let us turn to God's Word and
the portion that we've considered these last few weeks in 1st Timothy
chapter 2 1st Timothy chapter 2 and tonight
I just want to direct you to the first part of verse 6 we
were considering verse 5 last Thursday, Christ in his mediatorial
office, or we might say his mediatorial office is, because of course
as mediator he is prophet, priest, and king. We read verse 5 in
the first part of verse 6. For there is one God and one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave
himself a ransom for all. And so here we have that particular
aspect of his office, what his office is, and it concerns his
work as a priest who gave himself a ransom for all. Now I did remark last time in
that fifth verse so many times we find it being misquoted we
might misquote it ourselves because often we hear the expression
there is one God and one mediator between God and man the man Christ
Jesus but really as we see in the text it is not the singular
word it's the It's a plural word, not man, not mankind, but men. In other words, certain men. The Lord Jesus himself, as the
mediator, as the high priest of his people, he doesn't pray
for all as we see there in the 17th chapter of John. In the
course of that high priestly prayer, at verse 9, he says that
he doesn't pray for the world, but for those that the Father
has given to him out of the world. As a priest, he is concerned
for a particular people. And it's not only those that
the Father had given to him at that time, his disciples, but
he goes on at verse 20 to say that he prays also for those
who shall believe through the ministry of those apostles. And so it's quite evident that
the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ is a particular ministry. And when we come to the words
that I've announced for our consideration this evening, here in verse 6,
we're going to have to seek to understand what is meant by the
word all, who gave himself a ransom for all. Well, we'll come to
that that presently. But at the outset I just want
to observe that there is clearly here a connection between the
intercession, the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's
part of his work as the high priest. There's a connection
between that and the sacrificial death that he died. Here we see
The two parts of that office of Christ as the priest, he is
the mediator, he is the one who stands before, he's the one by
and through whom we come, he mediates on our behalf. When
we pray to God, we plead his name, we look to him as a priest
and an advocate and a mediator. But here in the words that we
are coming to consider we are reminded also of what he did
as a sacrificing priest. And these two are very much brought
together in what Paul says there in Romans chapter 8 and verse
34. Who is he that condemneth? He
asks, It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. Christ is the one that died,
Christ is the one that is risen from the dead, Christ is the
one that is now ascended to the Father's right hand, and His
very presence, His session there on behalf of His people is constant
intercession. So he is a sacrificing priest
and he is also a praying priest. Well, as we come to look at these
words, I want to take up the theme of the ransom that has
been paid and the consequence of that payment that has been
made. The ransom has been paid. And what is the consequence?
Well, it is satisfaction that lies at the very heart of redemption. He has paid the redemption price. He has paid the ransom price,
we might say. And what has he done by paying
that price? He has made satisfaction. And
to whom has the Lord Jesus Christ made satisfaction? Some would
say, well, He satisfied Satan. But that is very far from the
truth. In fact, that is erroneous. We might say that is heretical
thinking. Because Satan is owed nothing. Satan is simply a usurper. And when he writes in his second
epistle here to Timothy, Look at what he says there in chapter
2 and verse 26 concerning the deliverance of believers that
they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who
are taken captive by him at his will. He has sought to lay hold
of men. He has tempted man, and man has
fallen into his snare. We have the record, of course,
in Holy Scripture, in Genesis 3, of the fall of Adam, the fall
of our father Adam, who was the great head of the human race. And when Adam sinned, we sinned
in him. But Satan is a usurper. He's a liar. You see him there. telling lies, even as he tempts
Eve through means of the serpent. He is a usurper, he is a liar,
but he is one who has been conquered. No debt is owed to him. No, the debt is owed, of course,
to God himself. And it is God's justice that
has been satisfied by the ransom price that the Lord himself has
paid. We read that passage, that lovely
passage at the end of Job chapter 33, and I read it purposely because
we have that tremendous statement in verse 24, deliver him from
going down to the pit, I have found a ransom. Oh God has found
a ransom, God has provided the ransom in the person of his only
begotten son, in that sense God himself is the one who has made
the ransom price. His justice has now been satisfied. Oh, he is a holy God and a righteous
God. And what does that mean? It means
that he cannot just ignore sin and the consequences of sin No,
His holiness is such that He will by no means clear the guilty. His justice must be satisfied.
