Alright brethren, let's turn
to John chapter 12. Whenever the Lord entered Jerusalem,
we saw the multitudes gathered and they were putting the palm
branches down in front of him and crying, Hosanna, blessed
is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And
there was a lot of people there. There was a lot of people in
Jerusalem doing this. And in verse 19, the Pharisees
therefore said among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing. Behold, the world is gone after
him. I mentioned this the other day
when I preached from this. You very often try to declare
the gospel to your friends and your family, how God chose a
people, how Christ redeemed His people, and the necessity that
the Spirit of God must regenerate us, and how God keeps us and
preserves us, and how from beginning to end, salvation is of the Lord.
And usually when you declare the truth to men and women, especially
if they're religious men and women, one of the first objections
you're going to get is they're going to quote usually the first
half of John 3.16 and say, but God so loved the world. God so
loved the world. And sometimes they object using
2 Peter 3.9. God's not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance. Or sometimes they
use 1 Timothy 2.4. God will have all men to be saved
and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. A long time ago,
I preached on these passages that have to do with the world
and all in the scripture. And somebody recently said something
to me about some of these scriptures being used when they were trying
to speak to some friends and so I thought it might be good
to look at some of these scriptures again. I want to look first of
all at a few scriptures that have the word all in it. The
word all. Let's look at Romans 5. This is a good place to always
begin because it's dealing with headship and headship is vital
to understand in the Gospel. God is showing here how that
Adam and Christ are the heads of His people. They are the heads
of His people. And He is showing here that by the disobedience of Adam,
all, that is all, all who Adam represented, they died. They
died. And He says in verse 12, Wherefore
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sin. Now, take out the parentheses,
look down at verse 18. Therefore, as by the offense
of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Now, are
all born of Adam? Yes, all are born of Adam. So
here the word all means everybody. It means everybody. All died
in Adam. All were in Adam. All sinned
in Adam. All died in Adam. But here's
the good news. Adam was a type of Christ, and
this is what he's showing us here as far as headship goes. He says in verse 18, Therefore
as by the offense of one, Adam, judgment came upon all men to
condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, Christ
Jesus, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of
life. So see there, that means all
men were justified by Christ. No, it means all who Christ represented. Just like it means all who Adam
represented, it means all who Christ represented. The only
way that we believe on the Lord Jesus is to be born again. And
all who he justified must be born again. They shall be born
again. And He's speaking here of all
who shall be born of Him, all who He represented, all who the
Father gave to Him. Now notice here what each head
did. All who they represented, what
each head did is what each one did. in their representative. Verse 19, he says, as by one
man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. Adam's disobedience didn't make
us susceptible to become sinners based on what we did. His disobedience
made us sinners, made us dead in sin. You get what I'm saying? He didn't put you in a sinnable
state if you just do something. What Adam did made us sin and
made us die. And the same way what Christ
did didn't make us susceptible to be made righteous if we do
something, what Christ did made His people righteous. He made
His people righteous. Well, why does it say shall be?
Because we must be born of God and given faith and brought to
faith in Him. And everyone that He died for
shall be because He made us righteous. Just like Adam's sin reigned
to death, God's grace reigns unto life. Look here in verse
21. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That word might there doesn't
mean it's a possibility. He's talking about just like
death reigned. It reigned like a sovereign over
us and we had no say in the matter. And he's saying here, even so
grace shall reign by sovereign God calling His people and bringing
us, making us willing to lay hold of Christ and trust Him
alone from beginning to end. Now that false doctrine of universal
atonement says Christ didn't succeed. It says He only made
salvation possible. He made salvation possible. That's
not universal redemption. That's a universal failure. It's
not saying Christ accomplished anything. Now turn over to 2
Peter, and let's look at this, another place where the word
all is used, 2 Peter 2, 3. I'm sorry, 2 Peter 3. He's declaring here how that
folks will get tired of waiting and start scoffing and saying,
you know, where's the promise of His return? He hasn't returned.
And that's what's going on in the world today. That's exactly
what happened whenever Moses went up into the mount. They
got tired of waiting on him to come back. And they said, oh,
make us gods we can see. Make us something we can see.
