These are the words of our Lord.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his
life for his sheep. He who is a hired hand and not
a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming
and leaves the sheep and flees. And the wolf snatches them and
scatters them. He flees because he is a hired
hand. and is not concerned about the
sheep. I am the good shepherd and I know my own and my own
know me. Even as the father knows me and
I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep. Verse 26, but you do not believe because
you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me, and I give eternal life to them,
and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of
my hand. My Father who has given them
to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them
out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one. The heart of the gospel is the
death of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And the very centerpiece
of the five doctrines of grace is the saving death of Jesus
Christ for His people. Christ crucified is the sum and
the substance of our message. It is the alpha and the omega
of what we believe and what we teach. And the question that
must be raised is what did Jesus accomplish in His death upon
the cross? Did Jesus die for all? Did He merely make salvation
possible? Or did He actually save? Did
Jesus merely make redemption possible? Or did He actually
accomplish redemption upon the cross? That is the question. Did Jesus merely make propitiation
of the Father possible, or did He actually satisfy and placate
the righteous anger of God toward his elect. This is the question. Did Jesus die for those who were
already in hell? And if so, for what reason? Did Jesus die for those who will
perish? Or did he only die for those
who will believe upon him and who will find themselves in heaven. The focus of this session is
upon for whom did Christ die? And I am deeply persuaded that
the clear teaching of scripture is that Jesus Christ died for
the sins of those who were entrusted to Him by the Father in eternity
past, that God the Father chose His elect. and He gave them to
the Son, and there were stipulations as He gave them to the Son, that
He must be willing to come into this world, and to be born of
a virgin, to live a sinless and perfect life, but that He must
go to Calvary's cross, and there He must be lifted up to die,
and there upon the cross All of the sins of all of those whom
the Father had given to the Son before time began were laid upon
Him. And as Christ shed His blood
upon that cross, not a drop was shed in vain. Upon that cross, as Jesus died,
there was a transaction between the Father and the Son. And we
heard about this in the last lecture, that there was no payment
given to Satan. The transaction was between the
Son and the Father in fulfillment of the eternal covenant of redemption. And as the son laid down his
life upon the cross, he was not shortchanged. And he was not overcharged. But he received exactly what
he bought and what he paid for. there was a precise transaction
that occurred. He did not die for the entire
world, but only received the elect. Instead, upon that cross, Jesus
received exactly through the merit of His redemption. all
that He purchased and only what He purchased upon the cross. In the time that we have today,
I want to look at multiple verses in the Gospel of John. I wish
I had time to take you through every book in the New Testament. I wish I had time to take you
through virtually every book in the Old Testament. I wish
I could start in Genesis and take you all the way through
the book of the Revelation. But because of time restraints,
we will focus our attention upon the gospel of John. And it is
my prayer that you and I will be so strengthened in our worship
of this Lamb who laid down His life for us. And I pray that
you will never come to the Lord's table the same again. That your name was written upon
the ephod of his heart. That he did not die merely for
an indiscriminate blob of people, but that he died for specific
individual sheep upon that cross. and that we who were entrusted
to Him were upon His mind and upon His heart as He laid down
His life at the cross. Let's begin here in John 10. I want to give you several headings
as we walk through the gospel of John. I want you to note first
in John 10 that it was a definite atonement. By definite atonement,
we mean that it was for a definite specific group of people whom
He called by name, individually and specifically. As we look
at this text in verse 11, which I've already read, Jesus said,
I am the Good Shepherd. This is one of seven I Am statements
that our Lord makes. in the gospel of John. It is
a declaration of His deity, and it is an identification of who
He is and what He has come to do. I am the good shepherd. That He is a good shepherd means
that He loses not a one of His sheep. He is not a faulty shepherd. He is such a good shepherd that
every sheep entrusted to Him by the Father to be in His care,
He will save every one of His sheep. And he says in verse 11,
this is what makes the good shepherd good, the good shepherd lays
down His life. It is the language of atonement.
It is the language of His death. It is the language of His self-sacrificial
death upon Calvary's cross that He lays down His life, please
note, for the sheep. It is obvious who the sheep are. The sheep are those who have
been entrusted to Him before time began. You will note in
verse 3 earlier in this passage, to Him the doorkeeper opens,
referring to the Good Shepherd, and the sheep hear His voice.
