Turn with me in your Bibles please
to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. We'll read from verse 1. Ephesians
chapter 1 and verse 1. Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the will of God to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the
faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace be to you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the
praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted
in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. My verse this evening is found
in the first chapter of Corinthians. We read it a few moments ago. Corinthians chapter 1 and verse
18. Let me read it to you. For the
preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. The preaching of the cross is
to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. I want for a few moments, by
way of introduction, just to think with you about what the
apostle here means by the phrase, the preaching of the cross. It's very straightforward, for
we find the answer in verse 17. Christ sent me to preach the
gospel. What the apostle preached was
the gospel. That was what God sent him to
preach. For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel. That was his commission. That
was what God sent him to do. Then he goes on to say what the
content of that gospel is. It is preaching the cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Preaching the cross of Christ
is preaching the gospel. Now it's interesting when the
apostle makes this comment that he goes on to qualify the method
that he is using for preaching the gospel. The gospel is words. The gospel, as it is preached,
is words declared. This is a declaration of what
the Lord Jesus Christ has done, principally, what the Lord Jesus
Christ has done upon the cross. And the Apostle says in verse
17 that he was not sent to preach the gospel with wisdom of words. It was not with a peculiar eloquence
that the Apostle came. It was not with the skills of
oratory. It was not that the Apostle came
with a very polished presentation. And neither did he come with
a slick agenda in order to, as it were, impress with his ability
those who heard his message. Indeed, it seems as if the apostle
is going out of his way to make sure that the people appreciated
that it was the content of the message of the cross that was
the gospel and not any clever presentation that the apostle
could bring. You don't get the gospel through
music, no matter how good that music is. You don't get the gospel
through little plays and dramas, no matter how accomplished and
polished that might be. We don't get the gospel by staging
big events, by giving stirring calls to action, by endeavouring
to move and motivate individuals with all of the skills of the
orator. A great speech is lovely to hear. A great speech can move you in
your heart. It can touch your emotions. Words
are powerful. But when the apostle came to
preach the gospel, when the apostle came to preach the cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ, he expressly declares that he is not coming
with wisdom of words. He is coming in order to declare
simply and straightforward the plain, modest, humble gospel. Why did he make that point? Why was he declaring that the
gospel had not to be ornate or adorned with the skills of man? For this reason, verse 17 again,
lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. The importance of the message
of the gospel is that it is the gospel itself. which makes the
effect. It is the gospel itself that
changes the heart. It is the gospel itself that
demonstrates the power. It's the message of the Lord
Jesus Christ that opens our understanding and brings us into the experience
of the things that the Lord would have us know. It is the gospel
that conveys that message to us. And if the individual brings
anything of himself, brings any adornment to that, then there
is the risk that it is the power of the oratory, or the ability
of the preacher, and that he will take glory. and that he
will accomplish great things, and the gospel, which is the
true source of the effect and the change and the power, will
be disregarded. It is that the cross of Christ
should be recognized as that which has the power and the effect. He did not come with words of
wisdom, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. That's effectively saying that
the apostle was purposefully making sure that the message
of the gospel was not made more attractive in any way so that
people would give it an ear or give it attention. But he came,
almost as it were, to say, here is the message. and prepare to
let it stand in its own right and you do with it as you will. Hear it or ignore it at your
peril. Here is the message of the gospel. Now this is so much contrary
to the way in which most churches act today. Indeed it seems as
if the gospel, the message of the cross, is being relegated
to ever such a small part of any church activities, any church
gathering, that you sometimes wonder if it's there at all.
There's plenty of time spent in singing. There's plenty of
time spent on the musicians and the preparation for the musicians.
We work with the lights and we work with the ambience and we
work with the atmosphere and we make sure that people are
comfortable and we bring them in and we give them a soft approach
to the gospel or maybe we'll get one or two celebrities to
come and, as it were, give their witness, their attestation to
the way in which the gospel has changed them. We'll get some
endorsement from some sports player or other, and we make
the gospel as attractive as we possibly can. And the purpose
is to get men convinced that this is worth accepting. All of these things the Apostle
Paul says, I am careful to exclude. For the preaching of the cross,
verse 18, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness, but unto us which are saved. It is the power of
God. You see what he's saying here?
It is the gospel itself. And the gospel will not be accepted. Oh, the musical items might be
readily received. The little plays and the skits
that are put on, they might be very attractive. The whole atmosphere of the church,
and the fellowship, and the experience, and the praise, and the worship,
and all of the pleasurable activities which go around with church these
days may well be desirable to many people, but to those who
are perishing, the gospel itself is foolishness. Let me tell you.
