In Jason Dohm's sermon titled 'The Wages of Sin,' the focus is on the events described in Matthew 27:45-50, which detail the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The sermon explores the significance of the three-hour darkness that fell over the land, interpreting it as a supernatural event symbolizing the wrath and judgment of God against sin. Dohm connects this event to Old Testament precedents, such as the plagues of Egypt, to illustrate the seriousness of God's judgment. The sermon emphasizes the concept of substitutionary atonement, explaining that Jesus bore the sins of humanity, which led to God the Father turning His face away from Him. This moment of Jesus feeling forsaken is presented as the ultimate sacrifice for humanity's sins, underscoring the gravity of sin and the profound love and mercy of God. The sermon concludes by highlighting the hope and redemption offered through Jesus' sacrifice, which secures salvation for believers.

The sermon text for today is Matthew chapter 27 verses 45 to 50. Please read with me. Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, Lama and Savactani, that is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Some of those who stood there when they heard that said, this man is calling for a lighthouse.

Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a red and offered it to him to drink. The rest said, let him alone. Let us see if Elijah will come to save him. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yelled out his spirit. Holy God, you send your Son to this planet.

You send the light to this world and we slain it. It was our sin that slain Jesus Christ Just today what it cost what our sin cost Let's look at verse 45 our sin cost to the majesty of heaven. Praise the spirit and Jesus as he bring the message. Let's look at verse 45. The text reads, now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, there was darkness over all the land.

The Jews start counting from 6 a.m. And so we're talking about noon to 3 o'clock. There was complete darkness over all the land or earth. The Greek word can mean either land or earth. And so you can't tell whether it was localized or whether it was over all the earth.

But don't just read over this verse. It's worth Having this one verse be a section of the sermon. Because of what we've seen happen. What we've seen happen is from chapter 26 verse 20. This is when Jesus sits down to eat the Passover meal from his disciples.

Until now is exactly 100 verses. So from 2620 to 27 verse 45 where we are this morning is exactly 100 verses. That covers 18 hours And that 18 hours has been at breakneck speed. We've had in those 100 verses the betrayer, Judas, identified. We've had the Lord suffer.

We've had Jesus go to Gethsemane to pray and agonize. We've had his arrest. We've had Jesus taken to Annas, the old high priest, and then to Caiaphas, the current high priest. We've had Jesus stand before the Sanhedrin and be condemned. We've had Jesus sent to Pilate.

We've had Jesus sent from Pilate to Herod Antipas once he found out he was from Galilee. We've had Jesus sent back to Pilate Once Jesus won't testify on his behalf, we've had Jesus condemned by Pilate when the crowd demands that he be crucified. We've had Jesus scourged. We've had Jesus mocked by the soldiers. We've had Jesus crucified.

All this within 18 hours, that 100 verses. And so it's one thing after another, after another, after another, after another, after another, after another. And it's like a fast-paced show or a fast-paced movie. And now you have one verse, you have three hours, and you have nothing, nothing, nothing but darkness. And when we left off, everyone has come to heap, to pile on, to heap insults on Jesus.

Everyone who is passing by is insulting Jesus. The chief priests and the elders and the scribes have come there specifically to see Jesus die and to heap insults on him. Even the criminals who are on his right hand and on his left hand are joining in the fun of insulting Jesus. But all this comes to a screeching halt with an unplanned darkness at noon. It's easy to just read over the top of it, but think of what is happening here.

Okay? Noon. The sun is overhead. The sun is at its apex. It's the most blindingly bright part of the day.

One minute and the next minute, it's nothing. It's dark. Not for a minute or two minutes or 10 minutes or an hour, but for three hours there's a completely unplanned darkness. And it cannot be an eclipse. Well, it is an eclipse.

It cannot be a solar eclipse in the way that scientists define it. By definition, the Passover happens on a full moon. And a lunar eclipse can happen during that phase of the moon, but a solar eclipse by definition cannot happen. And even if it could, a full solar eclipse will last something like 15 or 17 minutes. Nothing fits the profile.

The only way to explain this is that this is just what God has done for this moment. And so people expected daylight for hours and hours more and now they've got three hours of unplanned darkness and if the verse is any indication the world stops. If darkness came on us like this, we'd walk across the room and turn on the light. But there's no walking across the room and turning out the light here. They're outside the city gates and they haven't planned for it to be dark at noon.

