Tonight I want us to look at
Psalm 22 to begin with. Everything in this psalm speaks concerning Christ our
Redeemer. Not only speaks concerning him,
but as you read the psalm, read it carefully, read it in its
context, read the words exactly as they appear, it is impossible
to apply the things spoken in these verses to anyone other
than the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, who bare our sins in
his body upon the tree. When he died under the wrath
of God, made a curse for us, delivering us from the curse
of the law, made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him, these words are his words. We have a description of the
darkness and the glory of the cross. We have before us both
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that followed his sufferings. Oh, for grace to draw near and
see this great sight which God here sets before us. Let us reverently
look upon these things, not with speculation. I have been working
on this message for a long time, and I have been hesitant to deal
with these things because we are entering into that which,
if any place in Scripture may be set apart from another as
holy ground, this is it. This is it. This is the intercourse
of God our Savior when he, as the God-man, was made sin for
us with heaven. So as we look at these verses,
as you read this psalm, let there be no speculation, no theorizing,
no debating. Just worship and ask for grace
to believe what is here revealed. Read verses 1 through 3 with
me. The Lord Jesus Christ hangs upon
the cursed tree, made sin for us, laying down his life for
us. And he cries, My God, my God,
why has thou forsaken me? That's the question I want to
address. And I mean address. Why was he forsaken? I have no
hope of answering it. I think we will be forever
in the endless ages of eternity glorying in learning the answer
to the question. And when I get done, there will
be plenty of room for somebody else to address it again, many
times. But I want us to address this question and find what God
reveals to us about the answer in this book. Here is our Savior
at the apex of His obedience. This is the cause for which he
came into the world. This is the cause for which God
made the world. This is the cause upon which
hangs all the glory of God Almighty and all the salvation of our
souls. He was made to be Jehovah's Servant, that he might be our
Savior. And now He has come and fulfilled
the Father's will, obeying the Father's will, even unto death,
even the death of the cross, in the greatest imaginable humiliation. God the Son made human flesh,
made sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him,
at the apex of His obedience, is forsaken of God. forsaken. This is the hour of
his soul's greatest sorrow. He's made sin. And his father
forsakes him. This is the hour of his soul's
greatest need. He cries, remember me, deliver
me, make haste to help me. And yet, in his greatest need,
in his greatest sorrow, at the apex of his obedience unto God
as our mediator, he cries, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Would you see how utterly forsaken
he was? Read on. Why art thou so far
from helping me? I have known fathers to have
sons who were worthless. I have been one. I have known
fathers to have sons who were put out of their houses, had
to put them out, or destroy the house. I have known fathers to
have sons who spent their lives in and out of jail. just constantly
bringing heartache and trouble. But I'll tell you what I have
never yet known. I've never known a father who
refused to help his son when he was the only one who could
help, and his son cried to him for help. But here is the perfectly
obedient son, crying for help, and he says, Why art thou so
far? from helping me. This is to be understood as a
legal thing we're told. I can't think of anything more
contemptible than to look upon these words and to hear the Son
of God crying as he does from the first tree. and try to divide
it up in logic and divide it up in theological jargon, this
is not just a legal thing. He says, and from the words of
my roaring. What a word. From the words of
my roaring. God! Quiet! Won't you hear me when I roar
in agony? the father refused to hear the
cries of his own darling son, he says, Oh my God, I cry unto
thee in the daytime, but thou hearest not, and in the night
season, and am not silent. Now I'll be honest with you,
and I read those words I read them with utter astonishment. And I have read every commentary
that I thought might be worth reading on those words. And I
haven't read one yet that took away the astonishment. And I won't attempt to explain
what I can't even imagine, much less understand. But these things
are written here for our learning that we, through patience and
consolation of the scripture, might have hope. And I hang all
the hope of my immortal soul on what is here revealed. When
the Lord Jesus Christ was made sin for me, he was utterly forsaken
of God and put to death by the fury of an angry God as my substitute. And by his one great sin-atoning
sacrifice, he has forever put away my sins. He not only bore our sins in
his body on the tree, blessed be his name, he bore them away. Yet when we read the third verse,
our holy Savior, when he was made sin for us, And cries, my
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Gives us the answer. Why was he forsaken? God turns
his back on his son. And the son says, but thou art
of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest
the praises of Israel. Because the Lord God is pure
and holy, our Savior was forsaken by Him, who is of pure eyes,
and to behold evil, and cannot look upon iniquity." Here in
this third verse, the Lord Jesus does what you
and I must do. He does exactly what David did
in Psalm 51 when he went in before the Lord and the Lord had told
him that he would cause the sword never to depart from his house.
