I suppose the most difficult
thing on this earth for human beings to deal with is guilt. If you want those speakers to
last the next two nights, you better turn everything down a
little bit. Our Lord speaks of hell. I try not to think about it too
much, and I don't preach about it much. But I wonder what the
fires of hell must be by which God sustains people in their
being and yet torments them continually. He speaks of the worm that dies
not and the fire that is not quenched. And I think at least
a portion of that fire that is not quenched, that worm that
forever must gnaw at a man's conscience is guilt. A more keen sense of guilt than
we can ever imagine on this earth. And yet even on this earth, guilt,
a screaming conscience, torments multitudes. Your conscience screams
and accuses because of guilt. And you try to silence it. You
try to stifle the screaming voice of your conscience with morality
and religious reformation and religious duty and Bible reading
and prayer. And still your conscience screams
with guilt. Guilt before God's holiness. Guilt because of sin. Sin that outwardly you may cover
so that other folks don't see it. So that mom and dad, husband
or wife, son or daughter don't really see what it is that torments
you, but the guilt of what you know you are, what you know you
are on the inside, deep in your inmost being. Guilt because of
sin. And even God's people often struggle
hard with guilt. You who are born of God know
that Christ paid your debt and put away your sin. You know that
you are accepted in the beloved. You know that God's anger is
in no way against you and the Lord will not impute sin to you.
You know that you're made the righteousness of God in Christ. You know that you're accepted
and God smiles upon you in his son. You know that here. And in measure here. But still
Satan knows that nothing is such an oppressive load as the guilt
of sin. And he continually accuses and
slanders And you find something inside you that agrees with his
accusations and slanders because you know that in and of yourself
you're still. Nothing but sin. Redeemed but
sinner still. Justified but sinner still. Forgiven but sinner still. And the more you experience of
God's grace in this world, The longer you live in this world,
if you're honest with yourself, the fact is, Glenn, it just gets
worse. I wish that weren't the case,
but I'm not running for office, I want to be honest with you.
It just gets worse. You who have long walked with
the Redeemer, can verify or deny what I'm declaring. This is true
to my experience. It is true to the Word of God.
That which is born of flesh is still just flesh. Brother Don, what can we do with
a sense of guilt? I've got just the message for
you. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 21. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 And verse
21, I want to talk to you, if God
will enable me, about Christ our substitute, not the doctrine
of substitution. That won't help you a bit. Brother Henry Mahan, I've heard
him say it a thousand times. I've heard him say it once. You
don't arrive at Christ through doctrine. You arrive at doctrine
through Christ. You can have all the right doctrine
and never know the Savior. Now, if you know the Savior,
that'll straighten your doctrine out. But if you have all the
right doctrine and don't know Him, it'll do you no good. Did you ever notice in this book
we are never one time admonished? We are never one time admonished
to trust the blood of Christ. We hear preachers say that. I
say that. But we're never admonished to
trust the blood of Christ. We're never once admonished to
trust the righteousness of Christ. We're never once admonished to
trust the risen Christ. We're never even admonished to
trust the crucified Christ. We're admonished repeatedly to
trust Christ. Oh, what a difference. Martha
stood before the Lord Jesus when her brother Lazarus was dead.
And she was rebuking the Lord because of what had taken place.
She was upset with him. And he said, Martha, I told you
your brother would rise in the resurrection. And then your brother
would rise again. She said, I know he's going to
rise in the resurrection. I've got the doctrine of resurrection
down pat. I understand that. And the Lord Jesus said, Martha,
you're looking at the resurrection. I am the resurrection and the
life. The doctrine not going to do
you any good, but if you meet Him who is the resurrection,
that will give you some comfort and solace and strength. My subject
tonight is Christ, our substitute. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21. For
He hath made Him sin for us. The words to be, you will notice,
are in italics. Our King James translators have
given us, in my opinion, the best translation there is of
Holy Scripture. But as they translated the Scriptures,
you will often find italicized words. And they put them in italics
so that we would understand there was no corresponding word in
the Greek text for that italicized word. They italicized the word
simply to make the text read more smoothly, to make it read
more easily in the English language. And normally, the italics make
no difference at all. But here, the word really is
better read, I think, this way. he hath made him sin for us who
knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him the text says just two things just two things he hath
made him sin for us and he did it that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. Oh, God, teach us these two things
in the sweet experience of your grace. The text begins with a
very important word, for. It calls our attention, directs
our attention back to what the apostle has been dealing with.
