yonder amazing sight I see, the
incarnate Son of God expiring on the cursed tree and weltering
in His blood. Behold, a purple torrent runs
down from His hands and head. The crimson tide puts out the
sun. His groans awake the dead. The
trembling earth, the darkened sky, proclaim the truth aloud,
and with the amazed centurion cry, This is the Son of God. So great, so vast a sacrifice,
may well my hope revive. If God's own Son thus bleeds
and dies, the sinner sure may live. Oh, that these chords of
love divine might draw me, Lord, to thee. Thou hast my heart,
it shall be thine, thine it shall ever be." My subject this morning
is the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here are seven simple,
one-syllable words which set forth the most glorious event
in all of human history. In the simplest terms possible,
the Apostle John declares to us the deepest, most profound
mystery of gospel truth. Look at what he says. Hereby
perceive we the love of God because, listen, he laid down his life
for us. John himself seems to be astonished
at what he says. Hereby we perceive, we see, we
understand, we recognize the love that God has for us because
He laid down His life for us. Aren't you astonished, overwhelmed
by such a statement? He, the Eternal, omnipotent,
sovereign, immutable God, the creator and sustainer of all
things in heaven and earth, took on Himself human flesh, became
one with us in our nature that He might redeem and save us.
And having assumed our nature, He who is very God of very God,
He laid down His life. God, in the essence of His as
God could never suffer and could never die, but so determined
is our God to redeem His beloved people that He comes into this
world as a man, so that as a man He could both suffer and die
to save men. Oh, may it never be forgotten,
not by us at least, that One who died for us, the Lord Jesus
Christ is Himself God. God the Son laid down His life
for us. As a voluntary substitutionary
sacrifice to make an atonement for sin, the Son of God laid
down His life and He did it for us. Imagine that. My soul who can comprehend such
wondrous grace and love. The Lord Jesus Christ laid down
his life for men, you and I, men and women, who themselves
deserve eternal damnation. Paul gives it to us in Romans
5, Romans chapter 5 and verse 6. He speaks in the same astonishing
manner. He says, when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died. This is the kind of folks
he died for. He died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, Yet peradventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
us, In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
Can you grasp that? Sinful, vile wretches that we
are, He loved us and gave Himself to die in our place under the
wrath and curse of God, bearing our shame, bearing our sin, and
satisfying the wrath that was due to us from God that we might
live forever with Him. The Son of God so loved us that
He laid down His life and death to save us. Now, with reverence
and adoration, I want us to consider And I hope, by the Spirit of
God, that which is plainly revealed in this text. First of all, consider
this. How that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures. Turn back to 1 Corinthians 15.
1 Corinthians 15. I'm fully aware that everyone
knows that Jesus Christ died upon the cross 2,000 years ago.
That is a well-established fact of history that cannot be denied.
But the message of the gospel does not lie in the fact that
our Lord Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose again, but rather
in the manner of his death. Here in 1 Corinthians 15 and
verse 3, Paul says, I delivered unto you, first of all, that
which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according
to the scriptures. Now notice the word H-O-W. That's where the key is in this
passage. It is not just the fact that he died, but H-O-W, how
that Christ died. How did the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, come to die? What is the meaning of his death?
There is no understanding of the gospel until there is an
understanding of the answer to these questions. It's not possible
for us to know the meaning of Christ's death until we know
something about His person. We must always remember that
our Lord Jesus Christ is Himself very God of very God. As God, He possesses all the
attributes of the Most High, and therefore He could not be
capable of suffering or of death. But by means of the Incarnation,
God the Eternal Son took upon Himself human flesh so that He
might die in our stead at Calvary. That's why He became a man. Our
Lord became a man because though He's God who speaks the world
into being, He can't suffer and He can't die until He becomes
a man. And a man of human flesh is able
to suffer and to die in the place of sinners. Having become incarnate,
the Lord of Glory became capable of suffering and of death. I
say again, ever hold this truth in precious and reverent memory.
