Clare is much nicer than I am. I'm glad it's cold in Florida. I hope it gets colder. Life's not fair, is it? It is
a joy. It's a joy to be back with you.
Joy to see a crowd like this on a cold Wednesday night. You worked all day, and you come
here and have to go back to work tomorrow, get the kids up and
go to school, and you still come here to worship. And that encourages
me and thrills me. It's good to see you. And we'll
keep you for just a few minutes, and then you can go. 1 Peter
2, verse 24. 1 Peter 2, verse 24. I talked to an English teacher,
and I asked her what, if this had some sort of a term, the
way the Apostle Peter said this. But she couldn't give me one.
I'm sure there's something, some kind of terminology that you
can put on when someone speaks like this. Who is on self? If I had been said that, I would
just as simply have said, who bear our sins? But who? His own self. These apostles and these writers,
their hearts were so full of Christ. They just loved to talk
about him. Use every word they could to
describe him. Their pens were full of ink about
him. Who? His own self. Bear our sins in his own body
on the tree. that we, being dead to sins,
should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye are healed." These apostles, if they started
on the subject, they were going to teach us of a subject that
always began with Christ. Peter was going to teach us something
about redemption, the atonement of our sins. And he doesn't begin
with a bunch of facts, details of it. Is it particular? Is it general? But he begins
with this glorious person who his own self bare our sins and
his own body on the tree. Peter knew something about this.
I know he was right in here on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
But he knew something experientially about this, too. He knew something
about this body, this glorious body. Do you remember when the
Lord Jesus was raised from the dead and the disciples were still
hiding out in the upper room so fearful? And the Lord Jesus
in His resurrected, glorious body appeared right in the midst
of them. and said, Peace be unto you. And it scared them to death.
Their hearts were so full of fear. And he said, Why are all
of these evil thoughts and these doubts arising in your heart? Behold my hands and behold my
feet. It is I, myself. Peter knew something about this
man, the Son of God, burying our sins in his own body. And
he comes here and he writes it like that, through his own self.
He says, I know it by experience. I saw him. I saw the nail print
in his hands and his feet. This glorious person. They always
begin this way. Peter had been talking about
him all the way through this book, about this person. And
the Bible does that. And there's a reason the Bible
does that. You and I, we go about collecting
these facts and going into details and all of this. But when the
Bible begins, it begins with this person. It opens our hearts
to this glorious person, the Son of God. And there's a reason
it does that. We must hear of a person. We must believe a person. We
must come to a person. It's not a system that saves
us, is it? Some people have accused you
and I of believing in systems. No, we believe in a person, the
person of Christ. A system doesn't save us. A person
saves us. So the Apostle Peter begins here,
and he's going to tell us something about redemption and how our
sins are put away. And he begins with this glorious
person, who? His own self. You and I hear so much about
different doctrines today. Someone will come up and ask
you what you believe about the doctrine of the preexistence, or the doctrine of the incarnation.
Or what do you believe about the atonement? You know the Bible
never speaks about such things like that way. When the Bible
speaks about the incarnation that we call it, you know what
the Bible says? Unto us a son is born. Unto us
a child is born. Unto us a son is given. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. The eternal Word of God was made
flesh and dwelt among us. That's the way the Bible talks
about the Incarnation. It's not something that happened.
It's someone who was made flesh. I had a Sunday school teacher
when I was young, and he was always saying, the gospel is
the death, burial and resurrection. He just kept repeating that almost
every Sunday I heard that, the gospel is the death, burial and
resurrection. Well, finally I learned what
the gospel was, and I said my Sunday school teacher was wrong.
The gospel is not the death, burial, and resurrection. Ain't
it something how we can get these things and we shorten it down
and we put it in our little box and make everything so convenient?
What is the gospel? It's how Christ died. and how
he was buried, and he rose again the third day. It's not a general
redemption or a particular redemption. It's him who went into that holy
place by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption for
us. That's what the Bible does. It
presents to us this glorious person. You and I aren't looking for
some little neat system of theology we can catechize our kids with. There's nothing wrong with having
things put in order. I appreciate our preachers, our
pastors laboring over the Word of God and getting these things
in order and bringing them here and setting them out for us.