I've been watching some of your religious television and that
to me is the true foolishness. It's terrible the way in which
there has been a complete disregard for the message of the cross. Now if the gospel is preaching
Christ crucified, if that is what the gospel is, then every
church and every minister that claims to be a Christian gospel
church needs to know what preaching the gospel entails. They need
to know what happened on the cross. They need to know what
the Lord Jesus Christ has done. And that, I'm sad to say, is
a great misunderstanding today. There are very, very few people
who truly understand what the Lord Jesus Christ did and what
the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross. This evening, my
purpose is to bring you to the Word of God. I hope to do a little
bit of page turning. I want you to search out some
of these references for yourself. But I want to show you what the
Word of God says, the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross,
because that is the gospel. And you might say you're preaching
the gospel, you might advertise that you're having a gospel meeting,
you might talk about gospel rallies, but if you don't preach the cross,
if you don't preach the work of Christ and the accomplishments
of Christ on the cross, it is not the gospel. The great misunderstanding
that we have, most professing Christians believe that redemption,
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, was God's plan
to put right the fall of Adam. They believe that it was God's
way of escape, that he was making a way of escape from the effects
of sin or that he was making a bridge that would span between
heaven and earth and enable all the world that will to go across
that bridge and find life and find happiness in heaven. That's
what's preached in most churches. And that is not what the cross
accomplished at all. Redemption is deliverance procured
by payment of a ransom. we are going to talk a little
bit this evening about what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
in the redemptive work upon the cross. If we are going to know
the gospel. If we are going to believe the
gospel, then we need to know what redemption entails and we
need to know what Christ has done. It is a deliverance procured
by the payment of a ransom. That's a bit of a mouthful, so
let me see if I can illustrate it to you like this. Supposing
a man is captured or taken prisoner or kidnapped. and a demand is
made that a ransom must be paid in order for his release to be
accomplished. If that payment, that ransom
is made, then that man who was kidnapped or captive goes free. The payment is made and the captive
goes free. Redemption has been accomplished. A payment has been made and liberty
has been procured by that payment. I'll take another example. Supposing
a mother is not able to feed her children. She's run out of
money. She doesn't have anything that
she can feed her children with. But she has a ring. A wedding
ring. She takes that wedding ring and
she goes to the pawnbroker. Do you have pawnbrokers? You
know what I'm talking about. And she leaves that ring with
the pawnbroker. She takes the money and she buys
food for her children and her children are fed. Some time later
she gets money and she takes that money back to the pawnbroker
and she redeems her ring. She makes a payment and she takes
possession of that which was hers. She had to give it over
and now she has purchased it back. That ring is now hers. That's another picture of redemption. The captive that is freed by
the payment of a ransom, the ring that is recovered by the
payment of a price, and man using that same picture, is captive
to sin and to satan. A price needed to be paid in
order to liberate man from satan. Man owed a great debt. a price had to be paid in order
for that debt to be cancelled. And the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ upon the cross was the payment of the price by which
men in sin were freed and by which that which was precious
to the owner was redeemed and secured again out of that state
of debt. Now here is something which in
some places would be a little bit controversial and it may
be that you don't know very much about the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ or how it is to be properly understood. But here is a point
which is of the utmost importance. When we think of the work of
the Lord upon the cross, We need to ask the question, for whom
did the Lord die? If that work of redemption was
setting the captive free, if that work of redemption was recovering
by the purchase, by the payment of his blood, that which was
indebted, for whom was that price paid? Now that might seem to
be an obvious answer. Surely the Lord Jesus Christ
died for everyone. But let us think about this for
a moment. Let us think about the implications
of this. If the Lord Jesus Christ did
indeed pay the purchase price for the liberty of every captive,
every sinner, then that sinner must be free. If the Lord Jesus
Christ redeemed everyone that was in bondage, then everyone
must be free. The price has been paid. That's
what redemption is. Redemption is the procurement
of liberty at the payment of a price. If the ransom has been
paid, then all must be free. But we know from the Word of
God that that is not the case. We know from our own observations
that that is not the case. We know from the fact that there
is going to be a judgment one day at which all men will be
accountable before a holy God and many will be sent into a
lost eternity, that that is not the case. that the payment price
could not have been paid for everyone because not everyone
will have the benefits that have been purchased and secured by
that price. Not everyone is saved. Not everyone's debt of sin is
paid off, therefore there must be a restriction, there must
be a limitation in the extent of the redemptive work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. If your church doesn't preach
that, then it doesn't understand what happened at the cross. If
the church doesn't preach that, then it doesn't grasp what the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ actually accomplished. Redemption
is limited to those who were chosen of God before the foundation
of the world. Election and redemption, the
choice of God of a certain number of people from amongst the A
mass of humanity in this world to be saved, to be redeemed is
the same number, the same extent as that which is accomplished
by the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Come with
me to Ephesians chapter 1 and look at the verses there that
we read earlier. Verse 4. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4. according as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will. This is a reference to the choice
of God, the elective work of God, in choosing a people for
himself, predestinating that people, and committing them into
the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he should pay the price
for the redemption of that people. Look at chapter 5 verse 25, same
book, Ephesians, turn over a couple of pages if you will, The apostle there is speaking
of husbands and wives and of the relationship that there ought
to be between a husband and a wife. That relationship of love and
loyalty. Husbands, love your wives. But look at what it says by way
of comparison. Even as Christ also loved the
church and gave himself for it. This is not a universal term.
