We want to continue in our study
of the doctrines of grace, and as you are probably aware, there
are five doctrines of grace. It begins with man, with the
first one, and then the last four deal with God. radical corruption
that is our ruin in sin, and that is what we looked at at
the beginning of our conference last night, that the entirety
of man, and that's what total depravity means. It does not
mean that every person is as totally depraved as they could
possibly be. It means that the totality of
their personhood has been plagued by sin. Their mind is darkened
by sin, such that they are unable to see the truth. Their affections
are defiled by sin, and they do not desire the truth. And
their will is plagued by sin, and is bound by sin, and is unable
to come to Christ. And so mind, affections, and
will, and the totality of that is, they are dead in trespasses
and sin. They cannot see the truth. They
cannot hear the truth. They cannot believe the truth.
That is the devastating effect of the human race. So if anyone
is to be saved, if anyone is to be in Christ, God must take
the initiative. And God must do more than just
take the initiative. God must choose those who cannot
choose for themselves. and God must send His Son to
die for their sins upon the cross, and God must send the Holy Spirit
to awaken them, and convict them, and draw them, and birth them
into the kingdom of heaven, and grant to them gifts of repentance
and faith. It is all a work of grace. The only thing we provide in
our salvation is the sin that was laid upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then, all whom He brings
to Himself, He preserves in His grace, the eternal security of
the believer, and they will continue to pursue godliness, the perseverance
of the saints. So, there is total depravity
or radical corruption, that's man's part. The next three deal
with the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. There is unconditional election,
that's God the Father. Definite Atonement, that's God
the Son. And then Sovereign Regeneration,
that is God the Holy Spirit. Each person of the Godhead, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit work together in perfect unity and harmony
to one end. which is the salvation of a people
that is the chosen bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then the
final doctrine of grace, Father, Son, and Spirit work together
to preserve these who have come to faith in Jesus Christ. So, the question for us in this
session is very simply this, for whom did Christ die? And by way of introduction, I
want to ask the question, what did Jesus accomplish in His death
upon the cross? You tell me what Christ accomplished,
and I will tell you for whom He died. In other words, The
intent of the cross defines the extent of the cross. Did Jesus
die for those who were already in hell? What purpose would it
have been to have laid down His life and to bear the sins of
those already in hell? Does any drop of the blood of
Christ fail to achieve the purpose for which He sacrificed Himself
Did He die in vain for any for whom He died, or was it a triumphant
death upon the cross in that for all those for whom He died,
He actually secured their salvation? And the issue really boils down
to Jesus at the cross, did He merely make man savable, or did
He actually save? Did he merely make God potentially
propitiated, or did Jesus actually propitiate the righteous anger
of God? That's the issue on the table.
Did Jesus merely provide a potential reconciliation dependent upon
man's response between holy God and sinful man, or did Jesus
Christ actually reconcile holy God and sinful man together. If so, and if He died for all,
then all will be reconciled, and there will be none in hell. So I want to walk through this
with you. This is usually the most challenging
of the five doctrines of grace, but perhaps I can lay this out
in a manner that is helpful for you to see. So I want to begin
in John chapter 1, if you would take your Bibles and turn with
me to John chapter 1. I hope by the end of this conference
your Bible just automatically opens to the gospel of John.
Worst things could happen. John chapter 1, and I want to
begin with what would be considered maybe the most difficult of the
verses to address. This is the first mention of
the cross in the Gospel of John, and it begins at its broadest
level of terminology. John the Baptist sees the Lord
Jesus as He approaches His baptism in the River Jordan, and John
the Baptist says, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of
the world. So, the question is, for whom
did Christ die? First, some historical background
for this statement, which is the Old Testament Levitical sacrificial
system, which all pointed ahead to Christ. In the Old Testament
sacrificial system, Christ is represented as both the sacrifice
that is offered as well as the high priest who makes this sacrifice. And specifically here, the background
is the Day of Atonement. In Leviticus chapter 16, there
were two sacrifices that were made. The first was a blood sacrifice
in which the blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat And God's Son
is pictured in that as placating or satisfying or appeasing the
righteous anger of God towards sin. But there was a second sacrifice,
and it was the scapegoat, in which the high priest laid his
hands on the scapegoat, and it pictured what would one day take
place at Calvary's cross where there would be the transferring
of the sins of the people to the innocent sacrifice. The scapegoat would then be released
into the wilderness, never to be seen again, and this pictured
all the sins of God's people being transferred to Christ and
Him taking them far, far away that our sins would never be
seen again. The rest of the Bible affirms
this, that He has taken our sins and buried them in the sea of
God's forgetfulness. He's taken our sins and placed
them behind His back where He can see them no more. He has
removed our sins from us as far as the east is from the west.
