John Newton, who wrote so many
of our great, great hymns, wrote one that's not commonly sung
in our day. It goes like this. In evil long
I took delight, unawed by shame or fear, till a new object struck
my sight and stopped my wild career. I saw one hanging on
a tree in agonies and blood who fixed his linquid eyes on me
as near his cross I stood. Sure never till my latest breath
can I forget that look. It seemed to charge me with his
death, though not a word he spoke. My conscience felt and owned
the guilt and plunged me in despair. I saw my sins. His blood had
spilt and helped to nail him there. A second look he gave,
which said, I freely all forgive. This blood is for thy ransom
paid. I die that thou mayst live. Thus while his death by sin displays
in all its blackest hue, such is the mystery of his grace,
it seals my pardon too. With pleasing grief and mournful
joy, my spirit now is filled, that I should such a life destroy,
yet live by him I killed. Now I hope you know that there
are no apostles in our day. The apostolic age and apostolic
gifts ceased with the last of the apostles. We have the whole
revelation of God. We do not look for men to have
visions and dreams and powers of looking at you and deciding
that you've got a headache or you've got a stumped toe or you've
got cancer and they're going to tell you what they can do
to help you. Anybody who makes such pretense is not speaking
for God. There are no apostles in this
day. No one has the gifts of the apostles and the signs of
the apostles. Those men were given for a specific
time to identify that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of God
and they came for that time and by them God gave us his word,
his inspired word. If you care to read 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2, You will see, however, that there are many in the last
day, in this little season in which God looses Satan upon men,
who have such powers as the apostles had, and perform signs and wonders,
but they are servants of Antichrist, not of Christ. And Paul makes
that abundantly clear in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. But we are in complete
line with the apostles. For we have the apostolic message.
And the message of the apostles is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul said, I determined not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And he wrote to the, or spoke
to the Ephesian elders when he was about to leave them, he said,
I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God,
all the word of God, in declaring the gospel of our crucified Redeemer. That is, in declaring who Christ
is. what he accomplished, how he
did it, and how he makes it effectual in declaring the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. We declare the message of everything
in the book of God. Central to this book is the death
of Christ. Central to the gospel of God
is the death of Christ. Nothing compares with importance
to the death of our Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary. I want to
preach to you tonight on this subject, the most hideous doctrine
in the world. And I want you to follow me in
scripture and take notes. I will stand behind what I've
said. As I said to you Monday night, if what I have to say
is according to this book, believe it and bow to it. If not, don't
ever hear this man again. Don't ever listen to anything
I say. the most hideous doctrine in the world. I'm going to be
working my way down to verse 29 in Hebrews chapter 10. The
subject of this 10th chapter of the book of Hebrews is Redemption
accomplished. Redemption finished by our Lord
Jesus Christ. We're told in the first part
of this blessed chapter, in verses 1 through 9, that our Lord Jesus
Christ, by His incarnation, by His life of righteousness, in
obedience to God the triune Jehovah as our substitute and our surety,
He has fulfilled all the types all the images, all the pictures,
all the foreshadowings of all the prophets of the Old Testament.
He fulfilled them all, every time a sacrifice was offered
in the Old Testament. by a man worshiping God. Every
time, whether you're talking about the morning sacrifices
or the evening sacrifices, whether you're talking about weekly sacrifices
or monthly sacrifices, or whether you're talking about the annual
Passover sacrifice, the sacrifices all pointed to Jesus Christ. They could never take away sin.
They could never purge the conscience. If they could purge the conscience,
they would have ceased, Paul said, because the worshippers
once purged had no more conscience of sin. Jesus Christ came and
took away the first. He took away all the ceremonies
and rituals and commandments given in the ceremonial law,
in the moral law, in the Old Testament, by fulfilling them.
so that we're no longer under the law. He satisfied everything
spoken of in the Old Testament. Then beginning in verses 10 through
14, having finished all the types and pictures of the law, the
apostle tells us that our Lord Jesus, again by his obedience
to the Father's will as our covenant surety, by his death upon the
cursed tree, redeemed, justified, sanctified, and perfected forever. Now, I chose my words deliberately
because you'll see them right here in verses 10 through 14.
