Open your Bibles to 1 John chapter
3. Back in the book of Corinthians,
Paul talked about his fear. He said, I fear lest Satan should
corrupt your minds from the simplicity of Christ. Like he, through his subtlety,
deceived our Mother Eve, and got her mind and love and attention
away from God to something else. And he said, I'm afraid. I'm
afraid lest Satan should corrupt our minds from the simplicity
of Christ. That's one of my fears. And he
will, and he can. In many cases he does. But not
today. I feel like Paul, when he said
in 1 Corinthians 2, I'm determined today to know nothing among you
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I'm determined. And to assure
you of that, I'm going to read just seven words. This is a seven-word
text. 1 John 3, verse 16, underlines
seven words in verse 16. He laid down his life for us. See verse sixteen, Hereby perceive
we the love of God. Here it is. Here's the love of
God. Here's the love of God, because
here we see the love of God. He laid down his life for us. Now here's the most profound,
the most sublime, The most glorious truth that human ear can possibly
hear in seven simple one-syllable words, He laid down His life
for us. That's the most, that's the most
profound truth, most profound glorious truth that the human
ear can hear, and there's not one complicated word in the entire
sentence. Not one. Someone repeated to
me what I said last Wednesday night. If you think my messages
are simple, or maybe too simple, I'm going to make them more simple. can always be expressed in simple
words. I mean great thoughts. Big things. Monumental things. What's more simple than thank
you? Huh? But what's better to hear? Now come on, think about it.
You see what I'm saying? Thank you. What about, I love you. Boy, I tell you, all
the money in the world can't buy that. All the riches in the
world can't buy what that means when it's spoken in truth. I
love you. Then I have everything I need
if somebody loves me. See what I'm talking about? Great
thoughts. These people write all these heavy poems, all that
rhetoric, you know, and all that fancy talk and all this sort
of thing. Like one fella said one time,
little preachers need Latin words to express their little ideas. But God's servants are always
content to preach the gospel with the understanding. I love you. What about this? What greater thing could be spoken
than this? God bless you. God bless you. One time the Apostle Thomas fell
at the feet of the Lord. He said five words. He fell at the feet of Christ,
the Son of God. This was a sort of a climax of
Everything the Lord had taught him, everything he'd learned,
everything he'd experienced, everything he'd felt, everything
that God had for him, everything he had for God, he just fell
at his feet and said, My Lord and my God. Oh, how simple. How we could learn from that?
We learn slow. We learn slow. Great thoughts,
great sublime, profound thoughts are always expressed in simple
words, but feeble thoughts have to be dressed up. Feeble thoughts, feeble human,
natural thoughts have to be dressed up in fine language and rhetoric. I would speak today not for your
admiration at all. I would preach today for your
edification, for your well-being. And I say, he that hath ears
to hear, let him hear. I have four lessons from these
simple seven words. He laid down his life for us. And the first lesson is this.
Who is this one who laid down his life? Who is this one who
laid down his life for me and for you? Now, there's no understanding. It doesn't matter who you are.
Whether it's this preacher, or whether it's my schoolteacher
friend, Brother Ron Trabant, or whether it's Chuck who's visiting,
whether it's from Lexington, or whether it's you who sat here
for years, or Mike, or Clarence, Whoever you are, there's no understanding,
I don't care what your background, educational background, heritage,
ancestry, doctrinal position, creed, catechism, or age, or
whatever, there's no understanding the death of Jesus Christ without
understanding the person of Jesus Christ. Now that's clear, and
who is this man who laid down his life? Who is this? Now that's
important. Who is this? They say, He laid
down His life for us. Who? Who laid down His life? Well,
if I told you that God died for us, God laid down His life for
us, although there's a truth there now. There's a truth there. It's got to be said with some
understanding, God died for us. You'd say, well, I don't understand
that. God can't die. And he can't. God is life. God can't die. God can't suffer. God can't bleed. And although there's an element
of truth there, that wouldn't help you. You don't understand
this thing yet. If that's all you can... All
the preachers said, God laid down His life for you. They still
don't understand it. You still can't. It means very
little. And then if I told you that Jesus You know, one of the men said
to me last night, we were talking, and he said back before he came
to an understanding, some understanding of grace and of the salvation
of Christ and the gospel of God, and he was very religious and
in church. But a man said to him one day,
he said, he quoted David, quoted David talking about Christ. And
this man said to his friend, he said, well, now that was what
David said. That was before Christ. That's
what David said. He said, I didn't realize that
before David was, Christ is. He said, well, I didn't realize.