This is a limited term. It is limited, it is particular
to those whom the Lord Jesus Christ loved and those for whom
he died, those for whom he gave himself. Christ is the pattern
of a good husband. That's what this verse is saying.
Christ is the pattern of a good husband. But if the Lord Jesus
Christ had loved other spouses, then he would hardly have been
a pattern for men and women in this world today. Husbands, love
your wives as Christ loved the church. Love her Love him with
a loyalty. Love him with a particularity. Love her in distinction to all
other women. When you take that marriage vow,
you take that vow for her. You don't say, darling, I love
you just as much as I love all the other women in the world.
Of what value is such love? Love has to be particular. Love has to be distinctive. Love has to be vested and targeted
and bestowed upon one individual. And that's the pattern that the
apostle is giving us here. Look at Acts chapter 20. Turn
with me please to Acts chapter 20. And here we can see again
this reference to the purchasing of which the Lord Jesus, or of
which the Apostle speaks with reference to the Lord Jesus Christ's
death. In verse 28, Acts chapter 20
verse 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers, to feed the church of God which he hath purchased
with his own blood. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
has purchased the church of God. In 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 18
and 19, again we see this coming through. We are redeemed there,
we're told, by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
in John chapter 10 verse 15, we read that the Lord Jesus Christ
laid down his life for the sheep. Now, all of these references
speak of a particular group. They speak of the church. They
speak of a group of people whom the Lord identifies as His sheep. In Titus chapter 2 verse 14,
"...who gave Himself for us." that he might redeem us from
all iniquity. This price, this payment, this
ransom, this redemption, this procurement of liberty upon the
payment of price is directed to certain individuals and that
is the particularity of the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The sheep, the church, the people of God, they are restrictive
terms. And I know that in scripture
sometimes words like all and everyone and the world are used. But these words are used in a
context which readily supplies the meaning. And if we were to
look at those words and understand them in their context, they too
show themselves to have a particular reference to a certain group
of people. And why, if it was a universal
atonement, would the apostles ever have used these distinctive
and restrictive and limiting words in order to describe the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ? The Old Testament sacrifices
also bear a witness. These were types of the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll remember how the lambs
and the goats and the doves and the oxen were taken and in a
variety of ceremonies and a variety of rituals for different things
at different times and places. These sacrifices were made for
the Jewish people. And the Jews in the Old Testament
are a picture, a type of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ
in the New Testament. And we can see that it was a
very particular and definite work that was accomplished in
the sacrifice of the bull for those that were offering it.