He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. You mean,
Brother Don, we're already perfect? Always have been in Christ the
Lord. We've come to experience it in
time. We were made perfect in Him, the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. If ever you experience the perfection
of glory, it's because it was given to you in Christ before
the world began. And Christ did the work, and
we were perfected by His obedience unto death when He by Himself
purged our sins and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty
on high. All this was done, we're told,
in verses 15, 16, and 17, according to the will and purpose of the
triune God. All this was done because of
a covenant, ordered in all things and sure, which David said is
all my salvation and all my desire. Then in verses 18 through 22,
in agreement with all the stipulations of that covenant, all for whom
Christ lived and died are forgiven of all sin forever and have liberty
to draw near to God, trusting Christ with the full assurance
of faith. What a word, Bruce. draw near
to God with the full assurance of faith. What kind of assurance? Aaron had two sons who offered
strange fire before God. And any man who dared to presume
to come in and offer strange fire before God was taking his
life in his own hands. And he had reason to tremble.
It was fire that God did not provide, God did not command,
and God would not accept fire of their own making. And God
killed him. You reckon Aaron was terrified
to go into the holy place after that? Oh, no. Every year on the
day of Passover, Abraham took off his gorgeous priestly robes
and put on the white linen garments and the white linen britches
and he took the blood of the Lamb into the Holy of Holies
with full confidence of acceptance because God commanded him to
bring the blood into the Holy of Holies where the glory of
God was manifest. And Aaron sprinkled the blood
on the mercy seat. And God said, I'll meet you on
the mercy seat. Jesus Christ is that one who's typified in
that lamb. It is his blood portrayed in
that blood. He is the mercy seat covering
the broken law of God, covered with blood. And now we come to
God when we bring God nothing but Christ. And I promise you,
if you come to God bringing nothing but Christ, Not your works, not
your feelings, not your emotions, not your knowledge, not your
baptism, not your church membership, not things you do, but bringing
nothing but Christ, you come to God with full assurance of
faith. Full assurance of faith. Brother
Tom Ball, God will accept you because of Christ. And if you
bring anything else, you know he won't accept you. And there's
no assurance. There's no peace to be had. We
come before God then with full assurance of faith, trusting
the Lord Jesus. Now let's read verses 28 and
29. He that despised Moses' law died
without mercy under two or three witnesses. of how much sorer
punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath
trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood
of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified in unholy faith,
and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace." There are multitudes
who are outwardly sanctified, separated from the world, and
their lives outwardly cleaned by a profession of religion,
who trample underfoot the blood of the Son of God, and despise
the Spirit of grace, saying that the blood of Christ is a common
thing. That's what the word is here
that is translated unholy. It's a common thing. A common
thing. That which is all men have. That which men
walk on. That which men use. A common
thing. And the apostle tells us here,
no, God the Holy Spirit whose word this is tells us here. That
man who treads under his feet the Son of God, who counts the
blood of the covenant a common thing, and despises the Spirit
of grace, commits the greatest possible evil in this world,
and deserves and shall have the terrible vengeance of God's unmitigated
wrath. Is that what the text says? of
how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy,
who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted
the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing,
and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace." That's exactly
what the text tells us. In this message, I want to expose
what I have been convinced all of my life as a believer since
I was 18 years old is the most hideous doctrine in the world. Several years ago, I was on the
radio every day, and I received a call from a young man who had
heard me that morning. And he politely asked me four
questions. He asked me to send him a copy
of the message. He apparently had been listening
for a while, for a good number of weeks anyway. And he asked
me if I would answer these four questions for him. He said, what
is the doctrine of universal redemption? The second question,
why do you so strongly oppose that doctrine? His third question,
what do you believe about the redemption work of Christ? And
his fourth question, why do you believe it? I want to follow
that very outline. I spent a good bit of the day
that day answering that young man's questions. I pray it was
made profitable to his soul for the glory of God. And I want
to answer those questions for you in this message. And I pray
it will be made profitable to your soul forever for God's glory. I'm going to speak plainly, distinctly,
bluntly, and clearly. It is my intention when I preach
to be understood. And I promise you, if you listen
to me, you're going to understand exactly what I'm about to say.