He takes sides with the justice of God and acknowledges that
it's right for God to do what he says and right for God to
do what he does. Here he justifies God in his
own condemnation because he was made sin for us. He proclaims
the holiness of God in the midst of his agony. He is so pure,
so righteous, so just, that he will by no means clear the guilty. That's what he declared to Moses
when he revealed to Moses his glory. He says, I will by no
means, I will by no means, I will by no means clear the guilty. It'll never happen. Even when
the guilty one is his own darling son. God's holy, and he won't bend
his holiness, he won't bend his justice, he won't bend his truth,
not for you, not for me, not for anybody. Well, he wouldn't
even bend it for his son. It's not going to happen. Our
Savior had no sin of his own. He was born without any original
sin. From his birth he was that holy thing created in the womb
of the virgin, that holy one that inhabits the praises of
Israel. He did no sin. Throughout his life he knew no
sin, and in him is no sin. But somehow, mystery beyond comprehension,
on Calvary the holy Lord God made him who knew no sin. sin for us, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. I ask you, can you explain
how that can be? I won't even attempt to explain
how that can be. I don't know how God the Son
could be made flesh, but he was. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. I don't know how God Almighty
can come down here and be made flesh. Folks talk about hypostatic
union, they talk about the two natures in Christ. I recognize
all those things are so. But when all is said and done,
Bobby, God was made flesh. He was made flesh. He never ceased
to be God, but He made flesh. He made flesh. I don't see how
on this earth God can die and yet never die. I don't know how
that can be done. I don't have any idea how that
can be done. Folks say, well, that's inconsistent,
that's illogical. Well, go to hell arguing with
it if you want to. But that's what happened. God
had purchased the church with his own blood. That man who died
upon Calvary's cursed tree as our substitute is himself God
Almighty. And when he died as our substitute,
he was no less God than when he said, Let there be light,
and there was light. When he hung upon his mother's
breast as any baby would by nature, needing the milk flowing from
his mother's breast, he was no less God who made the milk flow
in his mother's breast. He is God Almighty. God Almighty. Would to God we could learn this.
He's bigger than we are. He's bigger than we are. You're
not going to put Him in the little box of your puny brain. It's
not going to happen. Our Savior was made sin. He whom you know sin. The Holy
One. the Lamb of God, He who did no
sin, He in whom is no sin, was made sin for us. Alright, turn to Psalm 40. Here again, this passage our
brother just read, we are allowed to hear the agony
of our blessed Redeemer's soul. And while in the opening verses
of the psalm, David speaks about our Savior, when it gets down
to the 11th verse, he begins to give us the very words of
our Savior in language even more specific. Our Lord Jesus here
declares that our sins are made his. Here again, The Lord Jesus
Christ calls our sins his own, because he hath made him sin
for us. How can you be sure this is talking
about Christ? Because exactly in the same way
as we did in Psalm 22, The words used in the psalm are throughout
the New Testament quoted and referred to, cited by the New
Testament writers in divine inspiration, saying this was Christ speaking.
More specifically, if you read the 10th chapter of Hebrews,
the Lord Jesus is spoken of there coming into this world. And he
quotes, the apostle does, the Holy Spirit does, the very words
of this 40th psalm in verse 7. where our Lord declares his readiness
to assume a body and to accomplish his Father's will in the salvation
of his chosen. Agreeably to the ancient settlements
written in the volume of the book, the Lord Jesus says, Lo,
I come, I delight to do thy will, O my God. Before the world was. When the
Son of God stood as our surety in the covenant of grace, he
lifted his hand to God in heaven on his throne as Jehovah's servant,
and he said, Lo, I come. And when he made this world,
he said, Lo, I come. And through all the ages of time,
he's saying, Lo, I come. And then when he came into the
virgin's womb, he said, Lo, I come. to do thy will, O my God. And
as he broke his mother's womb and took his first breath in
this world, God the Son said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O
my God. And what is that will? It is
that will by which we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. Then in verse 11, listen with
me, our Savior again prays. as he has made sin for us. Withhold
not thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy lovingkindness
and thy truth continually preserve me, for innumerable evils have
compassed me about." Now certainly that could be speaking about
all the evils surrounding him. But that's not what he's talking
about. The sentence doesn't end there. What are these innumerable
evils that have come past him about? Mine iniquities have taken
hold on me so that I'm not able to look up. They're more than
the hairs of my head. Therefore my heart faileth me. That's exactly what our Lord
said when he prayed in John 17. Now is my soul troubled. What shall I say? Father, save
me from this hour. But for this cause came I into
this hour. I came here to do your will.
