me a Bible to send Christians
chapter 5. It is such a joy to be here. I was
thinking on my way up how many years we've been coming here,
how long we've known one another. Families have been raised since
I first started coming here. It's amazing. Annie and Claire, when I first
met them, they were just dating. Now they've raised a whole family.
Rich, and look at their kids, growing up. It's amazing. And Carla, Mitch and Carla's
got two in school and the first year of college. That's just
astounding, ain't it? The folks at Antanis, in their
warm regards, I want to bring a message this
evening, God helping me, on substitution. Substitution. Let's read together
here in verse 18. And all things of God. You know, Paul said in Romans
11, 36, For of him, through him, and to him be all things, both
now and forever. Amen. All things of God. who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath committed
to us the ministry of reconciliation. And this is the witness that
we are doing, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world
unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath
committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now, then, we
are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by
us We pray you, in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. For
he hath made him sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. You know, God's blessed
book, this Bible, is the very words of God himself. It's not
just words about God. Though it gives us words about
God, but it is the very words of God. It's what God says. When
we read this book, we're reading what God says. We're reading
His will, His purpose, His mind, and it's written out for us.
So we don't have to be superstitious. So we don't have to resort to
mysticism. We don't have to resort to trusting in man's other man's
opinions and feelings and philosophy. We've got something written out
for us. And the greatest book on earth, the Bible, is the heart
of God, the very heart of God, if I can say it that way. The
very heart of God made legible so we can read it. We can read
it. God lets us into his innermost
part, into his innermost being, and makes himself known to us
in the most miraculous, most glorious, most blessed most wondrous
way, and he does it through his word. And I bless his name for
that. And here in the twenty-first
verse of 2 Corinthians 5, we have for he. He. Here we see God's heart. He.
And we read it and understand how he saves sinners, why he
saves them, who knew no sin. God made him sin for us, who
knew no sin. that we might be made the very
righteousness of God in Him. You know, the Word of God is
full of substitution, of the innocent for the guilty, the
just for the unjust. Whenever you go through the Old
Testament, the first sacrifice you're confronted with is the
one that God Himself provided for Adam and Eve to close their
nakedness so that He could fellowship with them. When he brought them
out of the Garden of Eden, the first sacrifice, God shed the
blood, God closed the nakedness. But I want you to notice there's
three people, three persons in this verse of Scripture tonight,
three verses, people in this text. First we have He. Who is He? He is God. Made Him. Who is Him? Christ. To sin for
us. Who is us? Sinners. Who is Christ? that we," that's us, "...by me
made the righteous of God in him," three people, God, Christ,
and us. Now, beloved, when it says here
that God made Christ to be sin, God provides the substitute. God provides the sacrifice. And
every word that God provides, what He demands, let's put it
this way, what He demands, He provides. And what He provides
is all He'll accept. He will not provide, only except
what he himself provides. When Abraham and Isaac started
up the mountain, and Isaac turned to his father, and he says, Father,
we've got everything we need, everything but a lamb. And ain't
that this generation? They've got everything they need,
but they don't have a lamb. And Abraham said to Isaac, he
says, Son, God will provide himself a lamb. And the lamb that he
provides is the lamb that he'll accept. And all through the Old
Testament, it was God that told them to make the Passover. It
was God that said the lamb and how it was supposed to be offered,
how it was supposed to be separated. God makes the sacrifice. God
offers the substitute. God provided the lamb. And he's
the only one who accepts the lamb. And he provided what he
would accept. And then there's the substitute.
The One that God provided, the Lamb that God provided, God made
Him to be sin, Him, Christ, the eternal, blessed Son of God,
the Lord of glory, the One, beloved, that Paul, or Todd, read about.
He Himself borrows sins in His own body on the tree. And, oh,
beloved, and then there's the One, you know, and He's the One
who needs to substitute. That's us, the sinners. And we
must know, we must know something about these three persons. We
must know something about God. We must know something about
Him. And I do know this, whenever God's pleased to make Himself
known to a sinner's heart, whenever God makes Himself revealed, starts
making manifest Himself to a sinner's heart, He shuts his mouth. He
stops him talking about, I thought God was this way. I thought I
was that way. And I thought that I ought to
do this, and I thought I ought to do that. God shuts a man's
mouth. He shuts his mouth. He quits
talking about his righteousness. He quit talking about his works.