And they started worshipping an idol. And that's what Peter
is describing here because the Lord has a return. Folks say
things are just going on like they always have. And he says
here, that's not the case at all. He says in 2 Peter 3.9,
he tells us why the Lord is waiting. He says, The Lord is not slack
concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering
to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance. And men speak of this, and they
say, well, it says God's not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. But they make God's will out
to be a wish. They make God out to be hoping
and wishing that men would believe on Him. And that's why He's just
waiting. He's waiting. He don't want to see anybody
perish, and so He's just waiting in hopes that somebody will let
Him save them. But that's not what the verse
is saying. God is sovereign to work His will. He does according
to His will in the army of heaven among the inhabitants of the
earth. Nobody can question Him and nobody can say, what are
you doing? The us word here are his elect, chosen by God. Just
like he said in Ephesians 1, chosen before the world was made.
And then he said, and he predestinated us to the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself. And he said, and so we've obtained,
you that he's called have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the
counsel of His own will. Whatever God wills, that's what
God brings to pass. Whatever He willed, He does.
He elected a people to save by His will, by Christ. And Christ
came forth and redeemed every one of them because it was God's
will. And so He's sending His gospel
and He's calling them forth by His will. So the us-ward are
God's elect. We saw in Romans 5 that Christ
made His people righteous by His obedience. He made His people
righteous by His obedience. So justice says they can't perish.
Justice says they have to be called to faith in Him. They
have to be kept in Him. And so the reason God's waiting
to return is He's long-suffering to His elect. He's long-suffering
to us where those who don't yet believe Him and don't yet know
Him, He's being long-suffering to us where just like He was
to us when we didn't know Him. He's not willing that any should
perish, not any of His people, but that they all should come
to repentance. He has to give the gift of repentance. He has
to give the gift of faith, just like He has to give life, just
like He has to give righteousness, just like every gift comes down
from above, from Him. And so He says there in verse
15, so you can account that the longsuffering of our Lord is
salvation. It is salvation. Universal redemption. It says Christ died for everybody
without exception. It says He made it possible,
but it all hinges on your will. It hinges on you making your
decision for Christ. Some of the old preachers used
to say this, some of the will-worshipping preachers used to say, God voted
and the devil voted, and it's up to you to cast the deciding
vote. Now, if our salvation is because of our decision, and
that's really what we believe, our salvation is because of what
we did. We have voted for the devil,
and that's just so. That's just so. If the Lord only
made redemption possible, determined by the sinner, then salvation
is not by what Christ did, it's by what the sinner did. And that's
not so. That's just not so. Now let's
look and see a few scriptures with the word world in it. Let's
go to John 3.16 because this is the most popular. John 3.16. This is a wonderful verse. It's
very good news. But look what it says, John 3.14,
he says, as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal
life. For God so loved the world. that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him
might be saved. He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
When it says that God sent His Son that the world through Him
might be saved, again it doesn't mean maybe. It means they shall
be saved. He sent His Son that the world
should be saved and they shall be because Christ came to save
His people and He shall not fail. He cannot fail. He's God in human
flesh and He cannot fail. Context is always vital. The
Lord is, He's speaking of Nicodemus, and Nicodemus believed the doctrine
of election, but he believed it was only the Jews who were
the elect. And our Lord here is declaring that He has a people
all throughout the world. That's why He uses the word world
and the word whosoever. Because it's not just God's elect
among the Jews, He has elect among the Gentiles scattered
throughout the world. Revelation 5.9 says, Christ was
slain and has redeemed us to God by His blood out of every
kindred and tongue and people and nation. Now He didn't try,
He says, He hath redeemed us. That was done when He said it's
finished. He hath redeemed us. And it's
a people He redeemed, He purchased, He bought out of every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue under heaven. God so loved His people
scattered in all the world that He shall send the gospel and
the Spirit shall regenerate us to life and faith in Christ so
that whosoever, Jew or Gentile, shall believe on Him and not
perish. Notice Christ declared we must be born again of God
the Holy Spirit. He said there in verse 6, that
which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of
the Spirit is Spirit. It never changes. What we are
born of the flesh will always be flesh until it goes back to
the dust and God raises us with a new glorified body. But that
which is Spirit is Spirit, born of the Spirit of God, a new man
created, and that has to happen so that we're given faith and
we can actually believe and worship God and follow God and rely entirely
upon our Lord to save us. And he says here too that in
verses 19 and 20, this is where folks don't read ahead on this.
It says this is the condemnation. Christ didn't come to condemn.
He didn't have to do anything to us. When Christ came, we was
already condemned because we fell in Adam. And this is the
condemnation. He's light. He's coming to the
world. And men love darkness rather than light. He won't come
to Christ the light. Well, then how are we going to
be made to come to him? How are we going to be brought
to him? Christ said, no man can come to me except the Father.
Draw him. It's by the new birth, so think
about it. If we can't come to Christ, we're not willing to
believe on the true Christ. We're willing to be religious.
