Yeah, I was a kid. I was just a kid. Well, turn
with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I mischecked my time. I am so honored
to be here, so blessed, so privileged to come here and I see a lot
of folks that I know and appreciate so very much. But let me start
reading at verse 18 down through verse 21 and hopefully by God's
grace bring a message. And all things are of God who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation to wit or the purpose that God
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them, but have 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
to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. I want to look at three persons
necessary in substitution. And substitution is the very
heart of the gospel. God's blessed book, the Bible,
this blessed book, the Bible, it's the very words of God himself. It's God's words. My opinion
don't matter nothing. It's what God says. This is God's
word. And when we read the Bible, we're
reading what God's, His mind, His will, His purpose is written
out in this blessed book. God's will, mind, and purpose
is in this blessed book. And you know, you go back in
the beginning, it said, in the beginning, God. That's how the
Bible starts. In the beginning, God. Nobody
even know God existed had not God said, I'm God. And I'll tell
you, so here, the greatest book on earth, the Bible, is the heart
of God made legible where we can read it, see for ourselves
what God has to say. And then in verse 21, we see
the heart of God as it's read and understood and how he saves
a sinner and why he saves a sinner. For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him." You know, when you look in the Bible, you see
substitution everywhere. See substitution. And what it
is, is the innocent for the guilty, the just for the unjust. It's
an absolute exchange. God gets Christ, and we get Christ,
and God gets Christ gets the wrath of God, we get the blessings
of God. Christ gets the curse of God,
we get the blessings of God. Christ gets death, we get life.
But there's three persons in this text that I read tonight.
And there's three people necessary in substitution. And I tell you
the first of all, the first one is God. He's the one who provided
the substitute. The second person is the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. And then when it says us, We're
sinners, we're the sinners that God made Christ to be sin for
us. And we must know something, we have to know something about
these persons. And we have to know something
about these persons, God, Christ, and us, the sinners. We have
to know something about these persons, unless we understand
them to some degree, salvation is utterly and absolutely impossible.
And the first person you gotta know something about is God.
God. God himself said over in Psalm
50, 21, he said, you thought I was altogether like you. You
thought I was like you. And you know how many people
in this world think God's like them? How many people think God's
like, you know, God's like me. And I'm like, you know, God,
he's whatever you want him to be. But oh my, and I'll tell
you the first thing we know about him, who he is. It tells us that
he's sovereign. Look up in verse 18. All things
are of God. Now how many things does that
really reckon that includes? All things are of God. And that
means that he's absolutely and utterly sovereign. And when I
say God's sovereign, he's absolutely sovereign. He has absolute authority. He has absolute power. He's the
one that has absolute rights. And there's three absolutes,
three absolutes in this world. God's an absolute sovereign.
Christ is an absolute savior. And man's an absolute sinner.
And need to know, if you don't know something about God, don't
know something about Christ, don't know something about yourself,
salvation's utterly impossible. And God, you know, God is absolutely
sovereign. The only rule that He has is
His own sovereign will. He has no rules to live by except
His own. He has no authority to act to
but His own. He deals with everybody according
to His nature. And I tell you, the only rule
is His own free and mighty will. And the Scriptures tells us that
God did whatsoever He did in the heavens, in the sea, and
all deep places. And not unto us, O Lord, not
unto us, but unto Thy Name be glory. God called all the inhabitants
of the earth and reputed as nothing. And He doeth according to His
will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. And not, wait a minute, you can't do that. No man can
stop his hand and say, what in the world do you think you're
doing? God can put out of his hand and ain't nobody can stop
him. Nobody can stop him. And I tell you, he explains himself
to no man. He don't explain his actions.
