Let's turn to 1 John chapter
3. 1 John chapter 3. Be looking at verse 16, that'll
be our text today, the one verse. The title of my message is, Who
is Us? Who is Us? Now here before me,
I have my children and my wife. If I said after this service,
all of us are going to get in that van and go home. You all
know what I'm talking about. We can fit. I'll make it in there,
can't we? Now if everyone listening at
home, if I said all of us are going to go get in our van, we
may have trouble fitting in that van. I wouldn't mean us to everybody
that's listening. I'd mean us to the people here,
wouldn't I? So it's important to understand the context. These
little words are so tiny, they mean so much. So much. Now here
in 1 John 3, verse 16, John's writing to the believers, and
he says, perceive we the love of God here's how we perceive
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
there in our text means no we looked at that last week there's
a whole lot that John uses 27 times he uses the word no but
the The Greek word there for perceive
is know. And John's telling us, here is
how we know the love of God. He laid down his life for us.
What a statement. There's been 6,000 years of preaching
on this earth and we haven't scratched the surface as to what
that truly means. The blessings of that. He laid
down his life for us. That's love. That's an amazing
act. It's incomprehensible to our
minds. We can't understand it. But I'd
like to look at the us in this passage first before we go through
the rest of it. Who's John talking about? Who's
the us? If we miss this, if we misunderstand
who the us is, who this is speaking of, the rest of these words lose
their meaning. It's meaningless. Most people
listen to this message. They've heard John 3.16. We're
looking here today at 1 John 3.16. But in John's gospel there
in John 3.16 it says, Now those words mean something. I want
to know what they mean. Does that affect me? Is that
me and you? The simple word us Does it mean everyone that's
ever lived? Every man and woman that ever
lived without exception? If it does, that means that Christ
died for people that perished anyway. There are men and women
in hell right now. That's a real place. It's where
the justice of God is executed against sin. It's real. And for
those in hell, after this life was over, their knees have bowed. Their tongues have confessed
that Christ is Lord. And they know who He is, but
they are not in His presence. They're fully aware of His majesty.
They're fully aware of His worthiness, how precious He is, but they
can never be with Him. There's an all-consuming desire
in them. That worm that never dies. There's
gnashing of teeth to be in Christ's presence. To be with that one. You talk about homesick. You've
been away from mommy and daddy and you start missing us and
ain't nothing inside of you. It just eats at you. Those people
know Christ and they can never be with Him. What misery. That thirst will never be quenched
for them. Does it do any good if they are part of the us For
preachers to tell those people that are in damnation right now,
Christ laid down His life for you. That doesn't do them any
good, does it? It's meaningless to them. And
it does you and I no good if this word, us, John's using for
everyone throughout time, if that means everybody, all of
mankind, because then Christ would have died for us and we
could still perish. It makes that blood atonement
of Christ meaningless. It takes away the only hope that
I have. That takes away my hope. That
the Lord Jesus Christ died for me, He effectually put away my
sin, He got the job done, and He made me perfect before God
the Father. That's my hope. If there's a
chance that He could do that, and it could be taken away, I
could undo it. I would be the one that undid
it. If you tell me that Christ can
die for someone, but there's a way it can be undone, I have
no hope. And to say Christ died for everyone,
to take the grace of our Lord out of a picture, and to install
a covenant of works, it's to make Christ a liar. To say man
has to do something, and everybody's got a chance, you are calling
the Lord Jesus Christ a liar. There in John 6.39 it says, And
this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that all which
he hath given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up again
at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the
last day. It is the will of God the Father
that those given to Christ, those Christ died for, will not be
lost and they will be raised at the last day. Does that sound
like he's trying? Does that sound like an offer?