That's wonderful. I'm not against that at all.
But after we've got all these facts together, and we learn
these things, and we try our best to get them in our hearts,
what happens? We get old, and we forget them. Isn't that the way we are? I
go to the nursing home and preach to those old folks, and they've
just about forgot everything that they've ever learned. And
that's the way we'll be. I was over at Brother Mahan's,
men your pastor, men Brother Todd and Paul Mahan. After the meeting, we were sitting
there around Brother Henry and Sister Dorsey's kitchen table,
and we were talking, talking about a passage of Scripture. And Paul just took it apart.
Oh, we just took it apart and we went and got this scripture
and brought it here. And we got all these facts and all these
details trying to figure out this passage of scripture. And
Brother Mahan wasn't saying a thing. And one of us looked at him and
said, Brother Mahan, what do you know about this passage?
We knew he knew something about it because he wrote a commentary
on it. But you know what he said to us? He looked right at us,
and you know what he said? I forgot. I forgot. Ain't that what we're coming
to? We get all these facts, and we should. All these details,
and we do all this study. But then we get old, and we forget
everything. And it all comes back to what? To him. To him. Do you remember when Lazarus
had died? Four days. Martha and Mary still couldn't
get on with their lives. Their hearts were so heavy. They
were so sad, tears running down their eyes. And the Lord Jesus
finally came. Martha met him and said, Lord,
if you'd have been here, my brother would not have died. And the
Lord said, he'll raise again. Then she started to go into this
long, drawn out detail about what she knew of the resurrection.
I know there's going to be a resurrection. I know my brother's going to
raise again. I know something about that. I even know when
it's going to be, at the last day. And I don't know how much
longer she'd have commented on it, but the Lord broke in, and
he said in effect, Are all these facts helping you, Martha? You
know a lot about the resurrection. Has it comforted your heart? And then he made this wonderful
statement to her. Martha, I am the resurrection. Now, ain't that wonderful? Are
we post-millennial? Are we pre-millennial? Are we
all-millennial? We want times and we want seasons. We want to know about what it's
going to be like and all of these things. And we learn all of that
and we get old and we forget it all. And it comes down to
this. And when the silver cord is broken
and we can't find any comfort anyplace else, as we face the
king of terrors, as we're headed out into another world, here's
our hope. Here's our comfort. I am the
resurrection. What do we want to know about
the resurrection? Who it is? Ain't that enough
for us to know? I am the resurrection. And that
settles it. Just the way the Lord Jesus says
something. Settles it. It's not just that
he says it. That's enough. But it's the way
that he says it. I am. I am the resurrection. The Lord Jesus, that's enough.
I'll face death with that. I'll face eternity with that.
With him. And that's where I bet you and
I will come down to. When we're old, we've lost our
thoughts. And someone says, what do you
believe about this? Well, I believe this. Well, can
you give me a scripture? Well, I forgot. I forgot. It'll come down to him. To him. And that's what these apostles
are teaching. Peter had been talking about him all the way
through these passages. Look here what he says about
him in chapter two. In chapter 2 of 1 Peter, he says
there in verse 4, to whom cometh? To whom cometh? As unto a living
stone, disallowed indeed of men, but he's chosen of God, and he's
precious to God. He's precious to God. That's
what Peter said about it. Look at him over what he said
about him in chapter 3. Look what he says in verse 22,
"...who is gone unto heaven, and is on the right hand of God,
angels and authorities in power, being made subject unto him."
And then he says over in chapter 5, in verse 4, "...when the chief
shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that
fadeth not away." It's not events. that these apostles talked about.
When they talked about the incarnation, as we call it, it was who came
down from heaven. When he talked about the atonement,
it was who died. If we ever get a hold of that,
the extent of atonement will pretty much take care of itself.
And when he talked about the second coming, it's who's coming.
