If you have your Bible this morning,
turn with me to the book of 1 John, 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3. If you have your Bibles open
to the book of 1 John chapter 3, I'd like to read verse 16
and 17. Verse 16 and 17. These verses have been on my
heart since on Wednesday evening in our Bible study. I mentioned
this verse and I couldn't get it off my heart so I felt that
I should speak on it this morning. Hereby perceive or know, the
word is, hereby know we the love of God. the song that Pat just
sang, how it sets forth the wonderful love of our God toward us. God is love and God has loved
us in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hereby perceive or know
we the love of God because He, that is Christ, laid down His
life for us. And we ought to lay down our
lives for the brethren But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth
his brother have need, and shutteth up his bow of compassion from
him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? Now, the Apostle
John tells us here that the love of God was made known to us through
the laying down of the life of God's Son for us. because he
laid down his life for us. So the Lord Jesus Christ becomes
an example to us of laying down our lives for his people and
we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Now, probably
will not require the measure of sacrifice on our behalf to
serve our brethren and sisters in Christ and to basically look
out for their needs, their material needs. It seems to indicate in
verse 17 that these needs that are mentioned are material and
physical needs. He says that we ought to lay
down our lives for the brethren, imitate the Lord Jesus. He laid
down his life for us And so whatever is required to meet the needs
of our brethren and sisters in the Lord, there's a measure of
the laying down of our life in it. If we are serious and if
we're faithful in obeying the Lord and giving to our brethren
when they're in need, then we are imitating our Lord Jesus
Christ in his laying down of his life for us. Now I want to
speak to you this morning primarily on this part of the verse, in
verse 16, because He laid down His life for us. That's the important and essential
thing in our text this morning, because He laid down His life
for us. Brother and sister, there is
not one long word in the sentence. It is all simple
as it can be. And it is simple because it is
so sublime. Little thoughts, somebody said,
require great words to explain them. Little preachers need Latin
words to convey their feeble ideas. But great thoughts and
great expressors of those thoughts are content with little words. He laid down his life for us. What then shall I do with this
statement? He laid down his life for us. Well, my friend, I would say
that I ought to believe it. Don't you think so? I ought to
believe it. I think every one of God's children,
all of those who have been brought to a saving relationship with
the Lord Jesus Christ, they do believe it. And my friend, if
a man believes nothing, he is good for nothing. We believe
what the Word of God teaches. He laid down his life for us. And Charles Spurgeon said, I
need not employ my wit to dissect this statement, nor my oratory
to proclaim it, let me exercise my adoration to worship. Let me prostrate all my powers
before the throne and like an angel when his work is done and
he has nowhere else to fly at his Lord's command, let me fold
the wings of my contemplation and stand before the throne of
this great truth and meekly bow myself and worship him that was
and is and is to come the great and glorious One who laid down
His life for us. Beloved, hereby perceive we the
love of God. He laid down His life for us. Now, there are three lessons
that I want to call to your attention out of this phrase this morning. The first is, did He lay down
His life for us? then how great must have been
our sins that they could not have been atoned for by any other
price. How great is our sin that the
Beloved One, God's only Beloved Son, how great must be our sin
that Heaven's Best, the Son of the Eternal God, had to lay down
His life in order that we would be saved, in order that we would
be spared the judgment and eternal wrath of God. Now, beloved, through
the years I've seen my sins in different and various ways in
different lights. As I've looked at my life and
my sin and my depravity, as we all do from time to time, we
see it in different lights. First of all, I've seen my sin
by the light of Sinai. Now, you understand that by the
law is the knowledge of sin, Paul in the book of Romans tells
us. A hell of iniquity within my soul is revealed by the holy
law of God. As you reflect upon the commandments
of God and upon our willingness to break them, upon our proneness
to break them, we see that iniquity dwells within our heart and within
our soul by nature. Our hearts are so vile and deceitful,
the Bible speaks of them being exceedingly sinful, exceedingly
sinful, desperately wicked. And as our brother mentioned
this morning, who can know the heart of a natural man? Who knows
his own heart in this place? Now we may think that we do,
but beloved, we do not know our own hearts. But as we continue
to look into the law, of God, the holy law of God, which reflects
the character of Almighty God, surely we see our hearts as they
are before God, vile and contemptible and deceitful before Him. Now