You will understand every word. I don't speak with ambiguity.
I speak with deliberate clarity and bluntness. If the trumpet
give an uncertain sound, the apostle said, who shall prepare
himself to battle? For my part, I'm convinced that
ambiguous speech on the part of preachers is both intentional
and treasonous to the glory of God. How many times have you
heard somebody preach, or you've heard somebody refer to someone
else's preaching? You were, where's Larry? He's
back there on his way. We're talking today about listening
to Adrian Rogers, the Armenian blasphemer who used to pastor
a big church in Memphis. And, you know, he's come up right
at the edge of the thing and said, you know what, you could
take that either way. You could take that either way.
That's because he intended for you to take it either way. So
if you agree, that's fine. If you didn't agree, that's just
fine. We'll be fine. We'll get along just fine. Preachers who
speak for God, you won't take them anywhere you want to. They
don't almost say something. They speak plainly and they speak
clearly the very word of God. He that hath my word, let him
speak my word. And they do so knowing the consequences. I'll give you an example. In
Acts chapter 4, Peter and John had healed a lame man on the
Sabbath day. You remember? He was laying at
the temple door and they healed a man. And the Pharisees, the
men who put the Son of God to death, the Jewish Pharisees,
they came to Peter and John. And Brother Drew, they said,
by what authority and in whose name have you done this? Now,
Peter could have answered two ways and could have been telling
the truth. He could have said, by the name of Jehovah, the only
true and living God, the God of our father, Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, the Lord God of Israel, this man stands before you all.
And those Pharisees, those Jews said, well, whoopee, we're brethren,
boy, we'll get along just fine. But Peter would have been denying
the gospel and denying God while telling the truth. It's exactly
right. How did Peter answer him? He
said, uh, by the name and the authority of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, whom you crucified, this man stands before you whole.
Whoo, and it hit the fan. And Peter knew it would. He intended
for it to, because he wanted those men to know that the man
they crucified, whose blood was on their hands, is himself Lord
and Christ seated upon the throne of glory. And let me answer these
four questions for you. What is the doctrine of universal
redemption? I know there's a very real danger
of building a straw man just so you can tear him down, and
honest men don't do that. I'm not about to do that. I'm
going to state the doctrine that is commonly believed almost everywhere
in this world by preachers and churches. It doesn't matter whether
they're Buddhist or Baptist, Pentecostal or Presbyterian,
whether they're liberal or conservative. that wherever you go in this
town or in my town, you're going to find folks who believe exactly
what I'm telling you. I'm going to state it to you
exactly as it was taught to me when I was in the two of the
most prominent Bible colleges in this country. When I first
came to Danville, Kentucky, I hadn't been there very long and I was
in my office one day and a fellow came by who was a preacher. He
was a Southern Baptist pastor, local church close by, and he
also sold insurance for a living. Thank God he quits preaching
and just sells insurance now, or if he's still alive. But he
tried to sell me some insurance I wasn't buying. And so he said,
can I ask you a question? He said, what's the difference
between what you believe and I believe? What you preach and
what I preach, what's the difference between your church and mine?
I said, have you got a little while? He said, yeah. So I spent
the rest of the afternoon talking to him. I'll give it to you in
just a couple of minutes. I said, Doug, if I understand correctly
what you believe in preaching, please correct me if I'm mistaken.
You believe that when Christ died at Calvary, he did not really
accomplish redemption. And he did not really justify
anyone. He did not really guarantee anyone's
salvation. But that by his death, he made
it possible for all men to be redeemed and justified and saved. And man, by his faith, makes
that possibility effectual to himself. He said, well, yes,
that's what I believe. I said, that's damning heresy.
You'll go to hell if you believe it. You'll go to hell if you
believe it. That's damning heresy. For that's
teaching that salvation is your work. That's teaching you are
your own savior. You make the determination. You
make the choice. You make the work of Christ effectual. That's damning. Those who teach
universal redemption. Briefly stated, believe this,
they believe that Christ died for all men without exception,
for those who are in hell as well as for those who are in
glory. They tell us that Christ shed his blood for everyone in
the world equally. that he made redemption, salvation,
and eternal life equally possible to all men. He died for all men
without exception, as much for those who perish as for those
who are saved. He did no more for those who
are in heaven than he did for those who are in hell. All are
equally the objects of his love and grace and equally the objects
of his atoning sacrifice. Now I'll tell you what I'll do.
