We have seen in God's Word and even in our being, our own being, as we have began to look at this series of studies, we saw first in our first study that Satan, he is a deceiver. He is a liar. He's very subtle in his work, but his work always leads to destruction. When it is believed and followed by us, it always leads to destruction. Sin always pays off in counterfeit. It promises you the world, but when it's over, it gives you death and nothing else. We saw the Satan, that he is the father of lies, and he is the author of sin. The last week we began a journey, a journey to see the simplicity, or the singleness, the wholeness, the truth that is in Christ. And we are doing this and approaching this great subject by beginning to answer the question, why, or for what purpose, Did Christ the Lord suffer, bleed, and die? The very first, but very foundational subject that we looked at, the foundational purpose of Christ that we looked at, was that he suffered and bled and died for our sin. Today I want us to consider another purpose for which Christ suffered and bled and died. And some of these topics, they will overlap, because they do overlap. and we're just not going to exhaust them in one message by any stretch of the imagination. But I want us to consider this purpose, for which Christ suffered and bled and died, and is far above me and is far above us, but yet it is a great truth. Christ suffered and bled and died to absorb the wrath of God. To absorb the wrath of God. We have heard in our ears this morning, as Isaiah read, a portion of God's law, read from out of God's own book, and it was just ten commandments of many commandments. But here what I'm about to say, and believe it, you don't have to believe me, but you believe God's word concerning it, we are all, every and each and every one of us, we are guilty of breaking all ten of these commands. We are all guilty of breaking all ten of these commands. You might say, well, preacher, you don't know me that well. I know the nature that is within you. I know that you have broken God's law, because I have broken God's law with the same nature. I know that I've broken, in essence, all of them. But if you have only broken one, James says you've broken them all. Don't deceive yourself. You've broken more than one. And not just the ten that Isaiah read, But understand, when we have broken God's law, we have broken every portion of God's law, every command that comes out of God's law. And we have broken it physically, and we have broken it spiritually. In Luke 10, 27, Christ summed up the whole of God's law like this. He said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind. and thy neighbor as thyself." Be it known to all of us here this morning, we have utterly failed to keep this law. Whether it's the whole of God's law or whether it's this condensed portion that God has given us, we do not love God. We do not honor Him. We do not glorify Him as we should. Even when we are born again by His grace and by His mercy in this life, we still do not honor Him. We still do not glorify Him. We still do not love Him as we should, and we certainly do not love our neighbors as ourselves. Matter of fact, not only have we all broken God's law in our own being, but we have all broken it in Adam. Do you understand that? We sinned in Adam. In Romans 5, verse 12, it says, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. We sinned in Adam. Not only of ourselves, but we sinned in Adam. I heard a preacher talk once of double-dyed sinners, and that's exactly what we are. We sinned in Adam, and we sinned of ourselves. Now, we may, and we do, think lightly of our sin, but you need to know that God does not. We can laugh and chuckle at our sins and justify them. You need to know that God does not. God is holy, He is absolute just, He is absolute righteous, and He has created all of us to glorify and honor Him. We owe Him this because He is the owner of honor and glory and praise. It's due His name, but we do not honor and glory and praise Him. He is our perfect Creator and the sole object worthy of worship, and we do not worship Him. We desire other things above Him. We've all fallen short of his glory. We've sinned and rebelled in the very sight of the giver of breath and life. Before his very face, I'm often reminded of David who said, I have sinned against thee and against thee alone, God. And we all have done the very same thing. I've said it many times, but I'll keep on saying it because in our minds, sometimes we think that when we sin, we just sin out here in the air. No, we don't. We sinned at the magnitude of it. If God would be pleased this morning, may He show us the magnitude of the fact that we have sinned against Him, our Creator, the One who gives us breath and life. Openly, before Him, blatantly, we have sinned before Him. And He has declared in His Word, in Romans 6, twenty-three of the wages, the payment of sin is death. In Ezekiel 18, verse 4, he says, the soul who sins shall die. We have offended the holiness of God, and we have become worthy of His fierce wrath. Do you hear what I just said? We have offended God and have become worthy of His fierce wrath, of His fierce anger, of His holy indignation. We are worthy of that. and that wrath and that incantation and that fierce anger, it must be delivered. His justice demands it. His wrath for sin, it must be delivered. His justice demands it. Let us all know that His wrath is real. We don't like to think about it, but we should desire to know the truths of God We should desire to know this aspect of Him because just as He is a God of love, He is also a God of wrath. He is also a God who will repay against our sin, or repay for sin against Him. In Luke 20, 18, we see the wrath of God like this. We read this just a couple of weeks ago. Whosoever shall fall upon that stone, speaking of the rock, the Lord Jesus Christ shall be broken. But on whomsoever it shall fall, whomsoever he shall fall, it will grind him to powder." The wrath of God is described in Mark 9 by Christ himself as