We're willing to be religious, but we're not willing to trust
the true and living God from A to Z for everything. Man always
wants to put his hand to it. He always has to put his hand
to the work and have a part in it. But we have to be born of
Him and be taught of Him and continue to be taught of Him
and continue to be kept of Him. And it's Christ by the Spirit
of God that draws us to Himself. And that's what He's declaring
here. We're made willing by His power. He gives us the gift of
faith. It's by His everlasting love. All that God does for His people
is because God loves His people. Wherever they are, scattered
in all the world, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Nothing.
That means His love never changes, His love never wavers one bit. Universal Atonement says He changes. He says He changes. His love
never changes because He never changes. The gifts and calling
of God are without repentance in God. He doesn't change. He
doesn't take back what He's given to His people. He said, I'm the
Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.
You think about it, the adoption of universal atonement really
does make the love of God to be nothing and to be meaningless.
What kind of love would it be if you got the power to save
and secure the salvation of your people, and you didn't? But He
has that power. He said in John 17, 9, I pray
for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which Thou givest Me, for they are Thine. There's another
case where we're glad that the word world doesn't mean everybody
without exception, because He said, I pray not for the world.
But there are some for whom He prays. It's those He loved from
everlasting and those He saved. He's got a people scattered throughout
the world and that's why we're preaching the gospel in all the
world. Go over with me to 1 John 2. In any doctrine that we're studying,
anything we're learning in the scriptures, we have to understand
it in light of what gives Christ all the glory and gives the sinner
none. Because that's how it's going
to be. God's going to give all the glory.
And whatever is righteous, that's how God's going to do it. That's
how God's going to do it. First John 2.1, he says, My little
children, These things write unto you that you sin not, and
if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins, and
not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. This is written to little children,
believers in Christ, made to have hearts to trust our Father. And because of what Christ has
done for us, believers do not want to sin. If we could be without
sin, we'd be without sin. We don't want to sin. We have
no desire to sin. We're not sinning with a high
hand and just, you know, well, we're free, let's sin. You can't. You can't do that because the
love of God and seeing what Christ did, the Lord just won't permit
it because in your heart you see what Christ has done for
you. But when we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father.
We have an advocate and He is our righteousness. And as our advocate, He's making
intercession being there in the presence of God as our righteousness. God is satisfied with His Son
because His Son has saved His people. He's justified His people.
And He is the only righteousness His people have. He's right there
in glory. Right there in glory with God.
And He's our advocate with the Father. Our propitiation. But
He says here it's not for His elect Jews only. John was a... a Jew, and he's saying it's not
just for us only, he said it's also for elect Gentiles in the
whole world. Now how do you look at that based
on what gives God the glory? God sent His Son and accomplished
this work of being the advocate and the righteousness and the
propitiation for His people. He did not leave that in our
hands based upon something we did to make His work effectual.
Look over at 1 John 4, 9. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us. This was toward God's people.
He says, because God sent His only begotten Son into the world
that we might, and there again the word shall, that we shall
live through Him. Herein is love, not that we love
God. That ought to sum it all up.
If He left it to us, in any point in this thing, we didn't love
God. We didn't. But He didn't put it in the sinner's
hands. It says, but He loved us, and
He sent His Son, the propitiation for our sin. To propitiate means
to appease God. It means to make atonement. He
came and He reconciled God's people to God. And so God now,
having satisfied His justice completely, that same justice
that demanded we had to die, now demands we have to live.
We have to be given life and brought into God's presence because
God's just and He did the justifying. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. It's
God that justifies. Christ is ever living to make
intercession for His people because He's the one that poured out
His blood and He's the one God will receive and He's the one
God's pleased with. So when you look at these scriptures
and you say, okay, what's giving God all the glory? What is saying
that we are sinners, undone, that we are in need continually,
constantly of Christ being our righteousness, of God saving
us by His will, of Him keeping us, of Him giving us willing
hearts, of Him continually drawing us to Christ and keeping us in
Him in that refuge. What gives Him the glory? That's
how we determine what these words world and all mean. Now let me
end with this. Back there in John 12, when you
read the scripture, never take for granted that the words all
or the words world means all without exception. Sometimes
it does. God gave the law that all the
world may become guilty. And that's everybody. That's
everybody. We all died in Adam. That's everybody. But it doesn't always mean all.
The Pharisees said, verse 19, among themselves, Perceive ye
how ye prevailed nothing. Behold, the world is gone after
him. People that were living on other
continents weren't going after him. They didn't even know where
he was. But a lot of people were going
after him. Luke 2.1 says, It came to pass in those days they
went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should
be taxed. Means everybody all over Rome.