He quits talking about his goodness. He quits talking about all the
faithfulness he's done. He quits talking about God shuts
his mouth. And this generation ain't have
their mouth shut because God ain't never spoke to them. And,
oh, beloved, we got to know something about God. We got to know something
about Christ. We got to know something about
Him, who He is, something about His glory, something about His
power, something about His majesty, something about His suffering,
something about His blood, something about His righteousness, something
about why He came into this world. We got to know something about
Him. And I tell you, we got to know something about ourselves.
And one thing I can't do, and no other preacher can do it,
cannot make a sinner. Only God can make a man a sinner.
And if He ever makes you a sinner, if God Himself ever makes you
a sinner, you'll be a sinner from that day till the day you
leave this world. You'll be a sinner. You know,
we've got three or four people in our congregation now. They're
grown, got kids of their own. There's a man and a woman that
got married, and the woman who married the man had never even
kissed the boy when they got married. But she is a sinner. I mean,
a real sinner. Not one of these here creature-made
sinners. And her husband was a real sinner.
How can that be? Because sin is not something
you do, it's something you are. And when God gets in your heart,
you understand what you are. You don't become a sinner when
you start doing something. You start sinning because you
are what you are. You don't have to do something
to be a sinner. Just be born. Just breathe. That's
all it takes. And we've got to know something
about some of these people, God and Christ and ourselves, where
salvation is impossible. We have to know it to some degree.
Let's look at this first person. Let's look at God. For he, God,
hath made him to be sin. What's God? What about him? First
of all, look in verse 18, all things of God. The first person
we're looking at is God. Who is He? Well, all things are
of God. He's sovereign. He reigns. If all things are of God, Mr. Scourges said that's high doctrine
as opposed to low doctrine. I don't know what high doctrine
and low doctrine is, but I know what the Bible says, and I know
what Bible doctrine is. I know what the doctrine of God
is. And beloved God is sovereign. All things are of God. God was
in Christ. And beloved, you know, God said
that you thought I was altogether one, someone like yourself. And
that's, you know, and I've done this. I don't know if you all
done it. I thought God was so much like me. You know, I remember
this is awful. I'm ashamed of it. I'm embarrassed
by it. But I was 19 years old in Vietnam. I lifted both hands. to God like
that. And I said, you ain't got no
power. If you did, you'd destroy me right now. But just because he didn't destroy
me, does that mean he wasn't God? See, God don't work on our timetable.
He don't work whenever we raise our hands against Him. He works
in eternity. That's when his punishment starts.
But oh, bless his name, I'm telling you, beloved. I thought he was,
you know, he couldn't do anything unless I'd let him. But now God
is sovereign. He's absolutely so. Absolutely
so. No rivals. He's absolute authority. Absolute power. Absolute rights. And his only rule is his own
free and mighty will. Look with me over in Psalm 115,
just a moment. Look at this a minute, just a
moment. Psalm 115. God explains himself to no man
for his actions. Look what it says here. Not unto
us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for
thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, Where is now their God? Now I want you to notice something.
They make a distinction in their God and our God. Where's their
God at? We know where our God's at. We
want to know where theirs at. We know where ours at. We know
what ours will do. We got it sitting over here on
the shelf. We got one forever occasion that comes up. We got
one to bless us when we get married. We got one to bless us when we
die. We got one to bless us when we have children. We got one
to bless us when we won't reign. We got one to bless us when we
won't die. We got gods. Listen, where's your god at?
They understand that there's a distinction. And ain't that
the way people are now? They'll say, my god and your
god's not the same. The god you worship and the god
I worship's not the same. Where's now their god? Well,
David said, I don't care where your god's at. Don't care anything
about it. Our god's in the heavens. What's
he doing? Anything he pleases. Whatever
he wants to do, that's what he does. That's what he does. And oh,
beloved, he explains himself to no one. Had no man in his
actions. He just says, I will, and they
shall. There was a dear lady in the
hospital. She just got home yesterday. She had a second bout of cancer.
