Beloved friends, we send and give our greetings and a welcome to the broadcast as you listen today. In the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we welcome you and pray that by his spirit the blessed truth of this great work of reconciliation that God has done in and through and by his beloved Son may be of eternal blessing to your soul, to your life, and forever through all eternity. We come to the closing message concerning our text in Second Corinthians five-twenty-one, and we consider from our text the last three things and concerning ourselves. The words of the verse again, For God hath made Christ to become sin for us, that we through Him might become the righteousness of God in Him. We have noted very particularly the revelation of God's sovereignty, of His justice and of His grace in these wonderful words. We have noted also very beautifully the precious truth concerning God the Son is impeccability and incorruptible character. and the depths of his sufferings that he bore upon the cross as well as in life, but particularly on the cross to save us. And then, thank God, we considered his merit. Say, by grace alone, this is all my plea. Jesus died for all mankind, and Jesus died for me. Yes, we thank God. Tis not any merit of our own. that brings us salvation. The merit for it all belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ and his atoning death. Now we consider three things concerning ourselves. First of all, we read the opening words of our verse. He was made, Christ was made sin. Note the next two words. For us, our own sin and our own guilt It's revealed. He was made sin for us. And what were we? What are we? He did not die for his own sins, but he died for ours. He was a sacrifice for sin. But for us, Paul is well written. When we would get without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly Romans five verse six and again Romans five verse eight God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us my beloved take it in truth all for us one well wrote the lovely hymn it was for me yes all for me and we can well say each of us individually He loved me and he gave himself for me. But Paul takes us all in. He takes everyone in when he says, He was made sin for us. It was for us that Jesus died. And for what kind of persons did he die? What kind of persons are we or were we? Nothing but ungodly sinners. Never forget the truth that you find in First Timothy chapter one and verse fifteen. When Paul near the end of his life wrote, This is a faithful saying, Worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners in the Aaron of whom I am chief. My beloved, you can confess it truthfully, if you will, if you never have. Christ died for me, for my sins. We all can say Christ died for our sins. The only people He could and does save are sinners. Well, did Paul write to the Corinthians, Christ, this is the gospel, which I declared unto you by which He is saved. How that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. Yes, Christ died for our sins, and the only people that He could and does save. Who are they? Nothing but sinners. Well, did the poet write the precious hymn we well know? Sinners Jesus will receive. Sound this word of grace to all. Who the heavenly pathway lead? All who linger and all who fall? My beloved friend, if never you have, I plead that you will take and confess your place as being a sinner if you want to be saved. It is written concerning him. This man, Jesus, receive it sinners as you may read in chapter fifteen of the gospel according to Luke he is a friend of sinners and today he receives sinners and if never you have why don't you come to him now and then you will find a second fact for yourself to enjoy in our lesson and in our text and it is this our deliverance is revealed For when we come to Christ, He takes away our sins. And let me but briefly suggest, there is a threefold deliverance when you and I come to Christ, who has died for our sins. First of all, He delivers us from the penalty of sin. Did we not note in the preceding studies of the week that in the justice of God He paid the full penalty that we deserved? But the moment you trust him as your Savior, he delivers you from that penalty you deserve. The wages of the sin is death. That's what you and I deserve, eternal death. What you and I deserve is eternal hell. But when we are as a sinner comes to Christ, we are saved from hell. May I give the personal testimony? I can do it with rejoicing in my soul. I go back, yes, I go back seventy-four years, in fact. And remember that night when, as a young man, I knelt before my Lord and Savior, and confessed I was a sinner, and begged him to save me, for I believed and confessed it, that he had died for me. Let me tell you the joy that was in my soul that night, and it's never left me. I went home saying, John, you're never going to hell. And please let me say it. I truthfully can say it. In humility, I say, but in conviction, I say it. I've never had the fear of going to hell since that night. No, he delivered me from the penalty of my sins. Well, can I say with Romans eight one, there is therefore now no judgment to them who are in Christ Jesus. And the delivered sinner can say there is no condemnation, there is no hell for me. The fire and the torment. Mine I shall never see. My beloved, I tell you very frankly, I'm grateful I'm not going to hell. I don't boast in the fact that it's to have anything to do with what I've done, except I came to the person who could only save me from that hell. And you show me where you can find another person who can save you from hell. None but Christ can do it. What a great deliverer, my friend. Do you have this? It can be yours now if you receive Christ and by faith. Trust Him and trust His atoning death. Let me quote the words that are so appropriate if you would say something like it and come to Him. Jesus, I will trust thee. Trust thee with my soul. guilty, lost, and helpless. Thou canst make me whole. There is none in heaven nor on earth like thee. Thou hast died for sinners. Therefore, Lord, for me. Let me say what I believe is the hardest thing for men and women to do. Confess that they are sinners. My beloved, I dare you to find a person that is not a sinner. There's only been one person on the earth. who was not a sinner, that was Christ himself. Yes, there's deliverance from the penalty of sin. But go further. There's deliverance from the power of sin. How blessed to know that God says, and I quote the words of Paul in Romans chapter six, verse eleven, Likewise reckon, account by faith, that ye also yourselves to be dead indeed towards sin. But alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Romans six, eleven. Well, did Paul go on to write in verse fourteen of that same chapter, sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under law but under grace. And may I say very frankly, on the ground of scripture, that deliverance is not only from the penalty of sin, but it's from the power of indwelling sin. You read Romans six, seven and eight. You'll find it. But then there's a third deliverance included, a deliverance from the presence of sin. Ah, that's yet in the future. For when Jesus comes again, and he is coming, praise his name, then the believer will be translated from earth to heavenly glory, where there'll be no more sin, no more sorrow, no more crying, no more pain, no more death. The former things passed away. My beloved, I want to tell you frankly, I am looking forward to getting out of this world. Why? Because it's a world of sin. Sin covers it. Sin is filling it. And those sins are mounting high and coming near to judgment. But when the Lord Jesus comes and coming He is, He's going to take His own people out of it, away from the presence of sin. May I repeat it? A deliverance from the penalty? A deliverance from the power? A deliverance from the presence of sin? Oh, my beloved, thank God for it. But there's a third thing. Not only does it reveal our own sins and guilt in this verse, not only does it reveal our deliverance, but thank God. Last of all, it reveals we have a new condition before God when we have Christ. We have the righteousness of God in Christ. Right now before God, the believer has a perfect state of righteousness positionally before him, and someday he or she will have a perfect eternal glory in the future to come. Oh, my beloved, this is God's work of reconciliation. Let me repeat the outline we've covered. The text has revealed three great facts regarding God, His sovereignty. His justice and His grace. I hope you can remember it. Also, the text has revealed three facts about Christ. First, His impeccability or incorruptible character. Second, the depths of its sufferings for our sins on the earth and in death upon the cross. And third, His great eternal merit that through Him we can come to God by the merit of the Son of God. And last of all, three things concerning ourselves. We aren't guilty sinners by nature, but we are delivered when we take Christ, and our deliverance will be in the future, bring us into an eternal position with God forever. Father, bless thy word, we ask, in the Savior's holy and peerless name, to every saint, and especially to every sinner. Amen.