At Todd's Road Grace Church,
we'd like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neither. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. I suppose one of the most famous
scriptures in the Word of God is John 3.16. For God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. What
I want to preach on is 1 John 3.16. I've entitled this message,
Coming to Know Love. Yes, we love John 3.16, but we
also love 1 John 3.16. Let me read this verse to you.
1 John 3.16, Hereby perceive we the love of God. because he laid down his life
for us. And we ought to lay down our
lives for the brethren. Now the word perceive is the
word that's generally translated to know. This is how I come to
know the love of God. This is how I come to know love. And it's found in this seven-word
statement, every word's only one syllable, and yet it states
the most sublime truth, the most saving truth, and the most soul-satisfying,
satisfying truth that can be expressed. Here are these words,
he laid down his life for us. He laid down his life for us. Now I know at the very outset
of this message that I'm going to fail because I can't do this
justice. Can't do any scripture justice
as far as that goes. I love what David said, such
knowledge is too wonderful for me. It's high. I can't attain
into it. But I want us to consider this
glorious statement. He laid down His life for us. Who is the us that He laid down
His life for? He laid down His life for us. Now, someone may think, why ask
this question? Why not simply take it as it
stands? because we can't understand this verse unless we know exactly
who the us is. Why do I say that? Well, let's
say that this us represents all mankind without exception. Every man to ever live. He laid down his life for us. Now, if that were the case, that
would include Those people who are now in hell, there is a place
called hell, and men go there because of their sin. It's the
place of God's just punishment for sin. There is a place called
hell, and there are men and women, even as we speak, who are now
in hell. Tell those people that Christ
laid down his life for them. It didn't do them any good, did
it? They're in hell. If that's what, if that's who
the us is, all men without exception, that makes this statement meaningless. And really, it takes away my
only hope. Because the only hope that I
have is that Jesus Christ died for me, put away my sins, and
made me perfect before God. And if you tell me that he can
die for somebody, and that person may wind up in hell because they
didn't do what they needed to make his death work for them,
you've taken away the only hope that I have. My only hope is
that Christ died for me. So who is the us? We have to
understand, or we can't understand what this verse means. Who is
the us he laid down his life for us? Well, it's the we in
the text, hereby perceive we the love of God. It's the we
who perceives and comes to know the love of God. The us is the
same us that Paul spoke of in Romans 8, verse 31, when he said,
if God be for us, Who can be against us? He that
spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. How shall
He not also with Him freely give us all things? That's the us.
It's the elect of God. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who
is He that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. That's who the us is, the
elect of God. Those God chose before time began
and justified through this great work of Christ on the cross.
The us is the sheep. The Lord said, I lay down my
life for the sheep. Other sheep I have which are
not of this fold, them also I must bring in, and there shall be
one fold and one shepherd. The us is sheep. Now, in the
scriptures, there are sheep and there are goats. A sheep never
becomes a goat, and a goat never becomes a sheep. And on the Day
of Judgment, we're given this picture of the great shepherd
dividing the sheep from the goats, the sheep being set on his right
hand, the goats on his left. He says to the sheep, come ye,
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world. The us is the sheep. The us is
the church. Now by the church, I'm not talking
about a local assembly. I'm thankful for the local assembly
of God's saints. I'm thankful for the visible
church, but I'm talking about the invisible church. The church
of which it said in Ephesians 5.25, husbands love your wives
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Feed
the church of God, Paul said to the Ephesian elders, which
he purchased with his own blood. This is talking about the general
assembly and church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven.
The church, Christ loved the church. Who is the us? It's the
true church. And like I said, any mixed assembly,
any local church has saved people and lost people, but this church
has no one that's lost. They're all saved. They're all
those people for whom he laid down his life. Who is the us? I like this. When we were yet
without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.
