I want to go to the book of 1
Peter chapter 3. I want to talk to you this morning
about Him whom to know is life eternal. I want to talk to you about who
He is. I want to talk to you this morning
about what He done. I want to talk to you about this
morning, where is that and what he's doing. If we can know these things and
answer these questions truthfully, we'll have hope, not only in
this life, but hope. in the life to come. Who is this man called Jesus? Who is he? First off, he's not merely a man. He is
a man. He's all man. He's the only real... There was only two real men that
ever lived, and that was the first Adam and the second Adam. Now, the first Adam is our federal head. He represented us in eternity.
He represented us in the Garden of Eden. And he fell. He broke the bond between him
and his Maker. God delighted in him. God came
down in the cool of the day and fellowshiped with Adam. Made
from Adam, they helped me. But Adam disobeyed God, and when
he disobeyed God, he fell from that relationship and became
a sinner. And all of his offspring, which
you and I are, came from our federal head, who was a fallen
man. Sometimes the expression is used
that she's a fallen woman. All women are fallen. All men
are fallen. All boys are fallen. All girls
are fallen. We fell in Adam. When Adam fell,
we fell. How far? So far off that we can
never come back by ourselves. That's how far off we are from
God. And that's how far down we fell. We couldn't get any lower. We
are sinners by nature, we are sinners by choice, and we are
sinners by practice. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Who is this man you are talking
about? This man whose name is above
every name. There is no other name given
under heaven among men. whereby we must be saved, except
the name of this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, my soul. Over here in the book of 1 Peter, it tells us here in this 18th
verse what this man did. I begin by telling you who He
was. I say He was more than a man.
He's the God-man. He's God and man in one flesh,
one person. He's all God and He's all man
in one person. He's more than a mere man. He is God and man in one person. He is the God-man, none like
him. God-consented. The Bible says
that he was rich and became poor. He left the glory of the Father, and consented,
and was born of a virgin." Man and God in one person. That is
who he is. He is the God-man. He is not
a little pitiful, lowly person who is to be looked upon and
pitied. He's not to be pity. He doesn't
want our pity. He doesn't need our pity. He's
God and man in one person, over all and above all, and they are
none like unto Him. That's who He is, the God-man. And He's to be reverenced. He's
to be worshipped. He's to be submitted to. And
He's to be obeyed. He's God Almighty. manifest in
the flesh as much God and as much man as if he was never God
and as if he was never man. The God-man. And it says that
this God-man, this is what he did. This is what he did. Oh,
I know that he performed some miracles, but this is the ultimate
design and purpose of God the Father from eternity past for
Christ Jesus our Lord. It says, "...for Christ also
hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that
he might bring us to God being put to death in this body of
flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. I'll begin by saying that the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ is the resting place for every
believing sinner. The work of Christ as the only
resting place for the sinner, for his peace of mind and his
peace of conscience, it is only the Lord Jesus Christ. Two things
claim our attention. First, what has Christ done for
us? And secondly, what is Christ
doing now for us? Consider this morning, firstly,
what Christ has done for us. It says in my text, For Christ
also hath once suffered for sins. Firstly, what Christ has done
for us. He has made atonement for us. Secondly, He is our advocate
before the Father. The Bible says that he ever lives
to make intercession for us. And I told you here the other
day, when we pray, most of us don't know how to
pray. We don't know what to pray for. But we have an intercessor. We
have an advocate. A lawyer is the closest thing
to the definition of an advocate in our language. The lawyer is
my advocate. He pleads my case before the
judge. The Lord Jesus Christ is my high
priest, my prophet, my king, and my intercessor. And he pleads
my case and my person before the throne, before the Father.