Does it sound sure? It's as sure as it gets. So we can safely say that this
us John is referring to is not everyone from the creation of
the world. So who is it? Who is the us? Let's be turning over to Romans
chapter 8. The us John's speaking of is the
same That's what Paul is telling us about. It's the same people
John is talking about when he says that we perceive, we know
the love of God. We remember from chapters 2 through,
right up to our verse we'll be at next week, 1 John 3, 6, 17,
John's comparing and contrasting between the children of God and
the children of the devil. True believers and non-believers.
He's showing us the difference. The we and the us are the children
of God, Christ's sheep. And the same us is what Paul
is speaking of here in Romans 8. Look in Romans 8, verse 31. Romans 8, 31. What shall we say
then to these things, 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 with Him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who
is He that congemeth? It is Christ that died. Yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? What is the love of Christ we
are looking at here? He laid down His life for us. He died in a room instead of
His people. Now if there's people against
us, that means that there's people that's not of us. John was clear
in that what we saw a couple chapters ago. They went out from
us because they were not of us. It's not all inclusive. If you
turn it over to John chapter 10, Who is it that Christ died for?
And we know it's not everybody because some perish. Look here
in John 10 verse 14. I am the good shepherd, and I
know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me,
even so I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them also must I bring, and they shall
hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd."
That's me and you. We're not of that fold that he
was talking about 2,000 years ago. We're not of that fold.
We're of another fold. And we must be brought to Him.
He must save us. Look at verse 17. We know the
love of God because he laid down his life for us. But our elder
brother, Christ Jesus the Lord, is loved not only by his people
for laying down his life, he's loved by the Father for laying
down his life. Verse 17, therefore doth my Father
love me because I lay down my life that I might take it up
again. We're not the only ones that
appreciate this, the Father does. Christ died for His sheep. He's
the Great Shepherd. The Holy Scriptures refer throughout
to sheep and goats, doesn't it? Us and them. Sheep and goats.
If you turn to Matthew 25. In this world that we live in,
if we go to a farm right now, you can find a farm that's got
sheep. And a farm that has goats, it might have both. And as much
as you try, and as much as those sheep and goats try, a sheep
can't become a goat, and a goat can't become a sheep. Same as
a zebra can't get rid of its stripes, a leopard can't change
its spots, goats and sheep cannot make themselves something different.
That sounds silly, doesn't it? We know that. I said, Dad, we
know that, don't we? People don't understand that.
They're sheep and goats. They're what they're made. Look
here in Matthew 25. Christ gives us a picture of
His final judgment. Matthew 25 verse 31. When the
Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels
with him, then shall he set upon the throne of his glory, and
before him shall be gathered all nations. And he shall separate
them one from another, as shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.
He shall set, he doesn't offer, he doesn't gently encourage,
he sets. And he shall set the sheep on
his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the king
say unto them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. And he goes on there to say how
much wonderful fruit they have, fruit of the spirit, how sweet
they were, what kind wonderful works they did. And those sheep
say, we never did those things. I don't know what you're talking
about. That wasn't me. I didn't do that. Look here in verse 40.
And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto
you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these
my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then the master addresses
the goats. Verse 41, then shall I say unto
them on his left hand, the goats, depart from me ye cursed into
everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. And
those goats go on to say, we didn't do anything bad. We did
all these wonderful things, prophesied in your name, cast out devils
in your name, healed the sick, did all kinds of great things.
Verse 45, Matthew 25, 45. Then shall he answer them saying,
Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the
least of these, ye did it not to me. We are one with Christ
and we are one with the children of God. That's the us. one, made one together. Verse
46, then shall they go away into everlasting punishment, but the
righteous into life eternal. There's another difference. The
goats are sent to everlasting punishment, everlasting hell,
everlasting damnation, but the sheep They're righteous to eternal
life in Christ. Those that's been made righteous.