The us is everybody who sees themselves to be without strength
and ungodly. Who is the us? Sinners. He only
died for sinners. If you're a good person, you
exclude yourself from mercy. He died for sinners. God commended
His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Who's the us? His enemies. If
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of his son, much more being reconciled will be saved by his life. Who
is the us? Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Everybody
that Christ died for, he counts his true friend. Now there's no understanding
of his death why he died, and what he accomplished without
knowing who the us is. Now, the teaching that goes on
under what is called Christianity is basically this, and you see
if I'm giving a fair representation. God loves everybody, Christ died
for everybody, paid for everybody's sins, God wants everybody to
be saved, but your salvation is in your hands. It's whether
or not you decide to accept or reject God's salvation in Christ. Salvation is ultimately dependent
upon what you do. God wants you to be saved. God
loves you. Christ died for you. But you will not be saved unless
you do something that makes what he did work for you. Salvation
is ultimately in your hand. Now, my dear friends, that is
a damnable message. That is a message of salvation
by works. That is a message that puts salvation
ultimately in your hands and dependent upon you. And that
is no good. Now somebody that preaches this
message, they do not preach the gospel. Somebody that believes
this, they're unbelievers. They don't really believe the
gospel. Now let me explain to you why the us knowing who it
is is so important. If this means all men without
exception, then the burden of salvation is on the sinner. Salvation's dependent upon you. If this is true, God is not just. He punishes the same sin twice.
He punished it in the Savior, and then He punishes that same
sin in the person who committed it if they don't accept Him.
This denies God's immutability. It makes it to where He can desire
someone to be saved and then turn around and desire to go
ahead and damn them if He damns them. This makes the love of
God meaningless. I think of what Paul said that
the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of
the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Is it possible
that someone that Christ loved and gave himself for could be
damned anyway? If that's the case, there isn't
much to God's love. Didn't do anything for that one
who is condemned. It's a denial that salvation
is 100% grace. If the us means all men without
exception, it means that Christ is a failure. His intention was
to save people, and he failed in saving some of those people.
This view that the us would be everybody limits the power of
Christ's blood. It's limited as to what you do. It doesn't save by itself. It's
limited. His blood alone is not sufficient.
God said during the Passover, when I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. Not when I see with what you
do with it. It makes man's will trump God's will. God will someone's
salvation, but man's will trumps it. Man's will is sovereign over
God's will. It's a denial of the satisfaction of his blood.
It robs Christ of getting all the glory and salvation, and
here's The biggest thing for me, it takes away once again
the only hope that I have. The only hope that I have is
Christ died for me. And if you tell me that somebody
that Christ died for will wind up in hell, I'll wind up in hell. I have no doubt about it. Now,
he laid down, he laid down his life for us. Who's the he? You know, I'd love for someone
to come up to me today or tomorrow or anytime and say, tell me,
who is Jesus Christ? Who is this he who laid down
his life for us? Now, all the success of him laying
down his life for us depends on who he is. You see, if I died
in your place, It wouldn't do you any good as far as before.
God, because I'm a sinner, I can't take your sins to myself. I can't
give you a righteousness. You're gonna have to pay for
your own sins. I may lay down my life for you. If I've got
one daughter and she committed a crime and was going to be put
to death for it, I'd gladly take her place, but that wouldn't
be right, would it? I didn't do it, she did. She's the one
who needs to be punished. Now, the God-man, Christ Jesus,
He is able to satisfy God. God's just. God's holy. Listen to this very carefully.