It's who's coming. Peter was riding here to these
probably mostly Jews that were scattered abroad. He tells us
that in chapter one. They couldn't get back to Jerusalem,
back up to these feasts, back up to the Day of Atonement. And
Peter rides here to them. You don't need to go back to
Jerusalem. You don't need to see the priest. lay his hands
upon those animal sacrifices and typify the transference of
sin and confess over them the sins of Israel. You don't need
to be there and see that. He said those are only tops and
figures and shadows. You have the person. You know
the person that all those sacrifices typify. and foreshadowed. And
he says it like this, when he told us of this wonderful person
who his own self, then he says this, who bare our sins in his
own body on the tree. Who wants to go back and see
a priest lay his hand on the head of a goat and confess over
him? That's just a shadow. Peter said what took place there
in Shaddah actually and really took place in the person of the
Son of God. I want you to notice very carefully
how this text reads. I think if you and I could just
come here this evening without any preconceived notions, without
any prejudice, without having formed any opinions, And just
like little children, we could come here and look at this verse
and let it speak to us. Let it be its own interpreter
to us. And what is this Scripture saying?
Look how Peter says it. He's amazing. It's amazing how
he says this. Who his own self bare our sins
in his own body on the tree. This one who is so precious to
God. who came down from heaven and
took our humanity, God's soul is wrapped up in him, and now,
here Peter says, our sins were put in his own body. What did this verse just say?
Well, somebody will say, it said that he was made an orphan. Well,
that's true, but that's not what Peter said, was it? Somebody
will say, well, he was made a sacrifice. He died for our sins. That's
what that says. No, that's not what that says,
is it? Peter goes on in verse 18 of chapter 3 to say he suffered
for our sins, but here he simply says he bare our sins in his
own body on the tree. If he bore our sins, if he bore
my sins, he bore all kinds of sins. If he bore our sins, then he
must bore the actual sins that we commit. If he bore our sins,
he must bore the original sins, open sins, profane sins, secret
sins, sins of motive. Sins of thought, sins of words,
sins of deeds, sins against God, sins against the Holy Spirit,
sins against himself, self-righteous sins, the sin of unbelief, the sin
of pride. Couldn't we just go on and on? Well, when you feel your sin
and you think of your sin, could you ever dream that you could
sin like you sin? Sins that you never thought of
before, now you think of. And he bore it. Oh, Bruce, if
you could just realize how wicked my thoughts were some time. Every
wicked thought you have, he bore it. He bore it in his own body
on the tree. He actually did. He really did
what the ceremonial law depicted. When the priest laid his hands
upon the head of that sacrifice and confessed the sins of the
children of Israel, typically putting them on that sacrifice,
that's exactly, really what took place when God the Father took
the sins of his people and laid them upon his son. I think this teaches just what
it says. I think it teaches just what
it says. But in bearing these sins in
his own body, he had to bear all that is in
sin, all that belongs to sin, all that arises out of sin. You can't take sin to yourself
without there being consequences. Can a man take fire to his bosom
and not be burnt? Why, no. Can the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, take our sins to Himself and not be affected
by them? No. He was a man, a real man,
a holy man. But now He's taken our sins unto
Himself. Now He suffers the consequences.
Now he must suffer and experience everything that arises out of
these sins that's in his body. And what is it? You know what
the Bible sometimes calls our sin, and what arises out of sin? Filth. Filthiness of the flesh and spirit. You know what that is? Sins.
Sins of the flesh and the spirit are called filth. when the Lord
shall have washed away the filth of the daughter of Jerusalem."
What is that that's defiled her? It's sin. But before he can wash
her from her filth, he must take it from her. And this he did,
and now it's in him. Job said this, the heavens are
not pure in his sight. How much more abominable and
filthy is man who drinketh iniquity like water." Man is filthy. What's made him filthy? His iniquities. Listen to Psalms chapter 53.
God looked down from heaven to see if there were any that did
understand and seek God. Everyone has gone back. They
have all together become filthy. There's not a one that doeth
good, no, not one. All our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. Did He wear our righteousnesses
in His body? And what arises out of that?
Filth. Filth. Joshua the high priest in Zechariah
chapter 3 stood before the Lord, and he was dressed in filthy
garments. And the Lord spake to him that stood by and said,
You take those filthy garments from him. And he said to Joshua,
I have called with your iniquity to depart from it. But before
that can happen, those sins have to be removed. And someone else
has to suffer the consequences. That's what Peter is telling
us here. Sins are filthy. They are pollution. They're stinking
wounds and sores that purify. My wounds stink and are sore
corrupt." You know who said that? Somebody said David said that.