He had been speaking with urgency, urging folks who read this letter
to trust Christ, to believe on the Son of God, to cast all their
hope upon Him. He is urging us, and he is urgent
in urging us, to cast all our hope on the Son of God, to trust
the Lord Jesus Christ. I urge you to do so. And he is
doing so with good reason. In chapter 4, verse 18, as the
apostle began to deal with his own afflictions and difficulties
and trials in the fourth chapter, he said, but we faint not. He
said, quoting almost from Psalm 27, except I had believed to
see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, I
had fainted. But he says here, we faint not,
because our light affliction, verse 17, is but for a moment. And it worketh for us a far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at
the things which are seen. but of the things which are not
seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things
which are not seen are eternal. Hear me, young and old alike. We live in a world where all
things are temporary. Temporal. Everything. The lady sitting right beside
you, just a temporary relationship. One of you is going to leave
the other one soon. That's just fact. Everything you've worked
for, everything you've labored to accumulate on this earth,
just temporary. All the trees in the forest of
this world are marked to be burned. Everything here is temporary. Nothing is lasting. What fools
we are. to set our hearts on things that
are temporary. We're going to a world where
everything is eternal. Things which are unseen are eternal. In eternity, nothing changes. In eternity, nothing dies. In eternity, nothing fades away. whether in the eternal world
of heavenly bliss and glory or the eternal world of the pit
of the damned where the worm dies not and the fire is not
quenched, we're going to a world where all things are eternal
and there's just a breath between us and eternity. Now we who know
the Redeemer, we who are born of God, have confidence with
regard to that world. In the first nine verses of chapter
5, the Apostle speaks of the immortal state of God's saints.
As soon as they die, we have a building and house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens. But that's not the case for everybody.
Verse 10. For we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ. If you've got one of those Bibles
that's been messed with, you ought to just ignore the notes.
This is talking about the very same thing John describes in
Revelation 20, the great white throne judgment, the judgment
of the righteous and the wicked. We must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things
done in his body, or may receive the things in a body according
to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Everybody
in eternity is going to receive exactly what he deserves. Exactly what he deserves. You
and me too. God Almighty will not bend His
justice. He will not alter His law to
save anybody. If you or I stand before God
accepted in eternity, we must stand before Him accepted on
the grounds of righteousness, justice, and truth. There is
no other way to stand before God. You will receive exactly
what you deserve from the Almighty, and I will too. both the righteous
and the wicked, according to that which we have done, whether
it be good or bad. Brother Don, are you saying we're
going to be judged by our works? No. God said that. God said that. Either by that which we have
done personally, or that which we have done in another person. Either that which we have done
by our own hands, or that which we have done by the hands of
the God-man, our Redeemer, Jesus Christ the Lord. Judgment Day,
the Great White Throne Judgment, is not going to be a day like
our courts here. We talk about somebody going
to court, and they're going to be tried, and there's going to be a trial
of every man's soul, and the books are going to be opened,
and the Scriptures say so. And men are going to be judged
out of the books. Not judged according to this thing or that
that men may bring before them, but judged by absolute truth. The Lord God opens the books. And he sees the book of law and
justice condemning this man and that, and they're cast into hell. But in Jeremiah 50, hold your
hands here, Jeremiah chapter 50, he speaks about some other
folks. Jeremiah chapter 50, verse 20. In those days and in that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for,
and none, there shall be none, and the
sins of Judah, and they shall not be found, for I will pardon
them whom I reserve." He opens the book of life and sees the names of a great
multitude which no man can number, against whom no sin is written,
no offense is charged, no crime is recorded. Because in the person
of the Lamb we have perfectly obeyed God and fully satisfied
His justice in the doing and dying of God's dear Son. In the
day of judgment the Lord God will simply make manifest the
justice and the righteousness of both the salvation of his
elect and the damnation of the unbelieving how do you know this
is talking about the great white throne judgment not some imaginary
judgment of believers for their works look at verse 11 knowing
therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade Knowing the terror
of God's justice. Knowing the terror of divine
righteousness. Knowing the terror of the strictness
of God's holy law. We persuade me and we urge you,
we beseech you to trust the Son of God. And then the apostle
moves on. Look down at verse 17. Therefore.