She had a real, real fast-growing kind, and they had done a radical,
radical surgery on her. cut out all kinds of lymph nodes
and all that, and I talked to her, and she says, you know what
I love? She said, I love, I will and you shall. I will and you
shall. That's what I love about God.
He is His sovereignty. I will, you shall. I shall and
you will. When God says it, it's going
to be. Is that not right? Look with me real quick over
here in Romans 9. Just a moment. Romans 9. He doesn't explain
himself, he just says, I will. Oh, my. You know, he works all things
after the counsel of his own will. And here he says this at
verse 20, Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replies against
God? Oh, Paul was ready for these arguments when he says, God will
have mercy on whom he'll have mercy. He'll have compassion
on whom he'll have compassion. It's not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. And
men will jump up and say, oh, wait a minute, that's not fair.
What about me? What about my mama? What about
my daddy? What about all the things that I've done? Oh, listen,
I helped some people out when their house burned down. Some
folks, you know, they lost their clothes when the house burnt
down, and I took some of my old clothes over there, and I gave
them to them. They didn't work. I didn't need them anymore. Seemed
like I'd fit them. I'd done this, and I'd done that.
And they start replying against God. Who aren't they that replies
against God? Shall the famed forum say to
him, Why did you make me this way? But, oh, my, God just says,
I will, and you shall. Don't argue with Him. That's
what He's saying. Why would you argue with God? He's the God
of predestination. I was predestinated to be here
tonight, and by God's predestination, I got here. I made this predestination
two weeks ago, three weeks ago. We're predestinated to be in
Vermont Tuesday. That just means that I'm going
to be in a certain place predetermined to get there. Now, all kinds
of things can happen to keep us from getting there. But will
God's predestination purpose not stand? He said He predestinated
us to be conformed to the image of Christ. Will we be conformed
to the image of Christ? He predestinated us to the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ Himself. Will we be adopted? Huh? He has many as were ordained
to eternal life. What did they do? They believed.
And, oh, beloved, this is the God we adore. I adore this God. And not only is He sovereign,
but look what else it says here, back over in our text. He hath
made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. This shows us
that he's just. His sovereignty is proved by
the very words that he hath made Christ to be sin. How could someone
make someone to be sin who never knew any sin? How could that
happen? He's the judge of all the earth,
and he must do right, and he is just. And he took Christ and
made Him to be sin. And the great salvation that
God in grace provided was devised to satisfy infinite justice. And God's justice is inflexible. God, beloved, must be, His justice
must be satisfied. And it needs to be satisfied,
and I want it to be satisfied. I don't want to have my conscience
facing God without His justice being satisfied with my sin upon
my own heart. What did Isaiah 5311 say? Look
what it says over here in Isaiah 5311. Oh, listen, God's justice is
inflexible. The soul that sinneth it shall
die. God will by no means clear the
guilty. He will not at all acquit the
wicked. Now here on this earth, men who are wicked get acquitted
all the time. Justice here can be bought, but
God's justice can't be bought. He can't take a bribe. He cannot,
no way, acquit the wicked. When a man is wicked, when a
man is a sinner, God just can't acquit you and say, I'm just
going to acquit him. I'm going to clear him. His law says, the
soul that sinneth it must die. His truth, beloved, says, yes,
that's right. His holiness said, I'll enforce
it myself. He said, I will not row away
under any sign under heaven. I quit the wicked. I cannot,
will not clear the guilty. Can't do it. I can't do it for
my grandfathers, he says to me. I can't do it for my children,
he says to me. I can't do it for your grandchildren,
he says to you. I can't do it for you. I couldn't
do it for my son when sin was found on him. I could not clear
him. I couldn't acquit him. I couldn't.