It goes deeper than the ear. It penetrates down into the depth
of the soul. And when the Good Shepherd calls
them affectually, They are given ears to hear and they respond
to His voice. There was a community sheepfold
there in Israel, and as shepherds would bring their flock into
a town, they would commit their flock to the community sheepfold. There would be multiple sheepfolds
or flocks in the community sheepfold, and the shepherd would have a
rare night to have a rest in an inn, and he would spend the
night in an inn. He would come back the next morning,
and he would come back for his flock. There would be eight,
10 flocks in this large community sheepfold, and the shepherd would
come up to the doorkeeper, and he would show his credentials,
that he is here for his flock, and he would be given entrance
into the larger flock, and he would begin to call his sheep
by name. The other sheep would just continue
to graze. The other sheep would keep their
heads down. But when they would hear their name called out by
their shepherd, they immediately recognize the voice of their
shepherd. And that head would pop up. And
then that sheep would begin to make its movement through the
multiple flocks and go directly to his own shepherd. And the shepherd then would lead
out his sheep one by one. He would call out, brown ear.
body, white nose, and that head would pop up until he would gather
RC. I'm not calling you again, come
on now. And he would gather together.
all of his flock, he would leave not a one behind, and he would
lead them out of the city and out into the countryside, there
where he would build his own sheepfold for just his own sheep. He would leave an opening there
for his own sheep, and he would lay down in that opening, and
by that, he would become the door of the sheep. that would
allow his sheep in, but he would seal them in with his own body
and he would protect them from any wolves or any harm and they
would be free to go in and out and find pasture. You'll note
in verse 3, to him the doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear his
voice and calls his own sheep by name, personally. Individually. With this call, He does not call
whosoever will. That is the outward call of the
preacher. But the inward call of the shepherd
is individually by name. Just like when Jesus stood in
John chapter 11 before the empty grave, and he
cried out, Lazarus, come forth. And it was Lazarus who came.
It has been well said, if he had merely said, come forth,
the entire graveyard would have been razed. He calls his own sheep by name. And he puts forth, verse 4, his
own. He puts forth, please note, all,
all his own, his own sheep, and he goes ahead of them. And the
sheep follow him because they know his voice. Verse 5, a stranger they simply
will not follow. Buddha may call out, but they
will not follow him. Confucius may call out, Mohammed
may call out, but they will give a deaf ear to any other voice
that will call to them. They will only answer to their
shepherd, their good shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, and when
He calls, they come. He says in verse 7, I am the
door of the sheep. Verse 9, I am the door if anyone
enters through me. He will be saved and will go
in and out and find pasture. The thief comes, verse 10, only
to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they might have life
and have it abundantly. And how will they have this life?
It will come through his death as he will lay down his life
that they may gain life eternal. For whom did he die? Verse 11 makes it so clear, does
it not? The Good Shepherd lays down His
life for the sheep. Those whom the Father has given
to Him, those whom He has called by name, they are His. Not all are His sheep. Verse
26 makes that abundantly clear. Jesus said, to those in his day,
you do not believe. Why do they not believe? Note
the next word, because. There's cause and effect here.
You do not believe because you're not of my sheep. If you were one of my sheep,
You would hear my voice and you would come to me and you would
follow me. Jesus, upon the cross, laid down
his life for the sheep. He did not die for the goats.
