Good. Thank you, Brother Nolan.
Good morning. It is always a pleasure and an
honor to be where God's people are, together to worship our
Savior and our Lord Jesus Christ. And so I thank God that he's
brought us together on this day to be together under the preaching
of the gospel. And if you would like to follow
along in your Bibles, I'd like for you to turn to John chapter
6. I'm going to be dealing with a set of verses that I quote
from quite often in my preaching. And what I'm going to do is take
these verses and I want to show the reality and the certainty
of what the death of Christ means for His people. The gospel and
salvation, the glory of God, is wrapped up totally in the
glorious person and the finished, accomplished, successful work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, this is about
who Christ is and what He has done. It's not about who we are
and what we've done. And the fact that we are sinners
saved by grace, that's important. But there'll be no salvation
apart from the glorious person and the finished work of Christ.
And the Bible teaches us plainly who Christ is. That he is God
manifest in the flesh. He was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh. He was declared to be the son
of God with power. God, man, that's the kind of
person that it took to save sinners like us. It had to be both God
and man. God, for example, we think about this. God cannot
die, but this person who is God did die. Mind-boggling, isn't
it? Man cannot put away sin, but
this person who is man without sin did put away our sins. And
then the Bible tells us that Christ did not die to make us
savable, but he died to save his people from their sins. His
name shall be called Jesus. That's in his name, if we know
what his name means. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. He didn't come
to try to save anybody. He came to save his people from
their sins, and he did just that. You know, today's false Christianity
is based upon what they see as the death of Christ, just making
sinners savable if they will cooperate and receive what he
has to offer. And they portray God as an old
grandfatherly person who's sentimental and who desires and wants to
save everybody, but he cannot unless you let him. Really, it's
like one old preacher back in the 50s in the city of Chicago
got up in a church and he preached a message and basically here's
what he said about hell. He said, hell is a monument to
God's failure to save sinners. And think about that. That's
not the God of this book. Well, so I began looking at this
passage that we're gonna read. Look at verse 37 of John 6. This is the Lord speaking. He
says, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from
heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent
me. Now the Son's will and the Father's will are the same. But
what he's doing, he's showing here his condescension, his humility
as the servant of the Father for the salvation of his people.
And so he says, and this is the Father's will which hath sent
me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing
but should raise it up again at the last day. This is the
will of him that sent me that everyone which seeth the Son
and believeth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise
him up at the last day. Now notice verse 41, the Jews
then murmured at him, now this is the product of unbelief. because
he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. He had
said that earlier. And they said, is not this Jesus,
the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? We know Joseph
and Mary, we know Joseph, he's a carpenter, we know Mary, his
wife. How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?
Now listen to the words of our Lord. Jesus therefore answered
and said unto them, murmur not among yourselves, No man can
come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him and
I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Now here's the way I'm going
to approach this this morning. I want to start with this statement,
and this is the title of the message. If Christ died for me. If Christ died for me, there
are seven things that I've got here in this outline. There are
seven things that have happened and must happen to me. If he died for me. Now, as you
know, that's an important thing because preachers all over this
country are telling people, God loves you and Christ died for
you. And then they go on and say, now the rest is up to you.
Well, you know that's a lie. That's a false gospel. But here's
what I want us, if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
we claim that Christ died for our sins, if Christ died for
me, Here are several things that God's word says about me that
cannot be denied. And here it is. If Christ died
for me, number one, I'm a sinner who cannot save myself. If he died for me. That means
this, that means I fell in Adam into sin and ruin. into a state
of sin and death and that I'm born spiritually dead in trespasses
and sins. He says here in verse 44, no
man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw
him. Why is it we cannot come to him? It's because the Bible
teaches we're spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. That
word can speaks of ability. We don't have the spiritual ability
to come to Christ. Somebody said, well, you know,
we've got a choice. Well, that's true, we've got
a choice, but we're always gonna make the wrong choice, the scripture
says. Why is it we must be drawn? That
word draw, it's the same word that the Lord used when he spoke
the parable of the dragnet, throwing out the net and bringing in the
fishes. We have to be drawn by the Father,
and those who are drawn by the Father, listen to verse 44. Except
the Father which has sent me draw him, and then look at the
next line. I will raise him up at the last
day. Somebody told me one time, well,
he draws us, but we can resist the drawing. No, we can't. Whoever
he draws, he's gonna raise up at the last day. That means he's
gonna bring them in. The Bible tells us that God commendeth
his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Paul wrote, this is a faithful
saying worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. I've quoted this early
when the angel came to Joseph and gave the name of the Christ
child. She shall call his name Jesus,
for he shall, not might, not probably, not if they will, but
he shall save his people from their sins. The Bible says if
righteousness come by the law, by anything we do, Christ died
in vain. So if Christ died for me, I know
this, I'm a sinner who cannot save myself. I'm a sinner who's
dead in trespasses and sins and will not, if left to myself,
choose Christ. I must be drawn by the Father
and be raised up at the last day if He died for me. If you think that you can save
yourself, if you think that you can make the right decision,
you cannot claim at this time that He died for you. If God
ever draws you to himself, he died for you. Well, here's the
second thing. If Christ died for me, that means
God chose me before this world began. He appointed Christ to
be my surety. It means he charged my entire
sin debt, even before I was born. Before the foundation, he charged
my entire sin debt to Christ. What did he say in verse 37? All that the Father giveth me. All of them. He says, this is
the Father's will in verse 39, which is sent me that of all
which he hath given me. When did God the Father give
us to Christ? It wasn't when we believed. We
were given to him before the foundation of the world. Our
names were written in the Lamb's book of life before this world
began. And it's the book of the Lamb
that was slain. That's his death. So for whom
did he die? All whom the Father gave him.
