When Don was reading that scripture from Jeremiah 23, I thought I
wish I would have read that to someone this week when they asked
me this question. Can God use somebody who does
not preach the gospel but happens to say something true, gospel
truth, can God use that to bring somebody to a knowledge of his
son. And I answered him, the question is not, can he? The
question is, does he? And the answer is no, he doesn't. Why should he? Why should he
use error? Why should he use that which
is false, even though some truth is spoken? But this 32nd verse
of Jeremiah chapter 23, I wish I would have read this. Behold,
I'm against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord,
and to tell them and cause my people to err by their lies and
by their likeness. Yet I sent them not, nor commanded
them. Therefore, they shall not profit
this people at all. That answers that, doesn't it? First John chapter three. Verse 16, hereby perceive we,
and that's the word that's generally translated know. Hereby know
we the love of God because He laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our
lives for the brethren. I've entitled this message, Coming
to Know Love. Now you'll notice in our text,
of God is in parentheses, it's certainly implied, but it could
just as easily say, hereby have we come to know love. Hereby have we come to understand
love. And here's how we came to know
love. A seven word sentence, all one
syllable words that express the most sublime truth, the most
saving truth, and the most soul satisfying truth that could ever
be spoken by a man. He laid down his life for us. I know ahead of time that I'm
going to fail in saying what ought to be said, but I pretty
much know that every time I preach. I'm not going to say things as
they ought to be said, nor will I say them as they should be
said. I'm sure of that. Guaranteed. One of the difficult
things about preaching is you're guaranteed for failure. Now,
the Lord will bless it, and it's in spite of the preacher, and
he blesses it, and I'm thankful for that. And another thing that's
difficult about preaching is there's not really a gauge of
success. The only gauge of success is telling the truth. That's
the only way you can know if it's successful, telling the
truth. Not how many, not how few, just telling the truth. I know I'm going to fail, but
that doesn't bother me. I still want to give it my best
as the Lord enables us to consider this glorious statement. He laid
down his life for us. Now, with regard to this, I say
with David, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It's high. I cannot attain unto it. So we know this ahead of time.
Now, the first thing I want us to consider in this seven-word
statement, all one-syllable words, yet speak of the most glorious
things that a human being can deal with. Here's the first thing
I want us to consider. Who's the us? He laid down his life for us. Who is the us? Now, somebody may think, well,
why ask that question? Why not simply take it as it
stands? He laid down his life for us. This verse is meaningless
if we don't know who the us is. Why do I say that? What if the
us would refer to all of mankind without exception? every human
being to ever be born. What if the us is all men without
exception? What about those who are in hell
as we thus speak? What would this statement mean
to them if they're consigned to eternal torment, and I wish
I could speak about hell the way it ought to be spoken of.
I don't even like talking about it, but there is a place called
hell, and there are men and women, many men and women in that place,
even as we speak. Now, what would it mean to them
if you said to them, he laid down his life for you? It'd be utterly meaningless,
wouldn't it? What did it do for them? Absolutely nothing. But not only would it have no
meaning for them, it would take away the only hope that I have.
Because the only hope that I have of being in heaven is that Christ
died for me. That's it. And if somebody can
be in hell for whom he died, You've taken away the only hope
I have. Because I know that if somebody
can be in hell, for whom Christ died, and he died for me, I'll
be the one in hell. I just know that. And so you've
taken away the only hope I have, that if he laid down his life
for you, you must be saved. Now this is, who is the us? It's the we who perceive. by,
he says in verse six, hereby perceive we the love of God. He laid down his life for us. That's who the us is, the we
who perceive. This is the same us as the us
spoken of in Romans chapter eight, verse 31. If God be for us, who
can be against us? The us is everybody that God
is for. The us that He laid down His
life for is the elect of God. Romans 8.33 says, Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies.
Who is He that condemns? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather than it's risen.
even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession
for us. The us is the elect of God. The us are the sheep. I lay down
my life to the sheep. Now there are sheep and there
are goats and a goat never becomes a sheep and a sheep never becomes
a goat. You remember on the day of judgment
how he took the People at the end, the sheep from the goats
and separated them one from another, the wicked and the evil, the
sheep and the goats. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. He said to one group, you're
not my sheep. If you're my sheep, you believe.
You believe not because you're not of my sheep, as I said to
you. He didn't say you're a sheep that doesn't believe. He said,
you're not a sheep. There are sheep and there are goats. Who
did Christ lay down His life for? The church. Christ loved
the church and gave Himself for it. Feed the church of God which
He purchased with His own blood. Christ laid down His life for
those the Father gave Him. My Father which gave them Me
is greater than all. No man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand. I like this. When we were yet
without strength to do time, Christ died for the ungodly.