I came here for this purpose. I came here to be made sin for
my people. Oh, my soul is troubled. Oh,
my soul is troubled. Withhold not thy tender mercies
from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness and thy
truth continually preserve me. My soul is troubled. but for
this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name." Then
there was a voice from heaven saying, I have both glorified
it and will glorify it again. John Trapp, commenting on this
passage, made this observation. The Lord Jesus was so fully and
completely made sin for us. That when he redeemed us by the
sacrifice of himself, his sacrifice of infinite merit, worth and
value, redeemed his own soul. There's a parallel. You can read
it in Leviticus 16. On the day of atonement, when
Aaron the high priest went in to make atonement for the sins
of Israel, There was something else that had to be dealt with
first. He first made atonement for himself. The Lord Jesus was
made sin for us. And we being one with him in
his suffering and death are one with him in the accomplishments
of redemption. Why was he brought to such sorrow
and grief? That's the only way we could
be redeemed. He could never have suffered
the painful, shameful, ignominious death of the cross as our sin-bearer,
as our substitute, bearing our sins in his own body on the tree,
were he not made sin for us. Justice would never allow it.
This is what God says. This is what God says. Proverbs
17, 15. He that justifieth the wicked,
and he that condemneth the just, even they both are an abomination
to the Lord. Now this is what it means, David.
God Almighty could not punish Christ for your sin, except He
be made sin for you. And He can't take you to glory,
except you be made righteousness in Him. in exactly the same way. God can't just paste sin on the
substitute and treat him as though he were sin without making him
sin and punish him for sin. And he cannot, in his holy character,
just paste a robe of righteousness on you and say you're righteous
when you're not righteous. and take you to glory. It can't
be done. Not while the throne of God's
holiness stands. He was made sin for us that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Our Savior says
innumerable evils have compassed me about. Our sins were innumerable
and so were His grace. With the long fingers of omniscience. God Almighty gathers all the
sins of all His people from every corner of the globe in every
age of time and makes them to meet upon the head of the Paschal
Lamb. And when He makes them to meet
upon the head of the Paschal Lamb, the Lord hath laid on Him
the iniquity of us all. And He made Him sin. My iniquities, he says, have
taken hold upon me so that I'm not able to look up. The transfer
of sin to the Savior was real. And it produced in him, as a
man, the horror which forbade him to lift his eyes to God and
look Him in the face. They're so great that I cannot
look up. Oh, my soul. He has made him sin for us. There are more than the hairs
of my head, he says, therefore my heart faileth me. This is what happened in Gethsemane. I like to read often and meditate
often upon those things that are written concerning our Lord
in Gethsemane. For there he opens the door to
the secret of his own heart's passion as he anticipates what's
about to take place. And his heart broke within him. Rex, you and I We don't have
a clue what sin is. We don't have a clue what sin
is. Because we're in. This man, who knelt in Gethsemane's
garden and cried, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, thy
will be done. This man struggling in his soul
until he sweat great drops of blood falling to the ground in
agony with a broken heart. This man is God who knows exactly
what sin is. And his holy soul shook within
him as he anticipated being made. Turn back to Psalm 22. Look at verse 6. He says, I am a worm. Do you remember how he spoke
to you back in Isaiah? He said, Fear not thou worm,
Jacob, for I have redeemed thee. I became a worm like you worms,
an unclean thing, a worm, and no man. A reproach of me and despised
of the people. Verse 14, I am poured out like
water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax,
it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried
up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. And thou
hast brought me into the dust of death. These were the thoughts
pressing upon his heart in Gethsemane. These were the things that formed
a weight of indescribable woe for his holy soul. These were
the things that bowed him down. These were the things of which
the Holy Spirit writes when he says that he prayed and was heard
in that he feared. Feared what? Feared dying? Not hardly. Feared dying such
a terribly cruel and painful death? Not on your life! What
was he feared? being made sin for us. David understood this. I had
no question David understood what he was writing about and
of whom he was writing. He says in verse five, Many, O Lord my God, are thy
wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which
are to usward. They cannot be reckoned up in
order unto thee. If I were to declare and speak
