Let us turn together this evening, first of all, to the prophet Isaiah, beginning in chapter 52. Actually, beginning in chapter 53, we'll begin from verse 4 and down through verse 12. And let us give our attention to the hearing of God's word as it comes to us, first of all, from Isaiah 53, beginning in verse 4. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God. smitten by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent. so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living. For the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer. And though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, He will see his offspring prolong his days and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will give him a portion among the great and he will divide the spoils with the strong because he poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. And our text this evening is in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. And we'll begin in verse 16. Paul says to us, So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view, Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come. All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us, We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Let us pray. Father, we do pray that Your Holy Spirit once again might illuminate our minds and even these words to our hearts. We do pray that we might understand these words and that we might see, most of all, Jesus Christ, our Savior, in all of His glory. We do ask this in His name alone. Amen. If you would please turn with me also to the Belgic Confession, Article 20, which is on page 78 in the back of the hymnal. our confession of faith says this in article 20 we believe that God who was perfectly merciful and just sent his son to assume that nature in which the disobedience was committed to make satisfaction in the same and to bear the punishment of sin by his most bitter passion and death God therefore manifested his justice against his son when he laid our iniquities upon him and poured forth his mercy and goodness on us who were guilty and worthy of damnation out of mere and perfect love, giving His Son unto death for us and raising Him for our justification that through Him we might obtain immortality and life eternal. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, I wonder if I was to take a poll, how many of us this evening would say that it is better to rehabilitate a murderer or a rapist, a murderer for the most part, then have them be put to death by the states. Is it more profitable for our society and for our neighbors than those who take the life of one made in the very image of God? Is it better for us to see them rehabilitated somehow through some sort of counseling or some kind of alternative life? Or is it better to see them undergo capital punishment swiftly and justly at the hands of our government? I fear too many of us would probably say it is better to rehabilitate. After all, why should we put people to death? The state has no power to stand in the place of God. As Romans 13 says, this is, though, the state's responsibility. But this is another topic. But you see, though, in the state's putting to death those who murder, we find both a state that is not just just and righteous, but a state and a government that is both just and merciful by putting those who murder to death. But how can you say so? You might say to me, this is cruel, this is wicked. Taking the life of one surely is not merciful. First of all, it is just, I'm sure all of us would agree, it is just because the one who has murdered should himself be put to death. But how can it be merciful? It is merciful, you see, because we see how swift, how quick, And almost how pain-free capital punishment is. It is not swift. It is not painless. It is not without grief for the ones who suffer. The ones who are left behind when their loved ones are put to death. You see then, capital punishment is both just. But it is merciful because it is swift. It is almost pain-free. It is sanitary. There is a doctor there to make sure the person really is dead. The same thing is true, then, when it comes to our salvation. How many of us have heard the terms, or how many of us think in these ways? Our God is a God of love, and surely His love trumps, surely His love supersedes, surely His love is greater than every other attribute that He has. Some might say, I just read the New Testament. After all, there's a God of love found there, a God of mercy and compassion. That Old Testament God is one who requires justice and satisfaction and blood, sacrifices and what have you. When I was a youth pastor in Calvary Chapel, we once sang a song that takes a text out of the book of James out of context and the song goes like this. Mercy triumphs over judgment, only the blood of Jesus. And as you probably have heard Dr. Godfrey say many a time, the phrase, the chorus goes on and on, endless repetition. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Only the blood of Jesus, we sing. But is this true? Does mercy triumph over God's judgment in Christ? Absolutely not. Our salvation, you see, is one where mercy triumphs with judgment. There is both satisfaction for our sins and punishment and mercy and goodness. Our confession of faith, then, goes out of its way to save us. God is both absolutely and perfectly merciful, but He is most perfect and absolutely just as well. And you see, this is the most important thing that we can hold before ourselves this evening. For in this we find our salvation. If we believe a God who is just a God of love and compassion, we are not Christians. We do not have salvation. We do not trust in Christ. We do not believe what Paul says in the text here in 2 Corinthians 5.21. For God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. This verse is not just true of Christ, but it is true of history as it has come down to us throughout the Old Testament. Was not