Often get much inspiration for
preaching when I'm playing golf, but yesterday I did. Brother
Larry and Ron and I played around the golf yesterday, and I was
sitting in Larry's car coming home last night and picked up
the tape. I don't have any idea who preached the message. It was from Deacon Church. You
might have preached it when you were pastor up there. But there
were three words on the tape. I didn't get to listen to it.
I just saw the title and put it down. I've been rolling them
over in my heart ever since, and I believe they'll be a blessing
to you. Three great, magnificent words. He was made. He was made. Those words are used throughout
the scriptures, particularly used in the New Testament, to
describe for us and declare to us who Jesus Christ is as our
mediator, and what he has done for the saving of our souls.
Now, everything that Christ is as God, he is, if I can use this
language, by nature. He is by virtue of the fact that
he's God. We talk about our Lord Jesus
Christ being holy and omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, We
talk about him being gracious and true. We talk about his faithfulness. All those attributes of divinity
that belong to God are his because he is God. He is in no way made
God, but he is God from eternity. But everywhere in the scripture
where the scripture speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, being made something, he was made something. He was
made that because he is our mediator, because he is our covenant surety,
because he is that one whom the father has appointed to be our
savior. And in order to save us, in order
to save his people from their sins, it was necessary that he
be made some things. We could not be saved otherwise.
The only way God could save sinners was for Christ to be made these
things as they're revealed in the book of God. Let's begin
tonight in Hebrews chapter 7, and I'm going to show you several
statements of what our Lord Jesus Christ was made for us. We'll
begin back in eternity. He was made a surety, a surety. Hebrews 7 and verse 22. In the beginning, before ever
the earth was, Before the triune God had made anything, when God
dwelt alone in his own ineffable glory, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was made a surety
of a better testament. Now the word testament, you know,
of course, is the word that is commonly translated and normally
would be better translated covenant. It is the declaration here that
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was made to be the surety of
the better covenant, which is, of course, God's everlasting
covenant of grace, that which is described in Hebrews 8, Hebrews
10, Jeremiah 31, and many, many other places in Scripture. The
covenant blessings are described in Ephesians, the first chapter,
2 Timothy, the first chapter. But Christ is here said to be
made the surety of the covenant. Now, suretyship is something
we know little about in our society. If you go to the bank and you
have somebody to go to the bank with you because the bank doesn't
trust you, because they don't figure you can pay your bills,
or you won't pay your bills, they require a guarantor, and
he's sometimes called a surety. That's not a very good representation
of suretyship. The word surety refers to one
who assumes responsibility for another. And the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, before the world began, assumed total responsibility
before God for the saving of our souls. Now, if that don't
float your boat, nothing will. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
before the world began, assumed the total responsibility for
the saving of his people. That means that God looked on
him when the father and the son struck hands in covenant grace.
The father looked on him and trusted to his hands all his
people, and looked to him for all that is necessary for the
saving of his people, everything. He ceased to look to us for anything. Can you get that? God Almighty
doesn't look to Bobby Estes for anything. Nothing. Nothing. He doesn't
look to us for anything. He looks to the surety. The best
illustration I know of this, when I was living over in Junction
City and y'all were renting a house for Shelby and Faith and I to
live in, George Greider, who was our landlord, told me a story,
a true story. He'd been running the furniture
store over there for years, till he died. And he said there was
a fellow he'd done business with for years, almost ever since
he'd been in business. He said he'd always paid his bills. He
knew him well. And the man's son was about to build a new
house, his family. And this fellow came in and said,
my son and his wife are building a new house, and they'd like
to furnish the whole thing with new furniture. And I was wondering
if you might let him have that on credit, and I'll stand good
for it. And George said, well, of course I will. He came in,
bought $10,000 worth of furniture. Now, this had been years ago.
They bought, for God of furniture, they bought some furniture. They
bought the best they had. And he paid for it for a few
months. And the man came in and asked George, he said, how's
my son doing with his payments? He said, oh, George, fine, no
problem. He said, well, the wife and I have been talking. He said,
we'd like to take care of that debt for them. If you don't mind,
how about just transferring everything from his name over to my accountant. George said, that's fine, I'm
glad to. That's mighty generous of you. It's an honorable thing.
Delighted to do it. George told me the man left there,
went directly down to his Bull County courthouse that afternoon
and filed for bankruptcy. He got papers the next day. And
what that means is this. I couldn't even go ask his son
to get me a pillow off the couch because his father and assumes
a total liability for his debt, and he will no count. Listen to me. Our Savior, before
the world began, assumed total liability for all our debt, and
he's some kind of God. He's faithful in all his obligations,
which he voluntarily assumed. You see, an honorable man who
gives his word. You fellas can remember the day
when a man shook your hand and said, I'll do that, you'd bank
on it. It's as good as done. Now you gotta have a contract
and a whole office full of lawyers to see to it anything's done.