How's the us, the sheep, how are we declared righteous? Christ died for his sheep. He
died for us. He died for the elect, given
to him before the world was. And the hope of eternity rests
on no man being able to pluck us out of his hand. Those blood-brought
sheep We're secure. That's our hope, is the One securing
us. Now the us John's speaking of
is the sheep of Christ, the elect of God, but the eternal church
in other places. It's the church as a whole throughout
time. Not the local assembly, but the
body of Christ. That church, you who believe,
me, Our brothers and sisters in other states. Our brothers
and sisters in other countries. Those that look to Christ alone
for salvation. That's the church of God. It's
our brothers and sisters who came before us. It's already
went home. And it's our brothers and sisters
who have not yet heard of Christ. Those He hasn't revealed Christ
in yet. That's the body. The body of Christ. That's the
church. The holy church. The church is
the elect, the sheep. That's the us that Christ died
for. Acts 20, 28 says, "...take heed
therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the
Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God which
he hath purchased with his own blood." That's who he died for.
He laid down his life for the church, for the sheep, for the
us. Now any local church, any local
assembly, it has sheep and it has goats. It has those that
are saved and those that are lost. There's wheat and tares.
But Christ's church, THE church, it only has those that Christ
died for. Those that He loved with an everlasting
love. What are some of the characteristics
of THE church? What are some of the characteristics
of THESE sheep, this US that we're looking at? They're sinners.
Remember a few weeks ago we looked at Romans 5, and Paul writes
to us in Romans 5, 6 saying, For when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. The us
John speaks about is weak, ungodly sinners. Those without strength. Those that have no righteousness
in themselves. Those that are spiritually sick,
dying. Sinners. Romans 5a tells us,
but God commendeth His love towards us in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. That's who He laid down His life
for. We turn to Luke chapter 5. This is the main issue with men
and women that will not come to Christ. They will not bow
to Him because they have their own strength. They have some
worth in themselves. They're not deathly sick. They
don't need to be saved. They just need some help. They
may know that they have some sins, but they don't know that
they are sin. They think they have some righteousness
in them. I'm not perfect. Yeah, but you think you're mostly
perfect. Look here in Luke 5, 27. And after these things, he went
forth and saw a publican named Levi, sitting at the receipt
of customs. And he said unto him, follow
me. And he left all. rose up and
followed him. And Levi made him a great feast
in his own house, and there was a great company of publicans
and of others that sat down with them. But their scribes and Pharisees
murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do you eat and drink
with publicans and sinners? And Jesus answered, saying unto
them, They that are whole need not a physician, but they that
are sick. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance." Why is it so important for us to
understand who the us is? That the us is those that are
in need of repentance. Those sinners. Why is it important? First off, to understand this
us, It's to tell the truth of salvation. Christ died for a
people. And when He died for that people,
it was effectual. He got the job done. Forever. The work, all the work that needs
to take place, it's finished. It's done. And it's forever lasting. That's the grace of God. It's
grace, not works. So many messages going out this
morning put something to do in man's hands. You have to do something. Christ died for you and He wants
you to let Him help you. But if you don't do it, you'll
perish. And His death was meaningless. That's not so. We saw that. But
the first thing to understand to us is that the grace of God
through election He chose a people. He effectually keeps them forever.
Now the second thing is if Christ died for everyone and He wants
everybody to be saved but it's up to us, we have to do something,
we have to accept Him or let Him, then God can punish the
same sin twice. That's double jeopardy. Is that
important? Does that mean if God punished
my sin in Christ, but I didn't let Him save me, I didn't choose
Him, I chose to go to hell, well, He's punishing me in hell. That's
two payments for the same sin. Is that important? That's the
holiness and the justness of God Almighty at stake. That's what's at stake, His holiness.
