Hi, I'm Phil Johnson, and this is Grace to You, featuring the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. You're going to hear from John soon, but we're also doing something special today and for the next couple of weeks. If you're a regular listener to Grace to You, You know that at the end of each program, we invite you to join us for our next broadcast. and I always extend that invitation on behalf of the entire Grace to U staff.
Well, I want you to meet some of our staff. You know that our staff is made up of men and women from a variety of backgrounds, and they do a variety of jobs, but we all have a couple of things in common. For one thing, we're all believers in Christ. We've all received salvation in Christ. And each of us has been influenced and strengthened by the Bible teaching of John MacArthur.
And so a few months ago, we asked our staff, what is your favorite John MacArthur sermon? Obviously it's hard to choose just one sermon out of more than thirty six hundred, and in fact some of our staff couldn't pick just one, but many of them did, and so today we're launching a series made up of ten of those messages. We're going to call this series John MacArthur's Most Memorable Sermon.
So, as we get started, I have with me in studio today Jay Flowers. Welcome, Jay. Thank you, Phil. Jay has worn many hats in his long tenure with our ministry. How long have you been here?
It'll be 36 years just in a couple of months. Wow. And he is now our chief operating officer. And Jay, you chose the message that we're airing today. It's called 15 Words of Hope.
It's a great choice, by the way. What made this sermon stand out to you?
Well, the passage itself is one that John has taught many times, 2 Corinthians 5, 21. He's taught it multiple times at Grace Church. And I think because of that, Grace to You had to give it various titles. But if you were to go to our website or go on our app and look for sermons on 2 Corinthians 5, 21, you'd find multiple versions of it. But it's still essentially the same sermon based on the same passage.
The passage, of course, is, He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. John taught that multiple times at Grace Church, but he also taught it multiple times elsewhere. And that's why the sermon really has a special place in my heart. Part of my role at Grace to U for the past couple of decades has been to help be a good steward and maintain the relationships we have with radio station managers, radio stations all across the United States.
So, as John would be invited occasionally to speak at a radio station event, we used to call them radio rallies, where the station would invite all their listeners to often a church campus, and John would come into town and he would preach. There would be music and those things, but it would be the centerpiece would be John preaching.
Well, part of my role here at Grace to U has been to travel where John travels for those kinds of events and just be there, be able to meet the station staff, be able to interact with listeners and represent the ministry as sort of an ambassador. And I really don't, I can't speculate exactly why John chose this passage in this sermon, but in my experience, Experience, this was his go-to sermon for those kinds of events. And of course, he could do the same sermon each time because he was in a different town, so you didn't have the same people there. But I don't believe he chose it because it was easy or just because it was familiar. I think he chose it because it is one of Scripture's.
I think most clear and simple descriptions of what happens in the gospel. Yeah, I think you're right. And in fact, I think if we asked John, what do you think out of 3,600 sermons, which one sermon would you say is the most important sermon you ever preached? He would pick this one: 15 Words of Hope. I remember clearly when he first preached this, it was 1995.
as he was going through 2 Corinthians. And I think it was on the Sunday that year that we had the Shepherds Conference. And again, one of the most important sermons he ever preached.
So let's hear this message called 15 Words of Hope. The most memorable sermon by John MacArthur, chosen by longtime Grace EU staff member Jay Flowers. And now here's John with the lesson. The verse that we're going to look at is 2 Corinthians 5, 21. 2 Corinthians 5, 21.
It says this. He made him. who knew no sin. to be sin on our behalf. that we might become the righteousness of God.
In him. The Bible makes it clear, first of all, that all people are sinners. By nature, and by action. In fact, All people are sinners from birth. And thus, all people are born alienated from God, who is holy.
cannot look upon sin cannot fellowship. with sinners That alienation because of sin. prevents us From knowing God. He is too perfectly holy to have anything to do with sinners except to reject them.
Now, the result of that rejection, the result of that alienation in time. is godlessness, the result of it in eternity is hell.
So this alienation into which every human being is born is indeed a serious issue. It means that everybody lives their life without God. And If they die in that condition, they will spend their eternity without God in torment.
Now, that kind of reality... Proves that the most deadly virus in the world is not the HIV virus. It is the SIN virus. Like the HIV virus, it kills everyone it infects. Only unlike the HIV virus, it infects.