God both just and merciful in the garden in Genesis 3? He is just as Adam fails him and breaks his law. And then God puts a flaming sword in the hands of an angel outside the garden, barring the entrance of Adam and Eve back to that garden because of his justice. But is not God also merciful at the same time? For he gives the first gospel promise that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the seed of the serpent. We see the same thing in Galatians 4, verses 4 and 5. where Paul says, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Our Great Father sends forth Jesus Christ, His Son, to be born under the law, to sit in our place, to take upon Himself our curse, all of God's requirements. That is His justice. But He does so that we might, Paul says, receive the adoption as sons. Thus, this evening, as we think about this theme from our Belgic Confession that God is both merciful and just, I want to direct our attention especially to 2 Corinthians 5, 21. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. In this text we find a summary. In this text we find a short and pithy summary of the gospel that Paul has preached. The Holy Spirit has inspired and laid forth in this Word of God. We find here Christ in His great glory as our Redeemer, as our Savior. We see, first of all then, Christ's glorious work. And in Christ's glorious work, we find God's justice, absolutely just. We find that justice manifested. That justice is satisfied and set forth in Christ. For God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us. First of all then, our text shows us that Christ is the unblemished Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. That is why Paul says, God made him who knew no sin. He is an unblemished lamb. As we all know, the Old Testament, the sacrifices that are set forth there required that the animals that were sacrificed, the doves, the pigeons, the bulls, the goats, the lambs, had to be absolutely without blemish, unspotted, pure. But why? After all, does not the book of Hebrews tell us? The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away our sins. Why did God set forth these sacrifices then? God did so to teach us the absolute necessity that the One who was to come, the One who would be the One who was the unblemished Lamb of God, that One would be free from all sin. He would be truly and absolutely spotless, unblemished, unspotted. No darkness in Him at all. this One who was to come would not just bear the sins of one, but the sins of many. This is why Peter, in his second sermon, in Acts 3, verse 14, says to us that Christ is the Holy One and the Righteous One. The book of Hebrews 7, verse 26 says, For such a high priest was fitting for us, holy, innocent, undefiled, separate from sinners. Peter tells us that Christ was a lamb without blemish and without spot. And this was for the reason that he would be the fulfillment of the Passover sacrifice. For in Exodus 12, verse 5, God tells Moses, Your lamb must be without blemish. Our Lord Jesus Christ, then, our Passover, was sacrificed on our behalf. For God made him who knew no sin. He never experienced one sin. He was sinless, pure, spotless, unblemished. The prophet in our Old Testament reading said in verse 7 and verse 9 that he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent. And they made his grave with the wicked. But with the rich at his death, because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. So often we hear the law of God as it comes to us in the Ten Commandments. And we hear that commandment that we shall not murder. We shall not bear false witness against our neighbor. But how often do those words glance over our minds and upon our hearts in one ear and out the other. Surely I have not committed murder this week. Surely I have not deceived my brother or sister in the Lord. But as we all know, this is not true of us. We have all broken those commandments in our hearts. Thus, Jesus Christ, then, in our behalf, in our stead, He is the one who did no violence, the prophet says. the one who had no deceit in His mouth. Thus, our Lord shows forth His glory in our text by showing us that He is the unblemished Lamb of God, the only true and final and perfect sacrifice for sins. Second, He is the righteous servant. For God made Him who knew no sin. Not just was Christ holy. Not just was Christ born without a sin nature, being born of the Virgin Mary, but our Lord Jesus Christ also positively, actively kept the law of God for us. He kept that righteous and just law, that holy law of God that comes to us in those Ten Commandments, and He obeyed. He obeyed not one. He obeyed not two, but all ten. Even more than ten. He obeyed all ten in His heart, in His mind, in His soul, with His entire life. Thus our Father said of Christ, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. No longer was Israel God's servant. No longer was Israel God's Son. For Israel had become Loa me, not my people. The ones who were kicked out of the garden. The ones who were exiled from the very land that God had promised to them. Not sinful Israel, but now we find Jesus Christ. the one righteous servant, the one spoken to us in the prophet Isaiah. He is the beloved Son of God in whom our Father is well pleased. The writer to the Hebrews says in chapter 4, verse 15, For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we, yet without sin. There is not one sin. There is not one struggle. There is not one thing that we can undergo, that we can experience. There is not one doubt, not one weak moment that you have undergone that Christ has not already experienced on your behalf. For He can sympathize with us. For He is God's righteous servant. Tempted, yes, like us in all points. But without sin. Our Lord stood in the wilderness just like Adam stood before God in the garden. And as Adam failed by not obeying that test, that tree that was put before him and that law that was attached to that tree, so