That one who was taken by the hands of wicked men, crucified
and slain, was himself Immanuel. That one who died on Calvary's
cross was none other than Jehovah's own fellow. He was the incarnate
God. The blood which was shed at Calvary
flowed from the veins of one who is himself God, eternal God. That's the reason the Apostle
Paul tells us over in Acts chapter 20 that the church of God was
purchased with God's own blood. No God in his essential being
as God has no blood, he has no body, he's a spirit. But God,
having assumed human nature, is inseparably joined to that
nature, and that One who died is God, even the eternal, unchanging
God. As God, He held the scepter of
the world in His hand, and the imperial robe of universal monarchy
was upon His shoulders, even when the soldiers put a purple
robe on His back, a crown of thorns on His head, and a reed
scepter in His hand to mock Him. As God, he was in heaven upon
his throne, even when his body slept in the tomb. Our Lord Jesus
Christ never ceased to be God. He did not lose his omnipotence.
He never ceased to hold the reins of total dominion over the world.
Even when he laid down his life for us, he is sovereignly ruling
and reigning as God. And yet that one who died was
divine. It's a mystery I can't explain.
His Godhead and his manhood can never be separated so that the
hymn that Watts wrote is accurate as he wrote it. Where might the
sun in darkness hide and shut his glories in when God the mighty
maker died for man the creature sinned? Our Lord Jesus Christ
is himself God and man in one glorious person. Because He is
God and man and one glorious person, He is a suitable mediator
and a suitable substitute. But now listen to me. Because
He is God, and because He is our substitute, our Lord Jesus
Christ died. He laid down His life, according
to our text. He laid down His life, and so
He died by His own divine purpose. and according to his own voluntary
will. That's so important in our day
that we understand this. There are so many who would have
us to believe That the Lord Jesus Christ died because he couldn't
do anything better. He died as a frustrated reformer. He died
as a helpless martyr. He came, after all, to be the
king of the Jews. And the Jews wouldn't let him
have their throne in Palestine. And so he died as a sort of afterthought,
as a secondary plan that maybe he had exactly in mind. My friends,
nothing could be further from the truth. The Lord Jesus Christ
came into this world. He was born at Bethlehem. He was laid in that manger in
Bethlehem as a babe for one specific purpose. It was appointed from
old eternity, at the given time, 33 years later, He should die
according to His own eternal decree as God. He was delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, the Scripture
says. Yes, those wicked men took Him. Yes, they did what they
wanted to. They vented their spleen upon
Him. They poured out their vile wrath
upon Him. But our Savior did not die at
the hands of wicked men except according as He gave them power
over Him. And He voluntarily laid down
His life. He was the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. Before Adam was created, the
fall was anticipated. Before sin entered into the world,
Christ had agreed in covenant mercy to come and give Himself
a ransom for many. And in the fullness of time,
the Son of God voluntarily laid down His life. Turn over to John
chapter 10. John the 10th chapter. John chapter 10. There can be
no possibility of men Trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. Believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ until they come to understand that
His death was not the death of a martyr. His death was not something
that He could not avoid. His death was not some kind of
an afterthought with Him. Sort of a frustrated effort of
His. But His death was exactly according
as He Himself desired that it should be. John chapter 10 verse
17. Our Lord said in verse 11, I'm
the good shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. He said in verse 15, As the Father
knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life
for the sheep. Look now in verse 17. Therefore
doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might
take it again. No man taketh it from me, but
I lay it down of myself. I have power, authority, right
to lay it down, and I have power, authority, right to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my Father. Our Lord Jesus Christ, when He
came into this world, came on an errand of mercy. He came with
a mission to fulfill. He came as the Father's Son,
yes, but He came also as the surety of the covenant, having
received commandment from His Father to lay down His life at
Calvary, and upon the payment of His own precious blood, the
Father promised Him a kingdom that would endure forever. And
so He said, I have this commandment, this commission from my Father,
I lay down my life, willingly, voluntarily, deliberately laid
down my life. He laid down his life and he
laid it down by his own great infinite mercy with all the willingness
of his heart. J.C. Ryle said the Lord Jesus
Christ went to the cross of Calvary and drank the cup of woe as eagerly
as a thirsty man drinks refreshing water. He went to the cross of
Calvary and drank the cup of woe as eagerly as a thirsty man
drinks refreshing water. Not because he saw great joy
in the cross, no, but because of the joy of his soul, his seed
should be redeemed as the result of him drinking that cup of woe
upon Calvary's cross. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not
have to die. Death had no claim upon Him.