a place where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. These are skin worms that devour a body is what it's talking about, and it says that those worms, they never die. They just keep eating, and they always have a place to eat upon us. I can't imagine that. We can't imagine that. with our minds, but that's how truth himself described it, as a place where the worm died not and the fire is not quenched. The rich man who ended up in hell, it was described there by him a place of torment. He called for just a drop of water to cool his tongue, but he found none there. There was no mercy. A place of fire, a place of hot, a place of great need, but a place of no mercy. place of darkness, where the mercy of God is not to be found." In Revelation 14.10, listen to this, it says, "...the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, into the cup of his anger. And the guilty shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb." and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night." What a horrible, terrible place. How severe is the wrath of God. People say, well, I just can't see how God can do that. You want to know why they can't see? Because they can't see the depth of their sin and the offense of their sin. against Him. We don't see the magnitude of our sin before the Holy God of heaven and earth, but we need to see it. May the Lord give us grace to see it. There's no hope until we do see it. The consummation of God's wrath against sin and sinners is seen here in Revelation 20. Let's look in verse 10. Revelation 20 and verse 10. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, speaking of the lost and undone, Small and great stand before God. And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works." The dead were judged according to their works. If you remember, those that are dead in their sin, they do not have not one good work, not one righteous work. So for all the work of all of their life, no matter how pious, no matter how good it may seem. They'll be judged according to that book, and that book will say in it no good works, but it will list all of those things that were done against God. And there'll be a judge according to it, and look what happens in verse 13. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and the death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged, every man according to their works, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. And from that lake is where that smoke ascended up forever and ever and ever. Look over to verse 8 of the next chapter. But the fearful and unbelieving and abominable and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." And you might say, wait a minute, I'm none of those things, that list. If you've broken one part of God's law, you've broken them all. So, I want to tell you something, in and of ourselves, we're right there in that list. every one of us without exception. In and of ourselves, the end of that verse would be our lot in life. To be burnt in a lake of fire which burns forever and ever and ever. The wrath of God is real. It's more real than any of us can imagine. Let's turn it around. Let's think about heaven for a moment. What do you think about heaven? Do you think of all the glorious things there? If you think just a little bit, you realize how short your mind must be coming short. How short is falling of what heaven must really be like? How can we think of heaven right? We've not seen it. We can read in God's book, but even then we can only understand and measure. I believe so is true with Israel also. How can we think? of a place that burns with fire and brimstone, a place of torment, a place of outer darkness where the worm dieth not, a place of constant torment, a place where there is no mercy of God found there. How can we think of a place like that rightly? We don't think of it to its fullest extent. The wrath of God is real, and it's against sin. We have all committed against our God. We are guilty. We have sinned before the very face of God. We have sinned against Jehovah, El Shaddai, the mighty, almighty destroyer, and we have become worthy of his wrath. We have become worthy of eternal condemnation. We have become worthy of the judgment of God that is described on these pages, worthy of it. And here's the thing. God's wrath must go forth, His justice must be satisfied, because He Himself has declared this in the book of Proverbs. He said, He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord. Wait a minute, He that justifieth the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord? You know what that means? That means that for God, the just God, to remain just, He must punish sin, His wrath must go forth, His justice must be appeased. What a predicament that puts us in, because His eternal wrath is our just deserves. We've sinned against God. In the book of Romans it says that the purpose and the effectual work of a law is that all mouths be shut and all become guilty before God. I want to tell you something, when we really see the truth concerning our sin against God, when we really see the truth of our guilt before Him, when we really see it, we really do become speechless before Him. We really do. When we really see our sin and when we really see our God, we realize then that all we can do is fall down before Him and beg for His mercy. Oh Lord, have mercy upon me a sinner. It's what the sinner said in God's book. I'm glad the message doesn't stop there. God's wrath is real. God's wrath must be poured out. For Him to be just, His justice has to be appeased. And we are guilty. Guilty and worthy of His wrath. But here is wonderful news. The Lord Jehovah, this self-same God, the El Shaddai, Elohim, the One that we have sinned against, the One that we have defamed by our sin, do you know what He is called in His own Word? He is called the Father. of mercies, the Father of mercies. He is a God like no other. He is a God like no other, and His mercy is like no other. Now get this, out of fallen, depraved, ruined mankind, He has chosen