to our Lord comes as our second Adam, our righteous servant, and he stands in that wilderness. The devil comes with temptation. The devil comes with accusation. But Jesus Christ, as we know, obeys. He fulfills. He overcomes. And He does so for us. He does so for our salvation. You see then, we need more than a spotless lamb. We need more than a humble and innocently condemned man. We need one who has actually obeyed perfectly the law of God. We need a mediator who is one with us. yet who is far greater than us. We need one who is righteousness itself. We need a representative who hears God's just law, do this and live, and loves that law, who obeys that law, to the T. If you stand here or you sit here this evening thinking that in yourselves, somehow, some way, You can contribute one iota to your salvation. You are fooling yourself. For as Paul says, we are all like an unclean thing. We are all born in transgressions. We have all broken God's law. If we sit here this evening and maybe give ourselves brownie points or a pat on the back because we have made it to two services, We surely have obeyed the fourth commandment today, unlike those who are not here. Surely God will reward me. Beloved, I say to you then that this is not the gospel. You cannot do one speck of good that would allow God to accept you. We need Christ. We need this righteous servant. We need Him in our place. For God made Him who knew no sin. to be sin for us. That is then that Christ is not just the holy and unblemished Lamb of God. Not just that Christ is our righteous servant in our place, but Christ is also the one who undergoes the penalty of God's law as our victim. God made Him who knew no sin to be sin. Our sins then, all of our filthy rags, all of our supposed good works are placed upon Him. The prophet says God laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. Our sins, therefore, are imputed, credited, laid upon, accounted to Christ because He stands in our place. He endures the just wrath of God. Our God, as we have read in our confession, is both merciful and just. And all of our sins, past, present, and future, every single one of them must be satisfied. That is to say that God must have, His requirements must be met in order for Him to show forth His mercy on us. Sometimes I like to tell my catechism students that God needing satisfaction for our sins, God needing satisfaction for His law, sometimes it can be illustrated like this. Maybe a crass illustration, but hopefully it gets the point. You may have seen the commercial in days past for Snickers. Snickers really satisfies. How so? You're hungry, you eat a Snickers bar, you're no longer hungry. In the same sort of way, this is true of our God. God has a law. And that law must be satisfied. It must be filled up, so to speak. And that can only be done through Jesus Christ. That can only be done through one who endures all of our sins, all of our unrighteousness. One who stands under that law and perfectly obeys. Christ, also in our text, is our substitute. He's holy, he's righteous, he's a victim, but he's also the one who stands in our place. The one who has sat where you sit. The one who has struggled where you struggle. For God made him who do no sin to be sin for us. Paul says this in Romans 3, verse 25 and 26. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, a propitiation through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. He did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. how can God be both merciful and just at the same time? How can God both receive a full requirement, a full satisfaction for every single one of our sins, a full satisfaction for all of His laws? And how, on the other hand, can He justify the ungodly? How can the wicked stand before Him? We find that answer in Christ. This conundrum, this problem of how a holy God can be just and the justifier comes in our text in the Lord Jesus Christ. For God made Him who knew no sin to be sinned for us. God set forth Christ as a propitiation. The One who has turned away the very wrath of God that once was upon us. God once looked upon us with a frown, so to speak, but now He looks upon us with a smile. He once looked upon us in wrath, but He now in Christ looks upon us in grace. This is how that question is answered. This is how God can be both just and merciful. Paul says later in Galatians 3.13 that Christ was made a curse for us. And all this then to say in Romans 8, verse 1, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. And that peace that surpasses all understanding. That peace which the Holy Spirit creates in our hearts comes this evening in your Savior, Jesus Christ. The One who has stood in your place. The One who has satisfied for your sins. The One who has obeyed perfectly for you. The One who was holy. Spotless. Thus, our text shows us that Christ was made sin. And we are made righteous. Christ was condemned and we are justified. Our sins were imputed to Him. His righteousness is imputed to us. He bore our sins while we are clothed in His righteousness. Thus Paul concludes by saying that God made Him a sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Here we find God's mercy. His justice satisfied in Christ's glorious work. His mercy poured out upon us abundantly in Christ. He makes us the righteousness of God in Christ. that righteousness that God requires, that righteousness that only Christ can merit for us, that righteousness which we cannot do one thing to earn, that righteousness that we need to stand before Him, that righteousness that we must give to God when we approach Him after we die, that righteousness alone of Christ, the only righteousness that can be accepted, is given to us. It is imputed to our accounts. It is credited to our hearts. It is given to our souls in God's great mercy. He gives it to us that we, just like Christ, can be righteous before God. That we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Not