Christ didn't begin in Bethlehem. You know, those people said,
we have Abraham, our father, and Christ said, before Abraham
was, I am. And if I said to you that Jesus
of Nazareth died, a man died for us, you'd say, well, I admire
his kindness and I admire his sacrifice, but no mere man's
death can satisfy God's infinite justice, can it? If Jesus Christ
is only God, he can't die. If Jesus Christ is only a man,
it doesn't do him any good to die. Or it doesn't do me any
good. But Jesus Christ is the God-man. Do you see what I'm saying? He's
God in human flesh. And that's what makes his death
effectual. That's what makes his death sufficient. You don't know anything, anything
of the sufficiency, the efficacy, or the glory of the death of
Jesus Christ until you have some understanding of who is Jesus
Christ. And God goes to great lengths
to let us know who He is. He said in the Old Testament,
He called Him the seed of woman. In the Old Testament, He said,
Behold, the Lord Himself will give you a sign, something by
which you can, some evidence by which you can know who Jesus
Christ is. A virgin shall be with child,
And you'll call His name Emmanuel, which is God with us. A fleshly
girl, a natural woman, a human being is going to have in her
womb a child. And when that child is born,
call Him God with us. That's pretty clear, isn't it?
That's who He is. That's who He is. And then Isaiah
said again, under us a child is born, a son is given. God in human flesh, that's incarnation. And His name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. So He laid down His life, that
holy thing, that absolutely incomprehensible
thing, never has been before. God in human flesh. That's right. God has sent angels down here
to speak to men. God has sent messengers to speak
to men. But God never had come down in
human flesh and spoke to men. A body hast thou prepared me.
That's right. That's who He is. And that's
the only way. You see, That's the thing that'll
stop all the debating and all this about here, the efficacy
of his death, the sufficiency of his death, the goal of his
death, the accomplishments of his death, the awesomeness of
his death, the mystery about his death. This'll clear up all
that when you realize who died? God in human flesh. You see,
God Because of His infinite character, He is spirit, He's infinite,
then He can, God can satisfy infinite need, infinite requirements. He can produce an infinite righteousness. But God can't suffer. And a man can suffer, but he
can't produce anything. He can't satisfy anything. Because of sin, you see, the
leper can't change his spot, and the Ethiopian, we can't do
good. But we can suffer. So God, with His infinite ability
and power and character, takes on Himself flesh. And being man, being a man, He
can thirst. He can be tempted. You can't
tempt God. God can't be tempted. But man
can. Man can suffer. Man knows what
it is to be tried. But man can't satisfy. But God
in human flesh can meet her all head on. That's the strong woman. That's the master. That's our
representative. That's our Lord. There's your
comfort. All right. Secondly, He laid down His life
for us. He did. Oh, if He laid down His life
for us, how great must be our sins. I really, you know, sinners are
hard to find. I told them a class this morning,
somebody sent me an article out of the paper, Charleston, Blitz
Charleston paper. And they made a survey in West
Virginia recently, and they asked people, they asked them, If you
died tonight, would you go to heaven or hell? This is just
a cross-section of folks in the mall and everywhere over West
Virginia. I've been telling you this. Eighty
percent were certain they'd go to heaven. Eighty percent. And fourteen percent weren't
quite sure. A little bit uneasy about it. But they were alright. Only six
out of a hundred said, we're lost. You know, a sinner's hard
to find. You know, that's 94 people out
of every hundred you meet in the United States of America
believe they're going to heaven or have a reasonable hope. Folks don't know they're sinners.