And I don't know how to pray and what to pray for. So my advocate
rewrites and rephrases my words in language that can be understood. He's my intercessor. He's my
advocate. We have Him as our advocate before
the Father. Now, He died for us on the tree,
and He lives for us died for us. What has He done? For Christ hath suffered for
us, suffered in our place, in our stead, and in our room, and
bore our sin, our shame, our guilt, bore all punishment that
was due us. He suffered our penalty. He suffered our punishment in
Himself and He died for us and was buried and rose again and
He ever lives for us on the throne by His precious atoning death. He has met our entire need as
sinners. our entire condition as sinners
He has met. He has borne our sins and put
them away. All of our sins was laid on Him. And He hath borne them, which
means He bore the punishment do my sins. He bore them in his
own body. He bore our sins and he put them
away. And the Bible uses this expression
that makes it much stronger. He made an end of sin. He made an end of my sin. He made an end of the sin of
all of those who hath come to him who hath believed on him,
he hath made an end of all of their sin. You see, as the second
Adam, as God and man in one person, he agreed in the great covenant,
in the covenant of grace, entered into by the Trinity of the persons
of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. He agreed
to be responsible for his people. It was a man who sinned, so it
must be a man who pays the debt that justice owes. So the Lord
Jesus Christ, who was and is and always will be the delight
of the Father, he left the bosom of the Father and condescended
and in incarnation he became a man and took upon himself our
flesh apart from sin. And as the God-man, our sins,
the sins of those who believe, the sins of those who have come
to Him, the sins of those whom He hath given repentance and
faith and connected them with Him, all of our sins were laid
on Him and He in himself alone stood charged with our sins. The sins of all, I've got to
continually say that, the sins of all who believe on his name,
all that believe on his name, all that know their need, know
that they are sinners, He died for sinners. He didn't die for
righteous men. He came for poor, hopeless, helpless
sinners. His name shall be called Jesus,
Savior. His name shall be called Jesus,
for He shall, not might, not hope to, But he shall save his
people from their sins. How will he do that? God in his
infinite wisdom will gather all of the sins of the people that
he sanctified and set apart before time ever was. He'll gather them
all. And His blessed Son will, in
His own person, suffer what is due to these poor sinners. The sins of all who believe on
His name. In the book of Isaiah, that great
prophet said, He, Jehovah, laid on Him the iniquity of us all. In 1 Peter 3 and 18, that I took
as a text, says, 4, Christ also hath suffered for sins. The just, He's the just one. There's only one just one, and
that's the God-man. So He hath suffered for sins. The just, the Lord Jesus Christ,
For the unjust, that's who I am. That's where I fit in. My name
is marked under that. I'm the unjust one. I'm the rebel. I'm the sinner. I'm the guilty
one. I'm the lawbreaker. I'm the profaner. I'm the blasphemer. He suffered. for the unjust, the sinner, that
he might bring us to God. This is a grand and an all-important
truth for the anxious soul. Actually, this is the foundation
of the whole Christian position. It's impossible that any truly
awakened soul, any spiritual enlightened conscience, to have
and to enjoy any settled peace until this most precious truth
that I have brought before you here this morning is laid hold
of in faith, I must know upon the divine authority, and divine
authority, I mean authority of God Himself. I must know this. There are some things I must
know, and I must know upon divine authority that all of my sins
are put away forever out I must know that. I must know
upon divine authority that He, God Himself, has disposed of
them in such a way as to satisfy all the claims of His throne
and all the attributes of His nature. I must know that he hath
glorified himself in putting away my sins. And he did so in such a far higher,
more nobler, more wonderful way than if he had sent me to hell
on the account of me. He Himself has done it. God has laid my sins on the Lord
Jesus. He tells me so in His Word so
that we may know it by divine authority. For Christ also hath
once suffered for sinners. the poor, helpless sinner whose
conscience has been awakened to his guilt, his waywardness, to know that
he cannot meet the demands of God's holy and just law. Him whose conscience has been
quickened must know upon divine authority that he hath disposed
of them, and he's done it, taken them away. And this authority,
by the way, the authority that I refer to is God himself. And this authority cannot lie. God cannot lie. If God was to lie, He would deny himself. He would
not be God. He would have to vacate the throne.
God cannot lie. God says that the Lord Jesus
Christ hath once suffered for sins. And to bring us to God Almighty,
He cannot lie. God planned it. God did it and
God says it. It is all of God from first to
last. And we who believe have simply
to rest in who He is and what He done on our behalf like a
little child. Just believe God and rest in
the atoning work of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. How do I know that the Lord Jesus
bore my sins? How do I know that? How do I
know that Jesus bore my sins in His own body on the tree? Well, listen to me closely now
and I'll tell you why I know. I haven't seen any vision. I
haven't seen any angel. I have no higher authority for
what I say than God Himself. How do I know that He bore my
sins in His own body on the tree? By the same authority which tells
me that I had sins to be born. Does that help you any? How do I know my sins were born
away? It comes from the same authority
who told me that I had sins to be born. I'm a sinner. I was born that way. When I came out of my mother's
womb, I spoke lies in hypocrisy. in the birth. I was a sinner when I came forth. God help us to know who
we are. Oh, listen. I can tell you that
it was in His matchless, marvelous love that God assures me, a poor,
hopeless, guilty, hell-deserving sinner. He assures me that he
himself has undertaken the whole matter of my sins and disposed
of them in such a way as to bring a rich harvest of glory to himself. Now, if God has satisfied Himself
about my sins, and I'm not trying to speak lightly of my sins by
saying that I'm a guilty sinner before. I'm not. I hate my sins. I don't love my sins. I'd rather
be without a But that does not change the
fact that God hath taken my sins and laid them on Christ, and
Christ, for the penalty, do my sins, but yet at the same time,
I am still a sinner. I sin all I want to, which is
only one time. All I want to sin is once, and
that's enough. I'm sorry for what I did when
I misspeak, when I misrepresent myself to somebody or some person,
when I try to be something that I'm not, when in my mind I curse
you. I don't like, I don't want to
do that. I don't want to be ruled by that domineering spirit. But that doesn't change the fact
that I'm a son of God, a child. I don't look like it. I don't
act like it. People see me on the street.