Everyone. It kills Not just in time. But in eternity, it kills not just physically, but spiritually. There is no cure for the HIV virus, but thankfully. There is a cure.
for the SIN virus. In fact, God has made it possible. For sinners to be cured.
so thoroughly and completely that they can Be reconciled to God and have eternal fellowship in His presence. And that is the good news. That is what Christianity preaches. That's the gospel. There is a cure for the SIN virus.
So that the hostility between People and God can end now and forever. And sinners can be reconciled to holy God. In fact, If you look back at verses 18, 19, and 20. You see Several times, the word reconciled in one form or another. Verse 18 says, God who reconciled us to Himself.
Verse 19, that God was in Christ. Reconciling the world to himself. And at the end of verse 20. We call on sinners to be reconciled to God. This is the good news, friends.
This is the great news that you don't have to live godlessly in time and you don't have to live godlessly in eternity. You don't need to suffer through this life without God and to suffer eternal torment without God in the life to come. Reconciliation is possible. But that brings up the question, how? The Apostle Paul has been talking about the ministry of reconciliation.
We have been reconciled to God and now we preach reconciliation. He mentions the ministry of reconciliation in verses 18 and 19, and then in verse 20, he mentions it by saying, We are ambassadors for Christ. We go out and we preach to sinners that they can be reconciled to God. That's our ministry. That is the good news.
But the question then comes up, how can that be? How can such a reconciliation take place? How can An absolutely and utterly holy God. who is infinitely pure and perfect. Ever be reconciled.
to sinners. How can he do that who is too pure to look on sin or to fellowship with transgressors? How can God satisfy his just and holy law? With a condemnation of sinners. By full and deserved punishment, and still show them mercy.
who deserve no mercy. How can God end the hostility and how can He take sinners into His holy heaven to live with Him forever in intimate communion? How? How can both justice and grace be satisfied? How can love towards sinners and Righteousness come together.
To put it in Paul's words, how can God be just and a justifier of sinners? The one verse I just read you explains how. 15 Greek words. And these 15 Greek words, translated into English, carefully define and perfectly balance. the mystery of reconciliation.
They show us the essence of the atonement. In fact, in the one verse that I read you is the heart of the good news. In that one verse is the most powerful truth in Scripture. Because it embraces and explains how sinners can be reconciled to God. Here is where the paradox Of redemption is resolved.
Here is where the mystery is solved. Here is where the riddle is answered. Here is where we find how holy justice and perfect love can both be satisfied. How righteousness and mercy can embrace each other. And the truth of this one brief sentence.
solves the most profound dilemma Of how God can reconcile with sinners.
Well, needless to say, having said that, you're aware that there's a lot in this verse. We have to search carefully through this cache of rare jewels and stop to examine each one of them with a magnifying glass in order to understand the richness.
Now, as we look at this verse together, I want to point your attention to four elements. Four features of the text that unfold its significance: the benefactor, the substitute, the beneficiaries, and the benefits. That really sums up How God can reconcile sinners. Let's start at the beginning, the benefactor. The verse begins.
He made, stop there.
Now, if you're a Bible student, the first question you're going to ask is. To whom does he refer? The answer comes quickly. Look one word back at the end of verse 20. God.
God is the antecedent. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf. The point is, it's God's plan. He's the benefactor. God is behind the whole reconciliation.
Plan. He designed it. He worked it out. He brings it to fruition. It is his plan.
This is a very crucial perspective, and you'll see why as I comment on it. There could be no reconciliation unless God initiated it. There could be no reconciliation unless God. Activated it. There could be no reconciliation unless God applied it.
He has to design it and he has to execute it. It cannot come from any human source. Nothing man could do Nothing man could not do. could produce reconciliation with God. It isn't anything we do or don't do.
In fact, all of our efforts in the religious realm amount to filthy rags, the Bible says. The world is literally filled with religion. And all of that religion, apart from Christianity, Is man producing a plan With the aid of Satan In which he can initiate reconciliation with God. That is the fatal flaw of all world religions, no matter what name they come under. Romans chapter 3 says, verse 10.
There is none that does good. There is none righteous, know not one. There is none that understands. There is none that seeks after God. Nobody.
Absolutely nobody.