The Bible says in Hebrews 2 and verse 17, wherefore in all things
it behooved him. He was indebted. What's that
mean? Christ as the surety of his people. God chose us in Christ. He made Christ to be our surety.
That means our debt was laid upon him. And he obligated himself
voluntarily to come and pay that debt. It behooved him to be made
like unto his brethren. Who are his brethren? Who are
his brethren? He said, those that do the will
of my Father, which is in heaven. That he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God. There's no
high priest without a sacrifice. There's no sacrifice that's acceptable
to God without a high priest. Old John Bunyan said, in order
to have a proper, to be accepted before God, there had to be a
proper high priest, one who's appointed of God, And there had
to be a proper sacrifice, the blood shed, and there had to
be an altar that set that sacrifice apart. And that's a perfect picture
of our great high priest, the Lamb of God, dying on the cross
for our sins. And he did, he made reconciliation
for the sins of the people. Isaiah said it. In his prophecy
in chapter 53, surely he hath borne our griefs, carried our
sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God. So if Christ died for me, I can
tell you this much, that before the foundation of the world,
God chose me and gave me to him. Here's the third thing. If Jesus
Christ died for me, God cannot and God will not charge my sins
to me or condemn me for them. There's not one person for whom
Christ died who can perish under condemnation. Why? Romans 8.33. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. What
is justification? There's a negative and there's
a positive in this issue of justification. What's the negative? All my sins
have been borne away. Taken away. Did you hear what
Jesus said to me? They're all taken away. Your
sins are pardoned and you are free. They're all taken away.
How are they taken away? By the blood of the crucified
one. The blood of the God man. I'm forgiven. And then there's
a positive. And what's that positive? I'm
declared righteous in God's sight. Not only is my debt paid, but
I have accredited to me something that I personally had nothing
to do with. It's all by the grace of God.
It's called the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. It's
like that man who owed a debt to a bank. that he could not
pay, couldn't contribute one penny to it. So he goes to the
bank to beg for mercy. The banker says, well, let's
check your account. And he opens the book. And he
sees the man's name. He says, wait a minute here.
He says, you don't owe a thing here. Somebody came in and paid
your debt for you. And could you imagine what a
burden would be off your back, off your mind if that happened?
So the man gets up to leave and the banker says, wait a minute,
there's something else. That person who paid your debt,
he left you with a million dollars credited to your account. And
that's what it's like. And the first thing the man would
want to know is who is he so I can go thank him. That's what
Christ did for us. He paid our debt in full. If
he died for me, he paid my debt. and God cannot charge my sins
to me or condemn me for them. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity. The blessedness of the man to
whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works. There's therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh but after the spirit. Who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. If Christ
died for me, I cannot be condemned. That's why these preachers are
telling people a lie. Christ died for those who perish,
not according to the book, not according to the Bible. It's
Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again who's even
at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for
us. If Christ died for me, God will not charge me with my sins
or condemn me. Christ intercedes for me. Here's
the fourth thing. If Christ died for me, God has
imputed righteousness to me for my justification, and Christ
intercedes for me even now. He intercedes. And what is his
intercessory work? Look over at the book of 1 John.
1 John chapter two. And people
have a tendency, as you know, to bring their own preconceived
notions to the scriptures and misinterpret them. We know that.