secondly, I've also viewed my sin by the light of God's holy
character. We just sang this hymn, our last
hymn this morning, Now, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. And in the light of God's holy
character. Oh, the purity of God's character. Now, brother, we are used to
looking at one another. We're used to thinking about
our relatives and kinfolk. We're used to examining each
other and men as they appear to us in this life. But how about
the holy character of God? You say, I measure up pretty
good against my neighbors. I really do. I measure up pretty
good against my kinfolk. But my friend, How about against
the holy character of Almighty God? I never knew the heinousness
of my own guilt until I saw the brightness of His holiness. I did not know how far astray
that I had gone until I measured myself with the Lord Jesus Christ
and with His faithful service unto the Heavenly Father. So
beloved, let us examine ourselves in the light of God's holy character
and not be so quick to commend ourselves as if we really were
doing something when we surpass those around us in thought and
in deed. And then thirdly, I think by
His loving kindness to me. I believe that His loving kindness,
His patience, His compassion toward me has done a great deal
in revealing to me how wicked and sinful my heart is. And how my heart demanded that
there be a sacrifice such as was made by the Redeemer Himself. By His loving kindness. in providence all my life long. In all my life long, I've experienced
the good providence of Almighty God. God has been faithful, absolutely
faithful to me. Never once has God failed this
man. The Lord has been faithful and
has always stayed true to His word. And you know that's a wonderful
thing to be able to say. And it's something that every
child of God can say. God is faithful to His Word. And He will always be faithful.
He will always be mindful of His covenant. All His goodness
to me, all His mercy to me, how profoundly kind God has been
in His mercy toward me." What ingratitude fills our hearts. Isn't it no wonder that God had
to hang His Son on a cross to bleed and die when we think of
the ingratitude and the ignorance of our own heart. Anybody that
misses the good providence of God in this life and fails to
see it, my friend, it's because of gross ignorance and because
of gross ingratitude. God is good, and He does good. And man is sinful and wicked
and blind to all of God's goodness and grace. And so, our sin in
our hearts was evident in that we looked upon our situation
and did not praise the Lord and glorify God as we ought. Now, I think there comes a time,
and I think maybe it's come in your life, I know it has mine,
when I cursed the very sin of my heart. Cursed the very sin
of my heart. Because I knew, and because it's
been revealed to me, made known to me, in the light of the cross. in the light of the cross, how
awful our sins are. And I wanted to bring that up
in this place because I felt like if we're talking about the
sin, our great sin, and why it required such an atonement as
our Lord Jesus Christ laying down His life in order that we
would be saved and delivered from the penalty of our sin,
I had to talk a little bit about in the light of the cross. Our
sin measured in the light of the cross. The songwriter said,
one day I saw one hanging on a tree in agony and blood. And we asked, who is this sufferer? Why does he suffer thus? A voice
answered, this is my beloved son. He bear in his body your
sin to the tree. It was your sin, my sin, that
nailed him to the tree. It was necessary that God be
satisfied, propitiated. It was necessary that someone
stand up and answer for the sinner unto God, unto the Holy God. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
was doing that at Calvary. It was there when I saw the Savior
on the tree that I understood how great a traitor that man's
guilt was to man's God. When I saw the Lord Jesus Christ
hanging there in agony and blood. Now, He had to lay down His life
before our sin could be put away. Now, beloved, that's how bad
our sin is. He had to lay down His life in
order that our sin be put away. Now the second lesson I find
in this is that He laid down His life for us, then how greatly
He must have loved us. Now I believe that God has had
a people in his heart from the foundation of the world. And
I believe that God loved his people with an everlasting love. And I believe that his love for
his people is so great that He would not spare even His own
Son, but He would deliver Him up in order that we might be
saved, in order that we might be brought out from under the
judgment of God, the love of God for His people. Now, if you were to turn over
to John, the fourth chapter of 1 John, and look in verse 9 and
10, Listen to these verses. And this was manifested, the
love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten
Son into the world that we might live through Him. You see, we
were dead in sin. You see, we were dead, alienated
from God, cut off from the life that is in God. And the Lord
Jesus Christ, God manifested His love toward us. sending His
only begotten Son into the world that we might live, that we might
have eternal life, that we might have never-ending life. Our souls
that must live for all eternity might enjoy that quality of life
that God has, eternal life with our God forever and ever. Verse
10. Herein is love. This is really
it. You want to know what love is?