Death is the penalty of sin, but He had done no sin. He was
holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. He did
not sin. He had no sin. He knew no sin. In His person and in His conduct,
Christ Jesus is the Holy One of God, without spot and without
blemish. And yet our Lord voluntarily
laid down His life, and throughout the ordeal of the crucifixion,
The Son of God was in absolute control of all the circumstances.
I was meditating on this last night, and I got to thinking, Judas, in
his heart, had made up his mind to betray the Son of God. You
know when he did it? You remember when he did it,
Bob? When the Savior said, what you do, do quickly. Not until
then. It was in his heart. Satan had
put it in his heart, but he could not betray the Son of God until
God Himself says, what you do, do it quickly. Pilate had the
Savior before him, and he said, don't you know your life's in
my hands? Our Lord said, you can't do anything
except it's given you of my Father. Those soldiers came to arrest
him in the garden, and they coming before the Savior, he takes the
initiative. He said, who are you looking
for? They said, we seek Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am. And
they fell down. And he raised them up again. And he said, now
this is the way it's going to be. If you seek me, let these
go their way. You can't have me and have my
people. You can't do it. He was in control. And well through
we've seen, he could have called 10,000 angels to destroy the
world and set him free. He is God. But willingly, voluntarily,
he died alone for you and me. He laid down His life. Do you
see that? It was a willing, voluntary act
of love. And the death of our Lord Jesus
Christ was a vicarious, substitutionary sacrifice for sin. He laid down
His life for us. For us. Now, my friends, we believe
in real substitution. Turn back to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. Our Lord, when he hung upon that
cross, was hanging in somebody's room, in somebody's place. Quite
literally, he was hanging in Barabbas' place. There wasn't
room on the cross, Bobby, for Christ and Barabbas. Wasn't room
for both of them. Either Barabbas must die or the
Savior must die. One of the two. But there's not
room on that cross for both men. And that's what substitution
is. The Lord Jesus Christ hung upon the cross of God's wrath. And there's not room for Him
and for His people. There's just not room. Either
He dies or we die. But both cannot die. Look here
in Isaiah 53, verse 4. Surely he hath borne our griefs."
Let me read it like this. You do the same thing I'm going
to do. I'm going to put my name right in here, for this is what substitution
is. Surely Christ has borne Don's griefs and carried Don's sorrows. Do you see that? Yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded
for Don's transgressions. He was bruised for Don's iniquities. The chastisement of Don's peace
was upon him. And with his stripes, Don is
healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid
on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he openeth
not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. Who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression
of my people was he stricken." You and I deserve to die. The
law of God has a rightful and just claim upon us. A legitimate
claim to be executed upon us would be eternal death. But Jesus
Christ died in the place of his people as a substitute. Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse
for us in our place, in our room, in our stand. He paid the debt
which we owed to the law of God. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owed. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Again,
our mighty Redeemer, was triumphant and victorious in his death.
Look here in Isaiah 53 again, verse 10. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He, God the Father, hath put
him to grief, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for
sin. Now, James Lee, this is what's
going to happen. There's not any if and a buts in here. This
is what God says is going to happen when Christ makes his
soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days. He's going to live again. And
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands. He shall
see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. And by
his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he
shall bear their iniquities." When our Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ, had suffered all that the law of God required for our
sins, he cried with a loud voice, It is finished. Now, when he said, It is finished,
It was not the helpless, mournful sigh of fatigue and defeat, but
it was the shout of triumph and victory. It is done. That's what he said. It's done.
