psalms 22. Let's see if we can find out.
Psalms 22. Now people talk about Christ being treated as though
he were a sinner, bearing the effects of sin, bearing
the judgment of God because of sin. But the fact is God in his
justice. I'm not looking for a word. I
want you to hear what I'm saying. God in his justice could not,
And when you say God can't do something, you better know what
you're talking about. God can't lie, can he? God can't be unfaithful,
can he? God cannot be anything less than
true, can he? There are things God cannot do.
God in his justice could never have inflicted upon his darling
son. The consequences of sin and the
punishment of sin were he not made sin. Not injustice, not injustice. Eli imputed drunkenness to Hannah,
but it wasn't true. But Eli is just a man. We often
impute guilt where there is no guilt, but we're just men and
we're not just. No law in the universe can on
any ground of justice impute guilt where there is no guilt.
He hath made him sin. Had our Lord merely looked upon
his sacrifice as our substitute, as being the suffering of infinite wrath, on our behalf to satisfy God's
justice, but his suffering and his satisfaction
involving nothing of guilt before God, the sacrifice would be great,
but it wouldn't break his heart. Just about a year ago, one of
the ladies in our congregation suffered what we thought was
a horrible heart attack. The doctors were just sure she
wouldn't survive. One of the first questions the
doctor asked her husband, when she's in the room where they're
trying to take care of her, he pulled him out and said, Mark, has your wife suffered any great
tragic loss? Lost a child? parent, brother,
sister? No. Why would you ask? The doctors
have finally recognized something. I can show you the title of it.
I couldn't read it. It's a Japanese name. A Japanese
doctor made conclusive evidence of so. It's called broken heart
syndrome. Do you know folks do die of a
broken heart? Our master said in Psalm 69,
20, reproach hath broken my heart. The reproaches of them that reproach
thee, fellow men, and reproach hath broken my heart. And when
he's in Gethsemane, as he anticipated being made sin, our Lord cried
three times, Oh, my father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me. And the third time, Luke tells
us, Luke, the physician, he's the only one who tells us this.
He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground. Brother Bill, his heart broke
within him. He wasn't begging the Lord God
to keep him from the cross. That's the reason he came into
the world. He wasn't fearful of beating Satan at the cross
and crushing the serpent's head by his death. That's the reason
he came into the world. He wasn't fearful of all the
sufferings of his body on the cursed tree. Other men had suffered
such things. That wasn't it. His soul quaked
within Him as this Holy One anticipated being met, what He most abhorred. And then as He hung on the tree,
Psalm 22, He cries, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Here he is at the apex of his
obedience as Jehovah's righteous servant. Here he is at the end of everything he agreed to accomplish. Here he is. Abandoned of God. Why hast thou forsaken me? Why
art thou so far from helping me? And from the words of my
roaring. He goes on and says, you've helped
others. You've helped others who called on you. Throughout
history, your people have called on you and you've helped them.
Why are you so far from helping me? Oh my God, I cry in the daytime,
but thou hearest not. And in the night season, and
am not silent. Have you ever tried you who are
gods? Do you know what it is to try
to pray, to try to speak to God, Bob, and God won't let you speak
to Him? Do you have any idea of what it
is to want to hear God speak and
God won't speak to your soul? This is what it is. Why won't
you hear me? Why won't you hear the words
of my Lord? And then he answers the question for himself. But thou art holy. Habakkuk put it this way. Thou
art of pure eyes than to behold evil. Turn to Psalm 40. Verse 12. There's no question these are
the words of our Redeemer. You read the preceding verses
and you see clearly the one speaking is our Savior himself. David
speaks by the spirit of prophecy. And the Lord Jesus, as he has
made sin for us, says, for innumerable evils have compassed me about. My iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I'm not able to look up. They're more than
the hairs in my head. Therefore, my heart fail me. How could God make his son sin? I don't have any idea. And I refuse to guess. I have
no idea. That doesn't mean I don't believe
it, rejoice in it, and rest my soul on it. I don't understand
God. I don't pretend to. I worship
it. And I trust it. How could the word be made flesh? I don't know. I don't know. I won't deny it. I don't wish
to deny it. I won't explain it away and I
won't try to explain it in such a way as suits rebels. God became
flesh and God made his son sin for us. Who? For all his elect. Well, who are they? Every sinner
who trusts his darling son. Can you, will you, do you cast
your soul on Christ alone? He would make sin for you. Do you believe on the Son of
God? He was made sin for you. Do you
trust Christ as your only righteousness before God? He was made sin for
you. Do you trust Him as your only
acceptance with God? He was made sin for you. He had
made Him sin for us who knew no sin. But when did He do it? Our Lord Jesus is described in
the book of God as the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
We're told in the scriptures that we from eternity are accepted
in the beloved. The Lord God Almighty looked
on his son as our only substitute and made his son to be our only
sin bearer before ever sin was committed and accepted us before
ever we transgressed him and forgave us before ever we broke
his law. So that there never was a time
when God looked on his people and beheld iniquity in them.