I had to find him guilty. Oh, beloved, listen. Isaiah 53,
11. He shall see, who does? Who does? God does, of the travail
of His Christ's soul, the burden of His soul, the agony of His
soul. And when He sees it, experiences
as He sees Him there, He says, He shall be satisfied. Oh, with
the blood of bulls and goats, God was never satisfied, was
never pleased, but a body has now prepared me. A body. A body to do what? To bear sin
in. A body to suffer. A body, beloved,
that God can hang on a tree. A body that can bear sin in its
own self there on that tree. And oh, beloved, the death of
Christ, first and foremost, is for God. It's a propitiation. It's a satisfaction. Oh, God, He has to. His wrath. has to be removed. He's angry
with the wicked every day, and should be. Should be. We love, my, think of the things
we said, the things we done, the places we went, the sins
we committed, the things we said about God. Oh, my soul, why shouldn't He be
angry with us every day? What did we think? What did we
think when we went around our pride and our self-righteousness?
What did we think was going around self-glory? What was we doing
when we said, God, I don't need you. I go where I want to go,
do what I want to do, think what I want to think, believe what
I want to believe. I don't want to do this. I don't
want to go there. And I sure don't want nothing
to do with you. And so that wrath, that just
wrath has been up against us, and now He just endears the Lord. With long-suffering, He endears
this generation. But, oh, my soul, why didn't
He stroke me like a bug when I was nineteen years old when
I cussed Him? Why didn't He just squash me
like I was a nothing, like the worm that I am? It had been just
and good. It'd be just to take my children,
and as they go about their self-righteousness, and my grandchildren, their self-righteousness,
it'd be just to put His foot on them, and put His foot on
their neck, and say, oh, you're not going no farther. I'm going
to put you away out of my sight right now. And oh, but listen,
Christ, the death of Christ first was God. For God, oh God, He
needed satisfaction. He needed His justice and His
anger put away. That's why when God said, when
I see the blood, when I see the blood, when Christ entered once
into the holy place with His own blood, oh, He took that blood to God. And,
oh, beloved, the Scripture says that Christ offered Himself to
God as a sweet-smelling Savior. And, oh, listen, and then for
us, man was to us, it was a substitution. The One put in our place to buy
our wrath, to satisfy justice in our place. God can no longer
be angry with us if He was angry with Christ. God can no more
put His justice on us now since He's put it on Christ. And some are deceived by sin,
into believing God won't punish sin. Some think that He can be pacified.
Just a few good works, just a few good works, Just a few nice words, you know.
But the God of the Bible won't be satisfied with good works
or good words. If he'd have been satisfied with
prayers, the prayer that Christ offered in the Garden of Gethsemane
would have been enough. But he wasn't. The prayer that
Christ prayed on John 17, when he prayed the high priestly prayer,
if the prayer would have been good enough, that would have
been enough. But it takes the shedding of blood, it takes death.
And, O Beloved, as the God of the Bible, He is as severe as
if He were not merciful, and as just as if He were not gracious,
and yet He is as gracious and merciful as if He were not just. O bless His name! I love Him
the way He is. And let me show you another one.
He's the God of Sovereign, He's the Sovereign God, He's the God
of Justice, He's the Just God. Now look over here in 1 Peter
chapter 5. Oh, look what it says here now.
1 Peter 5 can, but the God of all
grace. Oh, He's sovereign, yes He is.
He's just, yes He is. And then Peter says, now the
God of all grace. All sovereign grace, free grace,
saving grace, sustaining grace, suffering grace. sustaining grace,
all the grace that you'll ever need for time and eternity. The God of all grace. He's got
heaven full of grace. I mean, beloved, just ask for
it and He just opens heaven and out it comes. Christ is full
of grace and full of truth. The God of all grace. Oh, and
watch what He done here. Hath called us unto His eternal
glory. by Christ Jesus, after that you
suffered a while, make your perfect strength established, settle
you, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever. Oh, the God
of grace, the God who must punish sin, the God who never pardoned
sin without punishment, is also the God of eternal and everlasting
and electing love. He is a God of unliving. He said,
I have no pleasure. in the death of the wicked. I
have no pleasure in it. He has no pleasure in it. He
don't delight in it. And beloved He is love. Not the
God of love. Not like people say, well, my
God's a God of love. And whatever love is they estimate
love to be, then no God rises to that occasion. But God is
love. Let me tell you something. Any
love that you have right now, any natural love that you have,
God gave you that. You know how many people are
born into this world that don't love their own children? You
know how many people are born into this world that don't have
the ability to love? You know how many people are
born into this world with a heart that absolutely has past feeling? And if you love your wife, or
you love your children, or you love your brothers and sisters
in Christ, God done that for you. All love is of God, but
then that electing love, that love that calls you, that love
that loves you. God commended His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. With cords of lovingkindness
have I drawn you. And, O Beloved, He delights in
mercy. Not only does He love, but He delights in mercy, this
God of all grace does. Father, may I sit by the wayside,
and Christ came walking by. Jesus, thou Son of David, have
mercy on me! Did I hear somebody cry for mercy? That fellow sat down at the temple,
smote on his breast and said, Oh God, be merciful to me. And
the Lord Jesus says, That man went down to his house justified.