Everlasting righteousness is brought in. The law of God against
my people, the law of God against sin is satisfied. Sin, the sin
that I bore, it is gone. Reconciliation is made between
man and God. Death is conquered. William Romaine
said death stung himself to death when he stung Christ, and he
did. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? Death was stung to death in the
substitute for all of those for whom he died. Redemption is done,
that's what he said. The price has been paid. My people
are redeemed. It is finished. This is how Christ
died for our sins, according to the scriptures. Be sure you
understand it. He died voluntarily, according
to his own will and purpose. He died vicariously in somebody's
room, in somebody's place, in somebody's stead. And whoever
they are for whom he died, they shall never die. and he died
victoriously. He accomplished what he set out
to do. He redeemed his people. He shall
not fail, and he has not failed. Secondly, meditate on this fact. If the Lord Jesus Christ laid
down his life for us in order to save us from our sins, oh,
how great our sins must have been. I've seen my sin exposed
in many ways. We've all heard about sin and
read about sin in the Word, and we talk about sin. I'm afraid
we talk far more lightly about sin than we ought. I hear people
say, well, I just think it's a sin to throw so much food away
off the table. Don't ever talk like that. Don't
ever talk like that. We don't make sin such a trivial
thing. I just think it's a sin for a fellow to do this or do
that or go here and go... Don't talk like that. Don't talk
like that. Sin is an affront against the
Holy God, Merle. Sin's an attack on God's throne.
Sin's rebellion to God. Now, we see our sin. We see our
sin revealed in a lot of ways. But if ever a man sees himself
in the light of God's grace and mercy, and in the light of God's
holiness and justice, then you'll begin to see his sin. If we're
saved by the grace of God, we alone can confess our sin very
quickly. I've seen my sin, the depravity
of my heart, and the depravity of my nature, in the actions
of my life. All of you have. All of you have. You know what you do. You know
the actions you perform, and it has some effect on you when
you see how wicked you can be at times, but not much effect. I've seen my sin in the light
of my own conscience, and my conscience tormenting me. It
frightened me a little. It even caused me to make some
outward changes in my life for a season, but soon conscience
was silenced. work at it hard enough by some
kind of false religion or by some kind of works and deeds
of your own, you can silence your conscience. I remember seeing
my sin in the blazing, terrifying light of God's holy law, and
it did terrify me. I read the soul that sinneth,
it shall die, and I trembled. I trembled. But even the terrors
of the law went away after a while. But listen, one day God showed
me my sin in the light of Calvary. I have never gotten over it.
I've never gotten over it. I saw my sin in that one hanging
on the tree. I saw him being made to be sin
for me. And in the light of Calvary,
I see God's justice and His mercy, God's holiness and His grace,
God's justice, His wrath, His inflexible, inflexible wrath. But I see His infinite, infinite,
infinite mercy. For He made His Son to be sin,
and punished His Son when He was made to be sin. I cannot
question His justice. But He made His Son to be sin,
punishing Him in my stead, Bob, that I might live. Who can question
His mercy? Children of God, don't ever forget
that everything Christ endured in your place, He endured because
of your sin. Everything. You see Him in Gethsemane? What could cause the Son of God
to sweat blood oozing from his pores of his skin and falling
upon the ground. So that he cries, Father, if
it's possible, let this cup pass from me. I don't have any real appreciation
of what that means. We can guess at a lot of things. But the older I get, the less
I want to irreverently intrude upon it and try to guess at it.
But my expectation is that it has something to do with this.
He who knew no sin, he never had an angry thought of malice,
envy, hatred. His heart never was hot with
passion or cold with malice. Never. He knew no sin. He had never done, thought, or
felt an evil thing. And yet, He is God. And He, unlike any man who ever
lived before or since, knows how holy God looks upon sin. And in anticipation, of redeeming
us, Lindsay, his heart's crushed with the thought of being made
to be sin. You see that? He goes up to the judgment hall and they strip
him and they mock him and they beat him. He goes on up to that
little old hill outside Jerusalem, a hill of shame. They spit in
his face and they pluck out his beard. While he hangs on that cursed
tree, he cries, my God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? And I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. Because he's
made to be sinned. He's made to be sinned for us. For us. And he died. God killed his son. The son gave
himself. Wrath was poured upon him. Because
he was made to be sinned for us. For us. You see, nothing
except the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, poured out unto death at Calvary could possibly wash
away sin. No, it was not possible that
this cup should pass from Him. Not if His people are to be redeemed.