They haven't been convinced of sin. They don't know the exceeding
sinfulness of sin. They don't know how God's wrath
and angers turned against sin. If our sins, if our sins are
so great they can only be atoned for, brought it out and forgiven
by the death of God in human flesh, they must be pretty bad. Do you know that? They must be pretty corrupt.
They must be pretty evil. You're not always not too bad. I'm not what you call a bad feller.
No, you're not what I'd call a bad feller if you were what
God would call one. Because God judges you differently than what
I... I wouldn't call you a bad feller, my. I'm not what you'd
call a bad feller either. But we're both what He calls
stinking. This business of understanding
sin, Having some understanding of the sinfulness of sin and
conviction of sin is the work of God's Spirit. Now, I'm going
to give you my own experience, and I may be describing yours,
I don't know, but I've seen this thing of business of sin in different
ways over the years. My first recollection of the
matter of sin, my first recollection was in the light of authority,
parental authority. Now you think with me. My first
recollection. Parental authority, school teachers,
older brother, uncles and aunts. What are you talking about? I'm
talking about, I never had any thought that day about sinning
against God. I didn't want to displease my
daddy. And my mother, that's the way I thought. I didn't want
much teachers mad at me. That's what seeing was to me.
You'll pardon the reference, but I had an uncle that cussed
a lot. And I was enamored with his language
when I was six years old. I heard him say, damn, several
times. I never will forget this. But
I got a hold of that word in my, about my third day in the
first grade. I remember the teacher, Miss
Rice, she made a profound impression on me. That's been 54 years ago. But
we had our little class that morning, we had nap time. We put our little old pallets
on the floor, you know, and she went out the door, I thought, And I looked up and saw the door
open. I said, somebody shut the damn door. And I looked and there she was,
all 200 pounds of her. Seeing it. You understand that? I never forgot that. She wouldn't
let me forget. I resented authority, but that was all sin was to me.
You know that when we were kids. Don't get too excited when a
seven-year-old makes a profession of faith. Now, that wasn't nice,
but that's so anyway. But his only concept of sin,
his only conception of this matter of sin is pleasing you, upsetting
you, upsetting authority. I saw sin in the light of God's
law, Sinai's law. That's my next experience with
this thing of consideration of sin. I was taught and I understood
that you were not to take God's name in vain. I know a lot of
people did it, but it just wasn't right. And I knew it wasn't right
to curse God. And I knew it wasn't right to
lie. I shouldn't lie. I knew it wasn't right to commit
adultery. I knew it wasn't right to kill. I knew it wasn't right
to covet. I knew I ought to honor my father
and mother. Those laws, I met those laws as just a teenager,
a young person. I ran into those laws. They were
on the walls of our schools, and I was taught that those things
were wrong, and I knew they were wrong. That was my idea, understanding
of sin. Did you come that direction?