Oh, He delights to show mercy. Just rejoices it. We delight
in so many things. We delight, you know, we've got
a new great-granddaughter. And I'm telling you, she is something. She is the prettiest thing and
the happiest baby. She was laying in my lap last
night, laying there playing, and I just muted the television
just to hear her just yapping, yapping, hollering. And just
her voice is so sweet to me, and I delight in it so much it
brought me to tears. And the things that we delight
in, if that's just all it takes to delight me, you start asking
for mercy and see how delighted God is. If I love to hear that
baby's voice, imagine what God does when He hears your voice
crying out for mercy. Oh, my. I said, well, I hear mercy being
asked for out there. He's on His way. Mercy takes
wing. And He's full of grace. And this
is the God we worship. Sovereign. Just. Gracious. And it is Him who made God, who
made Christ to be sin for us, who knew no sin. Now, let's look
back over in our text again. That's the first person. We've
got to know something about Him. Let's look at the second person.
For he hath made him sin for us. Him. Him. Who knew no sin. Him. And who? Who is this? This is the Lord
Jesus Christ. He who knew no sin. God was in
Christ to reconcile the world unto himself. Now, he was the
only begotten of the Father. He is not created, as Adam was.
And what I mean by that is, is that our Lord Jesus Christ, he
was begotten only as it relates to time through the womb of a
virgin. The Lord Jesus Christ has always been the Son. And
this is the mystery of the Godhead. As long as it's eternal as God
is, that's as eternal as the Son is. As omnipotent as the
Father is, that's how omnipotent the Son is. As holy as the Father,
that's the way the Son is. Now, my son, I'll always be twenty-one
years older than him, will always be his father. And I'll leave
him behind one of these days, or him and me. But the Father
and the Son are exactly the same in eternity and in time and in
eternity to come. How can that be? How can the
Father and the Son be exactly the same? And He was only begotten as He
was brought into time through the womb of a virgin. The Father is eternal, so is
the Son. The Son is equal with the Father
and existed as long as the Father. The Father is almighty, so is
the Son. The Father is infinite, so is
the Son. He is very God, a very God. And listen, not only is He God,
but He is also the Son of Mary. A man like us, sin accepted. A man subject to the infirmities
of human nature. And I hope you agree with me
on this, and I believe I'm right. I believe I'm right. Our Lord
Jesus Christ need not have suffered in this world because He is sinless. Now, you and I suffer because
we have sinned. We're under a curse. When Christ came into this world,
He was sinless. Is that not right? He was sinless
all the days of his life, never knew any sin. So if any suffering goes on in
his life, any humility, any grief, any sorrow, he's got to willingly
subject himself to that and subject himself to that. But that's the
reason he took upon himself flesh. That's the reason he took upon
himself becoming a man, in order to enter into our infirmities
and our sufferings, and he was a man of suffering and woe. He
was a man, beloved, the Scriptures tell us, that he was acquainted
with grief. I'm acquainted with joy often.
