The Apostle Paul wrote to the
church at Corinth and expressed the fear that Satan would corrupt
their minds from the simplicity that is in Jesus Christ. He said,
as Satan in his subtlety and craftiness deceived our mother
Eve, I fear lest you be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Jesus Christ. And Satan will do that. And he
has done that. In many places he's doing that
because how strange and complicated many preachers and many religious
professors try to make this matter of faith and salvation. It's
complicated. And that's Satan in his subtlety
taking men's minds off the simplicity of Christ. For example, the Jews
ask our Lord, after asking him many questions about the resurrection
and questions about tribute money, Finally, one of them said to
him, Master, which is the greatest law? Which is the greatest law
of all? And our Lord replied, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength,
and thy neighbor as thyself. That's simplicity. On these two
hang all the law and the prophets. And then the Pharisees ask him
one day, well, what shall we do that we might work the works
of God? Now, that can be complicated.
We'd complicate it. What shall we do that we may
work the works of God? And Christ replied, this is the
work of God, that you believe on him whom God hath sent. That's
the work of God. That's simplicity. And then the
jailer down in Philippi, the Philippian jailer, asked Paul.
He rushed in and fell on his knees and he looked at the apostle
Paul. And he said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Now can
you imagine some of the answers that he would receive in this
day if he asked that question? If he asked it of this preacher,
or that preacher, or this soul winner, or that soul winner,
or this denomination, or that denomination, or perhaps if he
went down to the seminary, or to the Bible college, or somewhere
and asked that question, what must I do to be saved? Oh, the
complicated response that he'd get today. But how did Paul reply?
Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And Paul replied, believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house. Now that's simplicity. That's
simplicity. You know, I read one time that
great truths and great thoughts can be expressed in simple words. Great truths and great thoughts
can usually be expressed in simple words. For example, thank you. What's greater than that? What
greater truth or thought can you express than thank you? And
yet it's just two one-syllable words. Or suppose I love you. That's so simple, isn't it? Yet
it's a great, profound theme. I love you. What about this? God bless you. That's three simple,
one-syllable words, and yet the great thought behind it. God
bless you. Thank you. And listen to the
Scriptures. It says, as you would, that men
should do unto you, do ye even so unto them. Well, what about
this? This is my commandment, that
you love one another as I have loved you." What are you saying,
Preacher? I'm saying that the Word of God
in its expression and teaching is simple. It's not complicated
like today's religion. It's not complicated and intellectual. It's just simple one- and two-syllable
words. This is my commandment, that
you love one another. As I have loved you. Listen to
this. No man can serve two masters.
That's reasonable, isn't it? And simple. And understandable. No man can serve two masters.
It's an impossibility. You cannot serve God and serve
mammon. Or what about this? Abraham believed
God. And it was counted to him for
righteousness. He believed God. And it wasn't
written for his sake alone. that it was imputed to him for
righteousness, but for our sake also, to whom righteousness shall
be charged if we believe on him who raised our Lord Jesus Christ
from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and crucified
for our sins." You know, while simple words convey great thoughts,
someone said feeble thoughts and feeble ideas have to be dressed
up in complicated rhetoric and fine language. The more feeble
the thought, the more rhetoric we need, the more oratory, the
more complicated terms. Someone said this, the intellectual
preachers need Latin words to express man's religion, but God's
servants are content to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in
simple language in the Spirit of God and with understanding. And I'm going to try to do that
today. Here's my text, here's my topic, here's my subject. 1 John 3, verse 16. Now listen
to this. Talk about simplicity. Talk about
a profound and glorious theme in the most simple word. Listen
to it. Here's my text. Hereby perceive we, hereby understand
we the love of God. Because, seven one-syllable words,
he laid down his life for us. I tell you, here's the most profound,
the most sublime, the most glorious truth in all the world, the greatest
truth ever put in human language, the greatest truth that human
ear can hear, and yet it's proclaimed in seven simple, uncomplicated,
one-syllable words. He, the Lord of Glory, laid down,
gave voluntarily His life, His life even to the death of the
cross for us. He laid down His life for us. Now, there are four lessons that
I see in this fact that Christ laid down his life for us, and
the first one is this, and I want you to listen very carefully.
