Turn with me, if you would, back
to 1 John chapter 3. 1 John 3. Our goal and our desire
in preaching the gospel is to be simple. When we preach the
gospel, that's our aim, that's our desire, our goal. We are
here to declare Christ as clearly and as simply as we possibly
can. That's the aim of preaching the
gospel. I want to try to do that today.
All I want to do is notify us of something. That's all I wanna
do. It's that simple. I just want
to notify us of something. Let's read verses four and five
here in 1 John 3. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth
also the law. For sin is the transgression
of the law. And you know that He was manifested
to take away our sins. And in Him is no sin. That's the notification. Those two verses just told us
the truth about us and the truth about Christ. Verse 5 says, He was manifested
to take away our sins. That means we have them. And then it says, in Him is no
sin. That means He doesn't. He doesn't have any. In Him is
no sin. In us is all sin. Verse four says, whosoever committed
sin transgresses also the law for sin is the transgression
of the law. That's what sin is. That's what
sin is. It is a transgression of the
law. Sin is breaking the law. That's what sin is. Breaking
the law. The law that's written in this
word. The law that's written on the
heart. The law of the land. Breaking the law is sin. Breaking the law is sin. Whosoever committed sin, transgresseth
also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. Now
that ought to explain to us what our whole problem is. We are lawbreakers. That's what we are. We are lawbreakers. It is our nature. It is in our nature. It is our
nature to break the law. That's what we do. That's what
this fleshly nature desires to do. Have you ever read a mattress
tag before? A tag on a mattress. It says, do not remove this tag
under penalty of law. You ever read that? It says,
so help me. If you cut this tag off, we'll
lock you up for life. We'll ruin you. Have you ever wanted to cut the
tag off? Do you know why? Sin. Now, for the record, I know
what the tag means. But the point is, it is in our
nature to rebel against the authority of the law. I'm made fun of by
quite a few people because they say that I drive slow. I don't
think I drive that slow. I think I'm an average speed
driver. But I'm accused of driving slow because I drive about four
miles an hour over the speed limit. It's just what I do. If
it says 45, I do 49. If it says 70, I set my cruise
to 74. Slow or not slow, I'm a lawbreaker. I confess to you. I've had the girls ask me from
the back seat before, Dad, isn't it 45 right here? At that point it doesn't matter
if I'm 4 over or 40 over. It doesn't matter. I'm a lawbreaker. I'm a lawbreaker. I consciously know that the word
speed limit means speed limit. It means this is the maximum
speed that the law will allow you to do. But here's the problem
for me. My nature won't let me do it. It just won't let me do it. It's
just too slow. That's just too slow. I'm not
taking advantage of the situation. I'm not getting all I can get
out of it. People are going to hear that
and they're going to say, what are you talking about? You mean
to tell me that God would eternally damn a soul for breaking the
speed limit? for their car going over the speed limit. Well, let
me ask you this question. Is that breaking the law? People say, well, yeah, but,
I mean, that shouldn't even count. Everybody does that. Everybody
does that. That ought to be a given. Turn with me to James chapter
2, just after Hebrews, James chapter 2. Verse 8 says, if you fulfill
the royal law according to the scripture, thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself, you do well. If you could fulfill that and
truly, honestly love your neighbor as you love your own self, you
would do well. Verse 9 says, but if you have
respect to persons, you commit sin. If you do that for some
people and not for everybody, It goes on to say, then you are
convinced of the law as a transgressor. Now watch verse 10. For whosoever
shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point. He is guilty of all. If it were possible for a man
to fulfill every commandment in the law, the law of the word,
the law of the heart, the law of the land, if it was possible
for a man to fulfill every commandment of the law perfectly, but he
broke just one commandment, knowingly or unknowingly, Have you ever
been pulled over and the police officer said, you were speeding?
And you say, well, I didn't even know. I didn't, I didn't realize
that the speed limit went down. And he says, well, it was posted.