Not if God's justice is to be satisfied. There is but one way
whereby a holy God and a just God can remain holy and just
and yet forgive the sinner. And that is if the sinner's substitute
is one who satisfies the holiness and the justice of God, meeting
everything required of God in our stand. And such a substitute
God himself provides in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no lanker know? These, for sin could not atone,
Christ must save, and Christ alone." My friend, you hear me
this morning. You know your conscience tells
you, your nature tells you, because God's got a voice in your heart
by nature, it's called conscience. It tells you that God's holy
and His wrath and justice must be appeased. Your conscience
tells you that. God's law tells you that. The
gospel tells you that. You cannot atone for your sin. None but the crucified Christ
can atone for sin. None but Christ. God will accept
none else. Now, the more I know of Christ
and Him crucified, the more hideous and obnoxious my sin appears. The most sickening sight I've
ever had to endure in this world is the sight of my sin in the
light of God's holiness as it's revealed in the death of Christ. And yet, even when I have had
my most abhorrent view of my sin, I realize that I have no
idea, really, how repugnant sin is to a holy God. What a terrible evil sin must
be to require the death of God's own Son before it can be forgiven. Thirdly, adoringly meditate upon
this thought. If in order to put away our sins,
our Lord laid down His life for us, how great his love for us must
be. Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because he laid down his life for us. Oh, what love! John speaks in
generalities for the comfort of all believers, but this thought
thrills my soul, I take it personally. He laid down his life for me,
because Hubert, he loves me. He died for me because he loves
me. The love of Christ for my soul, I see it in so many things. I see it in his sovereign predestination. I see it in His sovereign providence.
I see it in His covenant engagements. I see it in His daily provisions.
I see it in the manifold blessings of grace, His adoption, His justification,
conviction of sin, the conversion of my soul, pardon before God
and preservation. I see His love for me in all
these things and in more. But I never knew the love of
God for my soul until I understood that Jesus died for me. I never
did, never did, not really. I can never see the love of God
beaming forth so brilliantly in all of its glory and splendor
as it does when I see it in the light of the cross. Here is the
message inscribed upon the blood-red banner of the cross. Hereby perceive
we the love of God because he laid down his life for us. Love cannot be dormant. Like
fire, it must be active. Like water, it must break out.
Love must do. Love is best seen and best known
by its deeds. Now let me show you something
about the marvelous revelation of God's love in this. He laid
down his life for us. We had no claim upon him, but
he willingly laid down his life. There was no reason why he was
obliged to do so, Lindsay. We could not force him to do
so. We had no claim on him. But he
laid down his life. More than that, there was no
desire on our part that he should lay down his life. We made no
appeal for him to come and lay down his life. As a matter of
fact, we desired that we never hear of him. Man, by nature,
is not seeking after God. But he laid down his life for
us. Listen to this. When the Son of God died for
you, Merle, he knew that he would never get any love from you in
return, except he created. And yet he laid down his life
for you. That's love. That's love. He knew. He knew He would never
get any love in return from the souls for whom He died, except
He create that love. And yet, He laid down His life
for us. He died by the hands of men as
well as for the sakes of men. Christ died for men who wished
that He should be made to die. In dying for us, the Lord Jesus
Christ knew that he must take upon himself the awful mass of
shame and dishonor, and that he must take an infinite, intimate
relation to human sin, which he had never had. He must be
made to be sin. And yet he willingly laid down
his life for us. John Blanchard wrote, in taking
the sinner's place on the cross, Jesus became as totally accountable
for sin as if he was totally responsible for it. He took our
sin to be his very own. My friends, the cause of our
Savior's death on the cross was the infinite love of the eternal
triune God for us. I don't know how we can become
so cold-hearted and hard that it means nothing to us to hear
it. He who is God came into this world and assumed
human flesh, and willingly laid down his life
for us because he loved us. Octavius Winslow put it this
way, who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas for money, not
Pilate for fear, not the Jews for envy. but the Father for
love. That's who delivered him up to
die. 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. Herein is love, not that we loved
God, we didn't, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the
propitiation for our sins. Could we with ink the oceans
fill? Were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth
a quill, and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of
God above would drain the oceans dry, nor could the scroll contain
the whole of Scripture from sky to sky. Hereby perceive we the