Therefore. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. You remember the old VCR tapes? You put them in, you miss something,
you push rewind, start all over. How often have you wished that
with regard to your life, you could push the rewind button
and start all over? Everything gone. Everything gone. Wonder what you'd give, what
you'd do. If you could start all over with
a clean slate with no possibility of ever corrupting the slate. You can't do that. But Christ
can and Christ has. If any man be in Christ, in Christ
is a new creature. Old things are passed away. He
has blotted out all our transgressions. He's put away all our sins. He's forgiven all our iniquities. Old things are passed away. And
behold, all things are becoming new. New. Altogether new. In this blessed new creation
of grace. And this is all God's doing. And all things are of God. This entire new creation, this
blessed hope of glory, this blessed anticipation of leaving this
body of flesh in the dust and possessing a house not made with
hands eternal in the heavens, this blessed hope of standing
before God in judgment with confidence and expectation. Can you imagine
that? In this book, I challenge you,
find me any place in this book where any man or woman who believed
God spoke of the day of judgment with fear. Find me a place. It's not there. Why? Because
our standing and our acceptance with God Almighty is not in us. It's in a substitute in whom
we are made new creatures before God. You mean, Brother Don, God
will never deal with me because of my sin? God will never deal
with you because of your sin if you're in His Son. He's already
dealt with you because of your sin in His Son. You understand
that? Oh, glorious, soul-cheering,
consoling truth. declare to Jerusalem that her
warfare is over, her iniquities pardoned, she has received of
the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Read on. This is all God's doing, who
hath reconciled us to himself. We were by nature, through the
sin and fall of our father Adam, alienated from God. strangers
from the covenants of promise, far off from God, but now we
are made nigh by the blood of Christ. God has brought us to
be one with himself in the person of his Son. Now, understand this
is a matter of God's working. Justice, holiness, righteousness,
and truth separated us from God. God said to Adam, get out of
the garden. You can't live here no longer
because of sin. But now he's reconciled us to
himself. Reconciled us to himself through
the blood of his son. Watch it. He hath reconciled
us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry,
the message of reconciliation. Preachers these days, and it's
been true throughout history, have always been apostate, will-worshipping,
babbling Arminians, and they, when they preach, and call it
preaching the gospel, they preach good advice. They give you good
advice. They say to you, now, God wants
this, and God wants that, and God tries this, and God tries
that, and if you will, then God will. He's given us the message
of reconciliation. We don't preach do, we preach
done. This is all done, done, totally
done in Jesus Christ the Lord. There's nothing to be added to
it, nothing to make it complete. Read on. To wit, what is this
message of reconciliation? God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself. Oh, now there's hard word for
you folks to get around who believe in limited atonement. No. No. Either that's talking about
the world of his elect, or it's declaring that everybody in the
world is going to be saved. Take your pick. Just take your pick. He's talking about God's elect
scattered through all the world. God's elect no matter where they
are in the world. And I know that because he says
here, this is how he reconciled the world to himself in Christ,
not imputing their trespasses unto them. He's talking about
those people whose trespasses were made Christ's trespasses,
and now he says he was not imputing our trespasses unto us. and hath
committed to us the word of reconciliation he's committed to his servants
he's committed to his church he's committed to his people
this treasure in earthen vessels to proclaim it in all the world
read on this is the word of reconciliation God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and
hath committed to us the word of reconciliation now then We
are ambassadors for Christ, the messengers of the King, as though
God did beseech you by us. We pray you, in Christ's name,