And so The text doesn't tell us the panic that ensues, but you have to wonder what it was like to be there at noon when the world goes dark without clouds or any other reasonable explanation. Now was it global or was it local? You have to speculate. The text doesn't say. Both Matthew Henry and Matthew Poole referenced a renowned Egyptian philosopher named Dionysius who is quoted of saying this about this day, either the God of nature is suffering or the machine of the world is tumbling into ruin.

Now here's a man in Egypt and there are other extra biblical sources outside of the Bible sources that talk about the darkness. So it probably was not localized at all. But in any case, it's just simply a supernatural event, the darkness that's happening. Now, more than anything else, more than anything else, this darkness signifies wrath, the wrath and judgment of God. So this is what you're seeing in this verse when the sun goes dark at noon for three hours.

More than anything else, there's other things that can be said and there's other things that I'm going to say, but more than anything else, this signifies the wrath and judgment of God. Darkness has Old Testament precedent. We're not surprised to know that. Listen to Exodus chapter 10 verses 21 through 23. This is the ninth plague.

The children of Israel are almost ready to be released from their bondage in Israel. And there have been eight plagues already. And now this brings us to Exodus 10 verses 21 through 23. Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, darkness which may even be felt." So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt. Three days.

They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days. But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. So a distinction is being made by God in Exodus 10 between the people of the Lord. Now this is one day before the Passover, something like that. So this is tightly tied to the Passover.

The ninth plague is right there with the Passover. And God is making a distinction between those who will be passed over in His judgment and those who the judgment and wrath of God against sin and the rebellion of mankind will rest upon. And it comes in the form of a darkness that can be felt. The text says it's a thick darkness. You can believe that this is what's happening in Matthew 27.

It's a darkness that can be felt. It's a thick darkness because it represents the wrath and judgment of God against the sin and rebellion of mankind. Now listen to Psalm 88. I've got a Bible, it's a Thomas Nelson New King James, and It identifies messianic prophecies or passages with a star. This Psalm 88 doesn't have a star and I'm mad at Thomas Nelson about it because when I read Psalm 88 I think there should be stars all over this thing so the rest of the sermon is continuing under protest and I want a star for Psalm 88 but listen to Psalm 88 verses 6 through 8.

Where the sons of Korah have written this Psalm and there's so much that tracks to the death of Jesus Christ, but particularly Psalm 88 verses 6 through 8. You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the depths. Your wrath lies heavy upon me and you have afflicted me with all your waves. You have put away my acquaintances far from me. You have made me an abomination to them.

I am shut up and I cannot get out." This describes to a T, whether it was intended to be Messianic or not, This describes to a T what is happening with Jesus Christ. He's been forsaken by everyone except for a few women who are standing by. We'll talk about that next week. He's been forsaken And he is under the wrath of God and he is signified by the darkness. You see this at the end of verse 6 and the beginning of 7 of Psalm 88 where darkness is associated with the wrath of God.

This is what is happening to Jesus Christ. The wrath of God against the sin and rebellion of man is falling and it is signified in the darkening of the sun at noon. In the book of Matthew, hell is described as outer darkness. That's in Matthew 8 verse 12, in Matthew 22 verse 13, in Matthew 25 verse 30. Most of the time when Jesus is talking about hell in the book of Matthew, outer darkness is a phrase that is used.

Why is that? 1 John 1.5 tells us, 1 John 1.5, God is light and in him is no darkness at all. So that when God puts away, he casts out into outer darkness. This darkness also testifies of the incredible significance of the event. God is saying, Look, look at what is happening here.

And God has turned the heavens upside down for Jesus at his birth. In Matthew 2 verse 2, His star appears in the east and there are strange things in the heaven that bring men from probably 800 miles away to come and see Jesus. God gives upheaval, He creates upheaval in the heavens to announce Jesus' birth and He creates upheaval in the heavens to announce Jesus' birth. And He creates upheaval in the heavens to announce the death, the substitutionary death of His Son, Jesus Christ. God is saying, look at what is happening here.

