Let's pray again. Heavenly Father, we do come before you and trust that we do not just come out of your habit or rote. We don't want to do that. And we ask that you would bless us, for we know that we need your blessing. We cannot rely upon This morning's blessing or last week's or anything else, we need you each and every hour, each and every time. Pray that you would bless our hearts to be receptive to the word, our minds to be open to receive the word. and even, Father, our bodies to be alert to receive the Word. Help us and guide us and direct us. We do thank you for delivering us from the wrath to come, that Christ was indeed made a curse for us. In Jesus' name, Amen. We said this morning by looking at the curse, this afternoon we want to look at the fact that Christ was made a curse for us. We want to clearly set before you that Christ was not a sinner. We want to make that plain before we get any further. And He could not sin. was not a sinner, and he could not sin. In our Scripture reading, we read the fact that God had made him sin for us, but he himself was not a sinner. We will look at this a little bit more, but our sins were placed upon him, and he was deemed as if he were a sinner, but he himself was not a sinner and he could not sin. We detest those who present Christ as one who could have sinned and that he felt the desire to sin when he was tempted. We do not know or can't even begin to understand that when he was tempted he didn't even have a desire to want to do what he was tempted to do. Because he was not tempted in himself, he was tempted by the devil. When we are tempted, our temptations are within us, because we have a desire to do the things that we are tempted to do, even when we are tempted of the devil many times. when we don't want to do what we're tempted to do and would like to do, what we're tempted to do, and yet at the same time not wanting to do it. You say, well, that doesn't make sense. Well, Paul said, when I would do good, evil is present with me, and I do that which I would not, and I do not that which I would. And so only the child of grace can understand that, because he knows the warfare is. But Christ Himself could not sin. He was not tempted to sin. When Satan came to tempt Him, He found nothing in Him. He found nothing in Him that would allow the temptation. Though Christ was hungry, and in my mind the bread, the rock, that Satan asked Christ to make into bread, in my mind, I can't prove this, so don't take it for a gospel. In my mind, I would not be surprised that the rock looked like a loaf of bread. I could just see that, but I don't know that that's the case. Even though Christ was hungry, He did not want and had no inkling of a desire to make that rock into a loaf of bread. Now, we don't know what that is because when we're hungry and somebody were to wave something in front of us that we would like to eat, something that we would like, due to our hungriness, we would probably think something like, boy, I wish I could take a bite of that. But Christ didn't even have a, boy, I wish I could take a bite of that. So we don't understand that. We can't comprehend that because we don't know what it is to be sinless. And so it is pure blasphemy at the highest degree that Christ could have sinned and that He was a sinner. Christ was God, and though He was God in the flesh, still He was God, and therefore impeccable as the God-man. We're going to read some verses of Scripture. We're going to start off in our Scripture reading chapter, 2 Corinthians 5. But I want to make that plain because of some of the language that if you're not careful, you will read into it what it's not saying. And I will say this at the outset because I'm not trying to prove limited atonement, but I do want to say this, that the world that Christ was reconciling or that God was reconciling in Christ Jesus was the world that was saved. It's the world that was redeemed. It is the world that was reconciled, and we know that every human being was not reconciled, so it's not talking about the entire human race. And we could give, as you well know and have already done so, and we could give many other passages to show that and to show how the word world is limited in many times where Christ died for the world, but he prayed not for the world. And He said, I've called you out of the world. And so that the word world is limited according to its context and things of that nature. What I want to dwell on is Christ being made a curse for us. Christ being made a curse for us. But He knew no sin. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, 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. He knew no sin. He was without sin. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15 talks about the fact that He was without sin. Hebrews 4.15 makes the statement, verse 15, For we have not a high priest, which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin. He was tempted, but he had no sin in him. He had no sin. He could not sin. and he would not sin, and so on. In John 8, verse 46, Jesus stood before His enemies and said, which of you convinces me of sin? I wouldn't do that with my friends. I wouldn't ask my friends and say, well, you find a sin in me. Anybody that's been around me 30 minutes pretty much knows that I'm a sinner. And if you've been around me very long, you know that I am a consistent sinner in my inconsistencies. I mean, I'm a sinner. But Jesus Christ stood in front of His enemies that were trying to kill Him and were trying to find things wrong And to accuse him, and he said, which one of you can prove a sin in me? That's John 8.48. That's astounding. John 8.46, I'm sorry. That's astounding. His enemies could not