It was a perfect sacrifice that Jesus made when He offered Himself
up upon the cross. Now, three observations that
I want to make regarding this verse as it relates to, for whom
did Christ die. The first is, this was a real
or actual taking away of sin. Please note the language of what
John the Baptist said. Behold the Lamb of God who takes
away the sins of the world. not potentially takes away the
sins of the world, contingent upon men actually believing upon
Him. No, there was a definite transaction
with definite results. All for whom He died, He took
away their sins. James Montgomery Boyce writes,
Jesus did not merely come to make salvation possible, but
actually to save His people. He did not come to make redemption
possible. He died to redeem His people. He did not come to make propitiation
possible. He actually turned aside God's
wrath for each of His elect people forever. Boyce continues, "...he
did not come to make reconciliation between God and man possible. He actually reconciled to God
those whom the Father had given to him. He did not come merely
to make atonement for sins possible, but actually atoned for sin."
So please note the language that John the Baptist uses. There
was a definite transaction with a definite result, the Lamb of
God takes away the sins of the world. I want to tell you, for
all for whom He died, He took away their sins. He died a victorious
death. He did not die in frustration.
He did not die in disappointment. He died in glorious victory. And all for whom He died, He
took away their sin. Now, if Jesus died for all, then
therefore you are left with universalism, that all will be saved in the
end. If He took away their sins, there
is no more sin left on them. But the fact is that Jesus died
for a specific group of people. He took away all of their sin. So, number one, it was, I want
you to note, the language that John uses here, it was a real
and actual taking away of sin. Second, in the Old Testament,
the Levitical sacrifice was made only on behalf of God's people,
not the whole world. In the sacrificial system, there
was not a sacrifice being made for the Canaanites. There was
not a sacrifice being made for the Egyptians. There was not
a sacrifice being made for the Assyrians, nor for the Babylonians. It was a sacrifice in the Levitical
system that was made exclusively for the people of God. And what John is saying here,
that he takes away the sin of the world, he is saying that
in the death of Christ, it is a death not only for the elect
in Israel, but for the elect in the entire world. In other
words, both Jews and non-Jews, for both Jews and Gentiles. So here is an atonement that
reaches beyond Israel to people out of every tribe and out of
every tongue and every nation and people. The third thing I
would want you to know about this verse deals with the word
world. So often when someone reads the
Bible who is maybe new to the Bible, or who has not sat under
careful expository preaching, whenever they see the word, world,
they immediately, automatically jump to the conclusion that whenever
the Bible uses the word, world, that it must mean every person
in the world, and that is a naive understanding of the Bible. The
word world, kosmos, is a word that is used most by John in
his writings. The word is used 185 times in
the New Testament, and 78 of the 185 are found in the Gospel of John. By contrast,
8 times in Matthew, 3 times in Mark, and only 3 times in Luke,
but 78 times in the Gospel of John, and when you throw in 1st,
2nd, and 3rd John, as well as the book of Revelation, you add
another 27 times, and so this is a word that is predominantly
used, not by Matthew, Mark, or Luke, but by John. So, with such a broad use multiplicity
of use of this word. The question then is, so what
does John mean when he says the word world? And it would be important
for us to understand this morning that in the Gospel of John, the
word world is used ten different ways, and only one of those ten
would mean the entire human race. So it would be very naive to rush into any passage
and immediately assume that the Word means every person. I'll just quickly walk you through
these, and if you want to jot these down, that's great. The
first use means the entire universe. Sometimes when John uses cosmos,
he means the entire universe. John 1.10, the world was made
through Him, and that refers to the entirety of the created
order, the sun, the moon, the planets, the vast universe, the
solar system, as well as this earth. The second time is the
physical earth. In John 13, 1, we read, Jesus
knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the
Father. It doesn't mean He departed out
of the human race, as though He lost His humanity. That's
heresy. No, it just means He left planet
earth to return to heaven. The third way it's used in the
Gospel of John is the world system, to refer to the organized evil
system over which Satan rules as the god of this age, John
12, 31. Now is the judgment of this world. now will the ruler of this world
be cast out." Well, the ruler of this world, Satan is not the
ruler of the planet, and he's not the ruler of the universe.
He is the ruler of an evil conspiracy, of an invisible war against God
and against Christ. Fourth use is all humanity minus
believers. So, all humanity minus believers. John 7, verse 7, Jesus said,
"...the world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify
about it that its works are evil." Well, the entire human race does
not hate the disciples. It's only the unbelievers. that
hate the disciples. So in this case, and there are
others, John 15, 18, if the world hates you, you know that it hated
me before it hated you. That does not refer to every
single person on the planet. It only refers to unbelievers
who hated Christ and who hated the disciples. Fifth use of the
word world, and I think it's really worth our taking a few
moments here to walk through this. It just simply means a
large group. World can refer to a large portion
of a group. It can mean the population of
a small region of the world. John 12, 19, the Pharisee says,
look, the whole world has gone after him. Well, that wasn't
true. If you take it as every single
person in the entire history of the world, people who were
not yet born did not go after the Lord Jesus. And of those
who were born, the Eskimos did not go after Jesus. The Aztec
Indians did not go after Jesus. The Incas did not go after Jesus. The Native Americans in America
did not go after Jesus. The word world here, the whole
world's gone after Him. simply means it's a large group.