And that is paralleled in the distinctive work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. If we make the work of Christ
upon the cross universal, then we damage the whole meaning of
atonement. We take away any true understanding
of what that word means. And it means that the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ did not accomplish anything, for there
are some In that case, who were redeemed by His blood and yet
end up separated from God in hell for all eternity. We know that hell is punishment
for the sins committed in the body. If the Lord Jesus Christ
in his body had taken the punishment for those sins, how is it possible
that God would require a double payment? Once in the body of
the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary and then again in hell for all
eternity. God is just. And God does not
require double payment for the sin of man. Therefore, we understand
that the extent of the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ
is restricted to a particular group, a group that God calls
His elect, His chosen people. That is the testimony that we
find in Scripture. Salvation has been accomplished
by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross. It is
not a provisional thing that requires man to add to it and
thereby accomplish his own salvation. The whole use of the term redemption,
which is what Christ accomplished on the cross, whenever it is
used in Scripture, speaks of something actually accomplished. Not something made possible,
not something provisionally accomplished, but something that is substantial
and something that is sure. Let me just give you a couple
of references. In Revelation chapter 5 and verse
9, there is redemption to God. In the same book, chapter 14
verse 3, redemption from the earth. It was accomplished. There is redemption from amongst
men in Revelation 14 verse 4. In Psalm 103, redemption from
bondage, from death and from the grave. In Galatians 3.13,
redemption from the law. And in Titus 2.14, redemption
from all iniquity. Peter talks about our redemption
from former vain conversation. A change has been effected. Redemption has accomplished the
purpose that it was sent to achieve. When we think of universal redemption,
it accomplishes nothing. It frees us from nothing. It
has no effect. But it makes the helpless sinner
a mockery because we tell them that there is something that
they have to do in order to make the death of Christ effectual
for them. And yet sin renders them dead
and without strength and without ability before a holy God. Preaching a universal atonement,
preaching a universal redemption has no effect upon the deliverance
of a sinner, because it requires something from them to achieve
any effect. And that is impossible for those
who have no strength. When we preach the gospel then,
we preach the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ shed to cleanse
the sinner's sin. Shed in order to liberate the
captive. Shed in order to atone for the
unbeliever. Shed in order to buy back those
who are blind. In Isaiah chapter 42, We read
that the purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ coming would be
to open the blind eyes to bring out the prisoners from prison.
And that the Lord himself said that he had been anointed to
preach the gospel of liberty. The gospel that accomplishes,
the gospel that achieves the end whereunto it is sent. Now
I've got three examples that I want to give you just briefly
by way of showing the testimony of scripture to the fact that
the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ is particular and
limited in its extent. The first one is this. It is
the unity of the Trinity. The unity of the Trinity. Trinity is not a word that we
encounter in Scripture. We don't find the word Trinity
in our Bibles. But the doctrine of the Trinity
pervades the whole of Scripture. One God in three persons. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. Now for these three persons of
the Godhead to be one God means that they are united in purpose,
means that they are one in will, means that in the counsel and
in the desires of God there is unanimity, there is unity in
the Trinity. and the salvation which has been
designed is consistent with all three persons of the Godhead. When the Lord Jesus Christ came
to do His Father's will, it was the will of the Father. When
the Holy Spirit goes about His business, it is to do the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can see that that union
is testified to in Scripture. In John chapter 10 verse 30,
the Lord Jesus Christ says that He and the Father are one. That is in mind, in will, and
in purpose. In John chapter 16, the Spirit
speaks of the Father and the Son's will. And in John chapter
6 verse 39, this is the Father's will which has sent me, that
of all which He hath given me I should lose nothing. This is
the Father's will that sent me, that of all that He has given
me I should lose nothing. Now if the Lord Jesus Christ
went to the cross and died for everyone, And not everyone is
saved. The Lord has failed in the purpose
for which he was sent. For the will of God was very
clear to the Son. He knew what he had to do. And
yet, the Lord Jesus Christ's work is regarded by the majority
of professing Christians today to have been ineffectual, for
he failed to accomplish that which he was sent to do under
their doctrinal view. It's a very strong argument,
the unity of the Trinity for limited atonement. For if it
can be shown that the Father gave the Son all men to save,
then the Son must die for all men, and the Holy Spirit must
regenerate all men. and there is no such place as
hell. It's a universal gospel and all
men are saved regardless of how they live, regardless of what
they think of God, regardless of ever hearing the gospel or
not. But rather the Word of God testifies
that it never was the will of the Godhead to save all people,
but that the Father gave a particular people to the Son in election,
and that the Son redeemed that people at Calvary, and that the
Holy Spirit takes and calls and quickens that people in time. Unity in the Trinity is a strong
argument for limited atonement. A second example, a second argument,
is the nature of the substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus Christ
on the cross. We sometimes use the word vicarious
and by that we mean that when the Lord Jesus Christ died upon
the cross, he died there in the place of those who would benefit