That's very important. Nahum wrote to us and said, He
will make an utter end Affliction shall not rise up the second
time. When the Lord squashes that,
when He punishes sin, He does it once. Now, He will either
punish sin when we leave this body, and He'll punish it for
eternity in us, eternal hell and damnation, or He's already
punished our sin in the church's substitute, the one representing
the elect of God, the man, Christ Jesus. It will only be punished
once. It's either punished in Him or
it will be punished in us for eternity. Now back in our text
there, 1 John 3, verse 16. Now that you and I know who the
us is, let's look at this verse again. Hereby perceive we the
love of God because He laid down His life for us. Who's the He? This is wonderful. There's not
enough time, in time itself, to explain who He is. Who is
He? Who is Christ Jesus? Wouldn't
that be something if somebody came up and asked us that this
week? Somebody came up to us at our job and said, could you
tell me everything you know about Christ? Who is He? Whew! Going for a long time. He's the Almighty God. He's the
Prince of Peace. He's the Creator of all things.
The Ruler of all things. He sustains all things. He's
going to judge all things. He's the Savior of His people.
Almighty. Powerful. Holy. Perfect. All the success of Him laying
down His life for us, it depends on who He is. As a substitute for the elect
people, Christ was able to satisfy God. That matters who He is.
Is He able? Is He worthy? God is holy. God's just. He said, the soul
that sinneth, it shall surely die. There must be a payment
for sin. He has to. Scriptures tell us,
shall not the God of heaven do right? He must do it. He must be holy. He must be just.
The payment for our sin is eternal. Men and women can't satisfy the
justice of God concerning our sin debt because we're not able
to. We ain't worth enough. Men don't like to hear that.
We do not have enough worth to make the payment. That's why
hell is eternal. It doesn't last 10,000 years.
It lasts forever. We're not worthy to make the
payment. But Christ is worthy. He's able to satisfy God. The only way God is satisfied
is by something that He provides. We saw that through those sacrifices
all the way back in Cain and Abel. Something that the Lord
created. Something that the Lord made.
That's what He accepts. He said, this is my Son in whom
I'm well pleased. That's the only one He's pleased
in. He's the only begotten. But that payment for sin is death.
God cannot die. He's an eternal, infinite, almighty
being. He can't die, but the payment
requires death. God requires a full payment.
Man must die, but he's not able to satisfy divine justice. Only
God can satisfy it, but he can't die. What are we going to do?
How can this be? We need mercy, but He has to
remain just, and He can't die for us. Christ, the Son of God,
He became a man. He lowered Himself below the
angels and walked this earth as the God-man, being made like
us. He was fully perfect and completely,
totally God as He stood on this earth. and he was fully perfect
and complete and totally man as he stood on this earth. This
is the one that laid down his life. The Almighty God, the Prince
of Peace, the Son of Man, the Son of God, in all His glory
and power, He laid down His life. You and I can die for someone.
We can die in their place. But the eternal price is not
paid. If somebody's guilty and is going to execute someone because
of a crime, we can't take that guilt. We don't have that ability. And if they were to let us, if
I could take your place if you committed a heinous crime and
die for you, that judge is not just. I'm not the one that was
guilty. But eternally, I can't die for
someone else. Why? I was going to die anyway.
I'm just offering something that was coming in anyway. It doesn't
change. Hebrews 9.27 says, and it is
appointed unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment.
For every person born of Adam, we must die in this body. That's
coming. Christ was the only one born
of woman that did not have to die. He willingly chose to die. willingly. He laid down, he laid down his
life. We can't do that. We were watching
a TV show the other night about a hospital and this man woke
up from a coma. He told the doctor, he said,
I'm going to die today. She said, no, you're not going to die today.
You're healthy. And he said, I'm going to do it right now.
And he went and squinted and held his breath and wiggled.
He didn't die. He can't choose to just stop
living. Our Master can. He laid down
His life. He said in John 10, No man taketh
it from me, but I lay it down myself. I have the power to lay
it down and I have the power to take it back up again. This
commandment have I received of my Father. All power has given
to Him, given to the Son. And laying down His life for
the elect, Christ magnified and exalted every attribute of God
the Father. He showed God's holiness. He
showed His justice. He showed His love. He showed
His sovereignty. And everything that was declared
and all the prophets led completely up to Him being on that cross. He showed His hand in all things
throughout our lives. And He showed God's power that
He gave to Him to lay His life down and raise it back up again.