It doesn't mean every single person in the world. It's just
a large group. Then six, it can refer to general
public. the general public, as distinguished
from a private group, a public group as opposed to a private
group. The brothers of Jesus said to
Him in John 7, verse 4, "'For no one works in secret if he
seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show
yourself to the world.'" Well, what Jesus' brothers were saying
is, show yourself in the open public. Go to Jerusalem, go into
the temple area, perform these miracles, show yourself to the
world. Well, that doesn't mean that
He would be showing Himself to everyone in South America and
South Africa, that everyone in Australia and New Zealand, that
He would be showing Himself to them. That would be, obviously,
an unwise interpretation in handling a Scripture. So the word world
can simply mean a large public group. Seventh, it can refer
to Jews and Gentiles together. In other words, beyond just Israel,
but to be inclusive of other nations. For example, in John
4, verse 42, the Samaritan woman, after she came to a saving knowledge
of Christ, remember she went back into the city and told them
about a man who had told her everything she had ever done,
and she then said, he is the Savior of the world. Well, if
He's the Savior of the world and you take world to mean every
single person in the entire history of the world, then hell will
be empty and Jesus will be the Savior of the world. No, that's
not how she meant it. She meant it that she, a Samaritan,
who is outside the commonwealth of Israel, that salvation has
come to her, and she has gone into the Samaritan village and
testified of the Lord Jesus to them who are outside of Israel. You remember the Samaritans were,
in essence, half-breeds. They were half-Jew, half-Assyrian. They had been When the Jews were
taken off to Assyria, in the Assyrian captivity, they co-mingled
and co-married, and there was a mongrel race, if you will. There was a race that was half
Jew, half Assyrian, that now occupied this land of the Samaritans. And so her exuberance was that
salvation has gone beyond the borders of Israel, that there
is grace for someone like her who is not a full Jew. And so
that is why she says, he is the Savior of the world, meaning
there are not national boundaries to this salvation. So, the word
can refer to both Jews and Gentiles. It can refer, eighth, to the
human realm. The word, world, can describe
just the realm of mankind as contrasted with the realm of
heaven or the realm of angelic beings. In John 1, verse 10,
it says, He was in the world. The idea there is He wasn't in
heaven. He was in the world, the human
realm. The Word became flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory. He entered into the human realm. He was in the world, and the
world which He had made in the world did not recognize Him. Ninth, the word can refer simply
to just the non-elect, not the elect but the non-elect. So that's
a sub-compartment of every human being. And that's how he used
the word when he prayed in John 17, verse 9. I am praying for
them. I am not praying for the world. So there's a contrast between
them and the world. He's drawn a line in the sand.
There is the them and there is the world. And the them refers
to all the elect. The world, therefore, thus refers
to the non-elect. And then a tenth use would be
the elect only, John 3, 17, for God did not send His Son into
the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might
be saved through Him. The intent of the Father in sending
Christ into this broad human realm was to save the world of
the elect. So these are the ten different
uses of the word world. If you care for a fuller treatment
in my book, Foundations of Grace, I have all ten of these listed. So, just a careful Bible student,
Number one, we'll be aware of the diversity of uses of the
word kosmos in the Gospel of John alone. So the question is,
which is it in John 1, verse 9, when he says he will take
away the sins of the world? Is he talking about taking away
the sin of the universe, the planet? What is he referring
to? And the reference here is for
world, not only Jews, but also Gentiles. Jesus died not only
for those in the nation Israel, but He died also for believers
outside the nation, wherever they would be found. And the
reason that we take that option is because in His death, He actually
took away the sins of the world. That is true only of those who
will believe, and the only ones who believe are those who are
chosen by the Father and given to the Son and who will believe
in Christ. So that's where we begin. Second,
if you'll come to chapter 3, I want you to see that it was
not only an actual atonement or a real atonement, as opposed
to a potential or hypothetical, but second, I want you to see
that it was an international atonement. Beginning in verse
14, as Jesus lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up. And you're no doubt familiar
with this passage in Numbers 21, where God sent serpents to
bite the people of God. and to inflict their deadly poison
into them because of their rebelliousness, and the people were dying. And
so God, out of His mercy and by His grace, told Moses to make
a brass serpent and put it on a pole and to lift it up, and
everyone who looks to the brass serpent will be healed, will
be saved from this deadly poison. The brass serpent pictured Christ
upon the cross. The serpent represents sin, brass
represents judgment, and a brass serpent is a picture of God's
judgment upon sin, or sin under judgment, and that's what took
place at the cross. Our sins were transferred to Christ, and
as He bore our sins in His body, He died in our place, and God
poured out His wrath deserving us. It fell upon Christ, and
He suffered what you and I would suffer in an eternity in hell. He suffered in that compressed
period of time upon the cross, and He became sin under judgment. He bore our sin and suffered
our judgment upon Calvary's cross. And so that is what it was picturing.