Here it is. Herein is love, not that we love
God, forget about that part of it. Not that we love God, but
that He loved us. Isn't that the amazing thing?
That He loved us with so great love. So He loved us and sent
His Son to be the satisfaction for our sins. The Lord Jesus
Christ came down here and He went to you when you were predestinated
to be in Christ. and to have the blessing of association
with God and have the Divine Spirit in your heart in this
life to commune with Him. Was not the love of God there
in old time, in predestination? And recall your life story. Has
not the love of God been in the events of your life? See your
name in the Lamb's Book of Life. What must you say? What put it
there? But the love of God. It was the
love of God truly that put it there. Think of your regeneration,
your birth from above. The love of God was there. That's
because God loved you. That's the only reason why that
your name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life and that
God brought your soul out of death into life, which is a prophecy
of what He's going to do on resurrection morning. when He brings your
body out of the grave to meet your soul in the air, and we'll
ever be with the Lord. Now, His death for you, the love
of God was in His death, and we want to make that clear. John
3 and 16 says, 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. And we believe that that love
of that world that he loved was that world that he set his love
and affection upon in holy predestination and divine choice before the
world began. His death for us. He laid down his life. Oh, this
is incredible love indeed. Dissolved by thy goodness I'll
fall to the ground and weep to the praise of the mercy I've
found. So this love is great that God
has bestowed upon us. Now beloved, we see the greatness
of this love when we think about our Lord Jesus Christ and what
he knew before he laid down his life. He knew what death meant. He knew what it meant for Him
to become sin, for the Father to make Him to be sin. He knew what it meant. And He emptied Himself so that
we could receive of His fullness. He faced the wrath of God so
that we would enjoy the mercies of God. He was forsaken by His
Father so that we would never be forsaken by God. He became
a worm to raise worms from the dunghill of wickedness to set
them among princesses. He bore the curse of an offended
covenant so that we would reap the promise of the everlasting
covenant. Yes, when the Lord Jesus Christ
went to the cross, he loved his people and he knew what death
meant and why he must endure that death. He knew that it was
in order that the father's children, that they would be saved and
brought home to glory. Known to him before he uttered
the cry of Lama Sabachthaniai from the cross, He knew and He
knew the meaning of that statement. He knew what it meant, that He
would be forsaken of God in order that His people never be forsaken.
He foresaw the death of the cross and He was made a curse for us
knowing what the curse meant. It meant that He must hang on
a tree. It meant that He must lay down
His life for us. Now then, calmly, he resolved
to bear it. In faithfulness to the Father
and to the mission that the Father had given him, he resolved to
bear it. This, my friend, is the deliberation
of love. Him knowing and yet Him responding
and giving Himself to the will of God in the matter. He is to
have our inexpressible gratitude and the love of our hearts toward
Him for His great love toward us. Beloved, have we ever thought
about the fact that He needed not to die at all? You know, the Scripture says
that the Messiah was cut off. but not for himself. He had no
sin at all to die for. He wills to die. He said in John
that no man takes my life from me. He said I lay it down of
myself. I have the power to lay it down
and I have the power to take it again. Herein is love indeed.