Just as all of the Bible points towards this moment, God has not left Himself without a testimony. He is testifying to the significance of the things that are happening here. Now look at verse 46. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthanai. That is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

There's darkness over all the land from the sixth hour until the ninth hour for those three hours. And then at the ninth hour, right at the end of this darkness, Jesus quoting Psalm 22 verse 1 cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Do you see the link? It's not 45 space 46, it's 45 and 46 standing together. It is this darkness signifying the wrath and judgment of God against the sinfulness of man.

And Jesus feeling the weight of taking on the sins of the world and crying out with the words that David penned. Now Jesus is the son of God and Jesus is the son of man and Jesus is also the son of David. And as the son of David, he's now quoting words penned by David about being forsaken by God. Turn your Bibles to Deuteronomy verse 31. In Deuteronomy verse 31, this is the very end of Moses' life.

And the handover between Moses and Joshua is happening. And God calls Moses and Joshua to come to the door of the tabernacle of meeting. In Deuteronomy 31 verses 16 through 18, Look at what is written. And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, you will rest with your fathers. And this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them.

And they will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger shall be aroused against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them so that they will say in that day have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us and I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil which they have done, and that they have turned to other gods. So God, in speaking to Moses about what's going to happen, says, Moses, you're going to die. You're going to be with your fathers. And the people are going to forsake me and then I'm going to forsake them and I'm going to hide my face from them because of all the evil things that they've done.

This is how it works. This is how it works. This is where idolatry takes people. And don't think of idolatry as just carving an image and setting it up on the mantle. Idolatry is having a commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And then pushing that aside to love something else more. That's all idolatry is. Sometimes it comes with the carved image and sometimes it doesn't, but it always has to do with the affections of the heart. And when the affections of the heart turn away from the Almighty God who has given life, who is good and kind and full of mercy. And when He swept aside and displaced by an affection for something else, When God is forsaken, then God forsakes.

That's what's said in Deuteronomy 31 verses 16 through 18. And he hides his face. So when the sin of mankind comes down upon Jesus Christ and all the evil and wickedness that has happened in your mind and in your words and in your actions comes upon Jesus Christ, Then the Father hides His face and forsakes. Isaiah 53 verse 6, the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. The Lord has taken that iniquity and put it on Jesus Christ.

This is what is happening on the cross. This is why it's dark for three hours. This is why Jesus cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why? Because the iniquity of us all is being laid upon him." Isaiah 53, verse 10, you make his soul an offering for sin.

Jesus Christ is being made an offering for sin. Josephus says that the ninth hour is the time when the Jews performed the evening sacrifice. So Jesus is saying this. And across town, if Josephus is right, And we don't have much reason to doubt him. This isn't in the law of God that the evening sacrifice would have to be performed at the night hour.

But Josephus says it is. So across town, as Jesus is crying out, my God, my God, Why have you forsaken me? The evening sacrifice is being offered in the temple. Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21. For he, God the Father, made him, God the Son, who knew no sin to be sin for us.

For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him in the darkness and in the cry of Jesus quoting Psalm 22 verse 1 this is what is happening Jesus Christ the one who knew no sin is being made sin for us That we might become the righteousness of God in Him. This exchange, this inexplicable exchange, where a holy one, a perfectly holy one, stands in the place of sinners who everything they do is tainted. Every single thing is tainted. Their sinfulness is imparted to Him and His righteousness is imparted to them. What an exchange.

This is what's happening when Jesus is forsaken by his Father. Now this means something. This exchange means something in this moment for Jesus. It means that God the Father cannot look approvingly on the sin bearer. He cannot look approvingly on the sin bearer.

In Habakkuk 1 verse 13, the prophet says this, you, O Lord, are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness. So the inspired prophet, Habakkuk, in chapter 1, verse 13, acknowledges what is true of God. That his eyes are too pure to behold evil and that he cannot look upon wickedness. Now This is human terms to try to get little brains acclimated to what God is like. This doesn't mean that God is not everywhere.

This is not pulling against the omniscience or the omnipresence of God. God knowing everything and God being everywhere at once. Those things remain true. This is a way to talk about God. This happens in the scriptures all the time.

The inspired writers are given ways, are given human terms so that little brains can understand something about a great God. And his eyes are too pure to behold evil and he cannot look upon wickedness. And so when Jesus takes on the sins of the world and our sins are imputed to him then God hides his face. And so the unbroken fellowship between the Father and the Son suffers. This is what's happening in this moment.