At the end of verse, or in verse 15, he says, "...so that whoever
believes in Him will have eternal life." And so Jesus died to save
all who believe upon Him. then verse 16, the very famous
verse, "...for God so loved the world." And the world here I
take to mean not every single person in the world, but the
world, what we would say at large, meaning both Jews and non-Jews
or all kinds of people, both Jews and Gentiles. God so loved the world, the general
realm of humanity. that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have
everlasting life. And so the question is, in verse
16, is it to be taken that Jesus died for every sin of every person
who would ever live? And many take it that way, and
I lived the first part of my Christian life thinking that
that is what it meant. But let's give more careful thought
to this. If Jesus died for every person
who ever lived and bore their sins, even for the non-elect,
even for the unbelievers who will be in hell, then we would
have to say He died for the sin of unbelief, for their sin of
unbelief, right? And if Jesus died for the sin
of unbelief of unbelievers, then how could God hold that against
them if Jesus died for the sin of unbelief? Well, the reality
is, or the truth is, Jesus did not die for all the sins of all
people. He died for all the sins of some
people, and He never died for the sins of those who would never
believe in Him. And Charles Haddon Spurgeon helps
us in our understanding of this. He preached a sermon on January
14, 1855, when he was only 20 years old, called, The Sin of Unbelief.
And in that sermon, Spurgeon said, quote, "...there is one
sin for which Christ never died. It is the sin against the Holy
Ghost. There is one sin for which Christ never made atonement. Mention every crime in the calendar
of evil, and I will show you persons who have found forgiveness
for it." So he is saying, for prostitutes, for tax collectors,
for thieves, for robbers, for homosexuals, for effeminate,
for lesbians. There has been made an atonement
for those sins, and there are people in the kingdom of heaven
who have been saved out of those sins through the blood of Christ. And Paul says that in 1 Corinthians
6 and verse 9 to the Corinthian church, when he gave that catalog
of sin, he goes, "...and such were some of you." But Spurgeon
now continues this quote, "'But ask me whether the man who died
in unbelief can be saved.' And I reply, there is no atonement
for that man." There is an atonement made for the unbelief of a Christian
because it is temporary, but the final unbelief, the unbelief
with which men die, never was atoned for. You may turn over
this whole book and you will find that there is no atonement
for the man who died in unbelief. There is no mercy for unbelief."
Close quote. A.W. Pink also is insightful
in which he writes, "...if all the sins of all men were laid
upon Christ, then the sin of unbelief was too. That unbelief
is a sin which is clear from the fact that..." 1 John 3, 23,
we read, "...and this is the commandment that we should believe
on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ." Refusal to believe in
Christ is, therefore, an act of flagrant disobedience. It
is rebellion against the Most High. But if all the sins of
all men were laid upon Christ, as it is now asserted by many,
then He also endured the penalty for the Christ-rejector's unbelief. If this is so, then Universalism
is true. But it is not so. The very advocates
of the view we are now refuting would not affirm it. And therein
may be seen the inconsistency and untenableness of their teaching. For if unbelief is a sin and
Christ did not suffer the penalty of it, then all sin was not laid
upon Christ. Thus, there are only two alternatives. a strictly limited atonement
availing only for believers, or an unlimited atonement which
effectually secures the salvation of the entire human race." So, What these great men are
arguing is, I think, the proper handling of all of Scripture,
that Christ laid down His life for those whom the Father gave
to Him as a result of election and eternity past. Come, if you
would, to John chapter 6 and verse 37 through 39, and I want
you to see that it was an exact atonement. Jesus died in perfect
obedience to the will of God the Father in order to save the
elect. In John 6, verse 37, which we
looked at last night, I want us to look at it again through
the lens of the atonement. We see in John 6, 37, Jesus saying,
all that the Father gives Me. We noted last night that this
refers to the elect. It can only refer to the elect.
They were the Father's possession by sovereign choice, and then
He gave this group to the Son, and He says, they will come to
Me. Please note the certainty, the
absolute certainty of this. All that the Father gives Me,
every single one of them will come to Me, no more, no less.
Now, in verse 38, He will begin to talk about, it is these for
whom He laid down His life. It is for these that He came
to save. Not the entire human race, but
for those whom the Father gave to Him. Verse 38, For I have
come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will
of Him who sent Me. Jesus is saying that The Father
has given a specific assignment to the Son, and the Son is not
free to come do His own thing as He comes into this world.
He will be in strict obedience to the Father to carry out the
Father's saving mission here in this world. upon the earth.
And there will be perfect unity. It's a very important point.
Perfect unity between the Father and the Son. In other words,
the Father will not choose one group to be saved, and the Son
will then go in His own direction and lay down His life for a different
group. There is perfect unity in the
Godhead. And those whom the Father chose and gave to the Son, these
will be the very same ones whom the Son will lay down His life
for. Several years ago, I was in London and spent the night
at London Theological Seminary, which is the seminary that was
founded by Martin Lloyd-Jones. And I woke up the next morning
and went down to have breakfast with the student body and talked
to different ones. And unknown to me, there was
a conference that was being held at that time in which the leading
authority on John Owen was lecturing on campus. and specifically Volume
10 of John Owen, The Death of Death and the Death of Christ.