You know what he says? I will. I just will. That's all
I care. I will. That's all we care about. He works all things after the
counsel of his own will. And I tell you, Paul said, you
know, that God hath mercy upon whom he'll have mercy, and whom
he will, he'll have compassion. And the first thing a fellow
says is, oh, that's unrighteousness. That's unfair. And you know what
he writes it back? He said, who in the world do
you think you are? Who do you think you are, old
man? You're going to set in judgment on God and say what's right for
God to do and what's not right for God to do? You're going to
tell God what's right to do and what not to do? You're going
to say it's not fair for Him to harden one, not fair for Him
to love another, not fair for Him to pass by one, and not fair
for Him to save another? He's God. He can do anything
He pleases. And He can do it for whom He
pleases. And I love that. I have no problem with God being
God. He's not a pretender after the
throne. And He's a God of predestination. Oh my, His will determines everything
in this world. Isaiah 46, 9 said, He declared
the end before He ever started the beginning. You know, when
we talk about the decrees of God, God only had one decree.
He said, I don't know when the beginning was, but whatever it
was, God said there was no beginning until He said there was. But
I do know this, He started out, He said in the beginning, He
declared the end before He ever started the beginning. We know
exactly how this thing's going to end. You know how it's going
to end? Whom He did foreknow, He also
called. Whom He called, He also justified. Whom He justified,
what did He do? Glorified them. I'm as good as
they are. Oh my, oh my, bless His holy
name. And this is the God we adore.
This is the God we absolutely adore. And I'll tell you something,
not only is He sovereign, but He's just. He's a just God. No, God made Christ to be sin.
He's a just God, and infinitely so. His sovereignty is proved
by the words. He hath made Christ to be sin.
Who else can make anybody? Take a holy, infinitely holy
Son of God. Take Christ who knew no sin,
did no sin, had no sin, and God take Christ, the sinless Son
of God, and made Him to be sin. Only God could do that. And you
know why He done it? Because He's just. He's just. Oh my, He's the judge of all
the earth. He must do right. And this great,
great, glorious salvation that God provided us in grace and
justice, He provided every bit of it. And He done it in such
a way that it would satisfy His infinite justice. God's justice
is inflexible. Oh listen, God saw the travail
of His soul, and you know what He said? He should be satisfied. God's the one that has to be
satisfied. Now let me tell you something about the death of
Christ. You know the death of Christ was not primarily for
man. That's not the primary purpose
of God sending his son to a cross, for Christ to die on a cross.
The first reason that God put his son on a cross was that God
could do something for himself, to satisfy himself, to bring
glory to himself, to satisfy his justice. And Christ, first,
his sacrifice was for God himself. Oh, Scott Richardson used to
say, God's got to do something for himself before he can ever
do anything for me and you. And the death of Christ, first
and foremost, was a propitiation for God himself. God was angry
with the wicked every day. God, we were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. But God took his blessed son
and said, I'm going to make him a propitiation. What's that?
I'm going to make him someone that will take away my wrath.
I'm going to make Him somebody that will bear my wrath and satisfy
me in such a way that nothing else could ever do. Now how could
one man, how could one man that God made to be sinned, how could
one man be so, have such merit and such worth that God could
take one man and take him and make him to be the sacrifice
to satisfy Himself How could that man have enough merit and
worth to satisfy God? No man ever on earth ever have
been able to. And not one of us in any time, wait, we've never,
people say, well, listen, God will give us a blessing if we'll
do this, that, and the other. There's not a soul on the face
of this earth earned a blessing except Jesus Christ. You've never
earned one, I've never earned one. If you think you can, you're
a fool. You can't earn a blessing from
God. No, if anything we've got, God gave it to us for Christ's
sake. Anything we have, God gave it to us. And I'll tell you,
His justice, first of all, is towards God Almighty. And secondly,
the death of Christ, not only is God's word, but also as a
man's word for us, is called substitution. For God is satisfaction. And to me, to me, that's the
most blessed term in the gospel. is satisfaction. Satisfaction. And why did I say that? Because
I spent lots of years trying to satisfy God, trying to make
peace with God, until I found out that Christ did it. And now
Christ satisfied God. So God never looks to anybody
else. And then his death for us is a substitution. God was satisfied, and now His
death is for us. That's what He said, God made
Him to be sent for us. He was a substitute. And some
men are so deceived by sin into believing that God won't punish
sin. They think He can be pacified with a few good works, a few
good words, a real good prayer, But oh no, God said he will not
at all acquit the wicked. He's a just God. He will by no
means clear the guilty. The God of the Bible 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. Now you figure out how that comes
together and you'll know the gospel. And not only is he a sovereign
God, Just God. Oh, bless His name. He's a God of all grace, too.