Well, why would David say that? His sins. He felt his sins. Well, when David's sins was taken
from him and put in the body of Jesus Christ, did he feel
the same? You better bet he did. The Lord
Jesus Christ upon the cross said, My wounds stink, and they are
sure corrupt. That's what arises out of sin.
The second thing that arises out of sin is guilt and shame. There's nobody here this evening
that knows anything about your sin, but you felt the guilt of
it, and you've been ashamed of it. There's some time when you
felt the shame of your guilt to such an extent, you won't
show your face to God's people. You'll creep into the house of
the Lord, and you'll creep out. It makes you so ashamed. If anybody
ever exalted you or told you how good you were, you'd go home
and get on your face before the Lord and apologize that such
a good thing would be said about you. Such a shame for it. Well, when the Lord Jesus took
this sin in his own body, he had to feel the consequences
of it. He despised the shame. Hebrews
chapter 12 tells us that. He endured the cross, despising
the shame. Not only the shame of the nakedness,
but the shame of the sin that he now bore in his own body. Look over here with me in Psalms
chapter 69. This is a passage here that you
can go through at your own leisure. You probably have several places
in this chapter that there's no doubt who it's speaking of
and who's speaking. This is the Son of God speaking.
And he's speaking in prophecy, speaking from the cross. And
look what he says, talking about the shame. Look in verse 19. Thou hast known my reproach and
my shame and my dishonor. My adversaries are all before
thee. And look in verse 5. O God, thou
knowest my foolishness. Now, here's the wisdom of God.
Here is the Son of God who is the wisdom of God, and he says,
You know my foolishness and my sins. You know what that word
is? Guiltiness. My guilt. My sins are not hid from thee. How could he say such a thing?
Peter tells us. He bare our sins in his own body
on the tree. Look what he says in verse 6.
Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed
for my sake. Let not those that seek thee
be confounded for my sake. For my sake. Is this David? Could
David say such a thing as this? No, David. This is not the language
of David. This is the greater David. This
is David's Lord. Here he hangs upon the cross,
and he owns our sin, and he owns our guilt, and then he turns
to the Father, and he says, Oh, Father, let not my people be
ashamed for my sake. In verse 7, Because for thy sake. I have borne reproach, shame
hath covered my face." The shame of what? The shame of his sin. What arises out of sin? Filthiness,
pollution, guilt and shame. And punishment. Punishment. The last thing is punishment. Punished in soul and punished
in body. The Bible says the Lord Jesus
Christ tasted death. If you're in Christ this evening,
you'll never taste death. You'll go to sleep. He tasted
it for you. And you know why the Scripture
says he tasted death? Because it had a sting in it.
And you know what that sting is? Sin. That's what he tasted, the death
that sin brings. How did the Lord Jesus bear our
sins in his own body? I often read, and this bothers
me, and this really saddens me, because I read sometimes where
our dear commentaries say, God treated him as if he had our
sins. It's as though God pretended.
That goes back to the law, the ceremonial law. God pretended
that our sins were put on those sacrifices. But, brothers and
sisters, listen, this wasn't pretense. This was real. This actually happened. You know
why you and I believe in what we call particular redemption?
Because we believe in a real substitution. If we just believe
that Jesus Christ gave himself as a sacrifice, we may believe
in a general redemption. But redemption has more to do
with just giving himself a sacrifice. It has to do with transference
of sin from one individual to another. And him standing responsible,
and he's responsible for everybody's sins without exception, then
empty out hell. Because such a glorious person
can never die in vain. Whoever sins he had in his body,
he suffered for them. He paid the uttermost cost for
them, and he put them away by the sacrifice of himself. And where did he do it? On the
tree. On the tree. There he hangs on
the tree with more sins in his body than you and I could ever
imagine. Sins from the first elect soul to the last. He bore
them all. in his body and suffered the
consequences for him and put him away. Bruce, it can't be that way. Christ made a sacrifice for sins,
and that's the extent of it. There's no way that he could
have identified with our sins that you just described. I have one fellow that I read
after some time. He's a commentary, an old man
who's been dead for a long time. But I was reading him on this
passage, and he makes this statement. So often when you read that God
put on Christ iniquities and Christ was made sin, so often
he makes this statement. This means no more than Christ
was made a sacrifice for sin. This means no more. See how that
diminishes this glorious mystery? This means no more. In other
words, just read over it. Don't look into it. Don't examine
it. Don't be amazed by it. It means no more. If I believed
that, I wouldn't tell it, would you? No, it means exceeding much
more. Before he's a sacrifice for our
sins, he has to take our sins and make them his own and fill
them, too, and be so affected by them just like you and I was
affected by them, only in a much intimately more dreadful way. Well, somebody says, doesn't
Peter say that he offered himself as a lamb without spot to God?