Whether you saw it or not, it was posted knowingly or unknowingly. If he broke even just one commandment
of the law, he would be a transgressor of the law. And he would be guilty
of suffering the penalty for transgressing the law. It would
be on his record. This man is a sinner. This man is a sinner. He has
broken the law. Turn with me to Romans three. Romans 3 verse 19 says, Now we
know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world may become guilty before God. Verse 23 says, For all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Every person on
earth has broken the law. Therefore, every person on earth
is a sinner. Now that's the truth about us.
That is the truth about us. Here is the truth about Christ. In Him is no sin. In Him is no transgression of
the law. Let me show that to you in a
few scriptures. Turn with me over to Psalm 40. Psalm 40, this is Christ speaking. In verse seven, then said I,
lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me.
I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my
heart. Christ said to His Father, Your
holy, perfect law is within my heart. I have it right here in
my heart. He said, Father, I love Thy law. I delight to do it. Look with
me at Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5 verse 17 says,
and again this is Christ speaking, He said, Think not that I am
come to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I am not come to destroy,
but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till
heaven and earth pass, One jot or one tittle, one dot of the
I or one cross of the T shall in no wise pass from the law
till all be fulfilled. All of it, all of it. Now turn
with me to Luke chapter three. Luke 3 verse 21 says, Now when all the people were
baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized and
praying, the heaven was opened and the Holy Ghost descended
in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him. And a voice came from
heaven which said, thou art my beloved son, in thee I am well
pleased. The father said, perfect, you
are perfect. You are perfect, absolutely perfect. Now turn with me to John 18. I love this right here. John 18. This is the moment of our Lord's
crucifixion. This is the moment that man is
going to hang Him on a tree. And in John 18, verse 38, Pilate
said unto Him, unto Christ, What is truth? And when He had said
this, He went out again unto the Jews, and said unto them,
I find in Him no fault at all." I adore that. You're going to
crucify Him. He's about to suffer punishment,
judgment. Let it be known the judge finds
in him no fault at all. In John 19 verse 4, Pilate therefore
went forth again and said unto them, Behold, I bring him forth
to you that you may know that I find no fault in him. Verse six, when the chief priest,
therefore an officer saw him, they cried out saying, crucify
him, crucify him. They were telling Pilate, crucify
him. We want you to crucify him. Pilate
saith unto them, take ye him and crucify him. You take him
and crucify him. For I find no fault in him. I find no fault in him. I cannot
find one transgression. Now turn with me over to Hebrews
4. Hebrews 4 verse 15, it says, For we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."
Without sin. Romans 10 verse 4 says, Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Christ
made it all the way to the end of the law and never broke one. Never. The law examined him and
said he fulfilled every one of them. Every one of them. So here's where we are so far.
This is where we are in our message so far. In us is all sin. And in him is no sin. Now here's the glory of the gospel.
Go with me, if you would, back to our text. 1 John 3, verse 4 says, Whosoever committeth
sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression
of the law. And you know that he was manifested
to take away our sins. Our great problem before God
is our sin. We are all sin before God. But for God's elect people, for
His chosen people, the great glory of Christ, the great glory
of the gospel, that amazing grace of our Savior, is that He came
down to take away our sins. All of our sins. All of our sins
and all of our sins if we belong to Him. All of the sins of all
of His people from every tribe, nation, kindred, tongue, Every
generation, from the beginning of the world to the end of the
world, He came to take away all of the sins from all of the people
that His Father gave to Him. One man, by the sacrifice of
Himself, through the shedding of His own blood, took away all
of that sin. all of the sins, if He took away
just all of my sins, how amazing would that sacrifice be? But He took away all of the sins
of all of His people throughout all of the world. One man. I told you the story before,
I heard this a few years ago. It was of a family who was walking
to church one Sunday morning. And on the way, the little boy
was all over the place. And as kids do, you know, just
bouncing off the walls and. They finally got to the service
and they sat down. And God truly blessed the message
that day. He truly blessed the message. God sent His Spirit. And that's
what we need if we are going to receive a blessing. We need
God to send His Spirit. We beg Him to come into this
place and send His Spirit. Well, the Lord blessed the message
and it touched the hearts of all the people that morning.