But listen to what he says here. He'd already spoken of the forgiveness
of sins and the fellowship that we have with the Father and the
Son, and he talked about how, he says, look at chapter 1, verse
7. He says, if we walk in the light.
Now the if passages of the New Testament concerning believers
are not conditional ifs. And I want to make this clear.
People read the Bible and they see an if, that little word if. I preached a message on this
on our TV program several years ago, and I just titled the message
If. All right? The if passages in
the New Testament and the Old Testament, too, that apply to
believers are not conditional ifs. It's not God will do this
if you will do that. The if passages of the New Testament
and the Old Testament that apply to believers are evidential. They're evidences. It's like
saying, well, you're alive if you breathe. You see what I'm
saying? Your breathing is the evidence
of life within. And somebody asked me, said,
well, how do you know the difference if it's conditional or evidential?
What covenant are you under? For example, there were a lot
of conditional ifs laid upon the nation Israel under the old
covenant of the law. And you know what we learned
from that? That if any part of God's blessings
our condition upon us we fail. People quote that passage out
of what is the second chronicle seven if my people who are called
by my name will humble themselves well they didn't do it. Neither
would we. They fail that's condition That
covenant was a conditional covenant towards Israel. And they failed. He said, which my covenant they
break. But now the new covenant, which is the working out in time
of the everlasting covenant of grace, is not conditioned on
us. It's conditioned on Christ and all the ifs. If we believe,
if we repent. If we walk in the light, that's
not conditions we meet in order to attain or earn or have God's
blessings, that's evidence that God has already blessed us. So
he says in verse seven, if we walk in the light as he is in
the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood
of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin. There it is. But look at chapter two in verse
one. My little children, these things write I unto you that
you sin not. That should be our goal in this
warfare, the flesh and the spirit. And if any man sin, a better
translation of that would be this, and since we sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And
he is the what? Propitiation for our sins. Do
you know what a propitiation is? It's a sin-bearing sacrifice
that brings satisfaction to God's justice. Now if justice is satisfied, it cannot touch us. And in Jesus Christ, God's justice
has been satisfied. He's the propitiation for our
sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the
whole world. That's God's people out of every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation who were given to Christ before the foundation
of the world. That's his elect. And who is this? This is Jesus
Christ the righteous. Christ intercedes for us. God
has given us His righteousness, and we stand before God in that
righteousness. Go back to John 6, here's the
fifth thing. If Christ died for my sins, by
His death on the cross, Christ paid the full redemption price
for me and secured my salvation. The redemption price is paid.
He said I came down from heaven to do the will of my Father.
What was the will of the Father? that he would stand as our surety
and become our substitute on the cross, dying in our place
to put away our sins and redeem us by his precious blood. What
redeems us? It's nothing we do. Our tears,
our confession, The Bible says over there in 1 John 1, if we
confess our sins, that confession is an evidence that we have been
forgiven. We're redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ as of a lamb without spot and without blemish.
I've been redeemed. If he died for me, I'm redeemed.
I'm his. I'm bought, lock, stock, and
barrel. I'm bought and paid for. It's exactly right. And therefore, I cannot perish.
This is the issue. And you know if you look over
here, you know all of this. He says in verse 44, look at
it again, John 6. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me. Draw him, I will raise him up
at the last day. It's written in the prophets,
they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father. You know what all this
is about? It's learning of the Father. And I wanna show you
that. Christ's redemptive work is the assurance of the salvation
of his people. If God cannot and will not impute
my sins to me and he imputed them to Christ, if Christ gave
me his righteousness based upon the redemption that he accomplished,
there's absolutely no way that I can perish. God would be unjust
to pronounce that sentence of death upon me because in Christ
there's life. Let's go to the sixth thing here.
If Christ died for me, God will without fail. at his appointed
time, bring me under the preaching of the gospel, give me spiritual
life in the new birth, and bring me to faith in Christ and repentance
of dead works. Now I know that's a long one.
Let me repeat it. It's worth repeating. Line upon
line, precept upon precept. If Christ died for me, God will
without fail, God will do this, At His appointed time, different
for all of us in that sense, He'll bring me under the preaching
of His gospel and He'll give me spiritual life in the new
birth and bring me to faith in Christ and repentance of dead
works. The first evidence that we have
in our experience, our life experience, that Christ died for us is when
we're born again by the Spirit, under the gospel, and brought
to faith in Christ. What did he say, verse 37? All
that the Father giveth me shall what? Come to me. And him that cometh me I will
in no wise cast out. I've heard people say, in trying
to deny the doctrine of election, well that means if I try, if
I wanna come to God, if I'm not elect, he'll turn me away, no.