And doesn't he say here in the third chapter, it was the just
for the unjust that he might bring us to God? Then what are
you saying, Bruce, of the Son of God? I'm saying he was made
sin. No, I didn't say that. The Bible
said that. I'm saying he took our sins and
experienced the corruption, the filth of them. Then how could
he remain holy? How could he remain just? That's
just the way he is. He can become something and not
cease to be what he was. You say that don't make any sense,
but he did it. Did he not do it? He came down
from heaven, and you see him out there on a ship and a boat,
and he's sleeping. He's sleeping. The disciples
finally got him awake. Who is that? That's Jesus Christ.
The man Christ Jesus. Oh, he's more than that. That's
God. But God don't sleep. The man
sleeps. Is he as much God as he was before
he went to sleep? Well, just wait around a minute
and you'll see. Man don't speak to the wind and say, be still. Man don't speak to the raging
waves of the sea and say, shh. Oh, you're no more out here.
Fear the two shall you come and no thunder. That's God that does
that. Did he cease to be God because
he was asleep? No. He became man, but he never
ceased to be in any sense, to any degree, what he was before
he came. He's 100% God and he's 100% man. very lazy in the garden, sweating
drops of blood, crying and fearing and groaning. Does God do such
a thing? Is God afraid? No. But this man was. The son of
Mary was. Did he cease to be God? He became
man, but he never ceased to be what he was. And on the cross
when he took our sins, he was so affected by them because he
so identified with us, he became what he was not. He became sin,
but he never ceased to be what he was. Holy, harmless and undefiled. You say, Bruce, can your faith
get a hold of that? No, you can't get a hold of that
in your puny little minds, but your faith can get around it.
You can believe it. And if you take that out of it,
you take the mystery out of it. If it's no more than this, but
oh, it is more. The gospel is such a mysterious
thing that the only way you and I can begin to get hold of it
is by this faith. Faith. There he hanged with our sins,
and he hated it, he despised it, he feared it, he was ashamed
of it, he felt the guilt of it, and he tasted death for it. And
in his death, he suffered the full consequences of it. The full consequences. Knowing
that Christ, being raised from the dead, doth no more, sin hath
no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth
unto God." And that brings me to my last point. What are the
consequences of all this? What are the effects upon us?
That we, being dead to sin, should live to God. You know, really,
the same consequences, the same effect that it has upon him is
the same effect that it has upon us. However, it affected him
when he raised from the dead. It's the same way it affected
us because he did it on our behalf. What does it mean to be dead?
That we, being dead to sin, should live unto God. Do you know what
it means to be dead? It simply means to be free. He
that is dead is free from sin. If you're a slave and you die,
you're free from your master. But you say, Bruce, we're not
dead. He is. And we died in him. He bore our
sins in his own body that we being dead. He died to sin, so
we died to sin because we are in union with him. Listen to
this verse again. For him that he died, he died
unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. And listen, likewise, reckon
ye yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God through your
union with Jesus Christ. You're dead with him, and you
live with him. Now, the reality of this and
our ability to comprehend it are two different things. I wish
I could experience the reality of it. Here's the reality. You're in
Christ tonight. You have union with the Son of
God. You have no condemnation. You're free from guilt. because
you're in union with him. You're as free from it as he
is. He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent
me, hath everlasting life, and shall never come into condemnation. There is now, right before we're
in the midst of this war fire, now no condemnation to them who
are in Christ Jesus. But the reality is, The experience
is a lot different from the reality. The reality is we groan. The
reality is we sorrow. The reality is because of our
weak faith and the power of this sin that worketh in us, sometimes
we fall into awful doubts and fears about it all. But you know
something? That don't change the reality.