The first truth is this. Who is it? Who is it that has
laid down his life? Now, my friends, there's no understanding
the death of Christ. There's no understanding the
death of Christ or that which was accomplished by the death
of Christ, unless we understand the person of Christ. We're not
going to be able to understand the sufficiency of his death. We're not going to be able to
understand what was accomplished by his death, unless we understand
something of the person who died, the efficacy. Now listen to me. The value and the efficacy of
the death of Christ depends totally on who Christ is. He laid down his life for us. There's where the greatest emphasis
is. He laid down his life for us. Now, if I told you that God died
for us, if I told you today that God died for us on the cross
of Calvary, there's some truth in that. There's an element of
truth in that. For God was in Christ reconciling
the world to himself. But you wouldn't understand what
I was talking about, and you couldn't believe it, and you
couldn't rejoice in it, because simply God can't die. God can't
die. God can't lie. God can't die. God cannot do wrong. God is life. And in him there is no death
and no darkness. So if I told you today, he laid
down his life for us, and I said now that he is God, and God alone,
well, you'd have no cause to rejoice because you'd come right
back and say, Preacher, God can't die. God is life. Or I suppose
I told you that a man, that a man died for us, that a man named
Jesus of Nazareth, died on the cross for us. Now, you'd admire
his kindness, and you'd appreciate his love, and you'd have great
respect for him, but you still couldn't rejoice, you still couldn't
give thanks, because a man's death would never satisfy the
holy law of God, a man's death could never satisfy the justice
of God, if all the men in all the world died. It still wouldn't
satisfy the infinite holiness and justice of God. Are you with
me? He. Who laid down His life? Who is this He who laid down
His life for us? Well, we can't just say He's
God, though He is. We can't just say He's man, though
He is. We say this, He's the God-man. You see, Jesus Christ, who was
born of Mary, and lived on this earth for thirty-three and a
half years and died on that cross, is no mere man. He is indeed
a man. But he is the God-man. Now this
is the very foundation of our faith. This is the very foundation
of our cause to rejoice. This is the foundation of our
hope. God became a man. That's what it's all about. That's
what he announced in Genesis 3, 15, when God said, the seed
of woman The seed of woman shall bruise the serpent's head. The
serpent is Satan who used the serpent, and his head is his
government, power, authority. And the seed of woman, and no
man is the seed of woman, woman doesn't have a seed. We're all
the seed of man because we're naturally born, but Jesus Christ
is the seed of woman. Behold, the Lord himself shall
give you a sign, a virgin shall conceive without the aid of a
man, and bring forth a son, you call his name Immanuel, God with
us. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and all things
were made by him. Without him was not anything
made that was made, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us. And we beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, for the full of
grace and truth." So Jesus Christ is God in human flesh. Matthew
121, when the angel announced the birth of Jesus of Nazareth,
he said, that holy thing which Mary carries in her womb is the
Son of God. A holy thing. It's never been
known before or since. A holy thing. It's the Son of
God, Immanuel, God with us. You see, God was in Christ. He's the God-man. That's what
Scripture teaches. Man can't satisfy nothing that
God requires, anything that God requires. Man can't satisfy,
and God can't suffer. God, man cannot satisfy, but
man can suffer. God cannot suffer, but God can
satisfy. So Jesus Christ became the God-man. Perfect God, very God of very
God, perfect man. And no one knows the sufficiency. You say, what does sufficiency
mean? It means he gets the job done. No one knows the efficacy. What do you mean by efficacy?
It's sufficient. The debt is paid. The price is
paid. And no one knows the glory of
the death of Christ until he understands the person of Christ.
