Would you turn with me in your
Bibles to Romans chapter 5? I'm just so thankful to be here
and I believe that the Lord's special blessing is on this place.
I'm just anxious to see what all the Lord does in the years
to come. I love your pastor, his family. What a blessing. I would like to read Verses six
through nine of Romans chapter five. And we're actually going
to have all three messages from these verses. Paul says for when we were yet
without strength in due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. Now when he's saying that, he's
saying if you're around one of these really over much righteous
people, you don't want to die for them. You don't even like
them. They're self-righteous. You don't feel comfortable around
them. Scarcely, very rarely for a righteous man will one die,
yet peradventure for a good man A kind man, a gracious man, a
merciful man, a forgiving man. Some would dare to die, but God
commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. much more than being now justified
by his blood. That's the result of God loving
you and Christ dying for you. Being now justified by his blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through him. About 60, somewhere between 63,
64 years ago, A man by the name of Rolf Barnard
came into Ashland, Kentucky to preach. At the time, it was a
Southern Baptist Church, the Pollard Baptist Church, and they
wanted to get a revival that week, and they were
looking for someone, and someone suggested this man, Rolf Barnard. And he opened the service, and
these people were not ready for this. He opened the service,
with this statement. There's two lies going around
Ashland, Kentucky. And everybody waited to hear
what the latest gossip was. And he said, the first lie is
that God loves everybody. And the second lie is that Christ
died for everybody. Now these people never heard
anything like this. And you can imagine the response. The question I would like to
ask, should that even be brought up? Is that an issue? I hope by the end of this, well,
you already know, I know you all believe this, but I hope
by the end of this, This will be seen as utterly critical in
preaching the gospel. I've entitled tonight's message,
For Whom Did Christ Die? Jesus Christ is the eternal son
of God, the uncreated, Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. You know something I love to
say? I love to say Jesus is God. I love saying that. He's not
like God. He is God. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. The Word, the Eternal Word in
the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word
was God, the same was, eternally was in the beginning with God. And this Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us and in the flesh for 33 years, He obeyed
God perfectly. He never sinned. He never put anything before
his father. He worshiped his father without
an idolatrous thought. He never took his name in vain. He always rested, trusting his
father completely. He honored his mother and his
father. And he never killed anybody. He never committed sexual sin.
No, not in his heart or imagination. He never stole anything. He never
lied. He always told the truth and
he never coveted. He kept God's law perfectly. He never seen it. Not in thought,
not in word, not indeed. He worked out a perfect, flawless
righteousness, which the scripture calls the righteousness of God. That righteousness that he worked
out is nothing less than the very righteousness of God. Now, what if after achieving
this perfect obedience, he went back to heaven? What good would it do you? It wouldn't do you any good at
all. It would condemn you, but it wouldn't do you any good at
all. But after living this perfect
life, the very righteousness of God, he was nailed to a cross and
died. Now to me, that's one of the
most mysterious things in the scripture, the fact that the
God-man could die in the first place, but he died. He was nailed
to a cross and he died after living this perfect life. And there is only one reason
for death. What is that? Sin. The wages of sin is death. You see, he not only came to
perform this perfect righteousness, but he came to die. He's called
in Revelation 13, eight, the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Would you turn with me for a
moment to John chapter 12? Yes, he came to obey God's law
perfectly, but he also came to die beginning in verse 23. Then Jesus answered them saying
the hour has come. talking about the hour of his
death that the son of man should be glorified. I think that's
glorious how he doesn't say it's the time for him to die. It's
the time for him to be glorified. Do you know the death of Christ
and I want to say this in reverence the death of Christ was the most
godlike thing he ever did when he died and what he accomplished
by that death. Now let's go on reading verse
24. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides
alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit, the much fruit of his death. He that loveth his
life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world
shall keep it unto life eternal, If any man serve me, let him
follow me. And where I am, there also my
servant may be. If any man serve me, him will
my father honor. Now is my soul troubled. You and I don't know what that
means, do we? He knew he was getting ready
to be forsaken by God. He was going to bear the full
equivalent of an eternal hell. He knew this. He was not going
to see anything, but his father's awful frown. He wasn't going
to be able to say, now I know that I didn't do these sins.