that we become righteous through our efforts. Not that we bring our own righteousness to God. But we stand with Christ's absolute perfect, absolutely sufficient, 100% authentic righteousness. And it is only that righteousness then that Paul speaks about by saying, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Because our Lord Jesus Christ, through His glorious work, through His great salvation, through His merits, has now given that to us. And beloved, as I was saying this morning in my sermon this morning, these two aspects of the Gospel, must be proclaimed by us. These two sides of the one coin of Christ's salvation must be held onto with our heart of hearts. For when we testify to Christ, when we tell of His grace to our friends and our neighbors and our co-workers, we are doing them a disservice. We are not speaking truly and fully the revelation that God has revealed to us in His Word if we only tell them about God's love, if we only speak to them about Christ's death for sinners, if we only speak to them about grace and salvation and mercy and goodness, we must have both. We must tell them that as surely as they repent and believe, they too will have this righteousness that Christ has. But, as surely as they do not believe, if they do not turn to Christ in faith, if they do not trust in His merits alone, they are absolutely condemned. The same judgment, the same condemnation then that Paul speaks about that Christ has undergone, undergoes, is the one that will undergo the unrighteous. And when we understand our God's wrath, we understand His attribute of justice, we understand His holiness and righteousness, All these things taken together. Beloved, I say to you, how can we do nothing less than continue with our hearts, our minds, with our lives, testify to Christ's grace, but also the wrath of God that is coming upon this world. When you see this wrath that is held underneath the sinner, the sinner is held over that fire of hell. And that fire is ready to consume. For God must satisfy His justice. How can we do nothing less than call forth sinners to faith? How can we sit idly by while we see neighbors die? We see neighbors live in their unrighteousness. We see them live in their own self-sufficiency. We sit by people at work. We live next door to pagans. Utter, reprobate people in their lives. But you see, there is no hope for them. If you do not speak that gospel to them, If you do not tell them the law, if you do not tell them God's righteous requirements and His great grace in Christ, it is our duty then, as Paul says, of the ministry especially, that as all of us as a priesthood of all believers, it is all of our responsibility, it is all of our callings, as Paul says, to be ambassadors for Christ. We must stand as those speaking, be reconciled to God. This war, this strife that exists between God and sinners can be only reconciled in our Lord Jesus Christ. This Gospel then comes to us this evening with a believing heart. This Gospel assures us of our salvation once again. This Gospel gives us an increase of faith. This Word of God gives us true faith. This evening, then, I say to you, if you have repented and believed in Christ, if you have been baptized in His name, and if you do trust in that promise, then your sins truly are forgiven, that you have been reconciled to God. You no longer have war with Him, but God is at peace with you, and that is a great comfort. But children, those of you who have been baptized in Christ's name, those of you who have been given these great blessings of living amongst Christians, living in this covenant, this family of God. As your parents, I hope, have spoken to you, so do I say to you that this Christ who has been spoken in this text, this Christ calls you this evening to trust in those promises that He has given to you. For if you were to die today, we must ask ourselves, you must ask yourself, if you could stand before God, not trusting in our own baptisms, not trusting in our membership, not trusting in our families. If you have not trusted in Christ, the Apostle makes it very clear. Be reconciled to God. Your sins are great. Their burden is heavy. They weigh you down. And they will not be accepted by God. But yet in Christ, God's justice, God's wrath, God's anger is satisfied. And this gospel is set here before you this evening. Turn to Him. Call upon His name. The name of Jesus Christ. the only name under heaven by which a man can be saved, the only righteousness that can avail before a holy God and His judgment seat. This, then, is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our Father, we do thank You this evening for the abundant blessings that we have in Christ. We thank You, O Lord, that You have set before us these inspired words that we hear each and every week. May You, by Your Holy Spirit, once again recreate faith in our hearts, turn our minds and our wills toward You that we might do good works, that we might be a people who are zealous for good works, a people for Your own name's sake. O Lord, we do thank You for that great abundance provision in Christ. We thank You that in Him You have satisfied justice, And now you pour forth on us great mercy. O Lord, we do pray that you would use us this week. Use our lives, but especially our lips. The words that we have to speak. Use these words that we have heard this evening in these texts of Scripture. That they might bring sinners to their knees before a great God. Use your people in this area. May you reform your church. May You pour out Your Spirit abundantly that sinners might come to Christ, that they might come to this place and know that God is amongst us and know that they are under the weight of sin. But only in Christ salvation is found. Forgive our sins this evening. Help us to live according to Your ways. Help us to be a light to this world and salt upon this earth. We ask these things in the name of Christ, our Savior. Amen. Thank you.