He died for the sheep. In verse 27, my sheep, hear my voice, none other hear
His voice. My sheep, they are His because
they have been given to Him. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them, not merely know about them, I know them. Gnosko, in
an intimate, personal, loving, saving relationship, I know them
and they follow me. And I give eternal life to them
and to them only. And they will never perish because
he's the good shepherd. A businessman here today, if
he had a hundred sheep and lost two, he could say, I had a good
year. There was some business expense
that would just ride off. We lost two, but we made 98. But Jesus is the good shepherd
because he saves all of his sheep. And not a one of his sheep will
ever perish. And he says, no one will snatch
them out of my hand. And now to double seal, double
seal this eternal security of every one of these sheep Jesus now in verse 29 speaks
of the unity within the Godhead between the Father and the Son. In another passages we could
add, and the Holy Spirit, but here this inner Trinitarian perspective
is between the Father and the Son and how united they are in
their saving purposes and in their saving enterprise. It is as if there is but one
Savior, three persons. And in verse 29, my Father who
has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able
to snatch them out of the Father's hand." All of the sheep are held
secure in the Good Shepherd's hand, and then it is as though
the Father then double seals the hand of the Good Shepherd
who is holding the sheep, and the Father's hand encompasses
the entirety of the shepherd's hand and the sheep, they are
held fast and secure. And then verse 30. I and the Father are one. This word, one, is not in the
masculine, but it is in the neuter. If it was masculine, it would
be heresy, one person, but it is in the neuter, which is to
say two things. One is that they are of one essence,
but there's more than that here. not simply that they are one
essence, but that they are of one purpose and of one will and
of one mission and of one mind. The beauty of definite atonement
is that the Father and the Son and the Spirit are one in their
saving purposes. With Arminian theology, you are
forced to come to this conclusion, that the father merely looks
down the tunnel of time to see who will choose the son, and
when the father looking down the tunnel of time, just a footnote,
the father has never looked down the tunnel of time to ever learn
anything. That is heretical. The Father
has never learned anything. And if He did look down the tunnel
of time, and that's all that it is, hypothetically, all He
would see is that no one would ever believe in the Son because
of total depravity. That's another sermon for another
time. But the Arminian says that the
father looks down the tunnel of time and foresees, of course
having no understanding of the word foreknowledge, and sees
believers believing in Christ. That's whom the father then tag
teams back and says, okay, now I choose you because you chose
my son. That circle is drawn around only believers. That's not the right time to
say amen. I'll take what I can get, but
timing's everything. That's an oh me. So the Father is only saving
believers. The Arminian then says that the
Son dies for everyone. He's gonna go do his own thing.
The Father is only gonna deal with believers, but the Arminian
says that Christ will die for everyone. A totally different
group. And then he says the Holy Spirit
will woo and influence and nudge those who hear the gospel. But
not everyone hears the gospel, do they? There are untold numbers
of people in this world today who have never even heard the
name of Christ. And so, those who hear the preaching of the
gospel, the Arminian, will have to admit that is less than the
all that Jesus died for, but more than the believers whom
the Father foresees. And so, you have each member
of the Godhead attempting to save three different groups. It fractures the Trinity. Only biblical theology, only
true systematic theology. says that the Father chose His
elect and gave them to the Son, and when the Son went to Calvary's
cross, He laid down His life for the very same group that
the Father sovereignly, royally, lovingly chose in eternity past,
and that the Holy Spirit has been now sent into the world
to to convict of sin, and to draw powerfully, and to regenerate,
and to grant repentance and faith to this very same group that
the Father chose, and that the Son purchased at the cross, and
that the Holy Spirit now bursts into the kingdom of God. Glory to our God. Glory to our
God. Look at verse 30 again. I and the Father are not two,
one, of one mind, of one purpose, of one intent, of one will, on
one mission, with one plan of eternal salvation from before
time began. This, my friend, is Bible truth.
This is definite atonement, that there is an indivisible unity
within the Trinity, within the Godhead of their saving purposes
as they save one group by their one saving efforts. What an economy within the Godhead. Come back to John chapter six,
if you would. John chapter six, and in verse
37. John six, verse 37, all that
the Father gives me. First of all, please note that
the word all does not mean all the world. It's all of a certain group.
It's all of an inner concentric circle within the larger circle. All that the Father gives me
will come to me. Please note that they are given
to the Son before they ever come to the Son. They are the possession
of the Son before they ever come to the Son. Please note that
they belong to the Son because they are given to the Son by
the Father before they ever come to the Son. This speaks of the
doctrine of election. The doctrine of election stands
behind the atonement and defines the extent and the intent of
the atonement. All that the Father gives me,
every single one of them will come to me. That is because they
will hear the voice of the shepherd, and they will respond to the
voice of the shepherd. And the one who comes to me,
I will certainly not cast out. Of course He will not cast them
out within time, for they were given to Him before the foundation
of the world. They are the Father's love gift
to the Son, that there will be a bride for the Son, a chosen
bride for the Son. and that they will worship the
Son forever and ever and be conformed into the image of the Son. Of
course, the Son will receive them when they come within time,
for they have already been given to Him before time. Verse 38, for I have come down
from heaven not to do my own will, He's come on a very specific
mission with specific intent. He is after all those whom the
Father has given me. I've come down from heaven not
to do my own will but the will of Him who sent me." Now, Jesus
in this verse is not saying, I need to be in Galilee on Tuesday
because it's the Father's will. I need to be in Nazareth on Thursday
because it is the Father's will. much larger issue here. It is the saving purposes of
the Father and the Son, and the Son says, I've come not to do
My own will. You remember I talked about the
fracture within the Godhead, that the Arminian must say, well,
the Father will only deal with believers while the Son will
just do His own thing. and He'll die for a totally different
group. No, this says, Jesus says that, I've come to do the will
of my Father, and now in verse 39, He more clearly and specifically
defines for us what this will of the Father is. This is the
will of Him who sent me, that of all that He has given me,
I lose nothing. but raise it up on the last day. And every step in between, from
having received them in eternity past to raising them up on the
last day, and all of the work of salvation in between, the
Son is yielded to the will of the Father. He is one with the
Father. I was in London a few years ago,
and I was at London Theological Seminary that was started out
of the ministry of Martin Lloyd-Jones, and it just happened to be the
John Owen week of lectures on the atonement. And one of the
foremost authorities in the world on John Owen was giving a lecture
on the death of death and the death of Christ. I was sitting
there for breakfast ready to go out to look at historical
sites in the city of London. The students were there, and
the pastors, and I asked them, give me the number one reason
to believe in definite atonement. Lay down the ace of spades. What is the professor saying? He said, the number one reason
to believe in definite atonement. is the unity of the Godhead. Before we walked out, we were
up in Pastor Gallagher's office, and I asked Dr. Sproul, give
me the number one reason to believe in definite atonement. He said,
it is rooted and grounded in the nature of God. That is what John 6 is saying.