I'm acquainted with great peace. I'm acquainted with righteousness in Christ. But
Christ was acquainted with grief. He was a man of sorrows. I mean,
it was an acquaintance of His. It was His. And beloved, pain,
trouble, temptation, trial, weakness. He was bone of our bone and flesh
of our flesh that He even tasted death for us. He says, is it
nothing to you that pass by? Behold, is any sorrow like unto
my sorrow? Wherewith the Lord hath afflicted
me in the day of his fierce anger." Oh, our Lord Jesus Christ, what
made his suffering and his grief and his sorrow and his
trials and his temptations so awful and so terrible was because
of who he is. Who he is. Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, which of you convinces me of sin? But here's this God
and here's this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and it says God
made him to be sin for us. This God and this man, he was
not God humanized. He's not like these mythical
gods that people have dreamed up down through the ages. He's
not a God humanized, and He's not a man deified. He's not God
and man mixed all up, part-time man, part-time God, got a weakness
here and not a weakness there. No, no, He was God and man. God
purely, eternally and essentially God, and pure man. And I tell you, once He took
upon Himself manhood, He's now eternally man. Eternally man. And, O Beloved, He was a man.
Not more than a man, this one that God made to be sin. Not
more than a man because of his deity. And God not less than
God because of his humanity. There he is, he was a man. Tears
come down his face. He got tired and he had to rest
and he had to sleep. He was a man. And then, beloved, he could walk
on water, calm the storms, call sinners to himself. What a sacred
union. God, man, in one person. This is who God made to be sin. This is what it says, he who
knew no sin. It didn't say not, he did know
sin. He knew no sin. Now, I'll tell
you something, beloved. I know he knew the effects of
sin on humanity. I knew he knows the consequences
of sin. I knew he knows what his father
sought of sin. And he knew that he was going
to bear sin and be made to be sin. He saw sin in others, but
he did not know sin by experience, never ever felt it until he went
to the cross. And when he went to that cross,
there was something happened there that we just absolutely,
our minds cannot get around. When our Lord Jesus Christ prayed
in the Garden of Gethsemane, he was praying great swaps of
blood. And what was his soul suffering
about? It wasn't because of his physical suffering. Those other
men beside him were going to suffer physically. What's he
going to suffer for? What's he weeping for? What's
he crying for? What's he praying for? What's he in agony for?
Because this awful, horrible thing that Paul said is exceedingly
sinful, because that's the only way to describe it, that's what
you're going to be made. Going to be made. And then look
here with me at the third person. We see God. Sovereign. Just. Gracious. Christ. God. Infinitely, eternally God. Man. Sinless. Holy. Harmless. Undefiled. Separate
from sinners. Man. Though knew no sin. Had to grow up like us. Had to
learn to walk. Had to learn to talk. Had to
learn to read. Oh, he was a man. And God made
him to be sin for us who knew no sin. The third person we want
us to look at is us. Made him to be sin for us. That we, who's us and we? Us
sinners. For us, the sinner. Who is he?
Who is the sinner? Who's he talking about here?
Who's us? Who are we? Where is he? Where is he? Is
he here? Is there one here? Just look within. That's all
you got to do. Just look within. Sinner's by
birth. Born a sinner. Father's a sinner. My mother's
a sinner. My grandpa, my grandma. It's far back all the way to
the garden. Sinner by birth. Sinners by nature. I grew up
and started sinning. You know why I grew up and started
sinning? Because I was a sinner. Couldn't do anything else. Sinner
by practice. Oh, how we practiced sin. How
we practiced it. We practiced it. Not all that,
but we was proud of it. We gloryed in it. We'd go out
and get in meanness carouse around and lie, do some of the awfulest
things in the world, and then brag about it. Boy, you wouldn't
believe what I done last week. Oh, did you hear what I said
there? You wouldn't believe. I mean, just brag about it. Glory
in it. You know how many people got
up this morning bragging about the sin they committed last night?
Proud of it? Proud of our sin? I was that
way. Oh, so proud. Proud of all the
sin I committed. Just get it, and like your son,
get this glass of water. Drink my iniquity just like I'm
drinking this water. You say, oh, that's good. That's
the way we drink our iniquity. Proud of it. Proud of it. But this is who Christ became
sin for. Us. Us. Me. You, who are sinners. And let's say, let's say that
God, tonight, takes somebody in this building that don't know
God, don't know Christ. Say, this is it. This is it. You're not going another Harrisburg.