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. Oh, how plain that was made
to Adam and to Eve there in the paradise of Eden. Adam was told
in the day that they'll eat us hereof, with regards to that,
free of the knowledge of good and evil, In the day that thou
eatest hereof thou shalt surely die. And the devil's lie was
to contradict that thou shalt not surely die, he says to Eve.
But God must be true to himself and true to his own words. The
wages of sin is death. And God's law then condemns the
transgressor. Those who are the breakers of
God's law, they are condemned. They are under the curse of the
broken Lord of Gods. Galatians 3 verse 10 it is written,
Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things written in
the book of the law to do them. We are under obligation to do
all the commandments of God. And James says, if a man should
keep the whole and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of
all. Again, look at the language that
we have in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 27, verse 26. We're told, Cursed be he that
confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. We are
to confirm by doing all the works of God's holy law. And what has the Lord Jesus Christ
done? We are those who are the debtors, we are the transgressors
and the Lord Jesus Christ has come and has satisfied all the
demands of that holy law by his obedience, by his obedience in
particular unto death. Oh, we know that he honored it
in his living, because he was made of a woman and he was made
unto the law, and he is honored and magnified the law by a life
of obedience. But we're thinking in particular
here of that that he accomplished by his death. He gave Himself. He gave Himself a ransom for
all, it says. And so He has redeemed His people
from that curse. Curse is every one that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law, to do them. But what do we read subsequently
there in Galatians 3.13? Christ has redeemed us. from the curse of the Lord being
made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. Christ has paid the price, redemption
price. He has redeemed us. We know that
we are redeemed not by corruptible things, says Peter, such as silver
and gold received by tradition from our fathers, but, he says,
with the precious blood of Christ. Did we not sing of it just now
in that lovely hymn of William Gadsby 534? All the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The ransom price is that blood
and the shedding of that precious blood. Ephesians 1, 7, in whom
we have redemption through His blood. But as the Lord said, without
the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. There can
be no forgiveness without satisfaction to the Holy Lord of God, that
Lord that reveals to us something of God's character in His attributes. He's the Holy One of Israel. He's the righteous God. He's
the just God. And as I've said, His holy attributes
must all be satisfied. By His death upon the cross,
the Lord Jesus Christ has made the full satisfaction. The full
satisfaction. Remember how when Paul addresses
the Ephesian elders, making his final farewell to
them there in Acts chapter 20, he speaks of the Church of God,
which he has purchased with his own blood. And that's a remarkable
statement. The Church of God is purchased
with the blood of God. But God is a spirit. The Lord
Jesus says that. There in John 4 to the Samaritan
woman, God is a spirit, they that worship him must worship
him in spirit and in truth. How can God have blood if he
is a spirit? Well, we have to come to terms with the great
mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
That miracle of the virgin birth, the incarnation. God contracted
to a span incomprehensibly made man and the one who died on the
cross at Calvary is the God-man when he shed his precious blood,
when he poured out his soul unto death. All that sacrifice you see, it
has all the efficacy of divinity because the man who dies is never
less than God. And his sacrifice is there for
infinite. How can you measure the sacrifice
of God? That's the amazing thing. He
gave himself a ransom for all. And in making that payment, the
ransom price, he has redeemed his people, he has saved his
people. because he has satisfied all that God's holy law demands. But let us turn in the second
place to consider this truth that in dying he is suffering
as a substitute. His death is a substitutionary
death. That's the great doctrine of
course of substitutionary atonement. And what do we read here? The
ransom price was given for all. A ransom for all. Now we have to come to some understanding
then of what is being said in this expression, these two words
for all. Are we to understand that in
an absolute sense? Does all really mean every person
who has ever lived upon the face of the earth from Adam and Eve
down all the generations. We know that when the Lord Jesus
Christ died there were those Old Testament
unbelievers who had gone to their appointed place. What of Cain? What of Esau? What of Ahab? What of Multitude? the multitudes
of unbelievers and haters of God. They had already gone to
their appointed place. It's appointed unto man once
to die, then comes the judgment. There's no such thing as soul
sleep. With the believer it's absent from the body, present
with the Lord. What then of the unbelievers? Well, they had gone
to their place. Now, did the Lord Jesus Christ
then die and make a ransom price for the likes of Cain or Esau
or that wicked man King Ahab? Of course he didn't. We know it would be most unjust
of God if he should smite the shepherd, and also smite the
sheep. How can he smite the one who
is the substitute, and yet then smite the sinner also? We often quote the lines from
Toplady's Impayment, God cannot twice demand. First at my bleeding
shorty's hand, and then again at mine. And Toplady is right,
God cannot do that. Because that would not be just,
that would be most unjust to demand payment twice over. So clearly, all for all here
is not to be interpreted or understood in an absolute sense. We are
to understand the words here as we have them in a certain
context. And all men is the same as we
find previously in the opening verse. We came to the chapter
to consider how it really is an exhortation to prayer. I exhort therefore that first
of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of
thanks be made for all men. But what does all men mean here?