And so as these pastors and students were sitting at the table with
me and I with them, I asked them, all right, give me the number
one reason to believe in death and atonement. Throw down the
ace of spades. Tell me the principal reason
to hold to definite atonement or particular redemption." And
they immediately said this, which is the argument of what we're
looking at. The unity of the Godhead. The unity of the Trinity. that God the Father and God the
Son and God the Holy Spirit act as one Savior. And if you hold
to a universal atonement and hold to the doctrine of election,
you have created a fracture in the Godhead. and have divided
the saving work of the Father from the saving work of the Son
and put them at cross purposes. Because the Father has chosen
His elect. The Father has not chosen all
in the world. He has chosen out of the world
those whom He will save. If you then say that Christ has
died for all, you have the Father and the Son working to save two
different groups of people. Then when you throw in the Holy
Spirit, to teach something less than
sovereign regeneration, you actually have the Holy Spirit attempting
to save a third group, or a totally different group, all those who
actually hear the gospel. Not everyone hears the gospel,
you understand that. But only those who come under
the sound of the gospel would the Holy Spirit, according to
their view, be tugging on their heart or wooing their heart.
So you have three different groups, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
that they are trying to save. is intending to save only the
elect, but Christ intending to save every single person laying
down a universal atonement, and then the Holy Spirit, a halfway
house between those two, attempting to save only those who hear the
sound of the gospel, some of whom reject the gospel. Well,
Jesus said in John 10, verse 30, the Father and I are one.
and that does not mean one person. It means we are of one purpose,
one mission. We are of one intent. They are
one, and they're saving purpose. And so, for that reason, The
Father has chosen the elect. He has given them to the Son
and commissioned the Son to come into this world and to lay down
His life for the very same group of people. That is what Jesus
is alluding to here in verse 38 of John 6. I have come down
from heaven not to do My own will, but the will of Him who
sent me." So, what do you think the will of Him is who sent Christ? The next verse tells us that
Jesus was not a maverick Messiah, off doing His own thing. He wasn't
a disobedient son or a wayward son. No. He worked in strict
compliance with the will of the Father, which was to save those
whom He gave to the Son. So look at verse 39. This is
the will of Him who sent Me. This is the eternal, sovereign
will of the Father. And what he will be talking about
here in the will of the Father, he's not referring to Jesus is
supposed to be in Galilee on Thursday, and then Friday get
in a boat and go across the sea, and then by the weekend he's
supposed to be in Jerusalem. That's not what he's talking
about. When he says the will of the Father, he is talking
about the saving will of God. He is talking about the eternal,
sovereign grace of God. So he says in verse 39, this
is the will of Him who sent me. that of all that He has given
me, I lose nothing." Why did Jesus come into this world? Why
did Jesus lay down His life at the cross? Answer, that He would
lose not a one whom the Father gave to Him. So secure is this salvation that
at the end of verse 39, he says, "...and I raise it up on the
last day." Jesus has tunnel vision here, if you will. He has myoptic
focus. He has singular focus. His eye is upon those whom the
Father has given to Him. And it will be these He will
lose, not a one. It will be these whom He will
raise up on the last day. It will be these for whom He
lays down His life." This was the mission of Christ coming
into the world. That's why I said in the introduction,
you tell me why He came, and I'll tell you what He did. The
reason that He came was in strict obedience to the Father. to save
those whom the Father had given to Him. Come to John chapter
10 and verse 11, and the focus, I think, comes even more into
tight view. I want you to see in John 10,
it is an exclusive atonement. In John 10, verse 11, and as
we're going through the Gospel of John, it's like this. It's
like the focus is becoming tighter and tighter and tighter. It starts
at its broadest. He takes away the sins of the
world, referring to Jew and non-Jew, and then the focus is becoming
tighter and tighter. And as now we come to John 10,
in verse 11, It's like when I take an eye exam and they put the
letters up on the wall and they dial in the prescription that
I need, things are becoming more clear or clearer and clearer
and clearer. That's what's happening in the
Gospel of John. And so now in John 10 and verse 11, it is abundantly
clear. Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. The word good here means excellent
and noble. I am the good shepherd." And
what does a good shepherd do? Well, the good shepherd cares
for and protects those entrusted to him. If he did not do that,
he would not be a good shepherd. So, I am the good shepherd. The
good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Well, the sheep are those who
were chosen by the Father to be His. The sheep are those who
enter through the door into the sheepfold. The sheep are those
that He calls by name. They're His sheep. Now, let me
just tell you several things about the sheep in this context. We know regarding these sheep
for whom He laid down His life, we know in verse 3 above that
the sheep are those who are called individually by name by Christ. It's not an anonymous group.
