[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word.
[0:17] All right. Well, amen. That was beautiful. Thank you. What a great service. My goodness gracious. What a marvelous service. It is a great blessing to be here.
[0:30] As Pastor Gardner said, my name is Doug Krause, and I am a youth pastor. And I know what you're thinking. Guy's way too young to be a youth pastor. But I am.
[0:41] And I'm thankful to be here tonight. This is my wife, Karen. Karen, can you give the little... Wait, there it is. And this is my wife, Karen, my best friend.
[0:53] And I want to tell you, we've been blown away by your church and the school and your students. I have...
[1:05] I love you guys. I just do. Brother Trent, Brother Robert. Oh, my goodness. The youth leaders that we were with last night.
[1:18] The students, the way they have listened and interacted. My goodness gracious. Y'all are doing some glorious things for the Lord Jesus Christ.
[1:29] And we are pumped to be here. I want you to take your Bibles and go to Psalm 106. Psalm 106.
[1:41] I said that Karen is my best friend, and she is. I think your spouse ought to be your best friend. And after Karen, my best friend in the whole wide world is a missionary to Cambodia by the name of Dick Burdine.
[1:55] Dick and Tanya Burdine, we went to school together in high school at Middletown Christian there at Grace Baptist in Middletown, Ohio. And Dick and Tanya went on the mission field to Sri Lanka.
[2:07] And then when Civil War broke out there, they had to leave. And they have been in Cambodia, in Phnom Penh. And they are home right now.
[2:20] And we have been there and visited with them in Cambodia. And we love Dick and Tanya Burdine. They're our dearest friends in the whole wide world. And as I said, we went to high school together.
[2:30] Now, as you can imagine, the kid that went to high school that became a missionary was a wonderful kid. I went to high school. I was going to be a youth pastor. I got in a lot of trouble. And we were there one day in class.
[2:44] And we were in Mr. Albert's class. And all of the guys on the basketball team all sat in the first row along here. Mr. Albert stood in the front of the class when he instructed the students.
[2:58] And then he went to the back of the class and sat at his desk. And all the guys on the basketball team, we were sitting in the first row to the left, in one long row.
[3:10] And I have no idea why. But as we were sitting there, we began to hum the song to the bridge over the River Kwai. I can't tell you to this day why we were doing it, but we were humming it.
[3:23] And we were going along with, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm. And as we were doing that, Mr. Albert leaned forward and he tapped the center on our basketball team, a guy by the name of Randy Tunnel.
[3:38] And he said, Randy, pass it up. Tell the guys to knock it off. And Randy leaned forward and tapped me and said, that is Mr. Albert's favorite song, Sing It Louder. And I leaned forward and tapped the next guy and said the same thing.
[3:52] And when it got to the front of the group, we all in unison went, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. And Mr. Albert stood to his feet and said, everybody from Krauss forward, out in the hallway.
[4:06] We had no idea why. Usually I knew why I was in trouble. I had no idea why. We walked out into the hallway and he said, follow me. And he walked us down to the audiovisual room there on the second floor at Grace Baptist.
[4:19] And he said, he got Mrs. Flinker to come and be a witness. And he said, guys, if you're going to act like that, you have a choice. You're going to have two weeks of detention or you can take a paddling.
[4:30] And I was standing there and I had transferred from Franklin High School and I thought I was a tough guy. And I said, I'll take the paddling. Well, once the first guy says that, everybody else has got to take the paddling too, you know.
[4:41] And so they're all like, yeah, yeah, we'll take the paddling. And Mr. Albert said, good. And he grabbed Mark Wilson and he took Mark Wilson into the audiovisual room. And we heard that paddle whistle through the air several times.
[4:54] And we heard a junior in high school come out and he is bawling. He is crying. The tears are running down his face. And Mr. Albert looked at me and said, Krauss, you're next.
[5:06] And I said, I'll take the two weeks of detention. And Mark Wilson began to say, no, he can't take the two weeks of detention. No, that's not fair. Mr. Albert said, no, no, no.