God's laws. It's a good law. It's a right
law. And even as a teenager, I agreed
with it. It was a right law. But that
wasn't enough. Out then, when I got a little
older, I saw sin in the light of God's power and majesty. It's like David said, when I
consider the heavens, the work of thy hands, the sun, the moon,
the stars, the things God's made, I certainly, as I got a little
older, I found out this is a big old world. Big. Mammoth. I got on a ship and
sailed across the Pacific Ocean going 12 knots an hour. That's
slow. That's a big ocean. Way over there in the big old
sky. I'd stand out there at night
and look at that huge sky. Now, such a little fella, you
know, such a teenage, eighteen years old, out there in the middle
of nowhere, by myself, in the big old world. Yet I'd never
get back home. God, I hope you'll let me get
back home. Some of y'all been there, hadn't you? Oh. I got God conscious more than
I'd ever been. Sin conscious more than I'd ever
been. I didn't want to I didn't want to stay over there. I wanted
to get home. You know, Peter, one time, the
Lord told him to cast that net into the sea, and he cast that
net in, and boy, they started pulling in fish like they broke
the net, and fished all night and caught nothing. Here they
were just, he spoke a word, and they just hauled them in. And
he said, Lord, depart from me. I'm a sinful man. I'm too minute. finite for you to even be around
me. Who am I that God should have any dealings with me? Who
am I? Peanut, grain of dust, just a worm? God's so great. Who am I? That's
what David says. Who am I? What is man if I am
not mindful of him? And I realize something about
worthlessness. in the light of God's majesty
and greatness. But that wasn't enough. That wasn't enough. One day,
I began to see sin as something, something different, something
more, more terrible, than just in the light of parental
authority, or in the light of Sinai's thou shalt not, or in
the light of such a big universe and such a small person with
self-centered thoughts. I saw my sin in the light of
God's holiness as a new revelation. A new revelation. It was to Isaiah. Isaiah knew the Ten Commandments.
Isaiah knew all these things. In fact, he really gave people
a rough time in Isaiah 5. He said, woe is you, woe is you,
and woe is you. And then he said he saw the Lord
high and lifted up. His train filled the temple,
and the seraphims cried, holy, holy, holy. And Isaiah said,
uh-oh, woe is me. I'm cut off. I've seen the Lord. I've seen the Lord in his holiness. Job saw that. Job said, I've
heard of the Lord. I've heard of you by the hearing
of the ear, but now, man, I seeth thee. Wherefore, I hate myself. I've seen God's love. And in
the light of God's love, what love do you have? I've seen God's
kindness. In the light of God's kindness,
where's my kindness? I've seen God's holiness, God's
perfection in the light of God's holiness and perfection. Where's
mine? Don't even mention it. My best
deeds are filthy rags. See, so I've got a whole new
concept of sin in the light of God's holiness. And I'll tell
you, I know what the preachers are saying when they say we've
got to preach the law. We are stripped in with the law
by the knowledge of the law, by the knowledge of the law is
sin. And I'd never known sin except
the law said, that's right. But that ain't all of it. And
most of the time it won't get the job done. I'll tell you when a man sees
sin, and I'll tell you when he When he cries for mercy is when
he sees the Lord in his holiness, majesty, and true beauty. You know something else? I've
seen sin, something that's just moving a step further. And I know a little bit about
what Paul wrote when he said, I have not attained, I have not
apprehended, I'm not laid hold upon that for which I've been
laid hold. I see sin in another light. I see sin in the light of God's
goodness to me, and God's kind providence in my life. You see
sin in the light of God's love? You know, here's a child, and he has a parent, and that
parent is tough, I mean tough. But he's still a parent, that
father or mother. And that child tries not to offend
that parent because the law, parental authority, these things,
the right about it, he says, be in at twelve or at eleven
or ten or whenever. Don't do this, cut the grass,
so forth. And the child obeys. That stern,
hard parent. And he gets troubled when he
does something the parent is displeased with. But here's another
child who has a parent, and the parent knows discipline, but
does it in the greatest love and kindness, and really loves
that child. does all that he or she can do
as a parent to be tender and kind and provide reasonable and
kind and understanding. When that child does something
displeasing in the eyes of this parent, that child experiences
a greater grief because he sinned against love and not just authority. Isn't that right? That's exactly
right. And I know what I'm saying, I
hope to get across what I'm saying, but you, you, uh, sinning against
love hurts more than just violating a whole, a cold, hard law. Hurts a whole lot. And God's
been good to me, hasn't he? His providence has been so
blessed And that's, I think we see sin in the light of God's
goodness and kind providence. How great are our sins. Well,
let me hurry. Fourthly, did He lay down His
life for us? He laid down His life for our
sins, and they're so great. I'm just bowed down with sin.