bring a charge against him. You know what the only charge that they were ever able to bring against him and make it stick? There's only one charge that Jesus Christ was killed for. And He was killed for the truth. What was the charge? That He made Himself the Son of God. They killed Him for being the Son of God. That's the only thing that they could ever bring against Him. They thought He was blaspheming because He said that He was the Son of God. Well, He told the truth. They could not find anything against Him to kill Him except for the truth. And they killed Him for telling the truth that He was the Son of God. And that He was the King of the Jews. And it was written on the cross in three different languages. In Greek, in Hebrew, and Latin. Jesus, the King of the Jews. But they put him to death because of being the Son of God or saying that he was the Son of God. So they didn't put him to death for any sin. They couldn't find a sin against him. If anyone deserved not to die and to experience the wrath of God, it was Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Now, he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, but he was without sin. Romans 8 tells us this. I want us to read that because I want you to see the language of it again. Romans 8.3. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." But notice what it did not say. It did not say that God sent Christ in sinful flesh. In the likeness of sinful flesh. He had flesh just like we did. He had flesh just like we had flesh, or have flesh I should say. We are still present tense. He had flesh just like we have flesh, except it had no sin. He was in the likeness of sinful flesh. He was not in sinful flesh. Every word is there for a purpose. And so we cannot read over it. So God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. So we need to keep that in mind. He was not under the curse of the law for anything that he did. He was not under the curse of the law for anything that he did. Salvation, though by grace on our part, salvation is by works and works alone on His part. on His part, Jesus Christ worked out our salvation. He came and He came under the law and He fulfilled the law in every jot and every tittle. Jesus Christ loved God with all His heart, with all His soul, with all His mind, with all of His strength all the time. We can't do that. We don't do that. And Jesus Christ loved His neighbor as Himself. Jesus Christ fulfilled the law to a jot and to a tittle. He never at any time wavered. He never even thought about wavering. He never even thought about sinning. That is the reason it is so blasphemous in one of these movies about Jesus, the idea of Him even looking at Mary Magdalene with any lustful or wanting eyes is blaspheming. The idea that any human being could have any moving compassion upon Jesus Christ is blaspheming. He is God. He was God. He was sinless. And why he would go to one individual and heal that individual and not heal another, only God knows that. But he did that with a pure heart. When he went to the well at Bethesda, and went to that man and asked him why didn't he go in the water, and he said, I have no man to put me there. You know, an angel would come and trouble the water. And whoever got in the water first, was made whole. There were a lot of people there. And Jesus healed one and left the rest of them. He was sinless in doing that. He was pure and perfect and had every right to do what He did in that. But He was sinless. He was sinless. He was not under the curse of the law for anything that He did. And yet, He was made a curse for us. He was sinless, but He was made a curse. He was under the curse of God because our sins were on Him. Now, beloved, if nothing should cause you to appreciate Jesus Christ and want to love Him more and to serve Him with a pure heart, it should be the fact that Jesus Christ was made a curse for you. 2 Corinthians 5.21 again says He was made a curse for us. He was made a curse for us. I'm sorry, that's Galatians 5.13, our text. That Christ was made a curse for us. He was made a curse for us. And in 2 Corinthians 5.21 it said He was made to be sin for us. He was made sin. Legally made sin. Not experimentally made sin. You know, there is a difference in a legal transaction and an experimental transaction. A man could actually go and adopt an individual and never see the individual, the individual never see the individual, the individual that's adopted, the child, could never even see. And the legal transaction be done, the child is a legal product of the man who did the adopting, and the child never know anything about it. Of course, later on, naturally, the man would make himself known or the parent would make themselves known. But what I'm trying to show is the difference in a legal transaction. A couple may adopt a child and the child resents the adoption. That could be. But you cannot get around the legal transaction. The child is legally the belongs to the parent. Well, Christ was legally made sin. He was legally made sin. When the law said to you, believer, when God's wrath said to you, believer, you deserve hell and the punishment of hell, God said, I'm putting that on Christ. And God made Him to be sin that we might be made the righteousness of God. We are made the righteousness of God. The fact that we are believers indicates the fact that as far as God is concerned, I am righteous. You say, well, I'm not righteous. I sin every day. Yes, you do. And you feel your sin sometimes. Sometimes you're so mean and hardened and wicked in your sin, you know you're sinning and you don't care. And sometimes you may have so much hatred against somebody, you don't care whether you're sinning or not. But you can't get around the fact that even if that's the case, if Christ died for you, You're righteous in God's sight, because God's looking at him and not you. You say, well, that's just too good to be true. No, it's good. It's too good for man to do. But it's true. Oh, wonder of wonders, it is true. He was made sin for us. Isaiah 53. Let's look at that. Isaiah 53. I'll begin at verse 4. Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem Him stricken, and smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. And with his stripes we are healed. Oh, we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all." God laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now, we don't feel that. We still feel our iniquities. But legally, God laid on him the iniquity of us all. Let me see if I can give another illustration. Let's just say that you go and rob a bank or steal some money, and you're caught and apprehended. And the sentence is that you have to pay the money back. And you can't pay the money back. And you feel bad. Let's say that your conscience got to bothering you. And you feel bad that you stole the money. And you feel even worse that you can't pay it back. And you wish you could pay it back. And you can't. And somebody else comes along and pays the debt for you. I can visualize that happening and you still feel bad that you stole the money. And you still feel bad that you couldn't pay it back. But even though you feel bad and your conscience has smitten you and you feel like a dog that you did what you did and that you couldn't pay it back and somebody else paid it for you, the law says you're free because the debt's paid. The debt is paid. And you might feel bad the rest of your life that you stole the money. And you might feel bad the rest of your life that somebody else had to pay for it. But you are still free from the law. You are still free from judgment. And beloved, many times all we do, we get to looking at our sins, And we get to look at ourselves, and I'm going to tell you something, you will never see anything good in you. If you do see anything good in you, and you do think something is all right with you, then that's evidence that probably you're not born again. But when you look at yourself, all you see is the blackness and the darkness and the hypocrisy, you just name it. And you see all of that that's in you. But you realize that you still feel guilty for it. And beloved, that's an indication that God's worked on your heart, that you do feel guilty. But you ought to go back to the One that paid the debt and thank Him over and over and over and over again that He paid the debt for you. God laid your sins on Jesus Christ. God laid your coldness of heart. God laid your indifference to Bible reading. God laid your grumbling spirit. God laid your lustful mind. God laid your disobedience. You put it there, whatever it is that troubles you, whatever it is that bothers you. God made Christ sin for you. He laid on him the iniquity of us all. The 11th verse of Isaiah 53 says, He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge. Shall my righteous servant justify many? For he shall bear their iniquities. He bore my iniquities. You know, I'm preaching about this. I'm getting excited about this. But my heart is still dull about this. And I know yours are too many times. Sometimes you've got the best intentions in the world. You're going to sit down and do your Bible reading and you read the same chapter over 15 times because you went to sleep. Or you read it and you got through and you don't even know what you read. Or you read it and you say, well, I've already read this before. And you hurry right through it and don't even, it doesn't make any impression on you and you figure you wasted your time. And you try to spray that away. And, you know, you put there, I can't come up with all the different scenarios with each individual that's hearing. But it does not negate the truth. Christ died for our sins. God made Him a curse for us. The sins of the people of God were lifted from them and placed on Jesus Christ, and He bore the full weight of the curse for those sins. Now, this morning we tried to talk about the curse of the law and the wrath of God against sinners. Well, now I want you to take that picture that we tried to paint this morning, and though it was painted with a broad brush and we did not give much of the details, I want you to take that horrible graphic picture and I want you to see that that horrible graphic picture was put on the Lord Jesus Christ for your sins. May God bless you to see the curse of God on Christ. The curse of God on Christ. He who was sinless bore the sins of His people, and the wrath of Almighty God was poured out on Him. He did not spare. God did not spare His spotless, His obedient, Son, He did not spare His darling Son. He did not spare His delight. You talk about mercy. You talk about grace, beloved. That is what salvation is. It is that God sent His Son to endear the wrath of God for our sins. He who did no sin, he who knew no sin, was made sin for you. There is a lot of discussion among theologians as to what all Christ endeared. Some say that Christ actually went to hell when he was dead and under the wrath of God. Some say that it took place after he died. Some think that it took place while he was on the cross, those three hours of darkness and so on. And some say he went literally into hell itself. Others say that, well, he didn't go to hell, but he experienced it much as if he went to hell. not qualified to say whether he did or whether he didn't. I'll let theologians argue that part out. I know they talk about he went to hell in one place, but that word is not Gehenna. That word is Hades. And