[5:17] Come on. He took me in the room and he said, Mr. Krauss, I'd like for you to remove your wallet, put it on the table, and we're going to have a word of prayer. And I said, okay, I'm going to pray Jesus come quickly. And Mr. Albert, during prayer, somehow I slipped the wallet back into my pocket.
[5:35] During prayer time, Mr. Albert reared back, gave me the first swap, said, you put your wallet into your pocket, Mr. Krauss. I said, oh, I thought we were just taking it out during prayer time. He said, everything's a joke, isn't it, Mr. Krauss?
[5:47] You're going to get a few extras. He lit us up pretty good. You know when you're standing eating the Sloppy Joes and Tater Tots at lunch because you cannot sit.
[5:58] Dick Burdine, my dear friend, was not there for that. However, that was 40 years ago, roughly. And Dick Burdine and I talk about the kids that we run into that we had gone to school with.
[6:12] And some of them we go to church with still, and some of them we see pretty often. But a lot of them we no longer see, but occasionally we'll run into them out in public.
[6:22] And you guys know how that is. I tell our teenagers, quit worrying about what everybody thinks about you in high school because by the time you toss your graduation cap into the air, by the time it hits the ground, you're not going to see 90% of them anymore.
[6:35] And we're so worried about them. But occasionally I see guys out from time to time, and it is always amazing to me. Some of them are very quick to tell us how they're serving the Lord, and they're very surprised that I am.
[6:50] And then others kind of lower their head, and there's that awkwardness. And they begin to kind of hem and haw, and they begin to talk about everything else, but you know that they're not serving the Lord Jesus.
[7:07] And sometimes I'm stunned at that. Sometimes I think to myself, how can this kid that took the salvation, the blood-bought salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ, how can they forget about Jesus?
[7:22] How in the world can they do that? But you know, if we think about it, in the day-to-day rush, in the desire for applause, acceptance, when our pride creeps in, how easy it is for us to forget about Jesus Christ.
[7:40] And in Psalm 106, it shows us this. And I'd like to read, beginning in Psalm 106, beginning in verse 1, it says this. Praise ye the Lord, O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever.
[7:55] Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? Who can shew forth all His praise? Blessed are they that keep judgment, and He that doeth righteousness at all times.
[8:06] Remember me, O Lord, with the favor that Thou bearest unto Thy people. O visit me with Thy salvation, that I may see the good of Thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of Thy nation, that I may glory with Thine inheritance.
[8:20] We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly. Our fathers understood not Thy wonders in Egypt, they remembered not the multitude of Thy mercies, but provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea.
[8:34] Nevertheless, He saved them for His namesake, that He might make His mighty power to be known. He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up, so He led them through the depths as through the wilderness.
[8:46] And He saved them from the hand of Him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. And the waters covered their enemies, there was not one of them left. Then believed they His words, they sang His praise, and then look here how between verse 12 and 13 it shifts.
[9:05] They soon forgot His works, they waited not for His counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And He gave them their request, but sent leanness under their soul.
[9:19] They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron on the saint of the Lord. The earth opened and swallowed up Dothan, and covered the company of Abram.
[9:30] And a fire was kindled in their company. The flame burned up the wicked. They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image. Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.
[9:45] They forgot God their Savior, which had done great things in Egypt. That verse is our text there, verse. They forgot God their Savior, which had done great things in Egypt.
[9:57] Heavenly Father, I pray that You'll receive the glory and the honor. I pray, Heavenly Father, that Your words, Your truth, would speak deeply into our hearts, and challenge us with a very simple message of remembrance.
[10:14] We pray that if there be one here that does not know You as Lord and Savior, that tonight they would see their need for You. And those of us that name the name of Christ would have an evening of recommitment, and stirred by You and You alone.
[10:29] And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. The title of the message tonight is, The Price Paid. And as you look at this psalm, these first 21 verses in the psalm, we see that the psalmist is writing, and he begins to say things.
[10:44] He talks about thankfulness. He says the Lord is good. Speaks of His mercy. He says you can't even talk about all the mighty acts of the Lord. In verse 3, he says, Hey, they were blessed.