I hear them singing a song, Jesus saved, Jesus saved. No, but the
Lord Jesus saved. A man called Jesus can't save,
but Jesus, the Lord, is able to save. In Adam we die, in Christ
we're made alive. The first Adam is of the earth,
earthy. The second Adam is the Lord from
heaven. You see how clear that is? He,
He laid down His life for us. Who is He that condemns? It's
Christ that died. Yea, rather, is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession
for us. Now that's plain, isn't it? The
God-man. All right, secondly, if He died
that we might live, how great must be our sins. Now this is
another thing that most people do not understand, and preachers
do not make it clear, that our sins are great. If our sins,
if this thing of sin, this sin business, this sin business against
God, and that's what David said, I've sinned against God. If this
sin business can only be forgiven, can only be blotted out and atoned
for by the death of the Son of God, how evil and corrupt sin
must be. Now, we take it lightly and we
joke about sin and we ridicule the preacher preaching against
sin and so forth, but this thing of sin, Paul called it the sinfulness
of sin, the evil of sin. Sin is not just an act, it's
a nature. It's a principle that dwells
within us. It produces evil deeds. And this business of understanding
the sinfulness of sin and the corruption of the human heart
is a work that only the Holy Spirit can perform. And the Holy
Spirit, using the Word of God, enables us to view sin in several
lights. I'll give you four. First of
all, the Holy Spirit enables us to see sin in the light of
God's law. Paul said, I would not have known
sin had not the law said, thou shalt not covet. Thou shalt not
covet. And when he saw that, when the
law reached his heart, he saw that he had a covetous heart.
He had a murmuring heart. He had an unthankful heart. He
had a dissatisfied heart that he murmured against the providence
and purpose of God. He was not content with who he
was and what he had and what he knew. And then we're convicted
of sin in the light of God's power and majesty. You know,
when the Apostle Peter saw our Lord performed that great miracle
of the catching of the whole net full of fish, he was so astounded
by the power and majesty and control of Christ over even the
fish of the sea, he shook his head and he said, Lord, depart
from me. I'm a sinful man. I'm a weak, sinful man. He saw
sin. He saw himself in the light of
God's power and greatness. And then the Holy Spirit enables
us to see sin in the light of God's character. Isaiah saw God
in his holiness, in his immutable, infinite holiness, and he cried,
woe is me. Job saw the Lord in the light
of his wisdom, and his might, and his majesty, and his control
or sovereignty over all things, and he cried, I hate myself. And then we see sin in the light
of Christ's death. For nothing can put away sin
but the death of Christ. That's how deep-dyed and evil
sin is. It takes the blood of God to
put it away. The stain is so deep, and the
dye has run so deep, double-dyed, red like crimson, that it takes
the blood of God's Son to put it away. The Jewish sacrifices
couldn't put away sin. The blood of bulls and goats
cannot put away sin. Works and deeds cannot put away
sin. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified. Religion can't put away sin.
Professions of faith can't put away sin. Even repentance and
faith cannot put away sin. Even hell cannot put away sin.
Now think about that. For a man may spend eternity
in hell and still not be rid of his sins. But the scripture
says Christ hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. All your sin, my sin. Past, present,
and future. Sins of omission, commission.
Sins of anger and hatred. Sins of lust and passion. Sins of ingratitude. Sins inwardly
and outwardly. Secretly and openly. Sins. Oh, so many sins. From the sole
of our feet to the top of our head. In dreams and motive and
attitude and spirit and conduct and words and actions. Sins. And yet he's blotted them out.
Put them away, cast them into the depths of the sea by the
blood of his Son. Sin is what we are. Sins is what
we've done. And there's evil even in our
best deeds. And God, being God, must punish
sin. You see, if you have a God that
does not punish sin, then you have a God who's not holy. And
if you have a God who's not holy, you have a wrong God. God cannot
compromise His holiness. My sins, O the bliss of that
glorious thought, my sins, not in part, but the whole, are nailed
to the cross, and I bear them no more. Praise the Lord. Praise
the Lord, O my soul. All right. Thirdly, that's plain,
isn't it? He, the God-man, laid down His
life for us. Why? Because we're such great
sinners. I'm weary of people who are unwilling
to take their place before God as a sinner. I can understand
them defending their righteousness and their cause in the courts
of men. But my soul, when you stand in
the court of God Almighty, in the supreme heavenly court, you
have no defense. You have no alibi. You have no
excuse. Don't claim to be what you're
not before God. You're a sinner. I'm a sinner.
There's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that understand
it. There's none that do us good. There's none that seek us after
God. We all together become unprofitable. That's right. Like sheep have
gone astray. But he laid down his life for
us. That's the good news. Did he lay down his life for
us? Thirdly, then how great must be his love. How great must be
his love. Greater love hath no man than
this. That he lay down his life for his friends. But God commended
his love toward us. And while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. Christ didn't die for his friends.