He won't turn any sinner away who comes to Him His way by His
grace and His power. And you know what? Those are
the ones whom the Father gave to Him. Over in verse 44 when He says,
no man can come to Me except the Father that sent Me draw
him. How does the Father draw His people? Well, here's how. Look at verse 45. It's written
in the prophets. They shall be all taught of God.
God teaches them. How does he teach them? Well,
he uses old clay pots like me and Brother Norm. And like you,
when you have opportunities to witness the truth to people,
we have a treasure, we have it in earthen vessels. You know
what I am? I'm a sinner preaching to other
sinners. You're not to follow me, you're to follow Christ,
whom I'm pointing you to. I'm just a signpost. The old
John the Baptist, he must increase, I've got to decrease. It's not
about the preacher, it's about the preacher's Savior and Lord. God teaches us and it says, every
man therefore hath heard, faith cometh by hearing. This is the
hearing that is given in the new birth by the Spirit of God
from Christ. Spiritual ears, this is regeneration
and conversion. And hath learned of the Father.
What is it to learn of the Father? Turn over to Galatians chapter
four. Now here's what I believe is
the essence of learning of the Father. And it goes back to this. We are all sinners who deserve
nothing but death and hell. If you wanna talk about what
we earn, it's eternal damnation. Even the best of us. We deserve
nothing but death and hell. How then can a just and holy
and righteous God save a sinner like me and still remain just? How can he be a righteous judge,
in my case, and at the same time be a loving, merciful, gracious
father? How can He be both a just God
and a Savior? How is that possible? Now that's
the question of questions. Now this is how we learn of the
Father. Now most people, they think of
God, well He loves everybody and He's trying to save everybody
and He's everybody's Father. But you don't know the God of
the Bible. The God of the Bible's a just God. He must punish sin,
and He loves His people, but He also hates sinners. Now that's
so. God hateth all workers of iniquity. You know what that verse is saying
in Psalm 5? It's saying God, and God's hatred's
not like ours. You see, we can't think of a
God who hates because we equate God's hatred with ours, which
is sinful. But God's hatred is His justice. That's why he hated
Esau. He gave Esau what Esau justly
deserved. And Psalm 5 says he hates all
workers of iniquity. It means this, it means that
God hates all sinners to whom he imputes iniquity. That's what
the Bible teaches. People say, well, I don't like
that God. Well, you've got him to deal with. So then how can
he not hate me? Because that's what I deserve.
That's what I've earned. How can he be both a just God
and a savior? Well, look at Galatians four
and verse four. It says, but when the fullness
of the time was come, God sent forth his son. That's the deity
of Christ. Made of a woman, that's the humanity
of Christ. Made under the law, that's the
work of Christ. salvation condition on him, to
do what, verse five, here's his work, to redeem them that were
under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Now that's how God can be both
a just God and a savior. A righteous judge and a loving
father. And because you are sons, not
to make you sons, but because you already are sons, God has
sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying,
Abba Father. That Abba Father speaks of a
special, loving, close relationship with God as our Heavenly Father. The Spirit of God comes in to
the adopted sons, children of God, and gives them a heart,
teaching them of the Father. And back here in John 6, 45,
every man therefore hath heard. What has he heard? What have
we heard? We hear the gospel of the glorious
person and the finished work of Christ that secures the salvation
of all for whom he died. And you learn of the Father,
how God can be both a just God and a savior. And what is that
going to do? It means you're gonna come to
him. Let me give you the seventh thing.
If Christ died for me, number seven, God will without fail
preserve me unto glory and cause me to persevere in the faith.
Back in John six, what did he say? Verse 39, this is the Father's
will which has sent me that of all which he hath given me I
should lose nothing. No one. but raise it up again
at the last day. There's the assurance of final
glory. Verse 40, and this is the will
of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, do you see
the Son, the Son of God? If you truly see him in the word
of God, it's because God has given you eyes to see. Didn't
he tell Nicodemus, you must be born again or you cannot see?
The kingdom of heaven, and what is the kingdom of heaven? It's
the kingdom of Christ, who saves his people from their sins, which
seeth the sun and believeth on him. God-given faith may have
everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day. Yes, if Christ died for me, God
will without fail preserve me unto glory, and he'll cause me
to persevere in the faith. I may not look at times like
I'm persevering in the faith, but by God's grace, he won't
let us go. He said, no one's going to pluck him out of my
father's hands. All right.