Who did He lay down His life for? Those without strength and
ungodly. Oh, that comes as music to my
ears. He died for those without strength and ungodly. He laid down His life for sinners.
God commended His love toward us in the while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. Would that description fit you?
You might not be real sure if you're one of the elected, you
can know whether or not you're a sinner. If you're a sinner, Christ died
for you. He also said, greater love hath
no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Do you know if Christ died for
you, he counts you his personal friend. Isn't that amazing? Friends
of God. He laid down His life for His
enemies. If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be
saved by His life. Now, there's no understanding
of His death, why He died, and what He accomplished without
knowing who the us is. And I need to deal with this.
Need to always deal with it. The teaching of our day is that
Jesus Christ shed his blood for every son of Adam." John 3.16,
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. See, that means he died for everybody. Doesn't say that, but that's
generally the way people use that. John 3.16, Christ died
for all men without exception. God wants everybody saved. God
wills the salvation of all. Christ died for everybody. But
as to whether or not you're saved, it's up to whether or not you
accept what He did. The ultimate burden of salvation
is in your hands. God wants you to be saved. Christ
died for you. God the Holy Spirit's calling
you. He chooses you to salvation. But salvation is ultimately dependent
upon what you do. Now that teaching, listen to
me, that teaching is damnable doctrine. It's salvation by works. It puts salvation dependent upon
what you do, and that is salvation by works. A man that preaches
that is a false prophet, and a person who believes it is an
unbeliever. You can't look to Christ alone
if you think there's something you need to do to make what he
did work for you. That's not looking to Christ
alone. That's looking to what you do to make what he did work
for you. Now, if the us is all men without
exception, God loves everybody, Christ died for everybody, he
laid down his life for us, for all men. If that's true, the
burden of salvation is on the sinner. If that's true, God's not just
if people go to hell. That means he makes people pay
for the same sin twice. We don't do that in our court
systems and yet people would think God would do that. It denies
God's immutability. It says he desires to save and
then he turns around and desires to damn. It denies his changelessness. It makes the love of God meaningless. When Paul said in Galatians 2.25,
I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave
Himself for me. Now is it possible for God to
love somebody and to give Himself for them and they wind up being
damned? Why that makes the love of God meaningless and powerless. It's a denial that salvation
is 100% grace. It makes the Lord a failure.
If He intended to save somebody, and they end up not being saved,
that means He failed in His attention. It makes Him a failure. It limits
the power of His blood. His blood alone is not sufficient,
if that's the case. He was wrong when He said, when
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. That's all God said, when
I see the blood. Not when I see what you do with
the blood. But when I see the blood, I will. pass over you. That's every believer's
hope. If man's will is the turning
point as to whether or not the blood of Christ will work, that
means man's will trumps God's will, and man's will is sovereign
over God's will. If God can want somebody to be
saved and that man says no, It's a denial of the satisfaction
of the blood. It says his blood didn't really
make satisfaction to the justice of God. It robs Christ of getting
all the glory. You get some of the glory. It's
what you did that makes what he did work for you. And I repeat,
it takes away the only hope I have, that Christ died for me. I have no other hope. Now he laid down his life for
us. Who laid down his life for us?
He laid down his life for us. Who's he? I'd love for somebody
to ask me this question. Wouldn't it be great if tomorrow
somebody came up to you and said, can you tell me just exactly
who Jesus Christ really is? Wouldn't you love to have the
opportunity to try to answer that question and glorify him? He laid down his life. Now all of the success of him
laying down his life depends on who he is. I love it when
the disciples said to one another, and I would like to have been
there, I'd like to have heard the way they said, what manner
of man is this? That even the winds and the seas
obey him. I tell you what manner of man
he is. He's a God man. In him, dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body. All that God is, Jesus Christ
is. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body. Now, who He is is what makes
what He did successful. See, God's holy. Amen? God's righteous. God must punish sin as the judge
of the earth. He would be unjust. He would
be wrong. He would not be holy if he did
not punish sin. I can remember when I was a kid,
I used to think, boy, I wish God wouldn't punish sin. I'd
think, I wish he wasn't so strict. I wish he could just forgive
sin and not punish it. But you know, if he was like
that, This world would be nothing but anarchy. It wouldn't be right. God must punish sin. I've sinned. Man sinned. Man must die. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. That's what the scripture says.
Man must die. Here's the problem. If man dies,
he can't satisfy. He can't satisfy the justice
of God. Now the easiest illustration
I can think of is if somebody murders my daughter, no matter
what kind of punishment they experience, I'm never gonna be
satisfied. You wouldn't be either. You would not be satisfied. Man cannot satisfy. You know the only one who can
satisfy God? You know, God. God's the only
one who could satisfy. But there's something about God.