Well it means clearly all sorts, all types, all classes. it doesn't
mean every individual that's ever lived it's for all men and
then he says for kings and for all that are in authority that
we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty prayers for all sorts of men
even for those who are in positions of authority those who bear rule
Highborn men. You see, God does save all sorts
of men. We read in 1 Corinthians 1, 26,
not many mighty, not many noble are called, but we mark the fact
it doesn't say not any. Not any, it says no, not many.
Not many. But there are those, and we're
to pray, in any case, for those who are in places of authority,
because their position is God's ordinance, He has appointed government,
and it's right and proper that we pray for our rulers, that's
what He is saying, and the reason that we might lead a quiet and
peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty, we looked at that
verse and we referred to the passage that you're familiar
with in Romans chapter 13 concerning government as God's institution and now that God has appointed
government for good ends are we to pray then for these classes
of men all sorts and all types of men and interesting when we
came to verse 4 when it says who will have all men to be saved. Again, you see, you will have
all men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of truth.
And again, there we're to understand it in terms of all sorts of men
that have come to a knowledge. What is this knowledge? Well,
we pray that men might come to a saving knowledge of the truth,
an experimental knowledge of the truth. how the Lord in his
prayer, that high priestly prayer, says that this is life eternal,
as he addresses the Father, that they might know Thee, the only
true God and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. But what sort
of knowing is that? What sort of knowledge is that?
Well, it's the same that Paul speaks of when he expresses something
of his own desire there in Philippians chapter 3 that I may know him
speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants to know the Lord Jesus
Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings
being made conformable unto his death. It's that knowledge, that's
experimental. That's the saving knowledge of
Christ, not just knowing about it. Well, God will have all sorts
of men to beside and to come to that knowledge, but he will
have his people to come and inquire of him, as we're told there in
Ezekiel 36. His people, that typical people
there in the Old Testament, Israel, have had to come and to inquire
of God, that he would increase them with men as a flock. And that's what God's spiritual
Israel are to pray for, that God will come and show himself
and save men, all sorts of men, all ranks of men, all states
of men, all types of men. Why, we know that the Lord Jesus
Christ came to pay the ransom price for all sorts. Even the
Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to
give his life, he says, a ransom for many. and ransom for many,
that's those out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation
and this is how we're to understand this word then, or these words
gave himself a ransom for all although there are many and in
that sense you see all is not inappropriate because it's such
a vast multitude And yet each and every one of them has been
personally chosen by God, chosen in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
so predestinated to salvation. Think of the words that we have
in that opening chapter of the Ephesian Epistle. where Paul at verse 4 following
speaks of the great purpose of God the Father according as he
has chosen us in him that is in Christ. Well you see he writes
to these Ephesians as those who are blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ according as he has
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in
whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of His grace. It all leads up
to that great work of redemption, Christ paying the ransom price,
satisfying God's holy law on behalf of those that the Father
had given to him. A ransom. Now it's interesting
because here this word ransom in the original has a prefix
to it. and the prefix as the idea of
instead of, in place of. It's substitution. There's a
certain emphasis here on the truth of substitution. It's a ransom instead of all,
in the place of all. It's a ransom for all. It's Christ
suffering the just for the unjust to bring us to God. And that's a precious truth,