Now you would think if there was anyone who could have devised the plan most aptly and pulled it off, it would have been the Jews, since after all, the Jews were the people of the true God, Yahweh, Jehovah. And God gave to them the law and the prophets and the covenants and the adoption and all of the things that Romans 9 mentioned. They had the Revelation. They had the Old Testament. And to them even salvation was given.
Salvation is of the Jews. Of them and to them came the Messiah. If anyone could have devised a system by which they could have achieved reconciliation, it would have been the Jews. But they failed. And in Romans chapter 10, Paul comments on the failure by saying.
My heart's desire and prayer to God. Is for Israel for their salvation. They have not achieved it. They haven't achieved reconciliation with all their religiosity, with all that they received by way of divine revelation from God, because they believed that somehow this reconciliation depended on them. And therefore They're not saved.
I bear them witness, Paul says in verse 2, they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
So not knowing about God's righteousness, they seek to establish their own. That's what false religion is, in a word. It's the religion of human achievement. But they never can accomplish it because the only way that reconciliation could ever occur is if God reached out to sinners. And he did.
It was God who made him who knew no sin to be sin. It was God's plan. He designed it, he initiated it. And he executed it.
So that Jesus went to the cross, not because men turned on him, though they did. Jesus went to the cross. Not because seducing spirits orchestrated the minds of the religious leaders of Judaism to plot his death, though they did. Jesus went to the cross not because an angry mob screamed for his blood, though they did. Jesus went to the cross because God planned it.
God purposed it. And God designed it. as the absolutely necessary means by which and by which alone reconciliation could take place. That's why Jesus said, I came into the world to do the Father's will. That's why in John 18, 11, he said, Shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given me?
Meaning the cup of wrath. That's why in Hebrews chapter 10, the Lord Jesus is quoted as saying, A body thou hast prepared me, and I have come to do thy will, O God. That's why in Acts chapter 2, when Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost and preached to the population of Jerusalem, many of whom had been screaming for the blood of Jesus and been guilty of calling for his execution, Peter says to that crowd. You Have killed the Son of God. By the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.
In other words, You did your evil deed. But it was all in the plan of the Father. Only God. Could call the second member of the Trinity to become incarnate and come into the world and humble himself and take on the form of a man and be obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Only God could ask that of him.
Only God could design an atonement for sin that would satisfy his justice because only God knows what it takes to satisfy his justice. Only God knows what propitiates his wrath. We don't know. Only God could decide how his own infinite holiness, intense hatred of sin, and inflexible justice could be perfectly satisfied without destroying the sinner in that satisfaction. Only God could know what it would take to make a sinner acceptable to him so that that sinner could escape eternal hell and live in the very presence of God in his own house.
Only God could determine how the spiritual nature and the supreme authority and the unchangeable perfection of his law, which is holy, just and good, could be completely satisfied. And the lawbreaker completely justified and rightly and purely forgiven and accepted, though fallen, guilty, and depraved. Only God could bring all of those components to reconciliation. Only God knew what it would take. Only God knew how to solve the dilemma.
Only He knew what would satisfy His righteous requirement. Only He knew how He could spend His wrath so that wrath was consummated. Only he. Knew what it took to bear the burden of sin, to endure the punishment of his fury. Only he knew.
And so, while the world may call the gospel and the work of Jesus Christ. Foolish, foolishness it is to those who believe the wisdom of God, is it not? It may seem foolish to the world. But it is the purest and profoundest wisdom. That the infinitely holy God could devise a plan consistent with His infinite holiness to reconcile utterly wicked sinners.
Only God. So God is the benefactor. God is the benefactor. He is the one who made the plan. He is the one who must execute the plan.
That is so important, beloved. Absolutely important. It all flows out of this great reality. God so loved the world, right? that he gave.
And that is exactly what Paul says in different terms in Romans chapter 5. Verse 8, God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died in our place. It all came out of God's love. While we were enemies, verse 10 says, We were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, and God initiated it because he loved us. God, Ephesians 2:4 says, who is rich in mercy for the great love wherewith he has loved us.
has granted us salvation. God loves sinners. That's why in Colossians chapter 1, the Apostle Paul says, thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Only God knew what the qualifications were. Only God could qualify us.
He was the only one who could know the standard. And thanks to him, for he delivered us from the domain of darkness. He transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. That is exactly why the Apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter 1 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. It was the Father who chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.