[10:57] And that God was doing righteousness unto them in all times. He says, Oh, we want His favor. And we're thankful. Oh, visit us with Your salvation.
[11:08] In verse 5, he talks about the good of the chosen, that we'll rejoice with gladness, that the glory of the inheritance will be there.
[11:20] In verse 7, he says that God had done these wonders in Egypt, and that there had been all of these mercies. And in verse 8, he talks about the mighty power that is there.
[11:31] And in verse 10, how He saved them out of the hand that hated them. In verse 12, he says, They believed. In fact, they believed to the point that there were songs of victory.
[11:42] They sang His praises. All of these marvelous things that they experienced, and they saw God firsthand, and they went through all this.
[11:53] How in the world can you get to the Red Sea, and see it part, and go through on dry ground? And you sing about Him, and think about Him, and then in verse 13, it says, Suddenly, they soon forgot.
[12:06] And we look at that, and we say, I can't believe that. I cannot believe that they would do that. How shallow. How ridiculous. How short-sighted. How selfish.
[12:17] How in the world could they do that? And you read on, and there in verse 14, they're lusting, and they're tempting God. The presumptuousness of these people. And you look at it, and you say, they had this gluttony, and He sends leanness unto their soul.
[12:33] And they're envying. And God is upset, and there's a penalty for sin, and He burns up the wicked. And it says, they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox.
[12:46] An ox that eateth grass. And it says, they forgot about God. They forgot about Him. And you know, we look at that, and we say, I can't believe that they could do that.
[12:58] I cannot believe that they could experience what they experience, and yet they forget God. But you know what? As we look at them, and see that, and make those conclusions, I got to talk about the times that Doug Krause, bought by the blood of Jesus Christ, has forgot God.
[13:19] About the times that, even in the midst of all the things going on, when I have begun to get used to it, don't ever get used to it. Don't ever get used to it.
[13:32] Don't ever get to where you look at the baby dedication, and the songs of praise, and the mission reports, and you say, yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't ever get used to it.
[13:43] And all of a sudden, we look at this, and we say, I must be on guard to forget, to not forget about who Jesus Christ is. And you say, I told the teenagers when we met right before the service, I said, this probably sounds really weird to you, because how in the world can you forget about God in this setting?
[14:03] You look all around. I said, you see all the words, and you see all the pictures, and you see all the things that talk and point you there.
[14:15] I mean, you look around, there's all these preachers. I mean, you could swing a dead cat, hit 25 missionaries here tonight. How in the world could you look around in some way, you think, okay, I'll forget about Jesus.
[14:29] But you and I know that if we're not careful, that we'll desire the applause of the world, the acceptance of our friends. We'll desire, we'll give in to our pride.
[14:40] Our lust will take us away. The opportunities for money, or applause, or power, or selfishness, or certainly sin.
[14:51] Because when that sin takes us away, we are forgetting about who He is. And so tonight, all I want to do is give you a little four-part remembrance about who Jesus Christ is.
[15:07] And I preach it first and foremost unto myself. I just want to remember, remind us of the cost, remind us of who we are, remind us of what Jesus did.
[15:18] First of all, I want us, I want us to remember that He was and is our Savior. Look at Luke chapter 2. And this is the reason that the Charlie Brown Christmas is my favorite Christmas program.
[15:36] Because how in the world can they keep putting on the public TV when Linus gets to quote Luke chapter 2? And every time he does it, I said, man, I hope we can get one more year out of that.
[15:48] Luke chapter 2, verse 11. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. You know, we use that word way too easily nowadays.
[16:01] Some new CEO comes into a company that's not doing very well and the newspaper says, oh, they brought in so-and-so and he was the Savior of that company. LeBron James comes back to the Cleveland Cavaliers and he infuses that team and people say, oh, he was the Savior of Northeast Ohio.
[16:20] And we throw that word around so lightly in this world. And that's wrong. We keep that word for one and only and that is Jesus Christ.
[16:31] Nobody else. Nobody else. What he saved wasn't some company. It wasn't some temporal, physical thing. It wasn't a sports team. He saved my eternal soul.