Oh, He's a God of all grace. Now, God must punish sin. Never ever pardon sin without
punishment. But the God who'd never pardon
sin without punishment is also a God of unlimited, eternal,
infinite love. God Himself Heard Bruce Crabtree
preach a message on this one time. I have no pleasure in the
death of the wicked. God said, I have no pleasure
in their death. Oh my, grace chose us. God gave us grace in
Christ before the world began. Grace called us out of the world. Grace keeps us from day to day. And grace will carry us all the
way to glory one of these days. But I tell you, God of grace,
Now He is love. He is love. You hear people say
all the time now, He's the God of love. No, no, no, no, no,
no. People say love, whatever their
idea of it is, then God has to rise to that. But no, God is
love. He is love. And I'll tell you
what, and He is love and He delights in mercy. He delights to show
mercy. He's full of grace, so full of grace. I mean, grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ, and we get grace for grace. So
the God that we adore, the God that we worship, the first person
in this necessity of substitution is God. Sovereign, just, gracious. Look at the second person. God
made him to be sin for us, for us that knew no sin. And who
is this that knew no sin? God was in Christ. It says there
in verse 19, God was in Christ. God was in Christ. The second
person that's necessary in substitutions, our Lord Jesus Christ. It said,
he who knew no sin. The begotten of the Father. The
Godhead is such a mysterious thing, but he was the only begotten
of the Father. He was not a creation as Adam
was. Our Lord, I don't know how to
explain this, but our Lord Jesus Christ is as old as Father is. His Father's eternal, Christ's
eternal. His Father's sovereign, Christ
is sovereign. Everything that the Father is,
the Son is. But the reason He became a man
was so that He could be made sin. Oh, he's the same as the
father, eternal, equal, existed as long as the father has. That's
a mysterious, you know, it's impossible for a man to have
a son and him not be older than his son. But God had a son that
he sent into time, and yet our Lord Jesus Christ said in John
chapter one, excuse me, yeah, John chapter one, he said that
he was on the earth and with his father at the same time.
He said, I'm here and I'm with my Father in heaven. And he's
the only begotten of the Father. This is one of the most mysterious
things in this world, is that how Christ, the Son of God, the
eternal Son of God, came into this world and was implanted
in the womb of a woman that never knew a man. And that infant grew
in that woman's womb just like any other child would, except
he had a holy father. And if he had had Adam's blood
in him, he couldn't have saved us. He couldn't have done nothing
for us. So that's why he had to be the only begotten of the
father. That's why he had to be called the seed of the woman.
If He'd have been just a man, He couldn't have saved anybody.
So He had to be God and man. Oh, listen, the Father's almighty,
so is the Son. The Father's infinite, so is
the Son. Our Lord Jesus Christ, if you
want to see God, you have to see Christ. You want to see God's
work, you look to Christ. You want to see God's attributes,
you look to Christ. You want to be saved, you look
to Christ. You want to know God, you've got to go through Christ.
He is the Son of Mary, and not only is the Son of God, but He
is the Son of Mary, a man, a man like unto us. What a mystery,
what a mystery. Now, I don't want to overstep
bounds here. I don't want to say something that I don't think
I could back up with Scripture. A man, when our Lord Jesus Christ
became a man, He became subject to the infirmities of human nature. He was a man acquainted with
grief, We know what grief is. We know what Saul is. Well, that's
what he was. He was a man of suffering. He
was a man of woe. He said, is it nothing to you
that passed by wherewith God hath afflicted me in his fierce
anger? Is it nothing to you? Our Lord
Jesus Christ knew what pain was. Knew what trouble was, knew what
temptation was, knew what trial was, knew what weakness was,
knew what death was. He even tasted it. He was bone
of our bone and flesh of our flesh. Oh my. Our Lord Jesus Christ. We know
that God don't sleep. He don't sleep. God don't sleep.