The unbroken fellowship between the Father and the Son suffers. This is what's happening in this moment. The unbroken fellowship between the Father and the Son suffers. Now what exactly does that mean? I don't know.

I'm not an expert on the Trinity and if I was, I'm not sure it would help me. But I only know that when Jesus experienced it, He said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Now this is incredibly significant. Think of Genesis 1 verse 26. God is almost done making things here.

And he says, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. In Genesis 1, you have a veiled doctrine of the Trinity where God is speaking in the plural. It's God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit working together on creation and deciding what they're going to do together. In complete unified fellowship, in complete love, in complete agreement, in one accord. Think of the baptism of Jesus, Matthew 3 verse 17.

This is my beloved Son, a voice from heaven. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Think about Matthew 17 verse 5, the Mount of Transfiguration, the exact same words as that is baptism. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Two times God speaks a voice from heaven.

You can't behold His glory, but in these instances, you can hear His voice. And He makes a point to say, I love Him. I'm pleased with Him at the beginning of His ministry and at the end of His ministry. I love Him. I'm pleased with Him.

This is the testimony of the Father about the Son. I love him. I'm pleased with him. Now what about the testimony of the Son about the Father? Think of John 4 verse 34.

Jesus says, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. My food. It's like breakfast, lunch, and dinner to me to obey him. To obey my Father. Think about John 12, 28.

In John 12, 28, Jesus is contemplating his death. And He's thinking about and talking about the laying down of his life. What does he say? Father glorify your name. Father, glorify your own name.

This is the testimony of the Son towards the Father. Unified fellowship, unbroken fellowship from eternity past, long before anything on the earth was ever made. But now, but now, there's darkness over the land for three hours. And the wrath of God towards sin and the rebellion of man is resting on one set of shoulders and God the Father is hiding his face from this sinner. And Jesus Christ, who has known nothing but the love of his Father from eternity past, is now standing across the bar.

The bar is a legal term for the location where the one who stands accused is. And there is a barrier between him and the judge. You stand at the bar. Now Jesus Christ, the accused, is across the bar, separated from a righteous judge who has only come to condemn sin. As sinners, we should marvel at this moment.

Think about you and your own sons and daughters. Think about the tenderness of your love for your own sons and daughters and for the tenderness of their love towards you and now say, you're condemned. You are separated from me. As sinners, we should come to this moment in the scriptures and bow down and worship him. Because he's standing in our place.

Do you understand that without this moment there is no hope for any sinner and that we're all sinners not one time or a hundred times or a thousand times but countless times. You cannot count the sins of your mind, or the sins of your mouth, or the sins of your actions. You cannot count them. It's only without this moment, it's only left for you to be condemned, for you to be the one standing at the bar across from the all-righteous judge. So we should come to this moment and see Jesus take the sins of the world on his own shoulders and say, God, we worship you.

As sinners, this moment should help us learn to hate our sins. Think about your love for your children. Think about their love for you. Now think of it severed and forsaking. And that's only what we know.

It's nothing like God's love for his own Son. It's nothing like the Son's love towards his Heavenly Father. It's just a little picture. And yet our own feelings are so intense that surely we can see this happening and say, I can't love my sin anymore. If this is what it costs, I can't love those sins anymore.

I listened to Robert Ziegler's sermon. He preached this over at Hope last week. One of the things he said that I thought I have to get that in there is this. God's wrath against sin will be satisfied. It will be satisfied.

God's wrath against the sin and rebellion of Every person will be quenched. And it will either be quenched with him paying your wages and what you deserve, or it will be laid upon him, Jesus Christ. And he'll bear it, and He'll drink that bitter cup down to the drags for you. This is what Jesus was dreading in Gethsemane. Jesus is not afraid to die.

He's not afraid. Even for the torments that he suffered. The scourging, Having people spit in his face, even being nailed to the cross. Jesus is not a man afraid. It was not those torments that caused Jesus to agonize in Gethsemane.

Remember what he said, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even unto death. It's this. It's the Father hiding his face because he's being made sin so that we could become the righteousness of God in Him. Verses 47 to 49. Some of those who stood there, when they heard that said, This man is calling for Elijah.

Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to him to drink. The rest said, let him alone, let us see if Elijah will come to save him. So here in verses 47 through 49 we have the response of some of those who were present. They hear him say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And they say, he's calling for Elijah.

Now the commentators, when you go and study the commentators on this, They're divided pretty equally, actually, between whether this is said out of ignorance or malice. And you'll not get anything here in Matthew or in the parallel texts in the other gospels that help you determine definitively whether it's ignorance or malice. If it's malice, it's just a continuation of the mocking. They've gone silent during the darkness, time of darkness, at least as far as we can tell, and now they resume their mocking. And in this case you would go to Malachi 4 verse 5.

Malachi chapter 4 verse 5 is about the Messiah and about the forerunner of the Messiah. And it speaks to Elijah as one who will precede the promised Redeemer. Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet. So there's always been this tight connection between Jesus and Elijah. When people speculate on who Jesus is, there's always a list and Elijah is always on the list.

He's Elijah. And that's because of the prophecy in Malachi 4 verses 5 that Elijah will be sent to go before the Messiah. And so if this is the case then they are mocking Jesus as a false Christ. Elijah is the helper of the Christ. Well, let's see, man on the cross, if Elijah will come and help you.

If it's ignorance, then it has to do with the words from Psalm 22. There's an interesting construction, Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani. That is half Hebrew and half Aramaic. So we don't know this because we don't speak Hebrew or Aramaic. But in Mark, it's different.

In Mark, it's all Aramaic, and Eli, instead of E-L-I, it becomes E-L-O-I. So the whole quote is in Aramaic. But in Matthew the first words are the Hebrew for my God, my God, E-L-I. And it sounds very much like the Hebrew for Elijah. So maybe they just misunderstood and thought he was actually calling for Elijah.

If I have to guess, I'm guessing it's malice. But it could be ignorance. In either case, it's out of unbelief. It's either blindness or it's willful opposition to Jesus. So these are words spoken out of unbelief.

Jesus is offered sour wine. They soak a sponge in it and they put it on the end of a reed and then because Jesus is up on the cross they extend it to him. John 19 verse 28, our parallel text, John 19, 28 says, after this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. So in the parallel account in John, the offering of the sour wine on the sponge is preceded by Jesus saying, I thirst. And John says this is a fulfillment of scripture and it would be a fulfillment of Psalm 69 verse 21 where the psalmist writes, they also gave me golf for my food and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." So this is a literal fulfillment of Psalm 69 verse 21.

Now verse 50. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. Jesus yields up his spirit. He yields up his spirit. And this fits with a verse I've been quoting every week probably for the last month, but I have to quote it here again.

It's John 10 verse 18. No one takes it from me. Jesus says no one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again. And so when Matthew records that Jesus dies, He doesn't say Jesus dies, he said Jesus yields up his spirit.

No one took his life. He could have hung on that cross till the end of time and not died because he had never sinned. Only in taking upon his own shoulders the sin of the world. He yielded up his spirit. Your death will be very different.

You won't have any choice. It won't be a yielding up of anything. You'll just die. Jesus yielded up his spirit. No one took his life from him.

He had the power to lay it down. He had the power to take it up again. Jesus cries out with a loud voice. That's all Matthew says. He cried out with a loud voice and then He yields up his spirit.

The other gospel writers actually preserved what he said. Luke preserves part of it. John preserves part of it. In Luke 23, verse 46, we read that Jesus says, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." And it's a direct quote from Psalm 31 verse 5. A Psalm of David.

The son of David quotes David one last time, Psalm 31 verse 5, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. This is just like Jesus' quoting of Psalm 22 verse 1, My God, my God, even though forsaken, because he has taken on the sins of the world, God is still his God. The Father is still his Father. My Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. John also records something that he says here.

John 19 verse 30, three words, it is finished. So Jesus, In the loud cry that Matthew gives us in verse 50, says these two things, Father into your hands I commit my spirit and it is finished. In these three simple words, it is finished. There are at least three things that are of great value to us. And if we thought long enough, I bet we could come up with a long list.

But I'm going to say three things that are definitely precious to the people of God. The first is this. The offer of pardon is forever secured. The offer of pardon is forever secured. Do you know that the offer of pardon for Abraham was secured in this moment?