There's somebody else's sins and I'm being punished for somebody
else's sins. No, he bore all the guilt, all
the shame. of that sin. And he said, now
is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father
saved me from this hour, but for this cause came I in to this
hour. they came to arrest him and Peter
tried to protect him and he cut off the high priest's ear. Now,
the reason he got the ear is because he was ducking. He's
trying to cut off his head. That's what he was doing. And the Lord stopped him and
he healed that man's ear and he said, put up the sword, thy
sword into thy sheath, the cup which my father hath given me.
shall I not drink it? The cup of God's wrath, the cup
of an eternal hell, the cup which my Father hath given me, shall
I not drink it?" You see, Christ came to die and He came to die
a substitutionary, sacrificial death. Now listen to this scripture.
Listen to it like you've never heard it before. who his own
self bear our sins in his own body on the tree. And the moment he died, the sins
of all that he died for were put away. You know why the Lord
never went through the process of decay? You know, it speaks
of the, he said, I shall not suffer thy holy one to see corruption.
The reason his body never suffered the process of decay is because
he completely paid for those sins and satisfied God. God was
completely satisfied. If Christ died for you, your
sins have been put away. The scripture says now, once
in the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of himself. And that is precisely what he
did. 1 John 3, 4, and 5 says sin is
the transgression of the law. He never broke the law. And he
was manifested to take away our sins, to take them away to where
I don't have them anymore. And in him is no sin. That means if I am in him, I
have no sin. Now, if you're in him, your sin
has been, not will be, has been, past tense, put away. I say to you, the same thing
that Nathan said to David, when David said, I've sinned, Nathan
said, and the Lord hath put away thy sin. Now I want you to think
about the accomplishments and the achievements of the death
of Christ. He put away sin. If Christ died for you, you've
been saved. You are saved and you can't be
anything but saved. You have no sin. You have perfect righteousness. If he died for you, you're not
Sure for heaven is you as if you're already there. You're
already there in the person of your substitute. You're there
right now as he is. So are we in the world. If Christ
died for you, you are saved. You must be saved. You're saved. Now my question is for whom did
he die? Christ died for us. Who's the
us? For whom did he die? Now, should we even be making
an issue of this? There are those who say you don't
need to. Should we be making an issue
of this? Well, the Bible does. The Bible
points out very clearly for whom he died. And the Bible does not teach
or imply that his death could have ever been in vain, that
he could pay for somebody's sins and they still perish in hell. As far as that goes, do you know
the Bible does not teach or imply that Christ died for all men
without exception. Doesn't teach it, does not imply
it. Now I realize that most preachers
preach that Jesus Christ shed his blood for everybody and paid
for everybody's sins. But let me say this. If somebody
does preach that, they do not preach the gospel. They make meaningless the death
of Christ. and they take away the sinner's
only hope. You see, the only hope I have
is that Jesus Christ died for me. I don't have any other hope.
I'm not looking anywhere. That's it. That's the only hope
I have. And if you tell me, or if anyone tells me that he can
shed his precious blood for somebody and they wind up in hell, you've
taken away the only hope I got. I'll be in hell. I'm sure of
it. I know myself enough to know that my only hope is that Jesus
Christ died for me. Now, for whom did Christ die? I want to know what God's word
teaches, don't you? I want to know what the Bible
actually teaches regarding this. And I want to know so I can understand
what his death actually did. I want to know what the Bible
teaches and I want to have some kind of understanding of what
his death actually accomplished. If he died for somebody that
goes to hell anyway, his death didn't do anything for that person,
did it? I want to know. And I want to
know who he died for so I can see from the scriptures if I
fit the description of the persons he died for. That's very important
to me. You know, if I got a copy of the Lamb's Book of Life, you
know whose name I'd look for first? It wouldn't be yours. I'd look for yours after mine,
but there's one person I'd be looking at first. Mine. I want to understand
if I fit the description of that person that Christ Jesus the
Lord died for. I want to know who he died for
so I can learn and know how to preach the gospel. Gabe, you
want that too. I mean, we want to know how to
preach the gospel. You know, I'm not going to look
at people who I don't know if he has died for and say, Christ
died for you. No, that's the assurance of the
believer. That's the assurance of the believer. So how do I
preach the gospel in light of this? As a matter of fact, I've
had preachers tell me, how can you sincerely call upon men to
believe and repent and come to Christ if you can't tell them
that Christ died for them? I got no problem with that at
all. Come to Christ, you'll be saved. You see, the extent of
the atonement doesn't keep anybody away. It really doesn't. It brings
people in who would have been damned, but it doesn't keep anybody
away. I know this, if somebody knows
that Christ died for them, they will live for him. I know that. Now, according to
the scriptures, for whom did Christ die? Now look back at
that passage of scripture that we were reading in Romans chapter
five. Romans chapter five, verse six,
four, when we were yet without strength, not just when we were weak, when we were without strength,
utterly and completely unable. You know, I I'm sure this you've
never come to Christ until you found out you can't come. It's only when you find out you
can't that you come. Go on reading. For when we were
yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. That's a strong word, isn't it?