be you reconciled to God. Quit fighting God. Man lives with his fist shoved
square in God's face. Man's enmity of heart against
God. Man's hatred of God. From the
time he comes out of his mother's womb to the day he dies is such
that if he could get his hands on God, he'd kill him and make
himself God. But puny man can't reach the
Almighty. We live in a futile warfare state
against God. until we put down our arms and
quit fighting. Several years ago, I was preaching
over in Appomattox, Virginia. This had been 35, 36 years ago. And I had the sad
privilege of going over to Appomattox Courthouse. If you haven't been
there, I don't recommend you go. That's where General Lee
signed terms of surrender to General Grant. And this is what
I saw. I saw a picture of those Southern
boys under Lee's command standing along the road leading into Appomattox
Courthouse with their pistols and their powder hordes and their
rifles and their sabers and their knives stacked in front of them
as the Union troops rode by and they saluted. It's called stacking
arms. The battle's over. I give up. You win. That's what faith in
Christ is. It is the surrender of rebels
to Christ the King, bowing to Him willingly. Willingly. Be ye reconciled to
God. Brother Don, on what basis Can
you call on any sinner to surrender everything to Christ? For He,
God Almighty, the Holy Triune Jehovah, hath made Him, His darling
Son, Jesus Christ the Lord, the incarnate God, our covenant surety,
our blessed substitute. That thing he loathes, that thing
he hates, that thing that is most obnoxious to him, he made
him to be. The word made, very strong word. It means to cause to become,
to create. It is that which is done in the
past. And yet, it implies that the
one who has made sin cooperates in the work of being made sin. He, the God of glory, hath made
Jesus Christ His Son sin for us, for you and I, who are nothing
but sin. For you and I, who deserve His
wrath. For you and I, who lived all
our days hating God, rebels against God, rebels against everything
about God, for us. God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Such ungodly things as Eric,
Richards, and Donford. Can you get hold of that? For
us. For us. And this was his purpose, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now let's look
at these two things just briefly. Who is it that made Christ sin? It is God. We tend to say God
the Father. But back in Isaiah chapter 53
we read the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. And
the word is Jehovah. The triune Jehovah. Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit all together have laid on him the iniquity
of us all. The triune God made Jesus Christ
sin for us. This being made sin, I said to
you a moment ago, has the idea that He Himself cooperated in
it. Before the world was, God the
Father made His Son sin when His Son stood before Him as our
covenant sheriff. And the Father slew His Son,
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Revelation 13 verse
8. So that in Christ... the slain lamb, we were accepted,
Romans chapter 8 verse 29 and 30, we were justified, we were
sanctified, we were glorified, before ever the world was. There
never was a time when this wasn't true. Jesus Christ is our eternal
surety, and the Father, striking hands with the Son in the covenant
of grace, ceased to look to us for anything, but rather looks
to the surety for everything. Let me illustrate for you. For
nine years after we moved to Danville, we rented a house from
a fellow who owned a furniture store right across the street
from us. And I was over talking to him one day, and he was telling
me about a man who did business with him for years. He said,
He came in one day and said his son and his wife were building
a new house and he wanted to get all new furniture for it.
And he asked Mr. Grider, the fellow I rented from,
he said, would you let them have that on credit? I'll stand good
for it. And George said, well, sure, just send them in. This
had been years ago. They bought a whole house full
of furniture for $10,000. Whole house full of good furniture,
$10,000. And they made payments on it. Made regular payments
on it, just like they were supposed to for a good many months. And
one day the father came in and he said, he said, George, my
son's been paying on his bill all right, hasn't he? Oh, yeah.
He had been taking care of things just right. He said, tell you what,
wife and I won't do it. We won't take care of that. How
about taking all of their debt and putting it on our account?