isn't it? The doctrine of substitutionary atonement. Jesus in the sinner's
place, bearing that punishment that was the sinner's just desert. And that's why He has taken to
Himself the very nature of His people. He was made in the likeness
of sinful flesh, and for sin we're told. And again, remember
Hebrews 2.16, verily, and the force of that word, truly. Amen. Oh, it is a precious truth. He
took not on Him the nature of angels, He took upon Him the
seed of Abraham. the seed of Abram, that's the
Lord Jesus Christ, the seed of Abram and it's all those who
are in Christ and they're chosen in Christ as we saw just now
in Ephesians chapter 1, they're all chosen in Christ, so they
are the seed as they are found in Him and what do we read here? what did He give? it says He
gave Himself who gave himself that's him and who is the Lord
Jesus Christ he is always a real man he has a real body and he
has a real soul because he is the last Adam when God made the
first man Adam he made his body out of the dust of the earth
and he breathed into his nostrils and he became a living soul. And this Redeemer who has paid
the great ransom price is referred to both in Romans 5 and again
in 1 Corinthians 15 as the last Adam. The second man, the Lord
from heaven. And when he gives himself, what
does he do? He pours out his soul unto death. His soul is
made a sacrifice for sins in the language of Isaiah 53. And remember, at the end of his
sufferings, having uttered those blessed words, it is finished.
In other words, he'd accomplished all the work that the Father
had given to him in the eternal covenant. He then commends his
spirit into the hands of his father. Into thy hands I commend my spirit,
he says. He breathes out his soul onto
his father. It's himself, it's a real man,
body and soul, and he endures death. And what is death? Death
is that separation between body and soul. When a person dies,
the soul has departed from the body. and that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ experienced, death. But when we read of himself here,
we also have to remember that that human nature, that holy
thing that was created by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the
Virgin Mary, as that remarkable conception takes place, There
is a union between his human nature and his divine nature.
That holy thing shall be called the Son of God. It's the God-man. And that's the remarkable thing
that we have there in Acts 20, 28. That church that God has
redeemed with his precious blood. In dying, he dies as God-man. And we cannot begin to understand
the mystery of that. It's himself. He gave himself,
it says. And observe also here the emphasis
that we have. It's not that his life is taken
from him. He gives it. He gave himself
a ransom for all. It's a willing sacrifice. It's a voluntary sacrifice. No man was able to take that
life from him. And he says as much, doesn't he, there in John
10, 17, Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my
life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me. I lay
it down of myself. I have power, I have authority,
literally. To lay it down and I have authority,
he says, to take it again. He is not only the sacrifice,
he is the priest. He's the mediator who is making
this great sacrifice. And what we have here in these
words that we're centering our attention on for a while, who
gave himself a ransom for all guilt, says that this is the
sum and substance of the gospel. It's the sum and substance of
the gospel. It's the Lord Jesus Christ, and
it's the Lord Jesus Christ in His obedience unto death. Substitution, it really is the
very heart of the Gospel. When God gave His only begotten
Son, He was made of a woman, and He was made under the law
to redeem. them that were under the law
we're taught that they might receive the adoption of sons
and that's our privilege now as we come to pray we can address
God as our father or to know that blessed spirit of adoption
in the Lord Jesus Christ to know that we're those who are the
redeemed reconciled to God because All that we owe the Holy Lord
of God as sinners has been paid. The satisfaction is there in
the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, our blessed substitute. May the Lord be pleased to bless
these truths to us. Amen. Now let us, before we pray,
sing our second praise, number 95. And did the holy and the just, The sovereign
of the skies, Stoop down to wretchedness and dust, That guilty worms might
rise? Yes, the Redeemer left his throne,
His radiant throne on high, Surprising mercy, love unknown, To suffer,
bleed, and die.