It's a scary word. The ungodly. Look at verse eight. But God commended his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now I'm not asking you right
now if you know you're a saint. I'm not asking you if you know
you're one of the elect. I'm not asking you if you know
that Jesus Christ died for your sins. I'm not asking you if you've
been born again by the spirit of God and have a new and holy
nature. Now those are important questions. Maybe we'll deal with
that at some other time, but here's the only question I want
to ask you right now. Are you a sinner? Are you without strength? Are you? Just forget about everybody
else. Are you ungodly? Would that describe you? Now, a lot of folks, if you'd
ask them, are you a sinner? They'd say, well, yeah, I make
mistakes. I do wrong things. I mess up sometimes. Now, is that what the Bible means
by sinner? No, no. A sinner is somebody who all
they do is sin. Would that describe you? A sinner is someone who cannot
not sin. A sinner is someone who really
believes they're the worst person alive. You looked into my heart,
you wouldn't hear me preach. I'm sure of that. And every believer
feels that way about themselves. They really believe themselves
to be the very chief of sinners. I can't look down my nose at
anybody. I don't care how bad that person is. I can't look
at them in a state of moral superiority and think, well, at least I'm
not like that. No, I'd be worse. A sinner is someone who has absolutely
no claim on God. I can't say, Lord saved me because
I did it. No, no claim. Are you a sinner? In that term that I just gave
a real evil, ungodly without strength sinner. It's not something
you're proud of. You're ashamed of yourself. But
are you a sinner? First Timothy 1.15 says, this
is a faithful saying, and it's worthy of all acceptation. Everybody
ought to rejoice in this, that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save. Anybody know the rest of the
verse? Sure you do. Sinners. And you know, I'm so
glad it doesn't have an adjective in front of the word sinners.
What if it said repentant sinners, or believing sinners, or sensible
sinners, or all the kind of different descriptions, men, what, or lack
sinners, or, no, it just says sinners. Are you one of those? Then I can tell you on the authority
of God's word, Jesus Christ died for you. He surely did. Your sin has been put away right
now when God sees you. He sees someone without sin. That's who Christ died for. Who did Christ die for? Well,
Peter said in 1 Peter 3, verse 18, he died the just for the
unjust. There's who he died for. The
unjust, the just for the unjust. You know, I was talking to a
young man, uh, just last night after our services, uh, at, uh,
Todd's road. And, uh, we were talking about
what it is to, to feel like you're the chief of centers. And he
said, the word that best describes me when I think about the way
I feel about myself is I'm a fraud, a fraud. And boy, I could relate with
that. I could relate with that. The just for the unjust. Would that describe you? Well,
then he died for you. He died for the unjust. I'm so
thankful for that. Turn with me to John chapter
10. Verse 15. As the father knoweth me, even
so know I the father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And that's who he died for. He
died for the sheep. Is everybody a sheep? Well, look
at verse 24 of the same chapter. Then came the Jews round about
him and said unto him, how long does thou make us to doubt? If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you
and you believe not. The works that I do in my father's
name, they bear witness of me, but you believe not because you're
not of my sheep. as i said unto you my sheep hear
my voice i know them and they follow me you see not everybody's
a sheep are they he says to these fellas right to their face he
says you believe not he doesn't say you're not my sheep because
you don't believe he said you believe not because you're not
my sheep christ died for his sheep He died for, well, who
are the sheep? Well, he tells us in verse 28,
I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.
Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My father, which
gave them me is greater than all. No man is able to pluck
them out of my father's hand. It's the elect. That's exactly
who Christ Jesus the Lord died for. The elect, those the father
gave him. You know, when he said, father,
forgive them. They know not what they do. That
wasn't some generic prayer. Everybody he prayed for was forgiven. Every blessed one of them. He said, I laid down my life
for the sheep. Listen to this scripture. If
God be for us, you're familiar with this. If God be for us,
who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is He that condemneth? It's Christ that dies. I need no other argument. I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. And that's the only hope I have.
But what is that? That's the only hope there is. And what
a solid, glorious hope. My hope is that Christ died for
me. For whom did Christ die? Well, he died for sinners. He
died for the unjust. He died for a sheep. But listen
to this. He died for whosoever. He died for whosoever. You know,
whosoever is a better word than Todd Nyberg. Better word. If any of you are vain enough
to Google your name to see if there's other names that I've
done that just here. There are other Todd Norbert's
quite enough, quite a bit of them, quite a bit of them. And
it might've been some other Todd Norbert, but I am a whosoever. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up that
whosoever. That's you. You're a whosoever. That whosoever
believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life. Romans
10, 13 says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. Lord, I'm calling. I'm calling
right now, Lord, save me. When calling on his name doesn't
just mean calling his name audibly. His name is who he is. It's his
attributes, his holiness, his sovereignty, his graciousness,
his justice, his power. We're calling upon all of his
name. Lord, save me as an act of your will. Save me by your
power. Save me by your justice. Save me by your grace. Lord,
save me. And we're given this precious
promise. Whosoever shall call. upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. For whom did Christ die? Many. For the son of man came not to
be ministered to, but to minister and to give his life a ransom
for many. He died for a whole lot of people. Many sinners are called. Not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called, but many nothings
are called. Many nobodies are called. He died for many. Now understand this. The extent
of the atonement of Christ, the fact that he only died for the
elect and he didn't die for anybody else, that doesn't shut anybody
out. It doesn't. You come to Christ
seeking mercy and you'll have it. He said, all that the father
giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise, for no reason at all, cast out. He won't do it. So when we're preaching the gospel
of Christ's effectual redemption for His elect, we're calling
on everybody. You come and believe, you'll
be saved. You come and bow the knee to
Christ, you'll be saved. You believe the gospel, you'll
be saved. We say that indiscriminately,
don't we? We say that to everybody. If you believe, if you bow the
knee to Christ, if you call on His name, you will be saved. He died for many Who did he die for? Well, let's
look at a couple of scriptures out of Hebrews. I can't quote
them, so I want to read them. Hebrews 9. Beginning in verse 12, neither
by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood. He entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained. eternal redemption
for us. For if the blood of bulls and
of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean
sanctify the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the
blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself
without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God. And for this cause he's the mediator
of the New Testament that by means of death for the redemption
of the transgressions that were under the first testament they
which are called. might receive the promise of
eternal inheritance. Who did he die for? They which
are called. Now, how can I know if he's called
me? The called call. Now, that's a fact. The called
call. Let me show you that in the scripture.