I happen to have two $100 bills in my wallet. I'll give you those
two $100 bills for every preacher you can find in this town who
will deny that statement right there. They all believe it. They all believe it. And if you
listen on radio or television or internet, this is what you
say all the time. Second, they tell us that the
Lord Jesus Christ did not, according to these heretics, he did not
actually secure, he did not actually guarantee the salvation of anyone
by his death, but only made it possible for all men to be saved. Christ made salvation possible
for everybody. Those who preach universal redemption
would tell us that he didn't actually put away anyone's sins,
but made it possible for them to be put away. He didn't really
justify anyone, but made it possible for everyone to be justified.
And third, they tell us that man, by his act of faith, by
his free will decision, gives merit to the blood of Christ,
making it effectual for himself. Now let me give you an example.
Some years ago, Shelby and I were driving out of town. I was going
to a meeting one Sunday night at the services, and we were listening
to Al Giesler. He was pastor of First Baptist
Church in Danville. When I wanted to get pumped up,
I listened to Heretics. And I wanted to stay awake for
several hours that night, and so I was listening to it. And
this is what he said as he closed the sermon, closed the service
at First Baptist Church in Danville, Kentucky, and I couldn't see
him, he was on the radio, but he was talking like he was really
crying, I mean he was really sobbing. He said, Jesus loved
you, died for you, and has done everything he can to save you,
but it will all be in vain unless you believe. What a shame it
will be that Jesus' death will be in vain for so many. I heard
that statement. I pulled it from the side of
the road. I said, shove it right there down. I don't want to forget
it. I fully agree. What a shame. What a shame. Not for you. For him. He died to save you, but he couldn't
do it. He died to put away sin, but
he couldn't do it. He tried to get you into heaven
by his death, but he couldn't do it. He failed, oh yeah, and
he would bear the shame forever. Jerry Falwell, out in Lynchburg,
Virginia, made this statement one night on his television program.
If you go to hell, you will go to that awful place in spite
of the fact that God himself has done everything he possibly
could to save you. Now that's a fair, honest statement
of the doctrine of universal redemption. And I have shown
God's enemies all the kindness of being honest in presenting
what they teach. But that's the last kindness.
I have a few questions. Do you suppose, now just, for
some reason, I don't know why, when folks walk through the church
door, they generally check their brains at the door and quit thinking. Will you think for a minute?
Just think with me for a minute. Do you suppose that if you were
going to do one or the other, the Lord Jesus would pray for
you or die for you? Which do you reckon he'd do?
I reckon I'd choose praying first, wouldn't you? I believe I would. I'd pray for you quicker than
I'd die for you. Do you suppose he would die for people for whom
he refused to pray? Yes or no? Do you? He said twice
in his high priesthood prayer, Father, I pray not for the world,
but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine.
And yet men tell us the Lord Jesus would die for folks he
didn't pray for. Would the Lord Jesus, who is
infinitely wise, shed his blood to redeem the multitudes who
were already eternally damned in hell? Do you really think
that he actually died for Judas, who was already in hell? That
he died to redeem the sons of Korah, who were already in hell?
That he died to redeem Noah's generation, all of whom were
already in hell? Why, that's absurd beyond ridiculous! Third, would the God of glory
sacrifice the son of his love to die in the place of one, let
alone multitudes, who were positively the objects of his hatred? I hardly think so. And yet folks
tell us he died for Esau just like he did for Jacob. Folks
tell us he died for Pharaoh, just like he did for Moses. Folks
tell us he died for those who were reprobate before the world
was, just like he died for his elect. All right, now it seems
to me that any reasonable person who considers those questions
must conclude there's certainly some for whom Christ did not
die. There's certainly some for whom he did not die. So here's
the second question this young man asked me. Why do you so strongly
oppose that doctrine, the doctrine of universal redemption, the
doctrine that Christ died to redeem and save everybody, the
teaching that Christ Jesus died for those who perish under his
wrath in hell, as well as those who are saved by his grace? I
oppose it because it is more harmful to the souls of men than
any doctrine in the world. It is more damning to the souls
of men than any doctrine in the world. Brother Don, that's pretty
strong. It's strong and it's deliberate.