[16:44] He saved your eternal soul. He saved us. And you know, folks, we needed a Savior. We needed a Savior. If you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior tonight, you need a Savior.
[17:00] You need a Savior. Look at Luke chapter 19 and verse 10. Luke 19, 10 reminds us of this truth. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
[17:16] Folks, we were lost. We were lost. Lost and dying and headed for hell. That's where we were. Lost and dying and headed for hell.
[17:26] Let's make it personal. You were headed for hell. Your beloved mamaw was headed for hell. Your innocent, sweet little child was headed for hell.
[17:39] The best guy you know was headed for hell. We were headed for hell. Hell is real. Look at Matthew. Matthew chapter 10 and verse 28.
[17:51] Matthew 10 and 28 teaches us this. It says, And fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
[18:06] Hell is real. God said so again and again. He said it in Luke 16 and Matthew 16 and Mark 9 and Matthew 7 and Mark 16 and 2 Peter 2. Hell is real and unsaved people go there when they die.
[18:21] And folks, that's where we were headed. We needed a savior. Folks don't really want to hear that anymore. But we better say it.
[18:31] We better say it and we better hear it. Folks don't want to really hear about hell. They think about somebody that was headed to hell and that needed a savior and they think about people like Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, or the guy down the street that everybody on the street knows he beats his wife.
[18:53] And you think, that guy needs a savior. That guy's headed for hell. The bullies in school, the people, the kids that are making fun of you and send you into your pillow at night in tears.
[19:04] And you think, man, that kid needs a savior. That kid needs them. They're sinners. They need a savior. But the word of God says, for all have sinned.
[19:16] For all have sinned. That's you. That's me. You needed a savior. I needed a savior. We needed a savior.
[19:27] And we need to remember that tonight. Because sometimes we get so used to it. And sometimes we say, you know, I was brought up in a home and I've never gone out and I'm not shooting heroin into my veins and I'm not having sex before marriage and I didn't rob anybody.
[19:46] And all of a sudden, we think that there's some measure of that and we're pretty good people. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Every single one of us.
[19:57] And we needed a savior. And that's the price that was paid. Secondly, not only is he our savior, he's our substitute. Look back at Isaiah chapter 53, verse 3.
[20:11] Isaiah 53 and verse 3. Oh man, this portion of scripture. Isaiah 53, 3. He is despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
[20:23] And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.
[20:38] And look at these personal pronouns. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed.
[20:57] He was our substitute. A substitute. A substitute replaces somebody. There's many great stories of substitution. Roman legend has it that there was a legion of Roman soldiers led by a man by the name of Aguilarius.
[21:14] And Aguilarius got a decree that came down from Caesar that said that all members of the Roman army would bow to Caesar and he alone.
[21:24] and any member of the Roman army that would not bow to Caesar and him alone would be put to death. And when Aguilarius got this and shared it with his group everybody was worried because they knew that within their group there were 40 Roman soldiers that had converted to Christianity.
[21:43] And they knew that these men would never bow their knee to anybody but the Lord. They knew that these men would never bow their knee to anybody but Jesus Christ.
[21:55] And so when they shared it with them and said you must bow to Caesar and Caesar alone those 40 men said we can't. And he said then you must be put to death. And they marched the 40 guys out onto a frozen lake of ice.
[22:09] They put the rest of the group around the lake so that no man could run off. They walked out and they stripped them of all their armor all their weaponry all of their clothing.
[22:21] And at the edge of the lake of ice they built a small structure and inside they had a fire and they had food. And they were told that if any of the men on that frozen lake of ice would be willing to come off of it and bow their knee to Caesar that they could come in and warm and eat and live.
[22:41] And the 40 guys that were out there stood out there naked trembling dying. And they sang it is said that they sang this song.
[22:54] 40 brave soldiers for Jesus. 40 brave soldiers for Christ. We'll be true to our God and stare death in the face as we perish on this frozen lake of ice.