to give mercy. He has chosen to give mercy, though we are deserving of His wrath. We not only can't stop sinning, we sin against Him every day. We not only can't put away our sin, every day the sins pile up to new heights. But this God has chosen to give mercy to sinners. Not just to one or two, and not just to one particular race of people, but He has chosen to give mercy to a people out of every tribe and kindred and tongue. He has chosen to give mercy to a number of men, women, boys, and girls that man cannot number." Oh, listen. His mercy is great. Listen to the description in Titus 3, where we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers with us, and pleasures, living in malice, and envy, hateful, and hating one another. You know what he's saying? We're deserving of God's wrath, but listen, but after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. We're worthy of his wrath. That's what we should receive from him. That's the only thing we should receive from him, brothers and sisters. Can we get a witness this morning that he has given us something different than wrath? He has given us mercy, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ. I tell you, we need abundant mercy. We are abundant sinners. But I thank the Lord for that passage of Scriptures in Romans, that where sin did abound, His grace did much more abound. We need abundant mercy, and that is just the kind of God He is. He gives abundant mercy to undeserving sinners. God loved the people, this people that He loved, without a cause. And He loved them in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He gave them mercy. But I want to tell you something, it was more than just words that made this possible. Because remember, the justifying of the wicked is an abomination in the Lord. How could God then justify the wicked like us? How could he do it? Well, for the answer of that, we'll see that it's much more than words. I want us to see it again in Christ. I want us to see it in His actions, because that's where the story is told, in the actions of the Lord, in the actions of our great God. And I want to tell you something. God didn't just speak on our behalf, but He acted on our behalf, brothers and sisters. He acted in a way that man has never seen before, nor will they ever see it since. You remember, by God's own Word, He is just, and He could not just forget sin. He could not just merely justify the wicked, but His justice had to be served. His wrath had to go out because He is so just, and He is so righteous. And I want to tell you, His wrath did go out, and it went out in fierceness, and it went out in anger, and it went out with holy indignation. It was ours. It was all ours, and we deserved it. But the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth, and he lived without sin, and he met all the law's demands. All that law that Isaiah read back here, he kept it perfectly, physically and spiritually. All that law back here that Isaiah didn't read, which is verse upon verse upon verse, he kept it perfectly, spiritually and physically. He said, Here is the thrust of it all. You will love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and body and strength and soul and your neighbor as yourself. He kept it perfectly, physically and spiritually. He was and he became worthy of life, not wrath, not fury. He was worthy of the love of God, but the love of God for sinners. was to be demonstrated in him. And what he demonstrated is something glorious. The impeccable Son of God came to this earth and gave himself to bleed and to suffer and die, get this, to absorb the wrath of God that was ours. To take on himself the wrath and the anger of God Not for his own sins, he had none, but for our sins. When we see the Son of God, Jesus Christ, in action, I want to tell you something. He is so unlike Satan. He is, you know, about two ends of the spectrum. In Satan we see the lies and subtleness and cunning craftiness, but in the Lord Jesus Christ we see his glorious and wondrous simplicity, truth, verity of verity. And He, the Lord Jesus Christ, absorbed the wrath of God. I want to just consider this in three points quickly this morning. First, we see Him absorbing the wrath of God in substitution. Now, we talked about this last week. I want to tell you, we could preach it every day and we're not going to exhaust it or get to the end of it. We see it in His substitution. Galatians 3.10, listen closely. It says, For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law do that." So what does that mean to tell you about us? Cursed. Cursed. But that no man is justified by the law on the side of God, it's evident, ain't it? Look around the building this morning. We've all broken God's law. We can't be justified by God's law. We all sinned against God, for the just shall live by faith, he says. Then he goes on, and the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Listen, though. That's all bad news for us. But here's good news. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. How did he do it? Did he just say something? No. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. being made a curse for us. Where was he made a curse for us? For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Look to the cross of Calvary. There you will see him being made a curse for us. I want to tell you, look at the actions of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Him by faith this morning. See Him upon the cross of Calvary, and there you will see Him being made a curse for us. For us. There's that word again, isn't it? For us, in behalf of us, for the sake of us, in the stead of us. But Christ came to take our place, and He took it. He took it under our sin, with our sin upon Him. And God's condemnation, and God's wrath, and God's fury was poured out upon the sign. We can't even imagine how perfect and impeccable Christ was. He was absolutely without sin. He was absolutely pure and undefiled, not just before man. He was. They couldn't find fault to accuse Him. But even in the sight