This is so important. God would cease to be God if
he let sin go unpunished. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? If we had a human judge and somebody,
let's Take one of your children. Somebody murdered one of your
children, and they're brought before the judge. They're caught,
apprehended, and brought before the judge. And the judge says,
well, I'm a loving judge. I'm just going to forgive that
person who killed your child and let him go free. You'd be
upset, wouldn't you? And well, you should be. Such
a judge like that should be put out of business because that's
unjust. God is just. He must punish all sin, sins
against him. He must punish it. Well, man
sinned. Man must die. The soul that sinned
shall surely die. But one thing about men is they
can't satisfy God. Their punishment cannot satisfy
the justice of God. That's why hell is eternal. God
is never satisfied. Let's go back to one of your
children. If somebody murdered one of your children, Would you
ever be satisfied? Let's say they spent 90 years
in prison. After the first day of the 90
years, when they let out, would you say, well, I'm satisfied
now? No, no, you could not be satisfied. Man cannot satisfy
God. You're the only one who can satisfy
God, God. He can only be satisfied with
that which comes from himself. He only can satisfy, but he can't
die. He's the eternal, infinite, almighty
being. He is life and He cannot die. Now, God must punish sin, man
sin, man must die, man can't satisfy, only God can satisfy. Well, what are we going to do
then? The God-Man did both. The God-Man died, and the God-Man
satisfied. That's who the He is that laid
down His life, the God-Man. He died, and He satisfied God,
and He was raised from the dead. Now, this One is called the Well-Beloved
Son, the Only Begotten of the Father, the Altogether Lovely
One. the Ancient of Days, the Son
of God, the Son of Man, the Son of Mary, the Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. This is this
One who laid down His life. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. I love to think of when the disciples
saw Him command the weather. They said, what manner of man
is this? that even the winds in the sea
obey him. I can tell you what manner of
man he is, the God-man. He laid down his life for us
and he's the only one to ever do this. You see, he's the only
one who ever had a choice not to. Now there are men who have
laid down their lives for their country and we're thankful to
the Lord for their sacrifice and They laid down their lives,
but they were going to die sometime. They didn't have any choice.
Somebody says, what about someone who commits suicide? They choose
to die. Well, that might be true, but they're going to die anyway
you look at it. He's the only one who had the choice not to
die. He could come here and live a
perfect life and go back to heaven. And what would it do for us?
Nothing, if he didn't come here to die. But he came to die as
a sin-bearing substitute. That's what the God-man did.
He came to lay down his life. He said, no man takes it from
me. I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it up again.
This commandment have I received of my father. Now, this is the
God-man. He laid down his life for us. Now, My next question is, what
did he accomplish by laying down his life for us? Well, first
of all, the glory of God. The cross of Christ is the most
God-like thing God ever did. He said, I've glorified thee
on the earth. I've finished the work thou gavest
me to do. He honored every one of God's
attributes in laying down his life. He honored the justice
of God. He honored the holiness of God. He displayed the love
of God. He demonstrated the sovereignty
of God. Every attribute of God is fully
displayed in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. What did he
accomplish? He accomplished the complete
glory of God. Secondly, he accomplished the
complete salvation of his people. Do you remember the man of transfiguration
when the Lord appeared before James and John and Andrew, and
the scripture says he was transfigured before them, and his deity burst
through his humanity, and his face shined above the sun. And
there stood two men there speaking with him, Moses and Elijah. You
know what they were talking about? It says in Luke 9, 31, they speak
of the decease which he should accomplish. You see, his death
was an accomplishment. He accomplished something. 1
John 3, verse 5 says, He was manifested to take away our sins. And that's exactly what He did.
He took away the sins of everybody He died for. In Him is no sin. Colossians 1.20 says, He made
peace by the blood of the cross. And in making peace by the blood
of the cross, every believer, according to the 22nd verse,
is presented by Him to the Father, holy, unblameable and unreprovable
in the very sight of God. That's what he accomplished.