It's not a blob of people. It's not a whosoever. It is a
specific number with a specific individual name. The sheep are
called individually by name by Christ. Second thing I would
have you note is in verse 27, the sheep are those who recognize
the voice of the shepherd, and they will come to Him. Verses
3 and 4 also Teach this. Christ's sheep are those who
recognize the voice of the Shepherd and come to Christ and follow
Him. Third, these sheep are not only among
Jews, but there are other sheep from another fold. Verse 16,
Jesus says, I have other sheep, and that is a reference to Gentiles.
beyond the commonwealth of Israel. Jesus has sheep outside the national
borders or boundaries of Israel, and it refers to Gentiles. Fourth, I would have you know
that not everyone is one of the Lord's sheep. We see in verse
26, that's very clear. Jesus says, the reason that you
don't believe is you're not one of My sheep. So very obviously,
not everyone is one of Jesus' sheep. Verse 29, fifth, He identifies
the sheep as those who are given by the Father to the Son. This refers to those whom the
Father chose. So, question, for whom did Christ
lay down His life? Well, He laid down His life for
those whom the Father gave to Him. He laid down His life for
those He calls by name. He laid down His life for those
who hear His voice. He laid down His life for those
who come to Him by faith. He laid down His life for those
who follow Him yet not everyone is one of His sheep," verse 26. So it becomes clear this is an
exclusive atonement. Notice verse 15. This is so important
that Jesus repeats it. And one thing you need to know
about this sermon, too, Jesus was not preaching to the choir.
He was not giving this to everyone who was in agreement with Him.
John 10 is an extension of John 9, and the huge controversy after
Christ has healed the blind man and provoked strong resistance
against Him by the spiritual leaders of Israel, Jesus is now
delineating these doctrines of grace. This isn't a Wednesday
night crowd where it's a safe group to preach this to. Jesus
is pulling this out in the open and showcasing this, really,
to those who are His enemies, So, for those who say, well,
we should only preach this in-house, that doesn't even match up with
the ministry of Christ Himself. So, verse 15, Jesus now cinches
the knot. Jesus tightens the screw. Jesus anchors this with yet another
nail being driven down regarding those for whom He died. And in
verse 15, even as the Father knows me and I know the Father,
That's as intimate and close and united of a relationship
as there can be. Jesus then, at the end of verse
15, in that context says, "...and I lay down my life for the sheep."
You know what Jesus is saying? I know the Father. The Father
knows me. We are one. Who do you think I'd die for?
I lay down my life for the sheep because I know the Father and
the Father knows me. And because we are one, we work
together in perfect unity and in perfect harmony in our saving
mission of rescuing lost sinners. Jesus came to die for those whom
the Father has chosen to save. Look at verse 16. Jesus said,
I have other sheep, which are not of this fold, referring to
Gentile sheep, I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice,
and I will become one flock with one shepherd. Ephesians 2 talks
about Christ removing the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile
and making them one body. That's what his reference is.
But now, note verse 17 and 18, for this reason the Father loves
me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it again.
No one has taken it from me, verse 18. In other words, Jesus
was not a victim. The circumstances did not get
out of control. He came from heaven to die for
His people. That was announced at His birth,
Matthew 121. You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save
His people from their sins. So no one has taken it from me,
but I lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down,
and I have authority to take it up again. Now note the end
of verse 18, this commandment I received from my Father. What
commandment? The commandment to come into
this world and to lay down His life for the sheep. Jesus came
in obedience to the Father, in submission to the will of the
Father. He has come for His sheep. He has come to lay down His life
for the sheep. He has authority to lay it down.
He has authority to take it back up again. And all of this is
in obedience to the commandment that He received from the Father. I can never come to the Lord's
Supper again the same way. Now that I understand how intentional
Jesus was in dying for me on the cross, now that I see my
name was written upon His heart, that He knew me and my name was
written upon His heart, that as He went to the cross, He did
not die simply anonymously or for an anonymous group of just
everyone, but intentionally those whom the Father had given to
Him. How personal the atonement is to me. How humbling this is
that it was His intent in His death to save me." Now, if you
would, look, if you will, at verse 27 in John 10. My sheep hear My voice and I
know them, and they follow Me." This is who the sheep are. This
is for whom He died. And I give eternal life to them,
not to the world, but to the sheep, and they will never perish. The world will perish, but the
sheep will not perish, and no one will snatch them out of My
hand. My Father who has given them
to me is greater than all." So we are held in the hand of the
Savior, and in the hand of the Father is, in essence, encompassing
the hand of the Savior. We are doubly secure in the hand
of the Son and in the hand of the Father. And it would take
someone greater than the Father to pry open His hand in order
for us to be removed. But such is impossible, for none
is greater than the Father. So, verse 29, My Father who has
given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch
them out of the Father's hand. Verse 30, I and the Father are
one. Listen, when Jesus went to the
cross, He didn't go in His own way. He didn't take another path.