If I walk down the street, there's nothing that they see in me that
they would say. He's a child of God. They don't
see me like that. They see me in my worst state. But the authority I have is that
the Lord Jesus suffered for my sins, the just for the unjust,
that he might bring me to God. Well, I know I am a sinner. I may be the chief of sinners.
And I know that my sins are more in number than the hairs on my
head when I had a full head of hair. They are as black as midnight. They are as black as hell itself. And I know that any one of these
sins The very least of my sins deserves the flames of almighty
hell. I know because God's Word says
so. And God tells me that a single
speck of sin can never enter into His holy presence. So as far as I am concerned,
there is no possible issue save eternal separation from God Almighty. I have not a word to say in excuse
for a single sin, even for a single thought that cruises my depraved
mind. I do not excuse that before God. I condemn that before God. Not a word of excuse for a sin-stained
life. My life is stained by sin. of a sin-stained life. I make no excuse for it. I'm not conniving about it. Don't make light of it. Not a word to say. To excuse a sin-stained life
from beginning to end, a life of deliberate rebellion against
the Most High and Holy God in a high-handed way, by the way. Others may reason as they please
as to the injustice of an eternal punishment for a life of sin. They may think that's too hard. They may reason. Reason as they
may. But I confess unto you this morning
that I believe that for a single sin against such a being as the
God who I see hanging richly deserves eternal punishment. Eternal punishment in the deep,
dark recesses and that dismal pit of hell. How is it possible, dear people,
for a person to believe God has satisfied himself as to your
sins and my sins and not have peace. If you can see and understand
how God is satisfied Himself in regard to my sins, if you
can see that, I can understand why you don't have peace of mind
and peace of conscience. You say, well, that's hard to
believe. I know it is. You can't believe
it in a natural man. God's got to do something for
you. God's got to give you faith.
Faith is not hanging on a tree. It's not out there for you to
come along and pick pick a chunk of faith off a tree. Faith is
a gift of God. Faith is lodged in the sovereign,
immovable, unshakable hands of God. He giveth faith. You must have faith to believe. You can believe in your head,
but if you don't believe in your heart, You've got to have faith as a
gift of God, saved by the grace of God through faith, which is
a gift of God. Faith doesn't save you, but faith
joins you to one who does save you. Faith joins you to the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is the sinner. Oh, listen now, if God says to
you and I, your sins and iniquities I will remember no more. If God says that to you, what
then could we desire further as a basis of peace? And that's exactly what God has
seen. He has said, You're seeing this. I've cast them behind my back. And there's no such thing as
behind the back of God because God's everywhere. He said, I've
cast them from me as far as the east is will remember them against
you no more." Oh, the God of all grace, the God of everlasting
love, the God who will do His will and purpose and will do
what He says. He will not lie. He is not a
man that He would lie. If God assures me of this, Should
I not have peace of mind and conscience? If He shows me the
man who bore my sins on the tree, if He shows me who He is, that
He suffered on that tree for me, a sinner, if He shows me
that man, and I, through the eyes of faith, see that man,
a man like I'm a man, a part I see him suffering for my sins
on the tree and now crowned at the right hand of God in the
majesty of heaven. Ought not my soul enter into
perfect rest as to the question of sin? My God, it ought to. It ought to. So in the light of what I
said, I quit her. So in the light of what I've
said thus far, which I believe to be the truth and nothing but
the truth, so help me God. Let me ask this question. Did Christ reach the place which
he now feels on the throne of God? Was it as God over all,
bless him forever, No. For God in Christ was always
that. There never was a time when He
was not God. He was always God. He was God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And God
the Son clothed His deity with our humanity and condescended He always was God, always will
be God. You say three gods? I say one
God in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Well, was He as the eternal Son
of the Father? No. He was ever that. He was always in the bosom of
the Father. He was always the Father. Was
it then as a spotless, holy, perfect man, one whose nature
was absolutely pure, perfectly free from sin? No! For in that
character and on that ground, he could at any time, between
the manger and the cross, claim that place on God's right. Well, you say all that, what
was it then? Well, to the eternal praise and
the glory of God, who is the God of all grace. It was His
dissension. God raised Him from the dead. You can read there in Romans
chapter 4, it says, He, that's the Lord Jesus, was delivered
for our offenses, for our sins. Delivered into the hands of Pilate
to be crucified by Roman soldiers and Gentiles and Jews. He was delivered for our offenses
but, it says, raised again for our justification. It was as
one who had by his death accomplished glorious work, full and complete
redemption, one who has stood charged with the full weight
of our sins, one who has perfectly satisfied all the righteous claims
of that throne on that which he sits now on in glory. Has there been any help to you? what He did, and what He's doing now, if we
can lay hold of it by faith. Help your conscience. Give you
a good conscience towards God. For the first twenty-seven years,
or twenty-six maybe, of my life, I had a guilty conscience. I
didn't like what I was. And the only way to get rid of
that guilty conscience is to have your conscience pierced
by the blood of the Lamb, to see, to find out what this man
has done and what he's doing. and why He's doing it, and where
He's at. Well, the Lord bless you. We're
going up.