I reject the doctrine of universal redemption as outright heresy. And I denounce it as the most
hideous doctrine that has ever been perpetrated out of hell.
Now, I know lots of folks who listen to me preach. I've been
hearing this all my life, so it's no new thing to me. They
say, well, that's just hard. Truth is not hard, truth is good.
Would you think me hard if I was standing here telling you that
if a man denies that Jesus Christ is the virgin-born Son of God,
he's a lost man? Would that be hard? That wouldn't
be hard, would it? For that denies his Godhead.
That denies everything this book reveals. And to say, to suggest
that Jesus Christ died to redeem folks and failed to redeem them
is to declare that he's a failure. And that's denying his Godhead.
That's denying that he is God. The doctrine that Christ died
to save all men, both those who are saved and those who are lost,
treads underfoot the blood of the Son of God. the blood of
the covenant and counts it as an unholy, a common, a meaningless,
a thing that just doesn't matter. Something that doesn't really
make any difference and thus does despite to the spirit of
grace. Let me show you five reasons
why that statement must be so. Are you listening? The doctrine
of universal redemption says that there is no power No merit,
no efficacy in the blood of Christ until you do something. Nothing until you do something. Oh, won't it be a shame that
Jesus died for so many who wouldn't let him save them. Essentially,
as I said a moment ago, it makes man his own Savior. Now, everybody
who believes anything about the person and work of Christ limits
the atonement. Everybody does. Everybody does.
The whole religious world limits the merit, the worth, and the
efficacy of the atonement. They say Christ died for everybody,
but it doesn't mean anything. They say Christ died for everybody,
but he didn't accomplish anything. They say Christ died to put away
everybody's sins, but none of them were really put away until
you do something. Those who believe the gospel
limit the purpose of the atonement. Christ didn't die for everybody,
he died for somebody. And everybody for whom he died
is redeemed by his blood, forgiven of all sin, justified, sanctified,
perfected forever, glorified in Christ by the merit of his
blood. Will-worship religion is just that. It is will-worship. It is idolatry. That's what the
Apostle Paul calls it in Colossians chapter 2. The doctrine of universal
redemption. makes the grace of God nothing
but a frustrated desire in God's heart to save. Grace is not a
tool God puts in your hand. Grace is God's operation in you. But most people look at God's
grace as though it were just a desire. One of the ladies in
our church, her father died yesterday, as I told you. Yesterday. And
I said to her husband, two or three times in the last couple
of days, and I said to her in a couple of notes, if there's
anything I can do, don't hesitate to call me. And I mean it. If
there's anything I can do. But you know what I'm saying
when I said that? I know, and you know, I can't do a thing.
There's nothing I can do. I'm helpless before this pain,
but I want you to know I feel what you're going through. And
that's how most people look at God's grace. It is just a helpless,
frustrated desire in God. The theory of universal redemption
perverts the character of God. It reduces all God's glorious
attributes to nothing but meaningless words. It's a denial of God's
distinct character as God. How is that, Pastor? It reduces
the love of God to nothing. It sounds wonderful, doesn't
it? To tell everybody God loves you. You haven't got any reason
to even be suspicious God loves you until you believe on the
Son of God. You don't have any reason to
be suspicious of that. Only the wrath of God is revealed outside
His Son, not His love. And to say God loves everybody
means God's love is meaningless. It's meaningless. People say,
well, we think greatly of God's love. God loves everybody, but
He loves them too much to interfere with their free will. Let's try
that on this way. When my grandson, or my daughter,
or my granddaughter, or little babies, and I'm sitting on the
front porch with them, and they're getting out a little too close
to the road, and I say to my daughter, now, honey, don't go
out that road. That's dangerous. You get hurt if you go out there.
And she just keeps on going. And you're sitting beside me.