so that could have many other implications beside it, and I don't want to get into all of that now. I do believe, well I cannot say what all the specifics, I do believe that the iron hammer of the fury of God fell on him with such weight it was equivalent to hell if he did not go there. It may well be that the flames of the lake of fire in which the wicked will be cast are light afflictions compared to the weight of God's judgment on Christ for those for whom He died. You think about that. You think about all of the wicked that will be cast into hell. and they experiencing God's eternal wrath forever and it never, ever stopping because they can never, ever pay for sin. Yet all of the wrath of God poured out on the Lord Jesus Christ for all of those for whom He redeemed. That was worse than But the wicked will experience forever because they can never pay for sin. His was so great that it paid for sin. And I say that theirs is nothing but a light affliction compared to the eternal wrath that God poured out on His Son for His people whom He loved. Oh, beloved, Christ was made a curse for us. a curse for us. God made Him a curse for us. No wonder, no wonder He prayed in the garden with great fear. And an angel had to come and strengthen Him from a human standpoint. No wonder He was under such weight. And no wonder that He feared Hebrews tells us that he feared in the garden and he prayed with great fear and God heard him. No wonder he said, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. He had ever write, hang on the cross, say, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Oh, the wrath of God was poured out upon him, the sinless one, for my wretched heart and my wretched soul. Oh, beloved, that ought to cause us to have great energy to serve our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you, people talk about seeing loved ones. They talk about walking the streets of glory. They talk about all of this stuff about what's going to be. I tell you, it'll be a great delight to just sit forever and gaze upon the Holy One who gave His life for such a wretch. to lavish out praise and honor and glory and dominion and power. No wonder the angelic hosts are crying out with all such glory and majesty and power and dominion. May we vie with the angels in order to try to outdo them. As it were, God allowed me to speak in such a way there won't be any outdoing of pride But yet we want to sing glory and honor and praise unto the one who died for our wretched souls. Christ was made a curse for us. Charles Spurgeon said it was an anguish never to be measured, an agony never to be comprehended. How do you talk about it? We can't even talk about hell because we haven't experienced it. God forbid that we should. We can't talk about glory for we've never experienced it. We can't talk about Christ and what He endured because we've never experienced it. No matter how much we would like to experience it, we can't. Not to its fullest. But beloved, we can put all of our trust and all of our hope in Jesus Christ. I may go to hell, I may be deceived, but I'm going to go to hell trusting Christ. That's all I've got. That's all I want. That's all I need. You need to read the sufferings of Christ, not the physical sufferings of the scourging and the beating and all of that, but that of the soul. We read some of it here in Isaiah 53. Let's go to Psalm 22. Psalm 22. You know, there's more descriptive of what Christ suffered in the Old Testament than there is in the New. Kind of like you're talking about the wrath of God and the judgment of God. Brother Jeff reminded me During lunch, Christ said more about hell than anybody in the New Testament. Maybe because he knew what he was going to face. But as it starts out in Psalm 22, this messianic psalm. Messianic means that it's a psalm talking about Christ. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not, and in the night season, and am not silent." Can you not see that? Can you not see the Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane crying and crying and crying? Coming out to His disciples and saying, Oh, could you not watch with me but one hour? And then when He finally comes out, He says, Sleep on. Sleep on. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Pray that you enter not into temptation. He had been wrestling there in the garden. Oh, we are so dull. We spend so little time with the Lord in prayer. I was thinking this past week, why did Jesus need to spend so much time with His Heavenly Father? He was God, and yet He spent so much time in prayer, revealing the deadness of my own heart to even think such a question, I suppose. But, oh, my God, I cry in the daytime. Thou hearest not, and in the night's season, and am not silent. You know what it is sometimes, like we read this morning? It seems like heaven is brash, and you cry to God, and He doesn't hear, and it seems that He doesn't hear. Ah, think of our Lord as He cried out to God, as He was crying out in your place too. He could only cry out in such a way, and use such language. Why? Because He was standing in your place. Verse 3, But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Oh, there is a sermon in that. Our fathers trusted in thee. They trusted and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee and were delivered. They trusted in thee and were not confounded. But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised of the people. You go back and you look in the Old Testament and you see how God delivered Israel time and time again in spite of their wickedness. And sometimes you find yourselves in your own discomfort and you see how others have been delivered and you're not. And here our Lord cries unto God