I feel it so keenly, so cuts, wounds. Here's third, did He
lay down His life for us? Then how great must be His love
for us. He loves us. He laid down His
life. You know, when I think of God's
love that chose me and made me a part of His glorious covenant
from all eternity, I'm amazed. God, like Kent said last night,
He chose me. Are you there? Did you hear?
He chose me. I can't get over that. He chose
me. He chose me. Boy, and then when
I think how He in love predestinated me to be conformed to His blessed
image. He predestinated me to be like
Himself. The goal of God for me is to
make me like Christ. I hear preachers always talking
about the wonderful plan God has for your life. You talk about
a wonderful plan, I'm going to be like Christ. I'm not talking
about some You know, I may do this life, you too. It may not be so wonderful. I
asked Walter Grubb one time yesterday, are you happy in Mexico? A kind
of silly question anyway, wasn't it? He looked at me and said,
happiness hasn't got anything to do with it. I'm where God
wants me. No, he's not happy. Who said
you had to be happy? I don't read anything here where
you have to be happy. Happy all the time, happy all
the time. This thing got silly. Shamed
of it now. Who said you had to be happy?
We got to glorify God. Paul on the, about to behead
Paul, are you happy? When they burned John Hust at
the stake, are you happy? John Bunyan sitting in prison,
his little blind daughter begging him to come home for twelve years.
Are you happy? Happiness ain't got nothing to
do with it. He predestinated me to be like
Christ. That's my happiness. David said,
I'll be satisfied when I wake with His likeness. And then when
I think of His divine providence that's kept me and protected
me and and call me and reveal Himself to me and shed abroad
His love, I'm amazed. And when I contemplate what He's
going to do, but you know, there's no time or place where the great
love of Christ for His people is manifested like at Calvary. He laid down His life for us. He had a crown in heaven. He
laid it aside that I might wear a crown of life. He took a crown
of thorns. He had a robe of brightness,
somebody said brighter than the stars, but He took it all and
died naked that I might be robed in His spotless righteousness,
that even the sovereign eye of God can see no sin in me. He
that is born of God sinneth not, that's what you read. He thirsted that I might drink
the water of life. He left His Father's presence
that I may enter it. He had nothing left on this earth. Nothing but his life. And he
laid that down for us. Boy, I'll tell you, well here's
the last thing, and I'll let you think about those four things. If he laid down his life for
us, how safe we must be. Now you
think about that. The greatest thing God ever did,
Isn't that without question? That could be said, couldn't
it? The death of his son. It cannot fail. How safe I must
be. I'm telling you how absolutely
secure if he laid down his life for me, Mike, I'm secure and
safe in his care. If God loves you in that everlasting
love of grace and mercy, And if Christ laid down His life
for you, you'll live forever now. Now, that's where we need
to camp. If we can just move our little
tents and pitch them right there. Just pitch our little tent right
there and camp there till we learn what it means. He, who? The Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody
said, Jesus saved, huh? The Lord Jesus saved. The Lord
Jesus, God made. And oh, I tell you, my sins are
so great, yet He pardoned all of them. And how He loved me. He loved me. He gave Himself.
He laid down His life. Our Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself. He laid down His life for me,
then how safe, sure, certain, secure I am in Him. But nowhere else, but in Him.
There's no safety anywhere else. I'm not even going to tip my
little toe out there. I want it right here on Christ, just
right here on Christ. I ain't even going to stick my
pinky out there. I'm not even going to call to mind anything. I don't want it. Don't talk to
me about law and talk to me about deeds and serving the Lord and
preaching. I don't want to even hear it.
I want to hear, He laid down His life for us. That's all I
need. If He did, I'm as secure. as the very throne of God on
which Christ sits. Our Father, thank you for your
blessed word that gives us such assurance, not in ourselves at
all, how feeble we are, frail. Without your securing us in Christ,
we'd fall tomorrow, today, this moment, but in Christ We're secure. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Bless the message to somebody's
heart that they may be brought to rest in Christ and all of
us shall rest in Him more confidently. In His name we pray. Amen.