And I... Honey, please don't go out on the road. Oh, Faith,
please! I don't want anything to happen
to you! Don't go out on the road! You'd say, get up and jerk her
back in here! Oh, I couldn't do that. I love
her too much to interfere with her will. You'd check me into
the funny farm. Rightly so. And the God of this
age is fit for nothing but the funny part. Love that has the
power to save and doesn't save is no love at all. This doctrine
perverts the wisdom of God into ignorance and foolishness. Who
in his right mind makes plans he knows will never be carried
out? Who in his right mind pays for what he knows he'll never
own? And yet folks tell us God, who knows everything, made plans
to save everybody, but he knew it wouldn't happen. God, who's all-wise, knows everything,
paid for everybody, knowing he wouldn't have them. The doctrine
makes a mockery of the justice of God. Our God is a just God
and a Savior. He won't save you at the sacrifice
of His justice. He will not forgive sin at the
sacrifice of His justice. To punish man twice for the same
offense is injustice. It's barbaric cruelty. Payment
God cannot twice demand First that my bleeding shirt his hand
and then again at mine if Christ paid my debt if he paid all my
debt then God in Justice cannot punish me for sin. Is that right? That's exactly right anybody
with good sense knows that This doctrine reduces the power of
God to a helpless withered arm waiting on the omnipotence of
man's mighty free will to turn it loose. It completely denies
the immutability of God's mercy, love, and grace. I read a statement
by A.W. Tozer years ago about the love
of God. He said, I believe God loves
everybody until the end. And then when he sends men to
hell, his love is turned to wrath. What? What kind of God is that? That God is useless as a bucket
without a bottom. God's love is immutable. God's
mercy is immutable. God's grace is immutable. And
God's glory God's glory is utterly taken away from all the work
of salvation if Christ died for some who perish after all. Another
thing, universal redemption makes the work of Christ a futile waste. It makes the precious blood of
Christ nothing but a wager. a crapshoot, a bet in which he
bet his blood on your free will. Nothing secured, nothing accomplished. If Christ died for all men and
all are not saved, then he died in vain for some. If he died
to save all men and all are not saved, then he failed in his
work. But the book says he shall not
fail. He shall not fail. When I was 18 years old, I went
to school up here at Springfield, Missouri, Baptist Bible College.
They won't like the advertisement, I'll give it anyway. My first
professor, Dr. Noel Smith, he was a brilliant
man. He taught biblical interpretation
and theology. He was my first theology professor.
And he made this statement. I was 18 years old, sitting in
his class. As he endeavored to describe
hell, this is what the man wrote. What is hell? It is an infinite
negation and it's more than that. I tell you and I say it with
profound reverence, hell Hang on now, this is going to shock
the daylights out of you. Hell, he said, is a ghastly monument
to the failure of the triune God to save the multitudes who
were there. That's utter blasphemy. He goes on to say, I say it reverently. I say it with every nerve of
my body tense. Sinners go to hell because God
almighty himself could not save them. He did everything he could. He failed. Trample it underfoot. despise
the spirit of grace. If Christ suffered the agony
of the cross for all, and all are not saved, then he shall
never see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. What is
that but a denial of his deity? Universal atonement is an absolute
denial that Jesus Christ is God. But that's not the teaching of
scripture. The teaching of scripture is, He shall see of the travail
of this soul and shall be satisfied. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ
shall never be discovered a miscarriage. The doctrine of universal redemption
is as useless as it is hideous. It offers no real grounds of
hope to any sinner. It declares that sin is not yet
pardoned. Redemption is not yet finished.
It gives no basis of assurance to any believer. For if salvation
depends upon me, if my salvation depends upon the power of my
faith and the worth of my repentance, then I must be forever plagued
with this notion. Do I believe enough? Have I repented
enough? But it is not the measure of
my faith, nor the measure of my repentance, that is my assurance
and hope. It is Christ my Redeemer, He
that believeth on the Son. If I could just touch Him, if
I just touch the hem of His garment, I'll be made whole. That's what
faith is. It is touching Him, laying hold
on Him. Universal Redemption. More than
that gives the believer no reason, whatever, to love and praise
and magnify and honor Christ. I call on myself and I call on
Bruce and Jackie Workman and your son and your daughter-in-law.
I call on you who are gods. I call on myself and my wife.