Free love, deliberate and resolute. He loved you, my friend, if you're
His child today, and deliberately laid down His life. Now you see
those bullocks in the Old Testament, you can read about them in the
Old Testament, in the book of Leviticus, and also in the book
of Hebrews in the New Testament, and you see them going to the
altar of the temple. Poor, dumb, Driven cattle they
were they know not what they are to be a sacrifice They know
not that there to be a sacrifice. They don't know this they just
drove To the slaughter they cannot put into their deaths the merit
of devout intent like our Lord did now below it I think it's
good to reflect upon this and Because the Lord Jesus Christ,
he needed not to die. He did not have to die. But he
became a sin offering for us. The love of God is revealed,
it is expressed, it's known, it's manifest, it's found, and
it's experienced only in the person of our Lord, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now if he had not given his life,
I want to say that he never would have died. If he had not laid
down his life, he never would have died. Let me say that he
was a victim by intent. He was a Redeemer by resolve. He was a Savior by purpose. He obeyed the will of God, submitted
himself, died the death of the cross, because it was the purpose
of the Father. He resolved to do it to save
your soul, to give you eternal life. That was His intention
when He died, was to save His people from their sin. Now Matthew
27 and verse 50 says, He yielded up the ghost. That means He dismissed
His Spirit. When he was dying there on the
cross, he dismissed his spirit. He said, as it were, to death,
it is all right now for you to take me. I have suffered in the
room instead of the father's children. I have paid their sin
debt. I've satisfied the father on
their behalf. I've met every demand God made
of me and them, and I have satisfied God, and the law has nothing
on my people anymore. Now, he says to death, it's all
right, you take me. Now you see the love of God in
this. You see God's love for His people. You see Christ's
love for His people. Again in Mark 15 and 37 it says,
He gave up the ghost. He gave up the ghost. Now the
accent is on giving it up. Now you recognize that you and
I could not say such a thing as that. And then let me remind
you of something here in Luke 23 and 46. He said, Father, into
thy hands I commend my spirit. And having said thus, he gave
up the ghost. But let me remind you of something
here that I think is very important. Ecclesiastes 8 and verse 8 says,
There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the
spirit, Neither hath he power in the day of death. There's
no man that has the power to retain the Spirit. No man like
us. But the God-man did. He retained
the Spirit until he told death. It's okay now for you to take
me. I've served the purpose of God, I've loved my people unto
the death, to the very end, so you take me now. And he says,
or Ecclesiastes says, that neither hath he power in the day of death.
Well, the Lord Jesus Christ had power in the day of death, did
he not? That's right, he could give up
the ghost, but he did not give it up until the purpose and intent
of the Father was fully accomplished. He became your Redeemer and love
nailed him to the tree and kept him on that tree until the work
was finished, until the work was complete. I think this is
important that we reflect upon this when we're talking about
the incredible love of God. The love of God for His people.
He laid down His life because He loved His people. How else
could you explain it? He loved His people. And so He
died. And then the third thing and
last thing is this, the third lesson, is that He laid down
His life for us, then how safe are we? How safe are we? Now we who know the gospel see
in the fact of the death of Christ a reason that no strength of
logic can ever shake, and no power of unbelief can remove,
why we should not be everlastingly saved. Can you not see that through
the death of our Lord Jesus Christ that we are everlastingly saved? Now, I often make mention of
people who are lamenting over their sin that your sin cannot
be two places at the same time. It's either on Jesus Christ,
our substitute, or it's on us. Now, beloved, if Jesus laid down
His life for us, then we must be saved by the laying down of
His life. He's not going to lay down His
life and then his people yet go unsaved. His people are going
to be saved. Christ died for a man and him
be lost? No, no, no, no, no. You misunderstand
the intent of the Father. You misunderstand the purpose
of God in predestinating the very death of His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ dies for a man and then
God sends that man to hell? No way! No way. It cannot be. Christ suffers in a sinner's
stead, and then God condemns that sinner after all? Where
is the love and the justice of God in that? Listen, if God loves
a man, God's going to save every man He loves. He will save every
man He loves. I don't have any doubt about
that. Every man that Jesus Christ died for on the cross, God intends
to save them. If the justice of God was satisfied
on your behalf, then my friend, the law can't condemn you. You
cannot go to hell. The devils themselves cannot
condemn you if the law of God has been satisfied on your behalf. Now the doctrine of Holy Scripture
is this, that God is just. He's an absolute just God. That