from the sacrifice that he made. He put himself, if you like,
their place. He took their place. He stood
where they should stand under the judgment of God. He stood
in their place and as it were he laid open his soul to the
wrath of God against their sin. Indeed, we discover that the
Lord Jesus Christ, in this work, he suffered for his people. In 1 Peter 2, verse 21, we read,
for even here unto where he called, because Christ also suffered
for us. Christ has suffered for those
for whom he died on the cross. And then 1 Peter chapter 3 verse
18, Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust,
that he might bring us to God. And then 1 Corinthians, I deliver
unto you, 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 3, I'm sorry, for I
delivered unto you that which also I received, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures. And in 2 Corinthians
5, 20 and 21, For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. You see, the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ was substitutionary. He stood in the gap. He took
that place for sinners. That is the great message of
the gospel. The punishment we should have
suffered for sin has been taken by another. The punishment which
rightly was ours, the sword of God, has smitten the shepherd. And we, the sheep, have been
redeemed. The sheep are free from all obligation. The sheep are free from all condemnation. We have to ask the question,
are all free? Has everyone been brought from
that place of condemnation? The answer is no, for hell is
real. Judgment will be effected. There will be a day in which
God will open the books and to men who are put on one side,
he will say, depart from me ye wicked. And there will be an
everlasting punishment. There will be a guilt that will
stand for all eternity. Redemption cannot then be both
substitutionary and universal. So here is our second argument
for the limitation of the atoning work of Christ. It was a vicarious
sacrifice. He substituted himself for us. And another argument that we
have, the third one and the final one that I want to bring to you
this evening is this, and I'll do it briefly. It is the fact
that Christ is the head of his church. We use the word federal. You know a little bit more about
the meaning of federal across here than perhaps we do. We don't
use the word very often in the United Kingdom. We don't certainly
use it in the context of government as you do. But there is that
representative role which the Lord Jesus Christ has taken. And if one is the head, the federal
head, then he stands for others. He stands and he speaks for others. Now we can see that in Scripture,
in Romans chapter 5 for example, there is the teaching of the
Apostle Paul that Adam stands for all men. Turn with me to
Romans chapter 5 just briefly. In Romans chapter 5 and verse
12 we read of the way in which Adam, that one man, was a representative,
was a head if you like, for all men. By one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, so that death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. Then again, look at verse 19.
For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. That speaks about the federal
headship of Adam. Because of Adam's sin, that sin
has passed upon all men. So that all men and women born
in this world are sinners, not because they sin, They sin because
they're sinners, but they're sinners because of their hereditary
involvement as Adam's fallen race. And so men stand or fall
in their federal head. That is Paul's argument. We all
fell in Adam because we were all in Adam when he sinned. But there are those who now find
Christ to be their head. And he has become the head of
his people, his church, that same group that were committed
into his care, that same group that were chosen by God and who
will be regenerated by the Holy Spirit. That same group for whom
he died, he has become their federal head, and all in him
are represented by him. So that as he stands before the
presence of his father, pleading the cause of his people as the
high priest of those people, he stands as the federal head
of every one of them. Christ represents the entire
number of the elect that were committed into his hand. His
adopted family, if you like. And in Ephesians 1 verse 5, we
read it together earlier. We can see there that we are
adopted as children. We are brought into that relationship
of adoption. Let me read it again to you.
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. This is the blessing of free
grace. This is discriminating grace. This is definite grace. This
is grace that accomplishes. For the Lord Jesus Christ, having
redeemed His people, stands for them before His Father. And He
says, I have done all that is necessary for the redemption
of that people. They are free. They were captives. But now they are liberated. They
were in debt, but that debt has been paid. And the Father, Son
and Holy Ghost in the eternal covenant of grace, they are committed
together in unity of Trinity to accomplish the deliverance
of a people. And the Lord Jesus Christ, as
the substitute, has stood in the place of that people, laying
down His life on their behalf, and accomplishing all that is
necessary to bring them into an experience of grace. And as
our Federal Head, He stands in the presence of His Father, and
He pleads our case. For He stands there with the
names of His people, there in his hand. And he says, these
are mine. And Paul says in Romans chapter
8, there is therefore now no condemnation upon them. That's the gospel. That's the
good news. That a work has been done, that
it's accomplished, that it's finished, that it's at an end.
That the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary laid down
his life and shed his blood for the deliverance of his people. That's the message that can be
preached as good news to all men. And that is our obligation
as preachers of the gospel. The Apostle Paul said that he
was a preacher sent by the Lord Jesus Christ to go into all the
world preaching the cross. Preaching the cross. Let us seek
out preachers of the cross. Let us listen to those who know
what the gospel is. Let us be united with those who
fellowship in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, vicarious,
substitutionary, complete and accomplished. For this alone
is the good news to fallen sinners. And by this message alone shall
sinners be brought into an experience of grace and a knowledge of the
truth in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.