But an honorable man is bound by his word. He's bound by what
he says. If he swears to something, his
name is at stake. And I'm telling you, Jesus Christ,
before the world began, swore to the Father. and the father
to the son, that he would save his people, and he's honor-bound
to do it. The safety of God's elect lies
in no way in us, in no way in what we do, in no way in what
we are, but all together in the safety and steadfastness of our
great surety. Jesus Christ was made a surety,
a surety in whom? are given to all his people,
all the blessings of the covenant. It is only in this sense that
the scriptures can declare and do declare that we were blessed
of God with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus before the world began, blessed in the surety. We were
saved and called within holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to God's purpose and grace, which were
given us in the surety before the world began. All right, now
turn to John chapter one. John chapter 1, verse 14. 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. Now, when I read things
like that, I can't help asking why. Why did the Son of God assume
my Why was he made flesh? Why did he come down here and
dwell among us as one of us? For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and because of sin, condemned
sin in the flesh. This is what the scriptures teach
us. Understand it well. All God's other works Everything
else, the scriptures speak of God doing everything without
exception. All his other works he does without
even costing him effort. Costing no effort, Benjy, to
create the world. He just will it, that is. Costing
no effort to make the angels of heaven, men upon the earth,
or the earth itself. Cost him nothing. Cost him nothing. He's the infinite God. All that
God could do and did do, He did without any cost of sacrifice.
But in His matchless, infinite holiness, God Almighty could
not save His people without the sacrifice of His God and Son.
Couldn't be done. Couldn't be done. Now Bob Cook,
when I say God can't do something, you best believe I've weighed
those words That's the thing God can't do. He can't lie. He's
holy. He can't sin. He's righteous.
Somebody said he's too good to do wrong, too wise to err, and
too strong to fail. That's the things he can't do.
And God can't save us without sacrificing his son. Can't be
done. Folks said, well, this is just
one way God would save his people. He did this so that he'd show
his great love for us. Oh, that's to make a monster
of God. You think he'd sacrifice his son if it wasn't necessary?
Think he'd sacrifice his son if there was some other way by
which righteousness could be brought in? Paul says if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Oh, no. In order
to save us, the Word was made flesh. God Almighty came into
this world in a body of human flesh, lived, breathed, grew,
learned, got hungry, got thirsty, worked and ate, got tired and
slept, just like we do. And he suffered and died as a
man. And yet, he never ceased to be
God. Now that's a wonder that's just
incomprehensibly beyond the scope of my understanding. He who had
to have the milk from his mother's breast as a child, he depended
on it just like he did yours. He had to have it, but he's God
supplying the milk and the breast. He who got hungry and ate just
like we do is God who made the food. who had to have the oxygen
that we breathe. He had to have it. He couldn't
live without it any more than we could. But he's God Almighty
who made it. And he who is life, I mean life, hung on that tree
and died as God. So God can't die. No, he can't.
But the God man did. Jesus Christ came here, made
flesh. Here's a similar passage, Galatians
chapter four, Galatians 4.4. The Lord Jesus was made a servant. He was made flesh and he was
made of a woman. When the fullness of time was
come, God does everything right on time. He's never behind time
and he's never ahead of time. He's always right on time. God
sent forth his son. made of a woman, made under the
law, made of a woman because he who would be our savior must
not be tainted with the corruption of Adam's seed. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the seed of woman, not the seed of man. That one
who was born of Mary is God incarnate, and that human body which was
formed for him, in which he now resides in heaven's glory, was
made of a woman's virgin womb. Now, we don't in any way devadulation
or praise or worship or veneration to Mary. Mary was a sinner saved
by grace just like we are, but he was born of the Virgin. He
was that one who was made a woman, exactly as the scriptures had
prophesied in Genesis 3 15. Made of a woman. So how important
is that? Only as important as truth of
God. Only as important as your soul. Only as important as this
book, to deny certain things. Now hear me, you can believe
all the truths right and not know God, but there's some things
you've got to know. There's some things you just
cannot deny. There's some things that just
cannot be denied without denying the whole character of God, robbing
Christ of his redemptive glory and his very deity. We recognize
the sovereign character of our God to be essential to God's
character. When we say God's sovereign,
we're simply saying God's God. And the man who says he's not
sovereign says he's not God. A God who is not absolutely sovereign
is no more than a rabbit's foot you rub for good luck. When we
say God's sovereign, that's absolutely essential. We speak of man's
depravity, his total depravity, the corruption of his nature.