George says, OK. He just transferred the whole
thing over to the father's account. You know what that scoundrel
did? He left the furniture store and went to the courthouse and
filed bankruptcy. That hour. That hour. You know what George
could do about the debt? Not a frazzling thing. He couldn't even write a letter
and politely ask for payment. Because the debt was no longer
the obligation of the son. The father had taken it all.
Jesus Christ, our surety, before the world began, assumed our
debt in totality, and the Father ceased in eternity to look for
us to do or give or pay anything. He looks to Christ alone for
everything. He became responsible for us.
When God the Son came into this world in time, He took on Himself
our sins voluntarily. Then that was no accident, nothing
forced on Him. As willingly as a thirsty man
drinks water with one tremendous draft of love, he drank damnation dry. I'm the
Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth His
life for the sheep. He, His own self, bear our sins
in His own body on the tree. He is Jehovah's righteous servant. He came and said, you've opened
my ear. I hid not my face from shame
and spitting. I turn not away back from that
which I have sworn to do. He came here to die in our stead
as our substitute, bearing our sin in His own body on the cursory,
and He did it. And when God the Holy Spirit
comes in the mighty operations of His grace, He lays sin on
Christ as well. I spent a good while under the
horrible load of guilt. A screaming conscience. So oppressive
was that load when I was 15 years old through my 16th year. If it hadn't been for the fear
of hell itself, I would have committed suicide time and time
again. I couldn't live with myself and
nobody could live with me. Terrible load of crushing my soul day and night. Until one day, sitting where
you're sitting now, I heard a man proclaim the gospel of God's
free grace in Christ. And I saw what I had never seen
before and what I could not see before. I saw Jesus Christ, God's
darling Son, bearing my sin under the wrath of God. Later on, I
read a good picture of it. Bunyan, in his Pilgrim's Progress,
describes Pilgrim going up to Mount Calvary with that heavy
burden on his back. And he said, I looked and I saw
the Lamb of God slain for me and my burden fell off my back
and rolled down the hill into the abyss of God's forgetfulness. Will you hear me? As soon as
God allowed me to look away from myself to His Son. As soon as
God the Holy Spirit in my own conscience and in my own heart
sprinkles the blood of Jesus Christ, I saw Christ crucified
and my guilt gone! Gone! And it's never returned. It's gone. So that I have no
dread of God. You understand that, James? No
dread of God. No terror when I think about
God in all His holiness. No quaking when I think about
standing before the Holy Lord God. No horrible apprehension
of dying and meeting God in judgment. No, no, no, no. It's gone. Well,
you don't know that. You've never been there. Well,
unlike many, I have been there. I know exactly what it is to
anticipate dying right now. Having doctors tell me that's
it, there's nothing else you can do, you're going to die.
I know exactly what that is. And let me tell you how it is.
Looking to Christ the Redeemer. Not a quake in my soul. No fear. Only anticipation. Because the
Lord God declares Fury is not in me. Fury is not in me. How was Christ made sin? I don't
know. I don't know. The text does not
say he was made a sin offering. He certainly was, but that's
not what the text says. The text does not say that he bore the
effects or consequences of our sins. He did that, but that's
not what the text says. The text does not say that he
was treated as though he were sin. The text says God made him
sin for us. When our Lord turned the water
into wine at the marriage feast in Cana of Galilee, He didn't
turn water into a sort of a grape color to make it look like wine.
He didn't make it taste like wine. He didn't make it appear
as though it were wine. He didn't cause men to think
it was wine. He turned the water into wine.
When the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, God was made
a man. That can't be. It can't be according
to any human logic. It can't be according to any
human reason, but it certainly was. I don't know how God could
die, but He did. God laid down His life for us. Read 1 John 3.16. God shed His
blood for us, Acts 20.28. I don't know how, but I'm going
to tell you something. God's bigger than I am. He's
bigger than I am. And most of those things that
I find most delightful to my soul revealed in this book, I
can't begin to understand. I don't know how Christ was made
sin, but He really was. He really was. It wasn't just
pasted on Him. We say He was made sin by amputation. Turn to Proverbs 17. Let me show
you something. Proverbs 17, verse 15. Nowhere in this book, not one
place, do the scriptures suggest or
state that Christ had sin imputed to him, though it everywhere
teaches it. But sin could not be imputed
to him were he not made sin. Proverbs 17 15. He that justifieth
the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, Even they both are
an abomination to the Lord. He wasn't made sin by imputation,
Glenn. Sin was imputed to him because
he was made sin. A big difference. When our Lord
Jesus was in Gethsemane, as he anticipates what he's about to
endure, he cries three times, Father, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me. He wasn't praying that he would
escape dying. The world was created so he could
die at Calvary. He came here to die at Calvary.
Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God. Oh, what does it mean? Father, and he sweats great drops
of blood falling to the ground because his heart is crushed
within him as he anticipates that which must necessarily precede
and calls his death being made sin. How real is it? Turn back to Psalm 40. Look at
two texts here. Psalm 40. This blessed messianic psalm
clearly identifies our Lord Jesus as He who came to do the Father's
will The Holy Spirit tells us in Hebrews chapter 10 that this
is He of whom the scripture here speaks. In verse 11, He says,
withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let
thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me. Verse
12, 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 of mine head, therefore my heart faileth me. Psalm 69. Again, the psalmist clearly is
writing words spoken by our Savior Himself. In the last part of
verse four, he said, then I restored that which I took not away. And
the Lord Jesus himself says these are his words. Look at the next
line. Oh God, thou knowest my foolishness. You know what that word is? Tyler,
he said, thou knowest my guiltiness. and my sins are not hid from
thee." Brother Dodd, did he really bear our sins in his own body
on the tree? He really did. He really did. And when he did, his father forsook
him, covered the earth with darkness for three hours. And we hear
the Savior penetrating the thick darkness, my God. My God, oh
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And if you read the 22nd
Psalm, he answers the question, thou art holy. And the Lord God gives a visible
display of the fact that he made his son sin, and he turned his
back on his son, abandoned him, forsook him in the fury of his
wrath, and he cried, Awake, O sword, against one that is my fellow!
Smite and slay the shepherd! And he buried the sword of his
justice in the heart of his son. And now Christ has put away our
sin. see him go into the earth, buried
out of sight, going to the grave as the condemned felon who was
crucified at Calvary, but three days later he came out of the
grave, and this is what the Spirit of God says, he came out of the
grave justified in the Spirit, cleared of all, because he had
by the sacrifice of himself put away our sins. He did all this
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. But the word made
here is a different word. It is a word that implies total
passivity. Something to which we contribute
nothing. And it speaks of that which is continually done. That
we might continually be caused to become the righteousness of
God in Him. When he died at Calvary, when
he said it is finished, we were made the righteousness of God
in him judicially because he had taken away our sins. When
he comes to this chosen sinner in regenerating grace, he creates
something new in him. a new nature, called that holy
thing that cannot sin, 1 John chapter 3. That new nature is
Christ in you, the hope of glory. That new nature is that new creature
in Jesus Christ the Lord, that holy, righteous thing. And then
soon, oh one day soon, in resurrection glory, He will present us thoughtless
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy without wrinkle
or spot or any such thing without any trace of sin to the praise of the glory of
His grace. A missionary in India years ago
told of being out in the bush And there was a faint, raspy
voice kept hearing at a distance. And they made their way through
the bush until they finally saw a little clearing. And there
was an old man out there who was covered with leprosy. The
nubs where he used to have fingers and thumbs held up at his horrible,
disfigured face. And he was crying, help me. Somebody please help me." He
had been taken up there and left to die. And the missionary said,
when I saw that man, I thought to myself, if somehow it were
possible for me to go to that man and put my face against his,
and draw into myself all his corruption
and death, Breathe into Him all my health
and life. That's what Christ did for me.
That's what Christ did for me. Now let me ask you a few questions.
In the light of these things, what sacrifice is too great to
make for Him? What service is too demanding
to perform for Him? What affliction of burden or
care is too heavy to bear for Him? This is Christ, our substitute. Oh, may God make Him yours. Amen.