He died for enemies. He died for the ungodly. You
know, when I think of the love of God that chose us, and He
did, in love He chose us from all eternity and made us a part
of that everlasting covenant. Rejoice, our Lord says, that
your names are written in the book of life. I'm amazed. I'm amazed that God should choose
me and you. Christ said, you didn't choose
me, I chose you. And when I think of his love that predestinated
us to be conformed to the image of his Son, that's what Paul
wrote in Ephesians, in love he predestinated us to the adoption
of children, according to the good pleasure of his own will,
and gave us an inheritance incorruptible and defiled that fadeth not away,
I'm amazed. I'm amazed at his love. And then
when I think of his love of purpose and providence, that protected
us, and hedged us about, and fed us, and clothed us, and called
us, and kept us, and met every need for us according to His
riches and glory through Christ Jesus. God took care of His own
and called us by His grace. I'm amazed. I'm amazed. Why should
He love me so? Can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's blood? Died He for me? who him to death
pursued amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, should
die for me? And when I contemplate what awaits
the believer in glory, think of it, what awaits every believer
in glory, in the presence of God Almighty, I'm overwhelmed,
but when I see the Son of God in human flesh, actually numbered
with the transgressors, actually numbered with the transgressors.
He became one with us. Bone of our bone and flesh of
our flesh. Took on himself the likeness
of sinful flesh. And before the court of heaven
he became a transgressor. That's exactly right. He bore
our sins in his body. He took our sins in himself. When I consider that, when I
consider that our Lord Jesus Christ actually took our sins
in his body on the tree and endured not only the wrath of hell and
the wrath of men and the wrath of governments, but the wrath
of heaven. For he cried, My God, why hast
thou forsaken me? When I think of that, forsaken
of God, I say, that's the love of God. That's where the love
of God is seen more than any other place. Not in everlasting
covenant, though it's there. Not in his preserving providential
care, it's there. Not even in his calling to faith,
it's there. But when I see him suffering
on the cross, bearing our sin in his body as our sin offering
and our sacrifice and our substitute, I say there's the love of God.
There's the love of God. So much that the Apostle Paul
writing to the church at Rome said this, Who can lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
can condemn? It is Christ that died. And who
can separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation? distress,
famine, pestilence, sorrow, nay, and all these things were more
than conquerors through him that loved us. I'm persuaded, he said,
that neither height, nor depth, nor width, nor breadth, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor any other creature can separate us from that glorious
love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord, in Jesus Christ
crucified. O love of God, how rich, how
pure, how measureless, how strong! It shall forevermore endure the
saints' and angels' songs. Could we with ink the ocean fill,
and were the skies of parchment made, and every stalk on earth
a quill, and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of
God above, would drain that ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain
the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. Yes, he laid aside
his crown of glory and wore a crown of thorns. He laid aside his
robe of brightness and took a robe of flesh. He laid aside his scepter
to hold the mocking reed. He laid aside all of his glory
in heaven that he might bear our sins. He thirsted that I
might drink the water of life. He died that I might live. That's
love. That's love. Now here's the last
point. Did he lay down his life for
us? Then how safe we must be. You know it's foolish to talk
of someone perishing for whom Christ died. I think folks walk
down a church aisle and still perish. I think folks shake a
preacher's hand and still perish. I think folks be baptized and
still perish. I think folks get religion and
still perish. I think folks can turn over a
new leaf. and reform their ways and still perish. But my friend,
I'm telling you this, a man will never perish if Christ died for
him. No, sir. My faith's not perfect, but his
is. My life's not perfect, but his is. My works are not perfect,
but his is. And in his life, I have a perfect
holiness, and in his death, I have a perfect justification. Not
even a devil or an angel or even the Father himself can lay one
thing to the charge of one for whom Christ died. If He died
for us, how safe we must be, secure under the blood of Jesus,
safe in the shepherd's fold, under the blood of Jesus, safe
while the ages roll, safe though the world may crumble, safe though
the stars grow dim. If I'm under the blood of Jesus,
I'm secure in Him. He laid down his life for us. He did for me, and I'm safe and
secure.