Man is altogether alienated from God, dead in trespasses and in
sins, and if that's not the case, he doesn't need a Savior. He
just doesn't need one. We speak of our Lord's redemptive
work and declare plainly that everything Jesus Christ intended
to do, he has done. When he came here and died at
Calvary, he satisfied the wrath and justice of God for somebody
and all for whom he died shall be with him in glory. And if
that's not the case, he didn't accomplish anything. You understand
this? And we speak of our Lord's virgin birth. To deny his virgin
birth is to deny his eternal deity. To deny his virgin birth
is to deny his holy humanity. To deny his virgin birth is to
deny his qualification as our savior, our substitute. So it's
absolutely essential. But look at the next line of
this. Galatians 4.4 doesn't only speak of our Lord's being made
of a woman, his virgin birth. It speaks of his voluntary humiliation
and obedience to God as a man, as our representative. He was
made under the law. Made under the law. made subject
to the law. What all does that include? Every
form of law there is. He was made subject to the civil
law, even under the Romans, paid tribute to Caesar. He was made
subject to the moral law, if we want to divide it that way,
the Ten Commandments, made subject to the ceremonial law, he kept
them all. He kept them all. You see, in order to save his
people from their sins, in order to redeem us from the curse of
the law, by his death and sacrifice, The God-man had to first establish
righteousness as a man by his obedience to every requirement
of God's holy law, and he brought in an everlasting righteousness.
Someone said he arranged his own death sentence when he made
the law, and then he bore his own fixed penalty in his body
on the trip. When he gave the law to Moses,
he was given the sentence for his own execution. And then he
voluntarily came to the place of execution, and by his own
law was justly executed, for he was made to be said. Christ
made the law. He was made under the law. He
obeyed the law in his life in every jot and tittle. He fulfilled
the law in all things. He is himself the law's death
by his death, and he's the end of the law. Now this is what
that means. If I'm in Christ, The law has nothing more to do
with me right now than it does with him. What's the law going to demand
from him? Righteousness. Well, he did that. What's the
law going to demand from him? Satisfaction. He fulfilled that.
What does the law find in him? It found sin in him, but not
anymore. Because he satisfied justice and sin has been put
away. And now, he who sits in glory, who once was made to be
sin, is freed from sin, and we're freed from sin in him. The Lord
Jesus Christ. Turn to 2 Corinthians 5. Of course,
you knew I was going here when I announced my title. Verse 21. When he was made under the law,
he had fulfilled all the requirements of God's righteous law, he was
made sin. God the Father hath made him
to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. The most astounding statement
in all the universe. I know of nothing so vast, nothing
so profound, nothing so comforting, nothing so challenging, nothing
so instructive. Here, someone said, is the holy
of holies into which unhallowed eyes are not allowed to look,
behind the veil of which unsanctified minds cannot enter. Jesus Christ
He knew no sin. I can't even think about that.
He knew no sin. He said to the Jews, which of
you convinces me of sin? And when they made their accusations
against him, the only accusation they could make was that you
being a man make yourself God. That wasn't sin because he was
and is. Pilate said repeatedly, this is a just man. His wife
spoke of him as a just man. Judas refused to die with a lie
on his lips, and he said, I betrayed innocent blood. That one who
stood for security, watched him die, said, surely this man is
the Son of God. He knew no sin. But he's the only man who ever
lived who knew what sin is. You see, this man's God, and
he perceives sin as it really is. And so when he anticipates
being made sin, as he kneels in Gethsemane, he bows before
his father and cries, and cries with agony in his soul until
his sweat's blood fall into the ground. My God, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. Not because he was trying now
to escape what's come to pass, and escape the cross that he
came here to accomplish, but rather because his holy soul
was crushed at the prospect of being made sin. Yet he was made
to be sin for us. Oh my God, I wish I could preach
this for your honor as it ought to be. He was made to be sin. Assume the debt of our sin, yes.
Made to be sin legally, yes. But there's something more. There's
something more. Wes, he wasn't made sin. All but his. And our sin became
his. Really and truly his. Why? Why? Read on. That we might be made. That doesn't mean
that we might possibly be made. That doesn't mean that we might,
if we so exercise our will, be made. That doesn't mean so that
we might perhaps be made. It means there's no other way
we could be made. He was made to be seen for us
who knew no sin because there was no other way by which we
could be made the righteousness of God in him. He was made to be said that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now listen to me, listen carefully.
Turn back, if you will, the book of Proverbs. Proverbs 17, don't
you see something? Though God loved his elect with
an everlasting love, though he chose us as the heirs of eternal
salvation, God Almighty could not and would not have us unless
we were made to be perfectly righteous in his own eyes, so
that God Looking on us, looks on us, Bob Duff and Don Fortner,
perfectly righteous, without sin, without cause for anything
except approval. Otherwise he can't have us. He
can't have us. Now how can that be? How can
he make us righteous? His justice has got to be satisfied.