Come on. I want you up here at the Justice,
Barb Justice. God's on His throne. God's on His throne. They call
us into a courtroom. The judge sits there in his big
black robe, and they put your hand on that Bible. And it's
an awesome thing. It's an awful, awful thing to
be in a courtroom, and you see this law and this justice. But
here's God. He calls us to the Barb Justice.
He calls you. And He calls you there, and,
beloved, He's going to try you. He's going to try you for life
or for death. No middle ground. He's going to try you. And as
He tries the sinner, if that verdict is guilty, and He brings
that verdict back, what's going to happen? You see, God is gracious. Oh, He is so gracious. He is
so full of mercy, delights in it, but yet over at the same
time, He is so just and so holy and so righteous that He must
punish that sin that that man stands before Him. And so there
He is. He's full of mercy and full of
grace and full of compassion, full of pity. But yet at the
same time, He looks at him and He said, I know your heart. I
know your motives. I know what you thought. I know
where you've been. I know what you've done. I know what you
thought about. I know you. So here's this sinner before
the bar of justice, here's God's mercy and grace, and here's God's
justice. How in the world will these conflicting
attributes be brought to bear? How will they be reconciled in
the mind and will and purpose of God? He is love, and where
there's love, He must express it. He loves and He wants to
express and wills to express His mercy and to save. And he's
just, and at the same time he says, I must destroy. I must
destroy. I cannot do anything with that. The full penalty of the law is
going to come down hard. It's going to come down, when
I slam this gavel down, when the penalty of the law is going
to be executed on you to the fullest measure of the law. Oh, how then is He going to love
and show grace and show mercy? And how is He going to destroy
and punish the sinner at the same time? How can this be? How can God ever, ever be so
inflexibly just? and inflict the full penalty
of the law on a sinner, and at the same time express the deepest
love in his heart, and wrap that sinner in his grace, and pull
him to his breast? How can that be? Oh, I tell you,
I believe I know the very power and wisdom of God is put on display
to show how it can be done. He'll show us how he can be just
and punish the sinner to the fullest extent of the law, and
at the same time embrace that sinner and make him as righteous
as he himself is. God made him. to be sin for us
who knew no sin, that we who were us, that he is made to be
sinful, we can now be made the righteousness of God in him.
Our Lord Jesus Christ said to the Father, this is why I say
everything he did was so voluntary. He willingly, willingly did this. Take me. Take me. Take me. Son, you're sinless. Take me. Son, you're holy. Take me. Son,
you're the Son of the Lord. Take me. Take me. You treat me like that
sinner that's in your presence. Get out your sword of justice
and take it. and just plunge it just as hard
and as deep and as hard as you want to and plunge it into my
heart. Smite me with your wrath just
as hard as it takes to bear the wrath of your people for all
eternity. I'll bear it. And then take my sinlessness
Take my righteousness, take my obedience, and give it to them." Oh, now you can love them. Now
you can give them grace. Your justice will be satisfied.
Your law will be honored. It will be extended on me. I stand in absolute awe at this
gospel. I stand in absolute astonishment
at this gospel. I woke up this morning. I started
out in Pentecostalism. Made lots of noise, told lots
of lies. It's awful how I sinned against
God. It's awful. Being drunk, nothing compared
to what you do when you lie on God. Stealing something and lying
on God. And being self-righteous. Thinking that you was doing something
to make God love you and like you better. And oh, bless His
holy name. He saved me from that darkness.
Saved me from such darkness. Saved me from such deception. Save me with such self-righteousness
and pride, such arrogance, such stiff-neckedness, so hard-heartedness,
such a stubborn will. How did he do it? Thank Christ
to be sinned for me who knew no sin. And then made me the
righteousness of God in Christ. And then He come along. And He
crossed my path, was somebody telling me that? And now that's the sweetest song
I ever heard in my life. May God make it real to you.
May God make Christ real to you. May God make your heart May God
make your heart sinful, because if He ever does, you'll find
no rest until you rest in Christ. Amen. Thank you.