On that cross of Calvary, Christ accomplished the complete glorifying
of God the Father. And secondly, secondly, He accomplished
the complete and eternal salvation for His people. He redeemed us. He made us holy forever. Hebrews 1.3 says, who being the
brightness of His glory and the express image of His person and
upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by
Himself purged our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the
Majesty on high. It was done. The sin and these sins of us,
of the sheep, the church of God, have been purged. They are gone. Like we looked at Wednesday,
as far as the east is from the west, they're blotted out. Remembered no more. They're gone.
Jude told us, now unto him that is able to keep you from falling
and present you faultless, holy, sanctified, perfect before the
presence of his glory, with exceeding joy. He willingly laid down His
life to save us, to make us holy, to give us His righteousness,
and to present us before His glory with exceeding joy. He was happy to do it. He was
willingly and happily put on that cross. He willingly and
happily laid down His life for His people. Looking at that, I want us to
consider three things. How evil my sin must really be
for God to punish that sin in His Son. How wicked it must be for the
payment to have to be the Son of God. And how wicked it must
be for a holy God to actually carry out the just punishment
of it. We don't know how wicked we are.
Secondly, how much Christ must love His people to do that, to
willfully and with exceeding joy lay down His life for His
people. That's love. We talk about love. We think we know love on this
earth. He loves His people. And if sin's that bad that Christ
had to be made a man, God had to provide His own sacrifice,
come to this earth, bear everything that He bore, be punished for
us through that love that He has for us. How secure is our
redemption from that mighty God? It ain't
gonna go away. No man can pluck us out of His
hand. Now back to our text and we'll close. 1 John 3.16 Now we've seen our weakness,
we've seen our sinfulness, the death that we are, and seeing
His holiness, Christ's willingness and His worth, His worthiness
lay down His life for us. 1 John 3.16 Hereby perceive we
the love of God because He laid down His life for us and we We
ought, out of a debt of gratitude, we ought to lay down our lives
for the brethren. Does that make it hard to love
your brothers and your sisters? When you hear what we were, you
see who He is, what He accomplished. He willfully, for me, He laid
down His life for a worm like me. And he loved us that way. And if he loved one of my brothers
and sisters that way, how hard is it for me to lay down my life
for them? I'm hungry. Here's some groceries.
I got a flat tire. I'll help you change it. What
can I do? That gives a loving heart, gives
a willing heart to forgive, forgive sin in our brethren. Be kind
to them. Be sweet to them. Gentle to them.
That makes it easy, doesn't it? Because they're part of the us.
That's part of our body. He's the head, we're the body.
This finger doesn't get mad at this finger. This finger hurts
when that finger hurts, doesn't it? You ever hit your hand? Hit
your finger with a hammer and you don't know which finger you
hit? Because you hit the middle one and three of them are hurting.
Or one. They share everything, don't
they? I pray as a blessing to you. Let's go to the Lord in
prayer. Heavenly Father, show us what
we are. Lord, show us how incapable and undeserving we are, and then
show us how mighty and how worthy our Redeemer is. Lord, what manner
of love Christ showed for us by going to that cross, by bearing
our sin, drinking that cup. We can't understand these things,
Lord. Just let us bow to Him. Let us worship Him and praise
Him for it. Thank You, Lord. Thank You for
the forgiveness of sins and forgive us today. Give us a heart that's
focused on Him, loves our brethren, lays down our life for our brethren
until that day comes. shed this body of death and be
made like Him. What a day, Lord. Worship as
we want to. Actually be able to praise Him,
honor Him forever. Lord, keep us to that day. Call out Your sheep and to the
churches you see fit daily. Give us the grace to comfort
those believers that you call and bring point them always to our Master.
Be with those that are sick, ones that you've sent trials
to, Lord. We thank you for the trials that
you send us. Oh, give us the grace, dear,
in those to be humbled, to look to Christ alone. It's in His
name that we ask it. Amen.