The Scriptures say Abraham believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness. But it was the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that allowed for the forgiving of the sins of Abraham. So the Old Testament saints are saved in the same way even though they came before Jesus Christ. How can that be? I'm not sure.

God is big. God is smart. The offer of pardon is forever secured. When Jesus says it is finished, It means that. Secondly, Jesus accomplished everything that the Father sent him to accomplish.

Every single thing. So Jesus, before he dies, can say, it is finished. I did everything my Father sent me to do. Jesus said I didn't come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. And Jesus has fulfilled every prophecy about Him.

He perfectly obeyed the law. He became the substance for every shadow that you'll find in the Old Testament. It is finished because all the work that the Father had given him to do is done and completed in these last moments of Jesus' life. Thirdly, the salvation of the elect is secured and can never be touched. God has given a people to the sun and he doesn't lose any of them.

God has given a people to the sun and he doesn't lose one of them. And so when the people of God see the words, it is finished. We know no one can ever pluck us from his hand. It's also John 10. No one can ever, ever, ever pluck you from his hand.

Your salvation is secured in this moment. It can never be touched. Because God is the God who rules and governs and moves around molecules and causes everything to happen. And causes everything to happen. Jesus dies, he yields up his spirit.

Consider Genesis 2, 17 Genesis chapter 2 verse 17. God says to Adam, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For in that day, in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die." God makes a promise to Adam, to our Father, Adam. He makes a promise to him, you eat this, you'll surely die. Surely you will die.

Then the genealogies start in Genesis 5. In Genesis 5 verse 5 it's Adam. It talks a little bit about Adam and then it says, And He died. And then it talks about Seth and in verse 8 it says, And He died. And then it talks about Enosh, and in verse 11 it says and He died.

And then it talks about Kanan, And in verse 14 it says, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died. And it talks about man after man after man. And every one of the genealogies ends with those words, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died. And everyone who can trace themselves back to Adam, and that's all of us, this is your legacy. The day you eat of it, you will surely die.

Death enters through Adam, but there's a second Adam sent by Almighty God himself, sent by the Father. Adam brought sin into the world and you're the beneficiary. Ha, ha. Jesus came into the world And if you repent and believe in the gospel, you're the beneficiary. Paul just sums it up in Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death.

God said it to Adam in Genesis 2.17, the day you eat of it Adam, you'll surely die. And then the genealogies bear it out, and he died, and he died, and he died. So the first Adam brought sin into the world and sin brought death into the world. But the second Adam, Jesus Christ, lived without sin and he brought life. He brings life.

So my concluding remarks are going to be much more simple than they usually are. It's going to be to give you one verse about the death of Jesus Christ and it's Hebrews 2 verse 9. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 9, but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels, this is talking about the incarnation, For the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor that he by the grace of God might taste death for everyone. This is all to bring glory to God. Do you see that?

Jesus took on the form of a servant, He was made a little lower than the angels. He took on flesh for the suffering of death. And He is crowned with glory and honor that He, by the grace of God might taste death for everyone. This is what the text that we are in this week is about. It's about Jesus Christ taking on flesh to taste death for everyone.

So that the death that you deserve if you trust Him, if you repent and believe the gospel, the death that you deserve will be taken upon the shoulders of Jesus Christ. As Isaiah 53 says, the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Let's pray. God, there's so much in this text that I feel so ill-equipped to talk about. I feel like I don't really understand the incarnation like I ought to.

And I don't understand substitutionary atonement like I ought to. But God, this I know. I know what you've said. And what you've said is enough, what you've said is enough, to know that the wrath of God can be diverted from me. God, I know in my soul that I deserve the wrath of a righteous judge upon me.

And I know in my soul that without what we're contemplating in the text today, there would be no hope for me. But I thank you, O God, that you have sent your own Son to taste death for everyone. Oh God, receive glory. I do see how the plan that you worked out in time brings you glory. How Adam's helpless race can gain hope in Christ so that you are exalted as one who is just and the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus.

God, I pray that you would grant saving faith. I pray if it would please you to do it, to even grant it today. Give saving faith to the hearers of the gospel today. Lord, we thank you for your word. Where would we be if you had left yourself without a witness.

Thank you for this mighty deposit. Help us to be faithful stewards of it. In Jesus' name, Amen.