Give yourself wholehearted utter consecration to the Son of God
Make it your purpose in life to devote yourself to him because
you're bought with a price. Oh What a price with the precious
blood of the Son of God But if at the same time I tell you he
paid the same price for Judas, you got no reason to devote yourself
to him at all. In fact, he ought rather to pat
you on the back because you give yourself to him. Because you
made a decision for him. Indeed, this obnoxious doctrine
gives man reason to put his thumbs in his lapel and puff out his
chest. And when he hears the apostle
say, who maketh thee to differ from another? He can say, well,
I made myself to differ, thank you. I made my decision for Jesus. I remember when I gave my heart
to the Lord. What do you reckon he wants with
that filthy thing? What do you think he wants from your heart?
He gives you a new heart. He doesn't ask you for your heart,
he gives you a new heart. And that new heart you give to
him. But man thinks he's his own savior.
Man thinks he's worth something. I've got news for you. You're
not worth spit. And I'm not either. And all of
us put together aren't worth one good spit. Nothing. Man is nothing but sin. What
are you going to do for God? What are you going to do to merit
God's favor? What are you going to do to win
God's love? What are you going to do to attract God's grace?
Nothing. Nothing. Then the young man asked
me, what do you believe about the redemption work of Christ?
Let me tell you what the scriptures teach. Our redemption was effectually
accomplished by Jesus Christ upon the cross. Listen to the
word of God. Our Lord Jesus received the vinegar
and said, it is finished. Justice is satisfied. Iniquity
is purged. Sin is put away. Righteousness
is brought in. The law is fulfilled. The prophets
are fulfilled. Transgression is at an end. It
is finished. Listen to the scriptures. Christ
hath redeemed us. Christ has, by the power of his
blood, by the power of his grace, by the power of his atonement,
has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse
for us. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. Neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy
place. What does the book say? Having obtained. Having obtained
eternal redemption for us. And the redemption He accomplished
at Calvary is effectually applied to chosen sinners in the time
of love by omnipotent, irresistible grace. The doctrine of Holy Scripture
is very plain. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I'll wrap this up. The Lord Jesus Christ died as
a substitute for his elect. The Good Shepherd gave his life
for the sheep. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken. I said this to you the last night
or the night before. It'll bear repetition. I challenge
you. Read this book one more time
and find every picture, every type of redemption in the Old
Testament. Let me remind you of a few. God
commanded Noah to build an ark. and told him to preach to his
generation. And Noah preached to his generation for 120 years.
But God commanded him to build an ark for himself and his household. There wasn't room in that ark
for anybody but Noah and his family. That ark wasn't big enough to
hold the world. It was built for a specific people. Noah and
his family and everything they needed to carry them through
the flood. That's all. That's all. And God shut the
man. And shut the door. And nobody
got in the ark but Noah and his family. The Lord God sent Moses
to Israel and told the children of Israel to be prepared. Take a lamb. A spotless lamb. A lamb without blemish. slit
his throat, roast it with fire, put the blood on the door post
and little, shut the door, and eat all of that lamb, and do
it with your coat on your back, your staff in your hand, and
your shoes on your feet. You're going out of this place.
When I see the blood, I will pass over you." And that night,
When the angel of judgment passed through Egypt, there was not
one of the firstborn of all the children of Israel found to suffer
anything. But the firstborn of all the
land of Egypt perished, because there was no blood shed for them.
In fact, they weren't even told about it. They weren't even told
about it. is God's high priest, and he
goes to offer sacrifice to God. Whose names does he have on his
breastplate? Whose name? The 12 tribes of
the children of Israel. Just them. Nobody else. Because
he was high priest only for the Israel of God. He didn't make
intercession for anybody but them. He didn't offer sacrifice
for anybody but them. He didn't represent anybody but
them. And Aaron is a picture, a portrayal
of our Lord Jesus. Our names are inscribed upon
his heart and upon his hands. And he is our high priest. He offered himself a sacrifice
for our sins. And he put away the sins of his
people and blesses us according to the merit of his sacrifice.