He is one with the Father. And at the cross, He carried
out the saving will of the Father, which is the salvation of the
elect. While we're looking at this verse,
let me give you just this bit. The word, one, I and the Father
are one. is not in the masculine. One
is not in the masculine gender. If it was, it would say, I and
the Father are one person, or the meaning would be that. Well,
that's heretical. That's modalism. That's an early heresy in the
early church. Instead, Jesus is very precise
with His language, and the word one is in the neuter. which means
one in mind, one in will, one in mission, one in purpose. So, for whom did Christ die? He died for those whom the Father
gave to Him, because He is one with the Father. Come to chapter
12, verse 32, John 12, verse 32, and I want you to see that
it was an effectual atonement. By effectual, meaning there's
a cause and effect, and the cause of the atonement produces a certain
effect. all for whom Christ died will
be drawn to Him." John 12 and verse 32, and I, if I am lifted
up, referring to lifted up upon the cross, If I am lifted up
upon the earth, I've been in church services before where
the pastor will say something like, well, if Christ is lifted
up in the preaching of the Word, He will draw all men to Himself.
That's not what this verse teaches. That's sloppy interpretation. The next verse, verse 33, makes
it abundantly clear. But He was saying this to indicate
the kind of death by which He was to die. So when Jesus says,
if I am lifted up, He's not talking about the preaching of the gospel,
He is talking about the death of the Savior. Now notice what
He goes on to say, and I, if I am lifted up from the earth,
and the idea is when you were crucified, this goes back to
the inventors of crucifixion, that the One who is crucified,
His feet will not even be touching the earth. So He is crucified
in mid-air, as though suspended between heaven and earth. So
that is the idea, lifted up from the earth. It's not referring
to the ascension, it's referring to the manner of His death. And
again, verse 33 makes it clear, but notice the effect of His
death. If He is lifted up upon the cross,
I will draw all men to Myself. Now we have only one of two options
here. Either all means all without
exception, or it means all without distinction. If it means all
without exception, if I am lifted up, I will draw all men to myself,
then all men will be saved, and no men will be in hell, and all
men will be in heaven. If you take all to mean all without
exception, well, that's heretical, because hell is a real place.
that God has created for Satan and his demons, but also for
all who will die outside of Christ. So we must understand that the
word, is sometimes used in the Bible to refer to not all without
exception, but all without distinction, meaning all kinds of people,
all types of people. And the context actually justifies
this, because here in John chapter 12 is the first time Greeks begin
to come to seek after Christ. Earlier, in verse 20, of John
12. Now there were some Greeks among
those who were going up to worship at the feast. These then came
to Philip and said, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. And Philip came
and told Andrew, and Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus, and
Jesus now goes into this short discourse on the nature of His
death, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the
earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much
fruit." He's talking about the cross, His death. It is in this
same context, in verse 27, my soul has become troubled for
what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour,
referring to the hour of His death? No, but for this purpose
I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name. He's
referring to the glory that the Father will receive through His
death upon the cross. So when we look at verse 32,
it becomes clear that the word, all men, is to be inclusive of
all groups, both Jew and Greek, mentioned in verse 20. Otherwise,
if you take our Lord's words at face value, you are left with
a universal atonement that leads to universal salvation. Well,
such is heretical. It was a definite atonement that
leads to the salvation of all those for whom He was lifted
up to die. Verse 32 is a very important
verse that must be addressed. come to chapter 15, verse 13.
I have just a couple more verses to set before you, but I think
the nature of the atonement is very important. Paul says, we preach Christ and
Him crucified. Paul said, for I resolve to know
nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's
very important that we understand the saving death of Jesus Christ
upon the cross. And so, I want you to note here,
it's a particular atonement. John 15, I want you to note verse
13, and Jesus continues now to tighten the focus and tighten
our understanding for whom He laid down His life. John 13,
greater love has no one than this, that one laid down his
life for his friends. To lay down His life is metaphorical
language for the death of Christ upon the cross. I mean, we know
that from John 10, that He's laid down His life for the sheep,
referring to His death. Here, He says He laid down His
life for His friends. So, we'd say, who are His friends?
Isn't everyone in the world His friends? Well, no. Verse 14 tells us who His friends
are, and you want to be one of His friends. You are my friends
if you do what I command you." He's
talking about a lifestyle of obedience to the Father, and
all who are genuinely born again from above have been given a
new heart and a new nature, and God has written His Word upon
their heart, and they will now walk a new path, and they will
now pursue obedience. No obedience, no going to heaven. Now we're not saved by our obedience,
but all who truly believe will live obedient lives to the Father,
not perfectly, but a new direction. So Jesus lays down His life for
those whose lifestyle is marked by the habitual practice of obedience
to His Word. This is in sharp contrast to
verse 18, where there are not only friends, but there are enemies. And the enemies are those who
are of the world who are hostile to those who are in the kingdom
of God. So he says in verse 18, if the world hates you, you know
that it hated me before it hated you. So there are the friends
of Jesus and there are the hostile enemies of the world against
Jesus. For whom did He die? He laid
down His life for His friends who once were enemies. but who
have been reconciled through the blood of His cross and brought
into the family of God and made to be friends of Christ who will
now walk the narrow path that leads to life. But taking John
15 at face value, he laid down his life, verse 13, for his friends. His friends are those who are
obedient to his commandments, verse 14, in total contrast to
the world that hates Christ as well as hates the disciples,
verse 19. For whom did Christ die? Not
for the world that hates Him, but He died for His friends. who were chosen out of the world. In fact, he goes on to say that.