But his justice cannot slay his son, his son's innocence. Listen
to this. You can look this up later, but
in Exodus 23, this is God's word of reproof. He says, Keep thee
far from a false matter, and the innocent and righteous slay
thou not, for I will not justify the wicked. He speaks of the
corrupt judges and says they justify the wicked for a reward
in Isaiah chapter 5. And they take away the righteousness
of the righteous from him. Now look here in Proverbs chapter
17, verse 15. He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just,
even they both are an abomination to the Lord. But wait a minute,
Pastor. Didn't Peter say Christ once
suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust, that he might
bring us to God? How can that be? God has said,
he who condemns the just and he who justifies the wicked,
they're both an abomination before him. But there's no hope. Oh, wait a minute, wait a minute.
When Jesus Christ was condemned by God's holy law, he was not
just. He was not righteous. He was
sane. And when God Almighty declares
us just, Benzie, He doesn't violate His law. We've been made the
righteousness of God in Him. Understand that? I know we don't understand it,
but you get it. We've been made righteous because He was made
sin. When the Lord Jesus came here and was made sin for us,
Because he was made sin for us, he was made a curse for us. Listen
to this, Galatians 3.13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse
of the law. Being made a curse for us, for
it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. When God's darling son was hung on that tree and made
to be sin, He became the object of his father's wrath, was forsaken
of God, cursed of God. Before the father could say a
wayful sword against one that is my fellow, smite and slay
the shepherd, he first made him to be seen. Had he made him seen,
probably made him a curse for us. How come? so that we might receive the
blessing of Abraham, the promise of the Spirit. Now look at this
in Hebrews 7.20. Hebrews 7.20. I looked at this this afternoon,
and I don't know why so many times we miss things. I hadn't
seen this in a while, hadn't thought of it in a while. If you're taking notes, write
it down just this way. Christ was made priest. not a priest, priest. Hebrews
7.20, inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest. Not one priest among many, he
was made priest. The only priest and mediator
there is between God and man, Jesus Christ was made priest.
A priest, one who does business with God. for us, one who makes
atonement for our sins, one who is sympathizing, one who intercedes,
and because he is the priest who is appointed, anointed, and
accepted of God, this priest is saving, almighty, able to
save unto the uttermost all who come to God by him. Now let me
show you one more thing. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
1, verse If the Lord Jesus Christ has been made our surety, if
the Lord Jesus Christ was made flesh and dwelt among us and
made to be sin for us, made a curse for us, if he has been made of
God, our great high priest, then the Lord Jesus Christ is made
of God unto us. and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. See, 1 Corinthians 1.30. But
of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God has made into us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Now I could preach on that for
a while, but let me sum it up for you. with regard to our everlasting
soul salvation. Christ is made all. What do I need? I need wisdom
that I may know God. Christ is it. I need wisdom from
God to direct my steps in the ways of God. Christ is it. I
need wisdom before God to speak on my behalf. Christ is it. I
need righteousness. Righteousness that will stand
me before God Almighty wholly, unblameable, unrecoverable in
his sight. Christ is in. Now, this passage
is often misunderstood because we don't look at it carefully.
This righteousness includes the totality of what Christ accomplished
for us at Calvary. Redemption and righteousness.
Righteousness means there's no sin charged against us because
the debt's paid. And righteousness means that
we are made holy before God because we fulfilled all that the law
requires. That's what Christ is. His name
is Jehovah Shekinu, the Lord our righteousness. And then he's
made sanctification. Holiness. He is that holiness
without which no man shall see the Lord. He is that one in whom
and by whom we are separated from all other men and brought
before God Almighty a holy people, made holy by his grace, made
holy by having his righteousness imputed to us, made holy by having
his nature imparted to us, made holy to stand before God in the
perfection of everlasting glory when he gets done with us and
redemption. And when you read that you think,
well, it looks like he ought to have put that at least right
after wisdom, if not right before it. Redemption. But that's, this is not really
talking. It's not really talking about
blood redemption. It's not really talking about
the redemption that was accomplished for us when he bought us from
under the curse of the law. But rather it is talking about
resurrection. It's talking about deliverance.
Christ is made of God unto us, redemption, so that the day shall
soon come when we will stand before God in resurrection glory,
what's called the redemption of the purchased possession.
These bodies, these bodies, these bodies stand before God. in the
glory of Christ, just as he is. Redemption. When he gets done
with us, we're going to be all right. We'll be all right. He's going to gather our dust
from the earth and redeem us at last, deliver us at last from
all from all the curse, from all
sin, and from all the evil consequences of sin. Of him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness,
and sanctification, and redemption. But why does God do things this
way? Why has he made Christ all this for us and put everything
in his song? Look at the next line, that according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Trust Him. Trust Him. Glory in Him. Honor Him. Rely on Him. Praise Him. Extol Him. For Christ is of God
made everything new.