I've often said this, and I think I'm going to learn this from
experience. There are a lot of dear saints that are going to
fear their way right into heaven. They're going to doubt their
way right into heaven. When do we become dead to sin? When we believe. When we believe. I've got no problem with this,
and you don't either. Listen to this. Thanks be unto
God that you were the servants of sin, that ye have obeyed from
the heart. You believed the gospel. You
believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Being then made free from sin,
you became the servants of righteousness. It's only believers that have
this union with Christ. Only believers can enter into
this. and receive the benefits of this union with the Lord Jesus
Christ. And it's only believers that
can live unto God and enjoy God. And I tell you, the more you
can lay hold upon this by faith, the better you'll serve your
Father in Heaven and the more you'll enjoy Him. You know, you
would think if you freed a man that he would just run wild.
That's what we would think. I never will forget this. In
the summertime especially, I walked through my neighborhood and we
had a new fellow moved in up on the north end of the little
community I lived in. I walked up through there and
he tied one of these pit bulls, a big pit bull, right next to
the road. A rusted fence that had it on
a chain. And I'd walk through there, and man, that thing would
come out and hit the edge of that chain and grab that fence
in his teeth and pull on it. I thought, man, if that thing
ever got loose, I'm dead. He'll eat me up. And I come through
there one day, and the fence was gone, and he had him tied
to this little chain. And yet he hit that chain, and I thought,
I'm not coming back through here anymore. That's a wild animal.
And I did it for a long time. And one day I forgot. And I was
going up the hill. And I thought, oh, I ain't supposed
to come this way. But just as I said that, there
that dog stood right in the middle of the road. It seen me that
time I seen it. And I couldn't move. And here
it come. Here it come. I thought, I'm
dead. I'm going to be eat up. I can't outrun this thing. And
boy, it come barreling down the street at me and got right up
to me and stopped and looked up at me and started licking
my hand. I knew it was the same dog. That don't make any sense. When
he had her inside that fence, all bound up on the chain, the
meanest thing you ever seen. But when he turned it loose,
it became so tame and gentle and loving. I can't understand
that. I can't understand when the Son
of God says, I made you free. And then I turn right around
and say, Lord, I'm going to serve you the rest of my life. I don't know how that works.
But Peter said it works. Because Christ bore our sins,
we're free. We're dead from it. Now we can
live to God. Can you understand that? But
it happens that way, doesn't it? That's the way it happened. He didn't explain it either.
But it works. It works. And you know what the
Apostle Paul said about this freedom? Stand fast in it. Enjoy your Heavenly Father. Understand more of what the Savior
did for you. And the more you understand of
what He's did for you, He's took your sins and all its consequences
and fell to Himself and put them away by His own death. And the
more you see that, the more you're going to love Him, and the more
you will adore Him, and the more you'll give yourself to Him.
You'll never enjoy God, and you'll never serve God until you're
free. Free from the law or happy condition. What did he say? By whose stripes
we're healed. We're healed. We have been healed. We were healed. We have been
healed. We are being healed, and we shall be healed by his
stripes. Most of you know Brother Mike
Walker. Your pastor knows him. Probably some of you know him.
Debbie, his wife, died a couple of months ago or so. Brother
Rupert preached her funeral. Mike and Debbie's got a 16-year-old
daughter. And there at the funeral, this
one lady came up and made a point of telling the 16-year-old daughter
of Mike and Debbie, I really thought The Lord was going to heal her.
I was just certain that the Lord was going to heal her. You know
what Mark's daughter told him? He did. He did. He really healed her. Really healed her. He's been
healing us, ain't he? Healing our broken hearts, our
wounded conscience. And I tell you someday, He's
going to heal us 100%. He's going to so heal us of sin,
we'll never sin again. Never feel it again. Never feel
it's working within us again. Be just like Him. That's healing,
ain't it? And it's all because of His stripes
we're healed. Oh, you're such a fine people
to preach to. I parked out here in your pastor's parking lot,
and I'd like to get a picture of it, if anybody's got a camera,
and send to him. Say they voted you out all years
ago, buddy. Lord bless you. Thank you.