And they truly entered into the substitution of Christ. And those
of you who have entered into the substitution of Christ understand
that. They understand that moment of
when God truly lets them enter into what Christ did for them. It was made real to them. It
was made effectual to them. They heard how He came. to take
their sin from them. Why he came? He came for one
reason. To take their sin from them. By laying it on himself and putting
it away. Completely taking away every
sin. Completely removing every transgression
they'd ever committed. Every single one. by offering
himself to God as a sacrifice for their sin. One sacrifice
accomplished all of it. All of it. By himself, once. That's all it took for him to
put all of that sin away forever. And now because of that, there's
no more judgment. No more penalty. It's only life forevermore. Well, on the way home, that little
boy who was usually all over the place, he was walking quietly. He had his head hanging down
just a little bit and his dad noticed it and he said, son,
do you feel okay? Yes, sir. He said, well, is anything wrong? No, sir. He said, I was just thinking
about something that the preacher said. His dad said, really, what's
that? He said, well, I was just wondering,
how could the death of one man put away so much sin? The preacher said, because of
all of our sin, all of us have to die, all of us. But by the death of one man,
we all get to live. Because of his one death, all
of our sin is taken away and we get to live. How could one
man die for all those other people? How could the death of one man
be enough for all of us? How could the death of one man
be enough for all of us? If we all have to die, how could
one man die for all? Well, his dad said, hmm. Didn't know what to say. So they
kept walking, and just a moment though, he stopped, tapped his
son on the shoulder, and he said, look right there. Right next
to the sidewalk was a grasshopper eating a blade of grass. He stooped
down with his son and he said, how many grasshoppers do you
think it would take to equal the life of one little boy? The
value of the life, the worth of the life. And the little boy said, well,
I don't think all the grasshoppers in the world would equal the
life of one little boy. He said, son, the one who came
to die for us is the holy, spotless, sinless son of God. God himself came down. God Himself made Himself to be
a man. God became a man. And the scripture says that we
sinful men, women, boys, and girls are counted as nothing
more than grasshoppers. That's all we are compared to
Him. Grasshoppers. And because the life of all of
his sinful grasshoppers, all of them combined, couldn't even
come close to comparing to the life and the value of the perfect
God-man when he died. By that one offering, by that
one sacrifice, when He traded His life for the life of all
of His grasshoppers, all of them were saved. The payment
was so much greater than what was required. There was so much
value in that one man. One payment bought them all.
paid it off. That's what He came to do and
that's what He did. He was manifested to take away
our sins and because in Him is no sin. Because in Him is no
sin because His value is so great And because the cost, the worth
of His offering was so infinite, He was able to accomplish exactly
what He came to do. Turn back a few pages with me
to 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter 2 verse 21 it says, For even here unto were you called,
because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example,
that you should follow his steps, who did no sin. Neither was guile
found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, reviled not again,
When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to
him that judgeth righteously, who his own self bear our sins
in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins should
live unto righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed. For you were as sheep going astray,
but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls."
That is nothing more than a notification of what Christ has done for His
people. That is not a call to arms. That's
not a call to action. That's not half of a contract,
as long as we'll fulfill the other half. It's a glorious declaration. That's a beautiful notification
of what Christ has done for His people. And if we are His people,
and this notification is for us, if the notification is for us,
then when we hear it, this will be our response. When I think that God, His Son
not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. That
on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to
take away my sin, then sings my soul. My sin, oh the bliss of this
glorious thought, My sin, not in part, but the whole, was nailed
to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise
the Lord. Oh my soul. Is that our response
to the notification? If it is, go one more time to
our text. First John 3. Verse 2 says, Beloved, now are
we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall
be. But we know that when He shall
appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Whosoever
committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the
transgression of the law. And you know that He was manifested
to take away our sins, and in Him is no sin. May God give us faith to believe
that announcement, to love it, to cling to it, to need it. May our hope be found in Him. That's a glorious place to be,
hand to hand.