You don't do something to become holy. You're made holy by the
blood of Christ, by the will of God. Wherefore by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Hebrews
1.3 says he by himself purged our sins, and don't miss that
by himself. It doesn't simply say he purged
our sins, he by himself purged our sins. That means, man, you
didn't have any And in this, he did it by himself. I love
that saying, if you want something done well, do it yourself. Well,
he did it himself. He completely put away the sins
of everybody he died for. He did this willingly, he did
this lovingly, and he put away the sins of everybody he died
for. Who is he that condemns? It's
Christ that died, yea, rather that's risen again, who's even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. Now, he laid down his life for
us. He drank damnation completely
dry in laying down his life for us. You know, when he was in
the Garden of Gethsemane, And he said, oh father, if it be
thy will, let this cup pass from me. And he went on to say, the
cup which my father hath given me to drink, shall I not drink
it? What was in that cup? Somebody
says, well, the wrath and judgment of God was in that cup. Yes,
I wouldn't deny that. But there's a reason for the
wrath and judgment of God, sin. The sins of all of God's elect
were in that cup. The sins of everybody He died
for were in that cup. And He drank those sins. He was
made sin. He was made to be sin. Now, nobody
really understands what all that means. But Christ so took the
sins of His people that He became guilty of the commission of those
sins, although He never sinned. He never sinned, but he became
guilty of all of those sins. And when he drank that cup, he
drank that cup completely dry. So there was not one sin left. They were put away by what the
Lord did on Calvary Street. When he laid down his life for
us, he did so because he was guilty. God's wrath came upon
him. He died, but because of who He
is, He satisfied God's justice. He was raised from the dead.
He laid down His life for us. Now, I would like to draw three
conclusions from this. He, the Son of God, laid down
His life for us. Three conclusions. Number one,
how evil my sin must be. When God saw it on his son, God
forsook his son. When he cried out, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? It's because he is of too pure
eyes to behold iniquity. And when he saw sin, In his son,
he forsook him. He turned his back on him, and
he killed him. God killed his son. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. Yes, wicked men were used to
do it, and wicked men are held responsible, but Christ is a
lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and God sent him
to be the sin-bearing substitute, and my sin, every sin that I've
ever committed, is so intrinsically evil Well, I don't even know
what I'm talking about. I realize that. I don't feel
my sin the way I ought to, but it is so evil that it costs the
Son of God his life. It made his father turn his back
on him. You see, my sin and your sin
can only be understood in the light of the cross. He laid down his life for us. How evil my sin must really be. Now here's the second conclusion.
First, how evil my sin is. But here's the second conclusion.
How much, how he loves me. Now, when I say that, I'm saying
that of everyone Christ died for, the church, his sheep, the
elect. Oh, how he must love us. He laid down his life for the
sheep. The scripture says, greater love,
this is what the Lord said, greater love hath no man than this. that
a man lay down his life for his friends. How great does he love
us. He took my sins and my sorrows. He made them his very own. He
bore the burden to Calvary and suffered and died alone. And
that's why I love this first line of that hymn. I stand amazed
in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he could
love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean. I think of that scripture,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated? And I don't have
any problem with God saying he hated Esau. People say, how could
God hate someone? Well, God's just, God's holy.
Esau didn't think God was worth a bowl of soup. He didn't care
anything about God, and I can see where God would hate me.
I understand why he would hate me, because his hatred is not
a human hatred, it's a just hatred, it's a holy hatred. And I can
see why he would hate me. Because of my sin, because of
my unbelief, because of my continual sin, my continual roaming. Every believer feels that way.
Why me? prone to wonder, why me? Why
would he love somebody like me? That's so amazing that he, you
see, when he died on Calvary Street, he was like the great
high priest who had the names of all the elect engraven. The
12 tribes of Israel representing the names of all of the elect
engraved on his breast. This represents, he died for
individuals, not just a mass. He had the name of everybody
he died for. He knew me then. What amazing
love. And thirdly, We see how secure
we must be. If he died for me, I must be
saved. I can't be anything but saved
if he died for me. Now, somebody says, well, how
can I know he died for me? I want to know, how can I know?
Now, let me give you some important advice. Don't try to figure out
whether or not you're saved. Don't try to figure out whether
or not you have faith or don't try to figure out if you're one
of the elect. Here's the question I'm asking you. Are you a sinner? Scripture says Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners. If you are a sinner, a real bona
fide sinner, Christ died for you. I can say that with such
assurance. If you are a real sinner, someone
who deserves to go to hell, someone who can't look down their nose
on anybody, someone who has no claims on God because of their
sin, if you are a sinner, look to Christ. He died for you. He laid down his life for us. 1 John 3, 16. Good as John 3,
16. Now we have this message on DVD
and CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Kniper, praying
that God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's
our prayer. Amen. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.