But our Lord Jesus Christ was asleep on a ship one time. Sound
asleep. And a great big storm come. And
them fellas, I mean, the rain was falling, beating on the side
of that boat, and I mean, it was just about to sink. I mean,
they were scared to death. The wind blowing and everything,
oh my. And they run down there and said,
Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, wake up, wake up, wake up. And this,
what a stupid thing to ask our Lord, but said, carest thou not
that we perish? Don't you care we're gonna perish?
Now we know God don't sleep, but our Lord Jesus Christ woke
up and he stood up and he said, peace be still. Man don't tell
the wind to lay down. Man don't calm the ocean or the
sea, but God can. The man Christ Jesus was asleep,
the God Christ Jesus come to see. You understand what I'm
saying? That's how you can be God and
man. God don't sleep. But the man
Christ Jesus did. But man don't steal the storms
either. Oh, God in man. God not, not
God humanized. Not man deified. God purely,
essentially, eternally God and man. Purely man. Once he became
a man. Once he became a man, he never
ceased to be a man. When we get to glory, the only
God we'll see is the man, Christ Jesus. You know that? And you know how
we're gonna know him when we see him? Not because of who he
is, but he's got the evidence of being on that cross in his
body on that tree. We won't have any evidence of
sin, but they saw him as a lamb as it had been slain. My once
he became a man. He's going to be a man Eternally,
but it's the God man sitting at the right hand of God. Oh
What a sacred sacred sacred union his man not more than a man Because
of his deity and God not less than God because of his humanity
And I read to John Gill's Body of Divinity one time, and the
only thing I got out of it, that Christ offers his humanity on
the altar of his divinity. And that's all I got out of that
whole book. That's enough, ain't it? He offered his humanity upon
the altar of his own divinity. That's a mystery, you know. Here's
God, here's Christ, and Christ himself offered himself as a
sacrifice, as the Lamb of God, to God, his Father, and yet he
laid his life down and he took it up when he would. I don't wonder, he said. How do
you explain that? What a wonderful Savior is Jesus
our Lord. What a wonderful Savior. And
of this God in Christ, it says, He knew no sin. Not he did no
sin, not he knew, he said he knew no sin. He knew the effects
of sin in humanity, that's why he came. He knew the effects
of sin and he knew the consequences of sin when his father made him
to be sin. He saw sin in others, but he
did not know sin by experience, never in his thoughts, his words,
His deeds, his action. Oh, until he, you know when he
knew sin, what it really was and the effects and consequences
of it? When he went to the cross, when God made him to be sin,
God done it. God made his soul an offering
for sin. He poured out his soul unto God. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. It pleased God to bruise him. Oh my, God Almighty. No sin, our Lord Jesus Christ
had no sin in no way, no how. He was pure, spotless and holy
and without any blemish until God. And God took all the sin
from Adam to the last person that'll ever be born on this
earth. And he made every one of them to meet on his son at
one time. The greatest event in the eternities
is what took place on that cross. And God took all the sin, all
the sin of all his people. And Christ being who he was,
was able, able to bear all the sin of all of God's elect for
all time and for all eternity. He paid all of them. Everybody
that was ever born to the last one on the face of this earth.
When Christ, if He bore your sin, you won't have to bear Him. Ain't that right? Oh my. And look at the third person
in this. He made sin for us. Made sin for us, the sinners.
Who is He? Who is us? He's us. Us. You don't want to know what
sin is? Just look at yourself. Oh my. There's not a just man on the
earth that sinneth not. It's awful. Sin is an awful,
awful thing. We was born sinners. Sinners
by birth. How come I was born a sinner?
Because my daddy was. My mama was. My granddaddy was. Go back as far as you want to
go. Go back as far as your genealogy
go. But I tell you what, from Adam on down, everybody has been
shaping in iniquity and conceived in sin. Sinners by birth. And I tell you something else,
we're sinners by nature. It's our nature. It's in us. What about your children? Would
you let your children stand up and badmouth you and be arrogant
to you and cuss you and mistreat you in any way? Well, no, you
wouldn't. But I tell you what, you walk
out of the house and tell, I'm going to show you how sin is
by nature. You walk out of your house and you tell your kids,
now say, welcome to this whole house, but don't go through that
door right there. Don't you dare go in that room.