Look at verse 19 before I let go of this passage. He says,
if you were of the world, the world would love its own, but
because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,
that's for whom Christ died, those whom He chose out of the
world to be His friends, in verse 14. Verse 19 and verse 13 are
inseparably bound together in our understanding of this. He chose certain ones out of
the world, a world of hostility against Him, to be made His friends. In verse 13, it is for these
chosen friends that He has laid down His life. Well, finally,
come to John 17, in verse 2. This is known as our Lord's high
priestly prayer as He makes intercession before the Father on behalf of
His people. This entire prayer is Jesus interceding
with the Father on behalf of the elect, on behalf of those
who are chosen. He'll tell us bluntly in verse
9, I do not pray for the world. I pray for those whom you have
given to me out of the world. So this whole prayer, He is riveted
in His intercession before the Father on behalf of all of the
elect and only the elect. So in verse 2, which we looked
at last night, even as You, referring to the Father, gave Him, He refers
to Himself humbly in third person, even as You gave Him authority
over all flesh, that refers to all mankind, that to all whom
you have given Him, He may give eternal life." That's the intent
of His death upon the cross. It was to give eternal life to
those to whom you have given to Him. It wasn't, He didn't
die for all flesh, the first part of verse 2. He died to give
eternal life to those whom you have given to Him at the end
of verse 2. Now, fast forward to verse 9. I ask on their behalf." Their
refers to the elect. Their refers to those who have
been given to Him by the Father. I do not ask on behalf of the
world, and here the world refers to the non-elect, but of those
whom you have given Me, for they are yours. Jesus makes intercession not
for the world, but for those whom the Father has given to
Him. Now, understand this. He made intercession in this
prayer for the elect. Right now, He is at the right
hand of the Father, making intercession only for the elect. Upon the
cross, He made intercession for the same group. there is a consistency
in His intercession. Upon the cross, He stood between
the Father and us, and He made intercession. There is one God
and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
And upon the cross, Jesus made priestly intercession through
the sacrifice of Himself and He made intercession for precisely
the same people that He prayed for in this prayer, and for the
same group that He is making intercession at this moment at
the right hand of the Father. There is a consistency between
these three intercessions. Then look at verse 19. This is
an important verse. for their sakes. That refers
to the elect. for their sakes, as opposed to
for the sake of the world. For their sake refers to those
who were the fathers and they were given to the Son. For their
sakes, note this, I sanctify myself. That's a reference to
His death upon the cross, that He sets Himself apart unto the
Father upon the cross. It was for their sakes. It was for the elect, for the
same group. that they themselves also may
be sanctified in truth." Verse 19 is a very important verse.
He sanctified Himself unto the will of God in His death upon
the cross, not for all flesh, verse 2, but for those whom You
have given to Me, verse 2, verse 6, verse 9, and now here. Finally, in verse 24, we see
the final effect of this death of Christ upon the cross. He says, Father, at this point,
there's a summation now of this prayer. It becomes intensely
personal. Father, I desire that they, and
the they refers, again, to those for whom Jesus prays, those for
whom He dies. I desire that they also whom
You have given Me be with Me where I am, so that they may
see My glory." It's a reference to heaven, which You have given
Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. This
begins an eternity past, and it ends an eternity future. And
in eternity past, Jesus was foreknown by the Father, 1 Peter 1.20. He was the Lamb slain from before
the foundation of the world in the mind of the sovereign will
of the Father. and it is for these He laid down
His life at the cross so that one day these for whom He died
will be around His throne in heaven and will sing the praises
of His glory throughout all of the ages to come. what John is saying is a very
narrow focus, a tight focus regarding those for whom He died. Spurgeon
has put it this way, everyone believes in a limited atonement. Either you believe that Jesus
died for a limited number of people securing an unlimited
blessing and effect, or Jesus died for an unlimited number
of people, but with a very limited effect. You either limit the
extent or the effect. Even those who believe in a universal
atonement limit the application of the cross. to only believers. We have an unlimited application
of what He did at the cross to the limited number of sheep for
whom He laid down His life. He died in total victory. Not
one drop of His blood was shed in vain. There was a transaction
at the cross between the Father and the Son, and the Son bought
His church at the cross. He paid the price. He has received
from the Father what He purchased, which is His church. If Jesus
died for all, but only receives the church, then Jesus was shortchanged
at the cross. There was an inequity at the
cross. We would say in America, colloquially,
Jesus was gypped at the cross. If He laid down His life for
everyone and paid for everyone, but He only receives a limited
number. In America, I don't know your
coinage here, but in America it would be like, I give you
a dollar bill, but you only give me one quarter in return." It
was not an equitable exchange. At the cross, it was a perfectly
equitable exchange. Jesus received what he bought
at the cross, and no one for whom he died will not be given
to him.