of His Father, He was pure and impeccable and spotless. He was the spotless Lamb of God. We can't imagine how impeccable He is, how impeccable He was. But we also can't imagine how cursed He came. He became with our sin upon Him, taking our place on that tree. We can't rightly understand those words, He became sin, but I want to tell you, look there at His actions and you'll see such an evidence of it, such an evidence of the extremity of our sin as He becomes sin. The perfect Lamb of God, the spotless Son, was there and when He took our sins upon us, when He became sin, He did so, insomuch that His Father, His Father, could not even bear to look upon His dear Son. You might think lightly of your sin, but God does not. Look to Calvary. There you'll see it. There you'll hear the cries of the Substitute Himself. Father, Father, why hast thou forsaken me? You want to know why? My sin was upon Him. Your sin was upon Him. And He could not bear to look at our sin upon His Son. It caused separation, as sin always does. Death. Spiritual death. You see, Christ died with my sin on Him. He died because of my sin. But praise be to the glory of God, He died for my sin. He died as a substitute in my place and in my stead. He died to absorb the wrath of God that was mine, that was yours. Praise His holy name that He did. Not only did Christ come and not only did He really take the sin in the place of His people, not only was God's wrath averted from us unto Him, but as we see Christ in action, as we see Him bleeding and suffering and dying, as we see Him absorbing the wrath of the just and holy God as our substitute, let us also see, let us also know that He completely absorbed the wrath of God. satisfied God's justice. the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth, his Son, God set his Son forth, to be a propitiation and appeasement through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness," whose righteousness? God's righteousness, for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he, God, might be just. and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." What does all that mean? It means God could justify the wicked and not be an abomination because He put His Son forward, the Lord Jesus Christ. He put Him forward to be the appeasement of our sin. You see, our sin was rolled on Him, and He took it all upon Himself, and He was judged for it. Do you understand here that God's wrath had to be poured out? It had to be poured out. His wrath for me had to be poured out. Why do I have a hope today that it will not be poured out upon me? Because the appeasement of the Lord Jesus Christ became my propitiation. He became the propitiation for my sin, the appeasement for my sin. And God being just, His wrath having to be poured out was poured out upon His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. To declare, I say, at this time, His righteousness, that it would show His justice, that He might be just. You would know that He is just because He did pour out His wrath, and you would know because He poured out His wrath on His son, brothers and sisters, that He is the justifier. He is our justifier if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the propitiation. He was the appeasement for our sin. And I want to tell you, if He was the appeasement, if He was made to be the propitiation, this was not an afterthought with God. This was a planned work from eternity. His Son was the One that always has been and always will be the satisfactory substitute for sin for sinners. If He came and became the propitiation, don't you think? As a matter of fact, it would not be legal for God to pour his wrath out on us again. It would not be legal for him to do that. The only one who could ever appease the holiness and justice of God for sin is the Lord Jesus Christ, and in time Christ came to be that perfect appeasement for all and each and every one of God's elect And you hear this, you hear what I'm about to say because it's so important. He, the Lord Jesus Christ, did absorb God's wrath. All of it. The Lord Jesus Christ, He drank the dregs of God's judgment dry. God did not put His Son forward. He did not release His wrath upon His own Son Jesus in hopes of saving anyone. He did not put His Son forward to be the propitiation for sin for the chance of saving anyone. He did not make His Son a propitiation in vain like is taught in modern-day religion and is taught in most Baptist churches in our land. sent His Son forward to be the propitiation that He would save His people from their sins. You might say, well, you're awful passionate about that. And you're right, I'm passionate about it, because it is the glory of my Savior. He is not a failure, but He accomplished all that He came for. He is perfect. All His work was planned, and that planned work was accomplished, every bit of it. God will not pour His wrath out upon people that He's already sent His Son to take the place for. It would not be legal for God to do that. And I want to tell you, we should know something as we see God pouring His wrath out on His Son. As we see Him making Him the propitiation for our sin, we should know that God is One who keeps His law. He keeps His law perfectly. That's the reason He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sin. so that He could save sinners like us and still be just, still be righteous. He put His Son forward and then averted His wrath upon Him to remove and completely remove it forever, forever from each and every one He has chosen to have mercy upon. He put His Son forward to save His people from their sins and Christ the Lord, the perfect Son, the perfect substitute The God appointed and approved propitiation is the sufficient and satisfactory Savior. In Him is perfect refuge from the wrath of God, now and forever. The Bible is true and is right when it says in Romans 8, 1, "...there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." When? How did you become in Christ Jesus? It tells us plainly we were put there before the foundation of the world. We were