Christ died in the stead of His people, and that as God is just,
He will never punish one solitary soul of Adam's race for whom
the Savior shed His blood. Now you can call me whatever
you will, this is what the Word of God teaches. that God is just
and Christ dying in the stead of his people, that God will
never punish one solitary soul of Adam's race for whom the Savior
shed his blood. Well, the question is, did he
lay down his life for you? Did he lay it down for you? If
not, then you have no substitute and you must face the awful payment
for your sin. A man goes to hell when he refuses
to believe the gospel. You die in unbelief, you die
in unbelief of the gospel, then you must perish forever. God
so loved the people that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever
believeth on him should not perish. God sent his son into the world,
not that men should perish, but that they should be saved. God
saves his people. Well, did he lay down his life
for you? Can you say my hope is in the
gospel? Can you say I truly believe that
God loved me? I know he had reasons only those
that he knew of. Certainly I don't know of any
that he should love me, but I do know that he did love me and
I believe in my heart that Jesus Christ died in my place in my
stead. That's the whole anchor of my
soul is the death of Jesus on my behalf. If he died for you,
who is he that condemneth? And now what Paul said in Romans
8, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. I like what John 10 says about
giving unto the sheep eternal life. Jesus said, I give unto
them eternal life and they shall never perish. never perish. I give them eternal life because
I love them and the purpose of the Father is that I come to
represent them, I give it to them, they shall never perish. There's not one sin upon the
books of God against anyone that believeth. Do you believe that? Now, if your sin is still on
the book, then you're going to hell. There isn't any question
about that. You say, I'm not going to argue, Preacher. Well,
I'm not arguing either. I'm stating a fact. I'm saying
to you that there's not one sin on the book of God against anyone
that is a believer. Anyone who God chose in old eternity
and set his love and affection upon at that time, and then in
time called out by the irresistible call of the Spirit There's not
one sin against that person. There is not one sin that a believer
ever committed that has any power to damn him. Do you believe that?
Not one sin that a believer ever committed that has the power
to damn him. Now, I did not say that sin cannot,
as it were, affect the joy of communion with the Lord. I didn't
say that. I said that there's not one sin that a believer ever
committed that has any power to damn his soul. I'm talking
about how safe we are if he laid down his life for us. Now if you want to entertain
the idea in your heart that man, a little old puny man, however
you look upon him, however you idolize him, that he has some
power to thwart the purpose of Almighty God and bring it to
nothing, then you go ahead with that idea, but that's mere foolishness
and you're self-deceived if you think it's true. God has sent
his son, he has died, he has laid down his life, and Christ
took the damning power out of sin by allowing it to damn himself. Now is that true? I believe that
he took the damning power out of sin by allowing sin to damn
him. Now Why would God have his son
on a cross? Why would God hang his son on
a tree? Why would God allow his son to
die if he was not going to save those for whom he was dying? And inasmuch as sin condemned
him, sin cannot condemn us. Do you believe he was condemned
by sin? Was he condemned when he died?
Absolutely he was condemned. Condemned by sin. And so inasmuch as he was, sin
cannot ever condemn us. Poor soul filled with unbelief. How often we are so prone to
allow the devil to get a lick in and make us question whether
or not we are truly the Lord's people or not, whether we've
been bought or not. Peter talked about being bought
with a price, being bought. Now when you go out and buy something,
I think you pretty well conclude that that thing is yours. You
figure out, you hear the price, you know the price, you pay it,
it's yours. Beloved, that's what the Lord
Jesus Christ was doing on the cross. This is how safe we are
as God's people. He laid down his life for us. The poet said, here's pardon
for transgressions past. It matters not how black they're
cast. And oh my soul with wonder view,
for sins to come, here's pardon too. And another one said, with
Christ's spotless vesture on, we are as holy as the Holy One. And I can say that the mercies
of the Lord Jesus Christ never dies. When from the dust of death
I rise to take my mansion in the skies, even then shall this
be all my plea Jesus hath lived and died for me. Bold shall I
stand in that great day, for who ought to my charge shall
lay, while through Christ's blood absolved I am from sin's tremendous
curse and shame. Beloved, my message this morning
is He laid down His life for us. and how our hearts should
be filled with gratitude for his love and devotion and his
death on our behalf. This is the gospel. If you're
here this morning and you are a stranger to the grace of God,
I hope that you'll reflect long upon these thoughts. He laid
down his life for us. Mitch, do you have a hymn you
can