[23:05] We'll be 40 brave soldiers for Christ. And they sang it. And they sang it again. And they sang it again. And as their bodies began to chill and death began to creep upon them the voices got quieter but they still sang.
[23:22] Suddenly there was one man who could take it no longer. And with tears streaming down his face he ran off the frozen lake of ice. He crawled. One of the soldiers began to go forward they said and Aguilarius stopped him.
[23:35] If he was going to give that up he would crawl the rest of the way. And he crawled to the edge and crawled inside of the small structure and ate and warmed himself and lived. And they were silent on the ice.
[23:48] And suddenly they heard this sound. 39 brave soldiers for Jesus. 39 brave soldiers for Christ. We'll be true to our God and stare death in the face as we perish on this frozen lake of ice.
[24:02] We'll be 39 brave soldiers for Christ. No one knows what went on in the heart of Aguilarius that day that night. Only eternity will know. But Aguilarius as he stood there and watched the testimony of those Christians suddenly began to say no, no.
[24:22] No, no. And he shed himself of his own weaponry, his own armor, and his own clothing. And legend says that he ran out onto the lake of ice singing 40 brave soldiers for Jesus.
[24:36] 40 brave soldiers for Christ. We'll be true to our God and stare death in the face as we perish on this frozen lake of ice will be 40 brave soldiers for Christ.
[24:48] And those 40 men perished and died. That is a tremendous story of substitution that Aguilarius saw the Christian testimony of those men and said, I will substitute myself for this man that has crawled off.
[25:02] But even as interesting as that story is, it pales in comparison to your story of substitution. You see, I think that you ought to pay for yourself.
[25:14] I tell our teenagers all the time, you ought to be responsible for yourself. I ought to be responsible for myself, and you know what? I ought to be responsible for my sins. We live in a day and age where we blame it on everybody else.
[25:26] But you know what? Doug Krauss chose to think those thoughts, say those words, do those things, or not do the things I should have done. It's not my mom and dad's fault. And I know some kids come through tougher things than other kids, but everybody ought to pay for themselves.
[25:42] It's my sins. Should I not pay for them? Those are my sins. And if you think about it, I should be the guy that comes down the pathway, the road of sorrow.
[25:54] And I should have the cross upon my back. And I should be going to pay for my sins because I chose to do them. And as I was going that little path, suddenly there was a voice.
[26:08] And it said, no, no. And Jesus Christ stepped out. And Jesus Christ lifted the cross off my shoulders and he put it upon his and he took the crown off my head and I couldn't have paid for it anyhow.
[26:21] And he put the crown on his head and he went the rest of the way. He wore my crown. He carried my cross. He substituted for Doug and he paid that price.
[26:35] That is the price that was paid. He was our Savior. He is our Savior. He was and is our substitute. Thirdly, he bore our sins.
[26:46] Look at Isaiah 53 6. He bore our sins. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.
[26:59] And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. If that verse don't move your heart, that he laid on him the iniquity of us all.
[27:15] He bore my sins. On the cross there was the excruciating physical pain. All the things as the cat of nine tails ripped through his back.
[27:27] All the things. I tell our teens, you ever had an open wound and then put material back on it and then stripped it off again. All of the horror that he suffered in the physical pain.
[27:42] But then all of our sins upon the Lord Jesus Christ, they were laid on him. Everyone's forever were laid on him.
[27:54] And I always like to say, why don't we take it personal? You know how people always say, hey, don't take this personal? And then they usually say something to hurt your feelings. I think that as we look at the word of God, especially as we look at this substitutionary savior who bore our sins, let's take it personal.
[28:20] Your sins were laid on him. your sins were laid on him. Every thought, every word, every action, every lack of action. The stuff that you have since overcome through Jesus Christ, don't forget that it was laid on him.
[28:36] The stuff that you still struggle with, that you don't want anybody to know, still laid on him. Your pride, your attitude, your jealousy, your anger, the way you put people down.
[28:49] When a teenager goes on the other side of the bedroom, door, and says under his breath, I hate you mom and dad, that's laid on him. When we lust with our cell phones and think nobody sees it, that's laid on him.