put there by God Himself. So we see the simplicity that is in Christ as we see Him substitutionally absorbing the wrath of God and as we see Him satisfactorily absorbing the wrath of God. And lastly, very quickly, although we ought to spend a lot of time here, but I'll give you a little bit. You'll have to go home and put it together. Lastly, let us look unto Christ. Let us see Him in action. Let us see His simplicity. Let us see Him absorbing the wrath of God. For when we do so, and when we see Him, we see the supreme emblem of God's matchless love. There's a beautiful verse in the Song of Songs, and it's Christ's church speaking. She says this in Song of Solomon 2.4. It says, she said, we said. He brought me to the banqueting house, and His banner over me was love." Hear the Word of God carefully. In 1 John 4.10, herein is love. This is love. Not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sin. of the love of God for his people. You may not understand what it means when we proclaim that his banner over us is love, but I can tell you it's there. His banner is there and it is love, brothers and sisters. We sing, oh how I love Jesus, but that's not the definition of love. It's imperfect and flawed at best. You want to see love? You want to see what real love looks like? Divine love? Look at Christ. Look at Christ and know herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us. God loved us. Holy God loves sinful man, offended God by our sin, loved the offenders who offended Him and do offend Him with their sin. We sinned against Him. He is so glorious that I've talked about it much, but we need to understand it isn't His glory reached into the heavens and our small estimation of His glory was barely above the floor. We've fallen short of His glory and yet He loves us still so much that He sent His Son to be our wrath-absorbing propitiation. Think about this. I thought about this for quite a while and I was almost afraid to express it. The greatest expression of love, true love, that will ever be displayed, I believe, is the love of God the Father for God the Son. But yet, God sent Him, His Son. He gave Him for us. He sent His Son, whom He loved, to suffer for us. to bleed for us, to die for us, to remove from us the curse and the judgment and the death and the wrath of our sin. And it says in that verse in 1 John that all of this was an expression of love for us. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sin. So, do you understand what that means? God loves us, brothers and sisters, dare I say, as He loves His Son Jesus. He has placed us in Him, His Son, therefore He loves us with Him, as Him. Can that be right? Can that be right? In some way, the love of God is so great towards His people that He loves them on equal flooring. with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. You should talk about something that's high and glorious, as Job said, it's too high for me. He loves us in some way. I'm not there going to say this unreverently or say it like I'm assuming something. But if we can understand what He's saying in that passage about what true love is, and we know how much He loved His Son, who was daily His delight in eternity, He loves us with that same kind of love, even with that same measure of love. And I thought about something. I'm going to get you thinking here a minute. One of the passages we talked about in this message, the summation of God's law by Christ, he said this, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, with all thy mind, thy neighbor as thyself." You understand, for God to be righteous, he himself completely keeps his own law. He loves himself perfectly, because that's righteous. He is the one object worthy of worship and love. He loves himself worshipfully. He keeps that portion of his law. And then it says, he loves his neighbor as himself. Who is Christ? He's God. He loves us as himself. Doesn't he? This is how he loves us. He loves us as himself. It is with that kind of love that he gave himself for us. I want to tell you something. The love of God is nothing to be thrown around like a wet towel. The love of God is nothing to just blatantly fly right over and not even consider. The love of God is higher than the heavens. The glory that is displayed in God loving these people, though they were sinners, us, in loving us, the glory that is seen in that, do you understand? What I'm saying this morning, it's unspeakable glory. It's unspeakable. God loves us as his own son. He loves us as himself. Surely his banner over us is love. I want to tell you the simplicity that is in Christ is so different from the subtlety that is in Satan. Why has Christ our Lord come to this earth? Why has he given himself to suffer, to bleed and die for our sin and to absorb the wrath of God substitutionally, satisfactorily as the glorious supreme emblem of God's matchless love? Look at the cross and there you will see the love of loves demonstrated for us. How glorious! He is our God. I tell you what, He has right to be jealous, doesn't He? Why would we want any other God besides Him? It's beyond me and still I know that in my flesh it is in me, even that desire. Does that tell you anything about how stupid our flesh is? Just get right down to it. How stupid and ignorant we are and we act in the flesh when we have a God such as this who has revealed Himself such as this freely for us. He loves us as himself, and this love for sinners is worthy of his fierce wrath. That ought to make us feel like singing. We won't sing, but I'll give you the words of a psalm. Psalm 108-3, I praise thee, O Lord, among the people, and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations. For thy mercy is great above the heavens, and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds, be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and my glory above all the earth." May the Lord, by His grace, move our hearts to do just as that psalm has said, for He is worthy of all praise and honor and glory. We praise Him for His Word and the revelation of