It was the Father who predestined us to the adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. Everything is through the praise of His glory. It is He who freely bestowed on us salvation in the Beloved, who gave us redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, etc., etc. It was the Father who designed to lavish on us all wisdom and insight and all riches of grace. Listen.
This is very different than the religions of the world. The religions of the world basically operate on the premise of fear. That God is an angry, hateful... Or indifferent God who could really care less about the prosperity of. beings Who grovel around underneath him in this world.
And so the goal of most all religions is to somehow appease an otherwise hostile and angry God.
Somehow, they have to devise a system if they're going to be reconciled to God so that He doesn't crush out their life and punish them eternally. They're going to have to appease this God. And so they are busily inventing systems of appeasement. By which, through certain religious ceremonies or through certain religious duties and actions. Or certain good works, they can somehow appease this deity and somehow hold back his deadly fury.
On the other hand, Christianity proclaims a God who loves. Who loves so much He is a Savior, God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. We have a God who doesn't hate, but a God who loves sinners and has Himself designed a way for them to have fellowship with Him forever and ever. We don't have to appease God. God loves the sinner, and God in His love provides the sacrifice and wonderfully and graciously and freely and magnanimously and eagerly offers the gift of forgiveness.
This is the good news. The good news is, you don't have to appease God. The good news is, you don't have to figure out a plan of reconciliation. The good news is, you don't have to somehow work out your own righteousness. The good news is, God is the benefactor.
He knows what satisfies his righteousness and his holiness. He has effected that satisfaction. The price of sin has been paid, and he now offers you forgiveness and reconciliation. That's the gospel. Now what did it take?
It took death. Because as it says in the Old Testament in Ezekiel 18, 20, the person who sins will die. As it says in Romans 6, 23 in the New Testament, the wages of sin is death. God knew what the requirement was. The requirement is death.
And God made that abundantly clear throughout the whole Old Testament economy because the Jews spent most of their life, of course. Either coming from or going to a sacrifice. They had to continually massacre animals, millions and millions and millions of them. To deal with sin. To show the people how wicked they were.
And how sin required death. It wasn't that those animals took away their sin, they didn't, they couldn't. But what they demonstrated to the people repeatedly was that the wages of sin is what? is death. Death, death, death, death, death, death.
And every time they would sin, it was back to another death, back to killing another animal. And they were wearied of that and longing. For the ultimate Lamb who once and for all would take away the sin of the world and end this Carnage. The animals were symbols. That God's law can only be satisfied through death.
Made the people long with all their hearts. for a final substitute. A final substitute.
Well, the father sent one. and he didn't come reluctantly. Not at all. He said, no man takes my life from me in John 10. I lay it down of myself.
I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. He willingly did not hold on to what He had a right to grasp, but let go of it and condescended to die.
So, if there was to be reconciliation, the plan had to come from God. He had to initiate it, he had to design it, he had to execute it. Uh You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson, and our current study features some of John's most compelling sermons as chosen by members of the Grace to You staff. It's titled John MacArthur's Most Memorable Sermon.
Now friend, to help you dig even deeper into the gospel truth that John talked about in today's lesson, we want to send you a booklet John wrote called 15 Words of Hope. It's a helpful supplement to the sermon you heard part of today. We'll send you the booklet free of charge. Just ask for 15 words of hope. when you contact us today.
Visit our website gty.org. The booklet to ask for again is 15 words of hope. It's a great resource to give to someone you may have been sharing Christ with. Request your copy at gty.org or ask for 15 words of hope when you call us at 800-55 Grace. That's our phone number one more time, 8005 Grace.
Well, just a reminder that Grace to You is supported by friends like you, and the most important way that you can support us. is to pray for us. Also, thanks for remembering to pray for the team at this radio station. We couldn't do what we do without their partnership. And pray that those hearing John's verse-by-verse teaching on this daily broadcast.
will be strengthened by the truth of God's word. Your prayers are vital, so thank you for taking us before the throne of grace.
Now for the entire Grace to U staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for starting your week with us and join us again tomorrow to learn how just 15 Greek words carry a message that changes lives now and for eternity. We're continuing our brand new series called John MacArthur's Most Memorable Sermon. With another 30 minutes of Unleashing God's Truth one verse at a time on grace to you.