Don't you dare go in that room. You won't be down the driveway
and gone, and what are they going to do? They're going to get in
that room. Now that's the nature of sin. What you're not supposed
to do, you do. Does man become a thief when
he steals something? No, he steals something because
he's a thief. It's his nature, man's nature. Sinners by birth,
sinners by nature. And that's what God, bless his
name, that's what he deals with. He deals with sinners by nature.
And we're sinners by practice. Sinners by practice. And you
know what? Most of us was really, really
proud of it. Really, really proud of it. We
thought we was something. And all the things that we used
to do we're so ashamed of now. But oh, this is who God made
Christ to be sin for us. Sinners. Imagine God. Anybody, any of
y'all ever been in a courtroom? Been in a courtroom and had to
be sworn in? And the judge, he's got all the authority in the
courtroom. Well, God's got a courtroom. And he's got a bar of justice.
He calls all of us to his bar of justice. And he said, I'm
going to call you before me, and I'm going to judge you. I'm
going to judge you. And he calls us before him. You
know, it's a time that's either for life or for death. Now listen
to what I'm telling you. God is gracious and he's full
of mercy. And he looks at the sinner and
he desires to save him. But God looks at him also and
said, but I'm a just God. I've got to punish him. I've
got to punish him. The sinner's brought before God.
And he's tried. And if the verdict is guilty,
brought back, how will God be gracious and merciful and at
the same time be a just God and punish him for his sins? How
are these conflicting attributes, how are they gonna come together? How are they gonna
work out? How are they gonna work out in God's mind? He is
love. I told you that. He wills. He wills to express that love. Love has to be expressed, and
God's will to express that love and to save sinners. He wills
to do that. But he's just. And he said, I've got to destroy
him. I can't. I can't love him at the expense
of being a just God. I've got to destroy him. The
full penalty of the law must be brought to bear on that sinner. Well, how then can God justly
condemn that sinner and save him at the same time? How can
that happen? Oh my. Standing wonder. Standing awe. Here we see the
very power and wisdom of God put on display to show how it
can be done. He'll show us how he can be both
can punish the sinner guilty to the fullest extent of the
law and save the sinner and make him righteous in the same way. Oh my. Wisdom said, Wisdom said,
oh listen, here's God just, he gotta punish the sinner. Here's
God gracious and merciful and love, he wants to save the sinner. Wisdom stood up and said, I found
a way. I found a way. Our Lord Jesus Christ stepped
up, stepped up before God Almighty. He said, Father, treat me like
you'd treat them. Whatever you're going to punish
them with, you punish me. Whatever you're going to do to
them, do to me. And in that way, your justice
will be satisfied. You'll still be a just God. Still
be a just God. And you punish me. Put me in
their room, put me in their stead, put me in their place. Oh, my. Treat me as if I was the sinner.
And then when you get through treating me as a sinner, I want
you to take what I am, my righteousness, my obedience, my death to your
justice. my honor of your law, and I want
you to give it to them. God said, I'll do that. I'll
do that. That's what I'll do. Oh my. And our Lord Jesus said, smite
me as hard as you please. I'll be able to bear it. Then
you can show them sinners some grace. You can express your love
toward them. Because you satisfied your justice
in me. You honored your law in me. And
you treat that sinner like you've always treated me. Oh my. And here's what happened. Our
Lord did this voluntarily. Nobody made him do it. He did
it. If I can say it this way, he
did it because he would. Nobody made him. He came into
this world. You know, this is one reason
why I know I'm a saved man, not because I've done anything, but
because I know I'm a sinner. And God smote Christ for me,
punished my sin once and for all, and I bear it no more. And I tell you what, it was an
absolute exchange. Everything that we were, Christ
got. Everything Christ was, we got. And I'm so thankful for that.
Let the potchers of the earth strive with the potchers, but
woe unto him that strived with his maker. There ain't one thing
to do, and that's to come to God in Christ. There ain't no
help for anybody apart from that. Three people, God, Christ, and
us. I hope that's