What does the book say? He hath not beheld iniquity in
Israel. He never has. He never has. He never has. Well, what's the
point? He never has. God doesn't change. God doesn't change. As long as
Christ stood as our surety. And Christ stood as our surety
from everlasting. You see how puny we are in our
understanding of things? What does that mean? I don't
know. I don't know. Eternity! What do you know about
eternity? We're creatures of time, and
God condescends to use words that men in time, with puny brains
like ours, can get some handle on what He's done for us in His
wondrous grace. From eternity, Christ is the
Lamb slain for us, and we're accepted in Him. At Calvary,
in the fullness of time, in due time, God Almighty gathered all
the sins of His people. and one massive, ugly heap of
obnoxious corruption, and made his son sin. And God the Son made himself
sin. He, his own self, bear our sin
in his own body, trembling. horrified at the thought of being
made sin. He never turned back. He set
his face like a flint and would not cease. He could at any time. He's Jehovah's righteous servant.
He's the bond servant, and he can go out free anytime he wants
to. Read of it, Exodus 21. He can go free anytime he wants
to. No obligation pressing him to
this. He's God's voluntary servant. But he must go out alone, without
his wife, without his children. And he would not go out without
us. as Adam, who was the similitude
of our blessed Savior, the last Adam, knowing full well that
he plunged himself and all his race into damnation under the
wrath of God, rather than be parted with Eve, took the fruit
and damned himself. and the last Adam, horrified at the thought of being
made sin. We can't grasp it. We can't begin to imagine it.
Rather than being parted from you, whom he loves with an everlasting
love. Rather than being parted from
me, damned himself and was made a curse. Cursed is everyone that
hangeth on the tree. Made a curse for us for this
purpose, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles,
that all covenant blessings might come on God's elect. He made him sin for us And you know sin. And God the
Holy Spirit, in Holy Spirit conviction, makes him sin as well. When He,
the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will convince the world, the
world of chosen sinners for whom Christ died, He will convince
them, if God the Holy Spirit ever comes to you in saving power,
In the mighty operations of His grace, you won't need me to tell
you He did. If God the Holy Spirit ever convicts
you of sin, you're sin. And of righteousness. Righteousness
because I go to my Father, the Savior said. I could not go to
the Father had I not brought in everlasting righteousness.
I could not go back as Jehovah's Servant finishing my work had
I not finished the work. And no judgment. He'll convince
you of judgment. Judgment? Judgment. I began by telling you what I
know of a guilty, terrified conscience. And now my conscience says, not
guilty. I'm not guilty before God. No matter what I feel in my soul,
no matter the emptiness, No matter the hardness, no matter the vileness
that rages within me, I am not guilty. I'm convinced that judgment
is over. Christ bore my sin in his own
body on the tree and he bore it away. So that so far as the
East is from the West, he's removed our transgressions from us. They're
not mine. They're gone, taken away. Well,
why? That we, these very same people
for whom He made sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Made the righteousness You remember Paul said in Romans
10 that the Jews, being ignorant of God's righteousness, went
about to establish their own righteousness. Ignorant of God's
righteousness? Nobody in this building, nobody
in the world is ignorant of God's righteous character. That's stamped
on your conscience by creation. Everybody knows that God's righteous.
Well, what were they ignorant of? They were ignorant of the
fact that all the righteousness required in the law, all the
righteousness typified by the sacrifices, all the righteousness
portrayed in the services of the tabernacle and temple, all
the righteousness portrayed in those sacrifices that ceremonially
brought God's blessing and peace on His people, that righteousness
now is satisfied because Christ has finished His work. He came
to be baptized by John the Baptist. And John said, oh no, I couldn't
do that. And the Lord said, suffer it
to be so now. For so it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness. When a hound this earth, does
you getting immersed in a pool of water fulfill righteousness?
Only symbolically. Baptism portrays the fulfillment
of righteousness by the crucified redeemer who's risen again. And
now we are made the righteousness of God in him, freed from sin. Turn to first Peter chapter four,
first Peter chapter four. For as much then as Christ hath
suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with
the same mind. For he that hath suffered in
the flesh hath ceased from sin. Is that talking about Christ
or talking about the believer? Yes, that's who's talking about
it. Read the next line. He ceased from sin because He
suffered in the flesh, that He should no longer, that He no
longer should live the rest of His lifetime, His time in the
flesh, to the lust of men. Well, our Lord Jesus never did
live to the lust of men. We did, but we suffered in the
flesh. You see, the text ends with these
words. He hath made Him to be sin for us, that we might be
made the righteousness of God. Have you got it? In Him. We're in Him. As He's in the Father, and the
Father's in Him. We're one with Him. Really one
with Him. More truly one with Him than
this finger is one with this body. The fact is this finger
might be severed from the body and the body go on existing.
But we're so truly one with Christ that he said, because I live,
you shall live also. And he can't be severed from
you and go on living. One with him so that whatever
can rightly be said of Jesus Christ can rightly be said of
you who were healed. Whatever could rightly be charged
against you. Whatever it is, Christ was made. And we suffered the wrath of
God in Him to the full satisfaction of God's holy justice. He was manifested to take away
our sins. But that's not all. In Him is
no sin. Oh, God give you grace to trust
Him. Amen. My old pastor in Texas, Jack
Shanks, used to say, y'all came here tonight to hear somebody
say something good about the Lord Jesus, didn't you? If that's
why you came, you just got what you came for. What a blessing. I appreciate that. Let's take
five minutes. And when you hear the piano,
come back and let's sit down. We'll take a five-minute break,
and we'll see you back here.