Aaron, when he was commanded to take the goats for sacrifice,
had to take two goats because one wouldn't picture the whole
thing. He said, you take the one goat that's the Lord's goat.
and you put your hands on the Lord's goat put them on the head
of that goat and by symbol you confess the sins of the people
over the head of that goat and by symbol you transfer all the
sins of Israel to that goat and slit his throat and catch his
blood take it into the holy place and sprinkle the mercy seeds
and when you're good done making atonement for sin you come out
and you take the other goat and you put your hands on his head
and you confess all the sins of Israel on the head of that
goat called the scapegoat and you find a fit man and you put
him in the hands of a fit man and you send him out into the
wilderness into a place called no man's land where nobody dwells
and I can just picture Aaron and the children of Israel late
in the afternoon they send that man out with that goat and they
watch him and there's just two dots going over the horizon And
they're just standing there, keep watching. In just a little
while, here comes one man. Just one dot, one man, the goat's
not with him. Because Christ, who bear our
sin in his own body on the tree, is the Lamb of God that takes
away sin. And when he was buried as our
sin-atoning substitute, he lie in the grave for three days.
But on the third day, he's justified in the Spirit, and he comes forth
from the grave with no sin. Because we've put our sins away.
That's the picture of redemption. Look here in 2 Corinthians chapter
5, verse 21. He hath made him sin for us,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. Oh my, what mercy, what grace! He hath made Him sin for us who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him. Our Lord Jesus by Himself purged
our sins. He took them away, completely
took them away so that they're gone. Gone, gone, gone. Yes, my sins are gone. Jesus Christ has put away our
transgressions. Years ago, I was a missionary. Come back from India, telling
of an event that took place just before we came back from the
field. He said we were making our way through dense underbrushing. As we came out of the little
clearing, he said, I heard a man in a raspy, gravelly voice. I
couldn't really make out what he was saying. We just made our
way to the voice. And when I got closer, I could
hear him. He was saying, help me. Help me. Somebody please help me. He said, we made our way to the
clearing where this man was, and there he sat, just a little
clearing in the field, a man who was just covered with leprosy.
All the filth of the disease, all its uncleanness, death consuming
his body. And he sat there crying, help
me, help me. Won't somebody please help me? And the missionary said, I thought
to myself, if somehow I could go over there and put my face
against his face, and I could suck all of his death and corruption
and disease out of his body into my body, and then breathe into him all of my health
and life and vitality and strength. That's what Christ did for me.
He didn't make it possible! He redeemed me. Bought me with
His blood. Now turn to Ezekiel 34. I was
speaking to your pastor, Brother Larry, about this passage today.
Ezekiel 34. The Lord God is calling for the
shepherds of Israel, the false shepherds, to hear Him. He said,
whoa, to the shepherds. He's speaking to preachers. Preachers
everywhere who don't preach his gospel. Preachers everywhere
who preach another gospel. Look at verse 19. As for my flock, those whom I
gather from the four corners of the earth, they shall eat
that which you have trodden with your feet. That which the whole world despises,
Brother Drew, is our life and our message. Christ redeemed
us. Christ died for me. A.J. Gordon, pastor up in Boston years
ago, one day was walking home from his study. walking down
the streets and looked down an alley and saw some boys playing
down an alley. And he was kind of curious. He walked down there
and saw that they had, they'd captured two blackbirds, two
old snowbirds, and had just a handmade cage. And they were just tormenting
the daylights out of those birds. And he said, boys, what you got
there? Oh, just some snowbirds, preacher. They chatted a little
bit. What you going to do with them?
Oh, we'll play with them a little while and kill them, I reckon.
Why? He said, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll give you $2 for
them. Two dollars for these old snowbirds? Give you two dollars
for them. Cage and all. And they looked
at each other and thought, well, we can go get some ice cream.
And so they said, well, take it. They gave him two dollars
and handed him the cage and those two blackbirds. He watched them
get around the corner and held up that cage. And he said to
those two blackbirds, he said, I bought you. You're mine. And he opened the cage and shoot
them out and let them go free. Yeah, I set you free. He said,
I can almost hear those black birds as they went soaring up
into the heavens, singing, redeemed how I love to proclaim it, redeemed
by the blood of the lamb, redeemed through his infinite mercy, his
child, and forever I am. That's redemption, according
to this book. And everything else is blessed. Amen. Amen.