and He says, Our fathers trusted in thee and you delivered them, but I'm a worm. I'm no man. You don't even give me the time of day as it were. Now, Christ was sure not disrespectful to his father when I say the time of day, I just just a manner of speech and speaking as a man because I don't know any words to say. All they that see me laugh me to scorn, they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted in the Lord that He would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in Him." And as Christ endured that rebuke of the people, and as He prays to God, He did it for you. He knew no sin. He had no sin. He was made sin for you, believer. They made fun of Him because of you. They reviled Him because of you. They ridiculed Him because of you. He had you in mind. Oh, what wondrous love. He had you in mind. What depth of mercy. He had you in mind. Verse 9, But thou art He that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breast. I was cast upon thee from the womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly. O God, I have worshipped You from the very beginning. Even in the belly of my mother I worshipped You." We can't say that. We were born dead in trespasses and in sin. He was hoping in His Heavenly Father when He was upon His mother's breast. We, when we were upon our mother's breast, knew nothing of our Heavenly Father. Verse 11, Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. Many bulls have compassed me, strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion. Like a bunch of wild animals. I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted in the midst of my bowels. It is said from the physical persecution. That was hard, extreme to endear. But then he said, my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. Thou hast brought me into the dust of death." I tell you, if you could get one glimpse of Jesus Christ in reading Psalm 22 for your own heart and soul, it would revolutionize your life. I may tell all my bones they look and stare upon me. They parted my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. What would you think, what would you think if somebody stripped you of all of your clothes and put you up on a bandstand in the court square of this city? And you had to stand there before a crowd exposed naked. Just think of the mental and the torment of the soul and the agony of mind and spirit. And yet our Lord was hung up on a cross. Totally the sinless one. without any clothes upon and people making fun of Him. He did it for you. He was made a curse for you. Oh, can you not see the immeasurable love of God as the immeasurable wrath of God was poured out upon His Son? But be not thou far from me, O Lord, O my strength, haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling, from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorn. I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation while I praise thee. When did he praise God in the midst of the assembly the night he instituted the Lord's Supper? When did he declare thy name unto thy brethren? In John 17, in his high priestly prayer, he said, I have declared thy name unto my brethren. The Lord did what God had laid upon Him to do. Verse 23, Ye that fear the Lord, praise him. All ye seed of Jacob, glorify him, and fear him, all ye seed of Israel. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither hath he hid his face from him. But when he cried unto him, he heard. In Hebrews, I've already quoted it, made reference to it. In Hebrews it said that God heard him in that he feared. My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation. I will pay my vows before them that fear Him. The meek shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that seek Him. Your hearts shall deliver forever. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee. For the kingdom is the Lord's, and He is the Governor among the nations. And all they that be fat upon the earth shall eat and worship. All they that go down to the dust shall bow before Him. And none can keep alive his own soul. A seed shall serve him. It shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. And they shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born that he hath done this." Yes, he was made a curse for us and thereby redeemed, delivered us from the curse of the law. Our prayer is that God will grant us mercy and grace to meditate upon this truth, and our souls be blessed to fellowship Christ in His dying for us and redeeming us from the curse of God's law and wrath. Let's pray. O God, take these pitiful words. And sanctify them by thy Spirit to the souls of all who hear whose hearts are opened. And if their hearts are not open, may you open hearts to hear. We wish we knew how to glorify Jesus Christ better. We wish we knew how to instill this truth in the hearts of all. For, O God, we must believe this by faith, and walk by faith, and live by faith, and not by sight. When we try to go by our sight, we're up and down and back and forth. See nothing good in ourselves and all of that stuff. All bless us to behold Him and admire Him and delight in Him who has made a curse, made a curse, made sin for our iniquities for us. Thank you, O God, for such mercy and such grace. for giving us such a Savior. Oh, how we long for the day when this miserable body will be conformed and glorified and this miserable soul shall be so purified that then we'll give the praise that is justly due. And it'll take an eternity to do so. We can only pray in His name who has made a curse for us. For you hear nothing, you receive nothing, and you accept nothing that we have other than the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. And that's enough. Amen.