Hold your finger there in Hebrews and let me show you scripture
in 1 Corinthians 1. Paul called to be an apostle
of Jesus Christ through the will of God and saw that he's our
brother unto the church of God, which it Corinth to them that
are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints with all
that in every place call upon the name. of the Lord. You see,
the called call. That's how you can know if you've
been called, you'll call. If you don't call, he never called
you. But if you call, it's because he called you. I like the way
David said it in Psalm 27, when the Lord said, seek ye my face,
my heart said, thy face, O Lord, will I seek. Who did Christ die
for? Well, according to Hebrews 10,
14, them that are sanctified. By one offering, his death, he
hath perfected them that are sanctified, or being sanctified. He died for everybody that God
has set apart to be holy. That's why I did it. First John
2.2 says he's the propitiation for our sins and not for ours
only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Not just us
Jews, but Gentiles as well. Not just white, black, not just
no particular demographic. He died for every kind of man. I like this. Turn to Revelation
12. I've got a couple more. Revelation
12. Now I've looked in this message,
we're looking at every description we find in the Bible of the folks
that Christ died for. This is comprehensive. I'm not
leaving anything out. This is every description I could find
of anybody that Christ died for. Now look in Revelation chapter
12, verse 11. Well, let's start in verse 9. And that
great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil
and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out
into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. And I
heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now has come salvation
and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his
Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which
accused them before our God day and night. Now let's stop for
just a second. The accuser. of our brethren. Now could the
devil make many accusations against you? Would they be true? Every single one of them. And
how many times have you even said to yourself, how could I
really be a Christian? How? Am I nothing more than a
hypocrite? He whispers in our ear, you,
a Christian? You're nothing but an actor and
you know it. The accuser of the brethren, verse 11, and they
overcame him, how? By the blood of the lamb. And the word of their testimony,
what was the word of their testimony? The blood of the Lamb. That was
their message. What do you have to say? It's
Christ that died. That's my only answer. For whom did he die? Got one
more. Turn to Revelation 5. Verse 9. And they sung a new song saying
thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof
for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred and tongue and people and nation and made and
has made us into our God kings and priests and we shall reign
on the earth. And I beheld and I heard the
voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and
the elders and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000
and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, Worthy is
the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and
strength and honor and glory and blessing. Every member of
that great heavenly choir Jesus Christ died for. That's what
they said. Notice they didn't say you've
redeemed everybody. They said you've redeemed us out of every
kindred, tongue, people, and nation. Now for whom did Christ
die? Now if I simply got somebody
to go from believing in general atonement to limited atonement. That's not what this is about.
This is not about somebody getting their doctrine straightened out.
It's about somebody believing the gospel substitution. This
is the gospel. What's good news to you? What
is good news to you? I tell you what's good news to
me, that all I need and all I have Not only all I need, all I have
is what Christ did for me. That's it. That is the gospel. For whom did Christ die? Are
you a sinner? You can answer that question.
I think of when the Ethiopian eunuch said, what hinders me
from being baptized? Philip answered, If you believe
with all your heart, you may. And he said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the son of God. Do you believe that? If thou should confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Do you believe that? If you do, you can say with Paul,
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life that
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me. And I'd like to make
four concluding statements with regard to Christ dying for the
elect and only the elect. Here's my first statement. This
only is simple. It's simple. Particular redemption,
successful atonement, definite atonement. It's simple. If Christ died for you, you'd
be saved. The other view is complex. It doesn't even make sense. I remember one time a Baptist
preacher said to me after we were talking about this very
subject, he said, you're just trying to make sense. Well, I don't believe
it just because it makes sense, but it does make sense, doesn't
it? If Christ died for you, you must be saved. Secondly, this is the only thing that satisfies
my conscience. Nothing else satisfies me, but
this does. This satisfies, I need nothing
else. I mean, I'm at peace with this.
If you give me anything else, I've lost my peace. But I have
peace that all that God requires of me, he looked to his son for. And that gives me peace. Nothing
else satisfies my confidence. Thirdly, this is what softens the heart. The songwriter said, law and
terrors do but harden when attended all alone, but a sense of blood-bought
pardon will dissolve a heart of stone. You know, as long as you think
God's got something against you, you're going to be afraid to
come into his presence. As long as you think there's still something
wrong, something undone, some loose string, something not,
as long as you think God has anything against you, you're
gonna bear a secret resentment of Him. And you're not gonna
come into His presence with joy and thanksgiving, but it's only
when you know that sin's put away. It's put away. There is no sin. There's therefore now no condemnation. to them that are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. This is
the only thing that softens the heart, to see sin put away, and
this is what will cause a man to live for Christ. Paul put
it this way in 2 Corinthians 5, for we thus judge that if
one died for all, then we're all dead, and that he died for
all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves,
but unto him that died for them. and rose again. If he died for me, may I live
for him. Now, may the Lord enable the Sovereign Grace Church in
Kingsport to spread this message. Pastry.