love of God, because he laid down his life for us. Now here's the last thought implied
in our text. See that you reverently meditate
upon this, receive it and rejoice in it. If Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, laid down his life for us, how safe and secure they
must be for whom he died. There are those whose brains
are so addled by religious tradition and superstition that they think
it's possible for some men to be lost forever in hell, even
though the Lord Jesus Christ laid down his life as their substitute
at Calvary. Such people are so blind they
can't see that their doctrine is both a preposterous lie and
a blasphemous heresy. Now listen to me. The doctrine
goes like this. This is the doctrine of modern
religion. Christ died for men. And he bore the wrath of God
for men. And he took the sins of men and
died under the penalty of the law for men at Calvary. But that
in itself does not guarantee and secure that the men for whom
he died shall be saved. For after all, a great multitude
of those for whom Christ was punished are being punished right
now in hell. Now that, my friend, is absurd
and blasphemous. The doctrine of scripture is
this. Christ Jesus stood in the place of his people. He took
our sins and made them his own. He satisfied divine justice on
our behalf. And since God is just, he will
never punish one of those for whom he punished the substitution. He can't do it. He cannot do
it. justice will not allow it. God
cannot in justice punish his son for my sin and then punish
me for my sin. That just doesn't make sense,
does it? That a just God punishes the same kind twice? That's absurd. God does not make a perversion of justice,
such a doctrine of the atonement that says that Christ died for
everybody, that Christ was punished for everybody, and yet some folks
were going to hell anyway, is a devil's cross. It's requiring a double payment
for the same crime. And God will not have it. The
Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, has completely redeemed His people. complete atonement Christ has
made, and to the utmost farthing paid, whate'er his people owed. God's wrath on me cannot take
place if I am sheltered in Christ's righteousness and sprinkled with
his blood. If Christ has my discharge procured
and freely in my room endured the whole of wrath divine, payment
God cannot twice demand, first at my bleeding surety's hand,
and then again at mine. Turn then, my soul, unto thy
rest. The merits of thy great high
priest have bought thy liberty. Trust in his efficacious blood,
and never fear banishment from God, since Jesus hath died for
thee. You see, if Jesus Christ is your
substitute, if he suffered as your surety in your place, then
my soul, who is he that can do that? This is the singular, unfailing
assurance of my soul. He laid down His life for me. And I am sure that all of those
for whom He laid down His life are secure. There is not a sin
recorded in the book of God against any believer. So, Pastor, how
do I know that He laid down His life for me? If you believe,
He laid down His life for you. It's that simple. Our sins were
numbered on the scapegoat's head. And there is not one sin any
believer ever has committed, is committing, or ever shall
commit that shall ever be charged to us. Sin has no power to damn
us. The reason Pike Spurgeon did
is to say this, Christ has taken the damning power out of sin. By allowing it to speak by a
bold metaphor, to damn himself. For sin did condemn him, and
inasmuch as sin condemned him, it cannot condemn us. Do you
see that? Our Savior paid the price. His people must go free. Children
of God, this is our comfort, our security, and our assurance.
All our sin and all our guilt, all our iniquities, all our transgressions
have been fully atoned for by Christ. Atonement was made even
before our sins were committed, back when He laid down His life
for us. Because Christ Jesus laid down
His life for us, God will never require us to die. We're accepted
and to be loved. We are complete in Him. We are
already risen together with Christ and seated with Him in heaven.
And though the mountains may depart and the hills may be removed,
the covenant of His love shall never fail. and shall not depart. Now, my friends, for the comfort
of your soul and the glory of our Redeemer, I admonish you
to rest your soul upon this firm foundation. I need no hope but
this. I rest my soul for time and eternity
upon this glorious fact. He laid down his life for us. I believe that. And I believe
in his merits. I trust him. And I'm calling upon you, with
all your sin, to do the same thing. Trust is great sacrifice
for sin. Though your crimes are many and
your heart is black with every lust imaginable, come and lay
your hands of faith upon the scapegoat's head. And when you
have put your hand there upon the head of the great scapegoat,
Christ Jesus, and seen Him driven into the wilderness of forgetfulness,
and you can clap your hands, and you can say, my sins are
gone. The Father has put them away
by the sacrifice of His Son. For He laid down His life for
us. Just trust Him. Just trust Him. Trust the Son of God. Well, I
don't know whether I can or not, sure you can. Sure you can. If
you want to. If you want to, you can. Just fall flat down on his merits.
Well, I don't know whether I have power to fall or not. You don't
have that power to fall. Just fall. Just fall. Fall down flat on the merits
of the Savior who laid down his life for us. Amen.