[29:02] Every habit, everything that we have done in relationships, every bit of lust, every bit of pride. People say sin is usually pride or lust.
[29:14] I think lust is just a portion of pride. It says, I'll have whatever I want to have. Every bit of those sins and all the future sins that you're going to commit, all of them were put on him.
[29:28] And we need to see that. He who knew no sin, he who was innocent, it was laid upon him. A number of years ago, there was a situation in Los Angeles, I'm sure many of you remember, and I know there's been many other situations since then have been very, very unfair as well.
[29:46] But I remember vividly watching the video after the Rodney King trial, and Los Angeles turned into a city of rioting, and there was a truck driver.
[29:58] His name was Reginald Denny, and all he was doing that day was driving his work truck, and he turned down through a section of Los Angeles where the riots were going, and he pulled up to a light, and he was stopped.
[30:11] He was just a truck driver, driving through Los Angeles as the riots broke out. He hadn't done a thing, hadn't hurt anybody, was totally innocent.
[30:22] And they drug him from the truck, and they began to beat him, and they began to take their boots and kick him in the head, and he laid on the ground as they began to beat this man.
[30:32] There was a news helicopter from Los Angeles that flew over top of this, and the newsman, as they're showing it live on television, the newsman is beginning to describe it.
[30:45] And the newsman said something that no newsman has probably ever said before or since. He said, oh my goodness. He said, this poor innocent man, he said, folks, I just, look away.
[30:57] He said, look away. Don't, I'm sorry, don't watch it. Just look away. It's too brutal and too live to see this innocent man take this. He said, oh, turn away.
[31:11] I tell you tonight, that with Jesus Christ bearing my sins and your sins, don't turn away. Don't turn away.
[31:21] Don't minimize it. Don't turn from it and say that's too uncomfortable to look at. That's too hard to think on. We must see it.
[31:33] We must remember it. We must see this. He bore our sins and that is the price that was paid. Then lastly, he is our Savior.
[31:47] He, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, he was our substitute. He stepped in for us and he bore our sins. And lastly, he was and is our sacrifice.
[32:02] Look at 1 John 3.16. 1 John chapter 3 and verse 16 says this. Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
[32:26] We are reminded here because we need reminded. We're no better than that, those children of Israel. We can forget so quickly. We can push so many other things up in the line of our priorities, what we'll spend our money and our time and our heart and our love on.
[32:45] I told the teens out there that I tell our teenagers all the time, you know what a lot of us do? We put Jesus in a line. We put our friends right here and we put popularity right here and adults, we put prestige and money right here.
[33:05] We put applause and we put acceptance and we put the world and we put all these things here and we keep Jesus somewhere in that line.
[33:15] We just want him to be a piece of our life. We don't want him to be the whole thing. And we put him somewhere in that line and we keep him there because the other stuff we like it a little bit better.
[33:27] And then all of a sudden there's a crisis. All of a sudden mammals sick or the boss says, I'm sorry, I've got to let you go. Or your parents are arguing on the other side of the bedroom door and you're pretty sure they're not going to stay together.
[33:43] Or your girlfriend's pregnant. Or all of a sudden your world is turned upside down. And all of a sudden people do the same thing. Hey Jesus, hey Jesus, come on up, come on up.
[33:56] And we bring him to the front because we're scared and we need him. And we bring him to the front of the line and we keep him there for a while. And then when that crisis has passed we say, thank you, go on back.
[34:09] I want this other stuff in front. Shame on me. Shame on me. Shame on us that name the name of Christ, that claim to be a blood-bought follower.
[34:23] Shame on me. You see, Jesus Christ sacrificed himself. Jesus gave himself up.
[34:36] Jesus laid down his life for me and for you and for you and for you and for you. Jesus Christ laid down his life.
[34:48] He left heaven for you and me. He left the presence of God, the Father, for you and me. He sacrificed, he sacrificed his life. No man took his life.
[35:02] No one killed Jesus. He laid it down. He laid it down. And I know it's been said many times, but don't miss it because it's familiar.