All over Rome. Now, another thing is always
read the first verses and see who's being spoken to. To all
that be in Rome, beloved of God, called apostles. That's who it's
written to. his people, and then test all
of the scripture by what gives God the glory and the sinner
none. You think about this universal
atonement, saying Christ died for everybody, laid down his
life for everybody. That gives the sinner glory,
saying it's up to you now to believe on him. I pray God will
draw you and cause you to believe on Him. And I say, some preachers
won't say believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I say believe on
Him. That's what He told Ezekiel,
tell these dry bones to live. Live, believe on Him, call on
Him. But He's going to have to give
us the heart and the grace and the power to do it. But see,
when you put everything in the hand of men, and you tell men
that it's all up to them, and leave it there. You don't tell
them different. You don't tell them everything.
You just say, it's up to you now. That's giving man glory. Now,
when men hear this gospel, and hear God get all the glory, and
they object, what really is the objection? What really is the
objection? They're defending man. They're
defending man's works and man's will and man's doing. That's
what's being defended. That's what's being defended.
Against God having all the glory. And universal atonement really
makes God's wisdom to be utter foolishness. It would call God,
just make Him out to be foolish instead of all wise as He really
is. Because they say this, they say
the reason God chose His people is He foresaw who would believe
on Him. And then they say Christ came
forth and laid down His life for everybody. So He knew some
people weren't going to believe on Him and He sent His Son to
lay down His life for them. What kind of wisdom is that?
What God does is wisdom. He did this thing, He determined
the end from the beginning and left nothing, absolutely nothing
that's not ordered and sure in all things in Christ. Universal
redemption really denies the justice of God. It really denies
the justice of God because it says Christ laid down His life
for everybody and bore the wrath of God, the justice of God. But
then it says he'll turn around and pour out justice on folks
who don't make their decision for Christ. That's not justice. It's not justice at all. Universal
redemption is not effectual unless the sinner lets God save him.
And that really makes God's power to be weaker than the sinner's
will. And that's just not so. It's
just not so. And universal redemption declares
that multitudes are in hell for whom the Lord died, saying He
died in vain. It even says there, because there
were some who had died and were in hell when He laid down His
life. He spoke of some in hell already
when He walked this earth. The Scripture says he shall see
of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. It says he shall
not fail. And we wouldn't have any reason
to hope in our Lord. We'd have no reason to believe
on Him. We'd have no reason to follow
Him. We'd have no reason to want to order our lives around His
Gospel and to honor Him and to continue trusting Him even when
we're cast down in heart and cast down in body and spirit,
we would have no reason to continue to hope in Him. We'd have no
reason to hope that our loved ones, we would have no reason
to even speak this gospel and be objected to and rejected by
men if God didn't save this way. What would be the point? Rather
than objecting, you know what we would do? We'd do just what
the religious world does. Take the edge off, take the offense
out, and just try to persuade people to join in our social
club. That's exactly what we'd do. And do it in a way that's
the least offensive. Get all the marketing things
that the world has to attract and use that to attract people.
Why do you preach the gospel? Why would you even suffer being
objected to and rejected by men? And why suffer that at all? Because we have a God that's
going to save. We have a God who shall call His people and
save His people and not one should be lost. I'm thankful for God's grace.
I'm thankful He saves the way He saved. He won't lose one of
His people. He really works love in the heart
of His people. He really does. Faith, and He
keeps us there. Keeps us trusting. All right,
brethren, let's go to Him. Father, we thank You for Your
Word. I ask You, Lord, that You'd bless it. Lord, keep Your people. Lord, if we need to be chased
and chasing us, Humble us in heart. If you need to be lifted
up out of the dark valley, Lord, we ask you, would you be gracious
to lift up your children. Whatever it is your people need,
we ask you, Lord, to work it. And don't let your people fall
away. Give us grace to speak the word
in season. Give us grace to speak with love and patience. Lord, it's difficult to speak
your word. Give us grace to trust Christ and trust that you
really do save and that you're working in your hearts of your
people. Give us grace, Lord, to follow
you, to honor you, We need you every hour. Give us faith. Lord, when you
taught your apostles to forgive one another without limit, that's
when they ask for more faith. We certainly need more faith. Forgive us, Lord, for our pride. Forgive us for our rebellion.
Forgive us for not even acknowledging it, not seeing it. Help us look to Christ alone.
And we thank you, Lord, for sovereign, free grace in Christ. It's in
his precious name we ask it. Amen.