He can't die. He's the eternal, infinite, supreme
being. He can't die. So what do we do? Man can't satisfy. God can't
die. Although God's the only one who
can satisfy God. The God-man did both. He died. That's one of the most
mysterious things to me, that the God-man can die. I can't
explain that, but the God-man actually died. I never will forget
somebody calling me and saying, the God part of it didn't die,
it was just the man part. I think, oh, you can answer a
question like that? The God-man died. And he completely
satisfied God. He did what no other man could
do. That's why God raised him from the dead. You see, the success
of what he did is totally dependent upon who he is. He is the eternal,
uncreated God of gods, Lord of lords, and King of kings. He's
the well-beloved. He's the only begotten Son. He's the All-Together Lovely
One, the Ancient of Days, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the
Son of Mary, Emmanuel, the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the
Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the Great I Am. He's
the brightness of God's glory and the express image of His
person. He's the Lion of the tribe of
Judah. I love that passage of scripture in Revelation chapter
5 when John, or the angel said to John, we've not! The Lion
of the tribe of Judah has prevailed to open the book. And he said,
I looked, and what did he see? A lamb as it had been slain. The Lion of the tribe of Judah,
who is the Lamb of God, Jehovah Jesus, He is the one who laid
down His life. He laid down His life for us. Now He is the only one to ever
do this. He's the only one who ever laid
down His life. Now you think, now wait a minute,
there are people who died for their country? How many people have
laid down their lives fighting for their country? Well, they
did, no doubt about that. They laid down their lives, but
we thankful for what they've done and so on, but they'd have
to die sometime, wouldn't they? Even if they died, somebody may
have taken their own life. Well, they laid down their life,
didn't they? Well, they had to die sometime
anyway. To see the thing that is the Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one who ever had the choice. He's the only one who could have
ever not died. He said, I laid down my life
for myself. No man takes it from me. I have
power to lay it down. I have power to take it up. This
commandment have I received of my father. When he laid down
his life, he willingly, lovingly, and voluntarily laid down his
life. He didn't have to. He didn't
have to die. There wasn't a necessity in Christ
dying. He could have kept the law perfectly
and gone back to heaven. He didn't have to die. But he
willingly, lovingly, purposely, voluntarily laid down his life. He did what he wanted to do.
And I think of the love that demonstrates to the Father. He
was gonna do what his father wanted him to do even though
it killed him. That's how much he loved his
father. And oh, the love it demonstrates
to everybody he laid his life down for. I love that song we
sing. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he could love me. a sinner,
condemned, unclean. I stand amazed by that, that
He would love me. Me. It wasn't a generic death. He had the names of all of His
elect. My name was on His heart. My name. He loved me and laid
down His life for me. husbands love your wives as Christ
also loved the church and gave himself for it." When God sent
his Son, he gave everything. He's the only one who could ever
lay down his life. Nobody else has ever done it.
Everybody else had to die. He's the only one who had the
choice of I love the way he said, Father, into thy hands I commend
my spirit. And he gave up the ghost. He's
the only one who ever did that. He gave death permission to come
and take him at that time. It couldn't take him unless he
said, you can come now. Now, what did he accomplish by
this laying down of his life for us? Well, first of all, the
glory of God. I've glorified thee on the earth.
I've finished the work thou gavest me to do. He completely glorified
God by that act. Every attribute of God in full
display by that glorious act of Him laying down His life. What did He accomplish? Well,
we're there in 1 John chapter 3, look at verse 5. And you know
that He was manifested to take away our sins and in him is no
sin. What that means is my sin. Everybody
he laid down his life for. My sin was to be not no sin. Hebrews 1 3. Oh I love to think of this. It says I'm so thankful for the
wording of this when he had purged our sins. No. When he had by Himself purged our sins. That means I had nothing to do
with this. He did it without my help. He
did it without anything from me. He did it all by himself. You know that saying, if you
want something done right, do it yourself? We've all thought
that. Well, I tell you what, he knew
that, didn't he? If you want something done right, do it yourself.
And He did it Himself. Now, by His death, Colossians
1.20 says, He made peace by the blood of His cross. And through
that making of peace, He made every believer holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in His sight. He put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. This is what he did by laying
down his life. He made everybody he laid down
his life for as holy as himself. And that's what he did. You know,
people talk about, like, you need to do something to be holy. You don't do something to become
holy. That's a blasphemy. That's a complete contradiction
of what holiness is. His holiness is the only holiness.
And he made us holy by his bloody death on Calvary's tree. He laid
down his life for us. Yes, he did it willingly. Yes,
he did it voluntarily. He laid down his life for us.
And he did not stay dead, though. He laid down His life for us,
but you know what else He did? He was raised from the dead.