of them, they are more than can be numbered." And then he begins
to describe this wonderful work of Christ being made sin for
us. Now there are some who tell us
that these words cannot be applied to the Son of God. They tell
us that it is blasphemous to do so. But these men are so foolish
that they dare to defy God himself, because the Spirit of God has
told us, as we saw in Hebrews chapter 10, that Christ is the
one speaking. The fact is, these are the very
things we might most reasonably suppose he would speak of when his holy soul was brought
to such agony. When we consider that as our
surety he bore our sins and carried our sorrows, how very reasonable
it is to expect these cries to come from the Son of God, the
Word who was made flesh. that he might redeem us. Now
turn to Psalm 69. Again, there is no question that
the one speaking throughout this entire psalm is our blessed Savior. Throughout the New Testament,
this psalm is referred to and cited both by our Lord and by
his apostles and his disciples as being a psalm with reference
to him with words he spoke. The opening verses of the psalm
are clearly his words. Save me, O God, for the waters
are come in unto my soul. I'm up to my chin in water. I
seek in deep fire. Not just waters, waters of filth. The filth that we are by nature,
where there is no standing. I'm coming to deep waters where
the floods overflow me. I'm weary of my crying, my throat
is dry, 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, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. Then
I restored that which I took not away. And the fifth verse. cannot with any honesty, it cannot
with any honesty be attributed to someone other than the one
who spoke in verses one through four. Hear the cry of him who
was made sin for us. O God, thou knowest my foolishness and my sins. are not hid from
thee. The word foolishness is a word far more meaningful
with regard to evil than ignorance and folly. It means perversity. That's what Bob Duffy is. Perversity. Perversity. The Lord Jesus says,
Thou knowest my perversity. The word sins means, as it is
translated in your marginal records if you have one in your Bible,
guiltiness. And here our Savior owns our
perversity as his perversity, our guiltiness as his guiltiness,
our foolishness as his foolishness, our sins as his sins. Oh, what
a contrast between the first Adam and the last Adam. When
Adam became sin, he tried his best to hide his
sin. When the Lord Jesus was made sin for us, he owns our
sin as his, and does it before God Almighty. It is as though
he were saying, Here, lifted up upon the cross, I suffer without
debate for my people as their substitute. I suffer 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, blotted out and washed away by my blood. What condescension. What grace! O God, Thou knowest my foolishness,
and my sins are not hid from Thee. We don't. All the while, He never forgot
us. Let not them that wait on Thee,
O Lord, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake. He that believeth on the Son
shall never be ashamed. O God, here I have taken their
sins, and their wrath, and their hell, And now I have put away
sin. I have dropped damnation dry. This I ask. Let them never be
ashamed. Let them never be confounded.
Let them never be confused. Let not those that seek thee
be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel. Then he again claims
our sins and our reproaches as his own. Because for thy sake
I have borne reproach. Shame hath covered my face. Verse
19. Thou hast known my reproach,
my shame, my dishonor. Well, Brother Don, those words
can't be taken to be really speaking of his reproach, and his shame,
and his dishonor. It's our reproach, our shame,
and our dishonor. Yes, it's ours. But he made it
his. He says, my adversaries. You reckon they were really his?
Was Satan really his adversary? Were those mocking Jews really
his adversaries? Were those railing drunken Romans
really his adversaries? Well, of course. He's talking
about that which is really his. My adversaries are all before
thee. Reproach hath broken my heart,
and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to help, for
some to take pity, but there was none, for comforters, and
I found none. in the light of that turned Isaiah
65. Or 63 rather, I'm sorry. Who is this that cometh up from
Edom, cometh up from this shameful, sinful world, with dyed garments
of This that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness
of his triumph, I that speak in righteousness might be to
say, Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments
like him that treadeth in the wine vats? I have trodden the
winepress alone, and of the people there was none with me. For I
will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury,
and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will
stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in
mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked,
and there was none to help. And I wondered that there was
none to oppose. Therefore, mine own arm brought
salvation to me. In my fury, it upheld me. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift. Amen.