[35:14] The nails did not hold him to that cross. His love for you and I and his obedience to the Father held him to the cross. He gave himself up for me and you.
[35:27] I was told that a number of years ago there was a pastor on a Saturday afternoon in his study. And he was sitting in there on a Saturday afternoon in his study and he was working on the next day's message.
[35:41] And he looked out the window in the back and he saw something. And he wanted a little break from the studying. And he watched out the window and he saw two boys out back in the field behind the church.
[35:53] And he saw that they had something and he couldn't figure out what they were doing. And so he got up and he walked out the back door and he walked closer to the boys. And as he got closer he saw that they had a rickety old cage.
[36:05] And he saw they had a couple of birds in the cage. And he walked up on the boys and he said, hey fellas, what are you guys doing? And the boys looked up and said, we're not doing anything preacher.
[36:17] And he said, no, no, no, come on guys, what are you doing? And one of the boys said, you'll get mad. And he said, no fellas, seriously, I'm not going to get mad, what are you doing? And he said, well we caught these field sparrows, a couple of field sparrows here and we have this old cage and we put them in there and we're just goofing around.
[36:35] He said, well how are you goofing around? He said, you're going to get mad but you asked. He said, we were throwing rocks and seeing if we could get them to fling in there and hit the birds. And then we got a couple of sticks and we sharpened them and we were poking them, trying to get them to move around.
[36:50] And to be honest, we were just going to play with them for a while. You're not going to like it but we were going to torment them and then we were just going to kill them. And the preacher said, son, how much will you take for them?
[37:05] And the boys said, you don't want these old field sparrows. They're nothing. They ain't good for anything. And I know you're mad at us but you don't want them. And the preacher said, boys, I said, how much will you take for them?
[37:20] And the boys' eyes lit up. And they said, well, at least take five bucks. And the preacher pulled out five each and gave them to them and said, go on your way. And as they walked away with their five bucks and their smile, they looked back and the preacher knelt down and opened the cage door and the birds flew free.
[37:39] A couple thousand years ago, God, Jesus Christ, saw Satan.
[37:50] And he looked at him. He said, Satan, what do you got there? And Satan said, ah, I've got some of your creation. I've got some of these human beings and they are in this little cage.
[38:06] God said, what are you going to do with them? And he said, well, you're not going to like it. I'm going to play with them. I'm going to mess with them. I'm going to throw stuff at them.
[38:18] I'm going to try to overwhelm them. I'm going to poke at them. I'm going to torment them as best I can. And then whether you like it or not, my desire is to kill them. Jesus Christ looked at him and said, how much will you take for them?
[38:35] And Satan said, you don't want these people. He said, you don't want that Doug Krause. He said, they ain't good for anything. He said, they're not going to stick with you. They're not going to do anything.
[38:49] He said, you don't want them old people. And Jesus Christ said, I asked, how much would you take for them? Satan said, lay down that life.
[39:01] Now that's just an analogy. But guys, Jesus Christ hung between heaven and earth and he opened the cage door and you and I came free.
[39:11] We came free. Our salvation's free, but it ain't cheap. He was and is our sacrifice. He gave himself up for you and me.
[39:25] That's the price that was paid. He was our sacrifice. He bore our sins. He is our substitute. He is our savior. And he paid much too high a price.
[39:39] He paid much too high a price for me. The sin, the blood, the pain. To have my soul just stirred at times and never truly changed.
[39:52] He deserves a fiery love that won't ignore his sacrifice because he paid so high a price.
[40:05] I'm going to tell you something. It's easy to forget the price that was paid. And we ought not do it, guys. We ought not do it. I tell the teenagers all the time, your motivation to discipline your life and live the way you're supposed to live is not because of your mom and dad and it is not because of me.
[40:25] You, everything you do is motivated because your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ hung between heaven and earth and the blood ran down and he paid the price. And he deserves more than me just getting myself stirred up every so often.
[40:42] He deserves a fiery love that I'll lay down my life because he laid down his life for me. This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia.
[41:00] For more information, log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times, location, contact information, and more audio and video recordings.
[41:11] Thanks.