You know, you think of that scripture where He said, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from Me. What was in that cup? The sins
of His people. Yes, it was the wrath of God,
but you can't even think of the wrath of God if you don't think
of sin. It was the sins of His people that He drank. And you
know what He did? He drank that cup dry. They're all born. And when he was raised from the
dead, it's because all of those sins were put away and made to
be no more. You're looking at somebody right
now without sin. I don't have anything to feel
guilty about. I always feel guilty, but I don't have anything to
feel guilty about because I am perfectly accepted in the beloved
without sin. Oh, God is love and God must
display his love. It's not just saying, I love
you. Oh, he displayed his love in giving his son. He gave everything. God's no small giver. He said,
oh, when he gives, how he gives. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall it not also with him
freely give us all things? Now, I'd like to draw three conclusions
from this. He laid down his life for us. Three conclusions. Number one, how evil must our sin really
be? That the only way it could be
put away is by the death of the Son of God. Every sin that I've ever committed He had to be punished for. How bad is your sin? How bad is my sin? The only answer to that is the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. We've never even had a clue about
the evil of sin if we haven't seen our sin in the light of
the cross. The sins that I've committed
the son of God was forsaken and killed by his father for when
they actually became his and he became guilty of them. And
that's what God thinks of sin. Now there's the first conclusion
from he laid down his life for us. How bad must my sin be. Oh, don't you hate for yourself
for not hating yourself enough about your sin? Don't you hate
for yourself for being so hard-hearted about your sin that you could
hear this and not just faint? I so much look forward to that
time when I drop this flesh and I won't have to deal with sin
anymore. Won't have to deal with a hard heart anymore. Won't have
to deal with a guilty conscience anymore. Won't have to deal with
trying to look to myself all the time anymore. It's so... Here's the second conclusion. How he must love us. How he must love us. that he would lay down his life
for us. There is no greater love than
this, that he would take my sins and my sorrows and make them
his very own and bear the burden to Calvary and suffer and die
alone. How he must love us. Dare I think that this was for
me, I am, I'm rock solid. I'm not
rock solid on anything, but as far as what I, as much as I can
be, I'm rock solid on particular redemption, limited. It's just
true. It's true. It's what the Bible
teaches. I despise anything contrary to
it. Hate it. Won't listen to it.
Rock solid. Okay. But how do I know he died
for me? That's the big question. How
do I know he died for me? Let me ask you four brief questions. Number one, are you a sinner? You can answer that. Are you
a sinner? Because he died for sinners. One of my favorite passages of
scripture is Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,
of whom Paul said, I am the chief. And I'm so thankful that he didn't
put any adjective before it. He didn't say believing sinners.
He didn't say elect sinners. He didn't say repentant sinners. He didn't say regenerate sinners.
He didn't even say, and I've always thought that it's funny,
the Puritans used to talk about sensible sinners. I thought sinners
were stupid. There's no such thing as a sensible
sinner. He died for just sinners. If that's you, he died for you. Second question, do you need
his death? Do you need a sick patient? Do
you need? The whole need not a physician,
but they are sick. He healed them that had need
of healing. Do you need him to die for you? Thirdly, are you a whosoever? Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord should be saved. God so loved the world that whosoever
believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Are you a whosoever? A whosoever
right now, Lord, save me. And here's the last way to know if he died for you.
Is he all you got? Is he your only ground of salvation? That's it. Nothing else. If he
is, yes, he died for you. How must he love us that he laid
down his life? And here's the third rock solid
conclusion. How secure we are. You reckon
He could lay down His life for you and you wind up being damned?
There's no way. He's going to have that which
He paid for. How safe, how secure you are. He laid down His life. for you. You're safe. You can't
be anything but saved. You can't be anything but accepted.
You can't be anything but perfect. Right now. How safe? You couldn't
be any safer. And look at the last statement
in verse 16. Hereby perceive we the love of
God because he laid down his life for us and we ought, we ought to lay down our lives for the
brethren. Now, let me remind you how this
ought affect us. Somebody's thinking, well, my
brethren ought to be laying down their lives for me. Don't think
that way. Don't think that way. But we
ought to lay down our lives for the brethren, that special, you
know, that's a special, the brethren, Inasmuch as you've done it to
the least of these, my brethren, you've done it to me. Inasmuch
as you've done it not to the least of these, my brethren,
you've done it unto me. Now, I love John 3 16, but I
also love 1 John 3 16. laid down his life for us. Let's pray. Lord, how we, man, we don't even know how to praise
you and thank you as we ought. that he laid down his life for
us. Lord, will you deliver us from
looking to ourselves for some hope of salvation and find all
of our salvation in this? He laid down his life for us. And Lord, cause that thought
to make us want to lay down our lives for the brethren. Bless
this message for your glory and for our good. In Christ's name
we pray.