That is what John 10 is saying, that the Father and the Son are
one. Come with me, if you will, now
to John chapter 12. And as I'm looking at my clock,
I realized I had it upside down, which proves I'm a Baptist. And I realize I'm down to five
minutes. I thought I had like two hours
I guess So let me let me hasten you need to listen more quickly
if That's our problem. That's our problem. All right,
John chapter 12 verse 32. I Jesus said, and I, if I am lifted
up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. Have you ever
heard of pastors refer to this as the lifting up in the name
of Christ in preaching? That has nothing to do with preaching. We do need to lift up the name
of Christ in preaching, but not from this verse. The very next
verse, verse 33, clearly defines that what Jesus meant by what
He said is He was saying this to indicate the kind of death
by which He was to die. If He be lifted up upon the cross
in His death, is this not one powerful statement? Is this not
an extraordinary statement that He will draw all men – did you
hear that? – all men to Himself? Now, what does this mean? If Jesus died for all men, I
want you to know all men will be drawn to Christ and will be
saved. And the one who would hold to a universal death of
Christ that He redemptively died for all men must be honest and
consistent with their own position and say, then all men will be
drawn to Christ. Someone else must say, well,
what he is saying here is that He will possibly, hypothetically
draw all men to Himself. That's not what this says. Jesus
spoke with certainty that He will draw all men to Himself. So what is the meaning of this?
Because we know that all men are not drawn to Christ. Hell
is full of men who never came to faith in Jesus Christ. This must mean either all of
a certain group of which we looked at in John 6 and in John 10,
all of the elect, or I think in this context, all men without distinction,
all kinds of men. Jews, Gentiles, males, females,
civilized, barbaric, educated, unlearned. This word, all, can
mean either all without exception or all without distinction. All
without exception would mean that He would die for every person
who has ever lived. That would mean that all people
who have ever lived will be saved in the end. So it does not mean
all without exception. It must mean all without distinction. And within this context, you
will note in verse 20 that this now is the first time that there
is a group that is coming that is outside of Israel. In verse
20, now there were some Greeks among those who were going up
to worship at the feast. Not only Jews, but also Greeks,
all kinds of people were coming, and all kinds of people will
be drawn to Christ, and they are those for whom Christ has
died. Come to John chapter 15, if you
will, very quickly. John chapter 15 and verse 13. I want you to see here a specific
atonement. Greater love has no one than
this, that one lay down his life for his friends." That is a reference
to the atonement. That is a reference to the cross. He says in verse 14, you are
my friends. If you do what I command you
to do, no longer do I call you slaves. Once slaves, now more
intimate as friends. And then verse 16, you did not
choose me, but I chose you. You, my friends, you who have
been my servants. And I have appointed you, my
friends, that you would go and bear fruit. This group, this
you, these friends in verse 19 are those who are chosen out
of the world. Notice he says, if you are of
the world, the world would love its own, but because you are
not of the world, but I chose you out of the world because
of this, the world hates you. For whom did Christ die? It is
very clear in this passage that Christ laid down His life, not
for the world, but for those chosen out of the world, those
who are His friends, who give evidence of this by their obedience
to the commandments of Christ. Come to John chapter 17, and
I want you to note the priestly intercession of the Lord Jesus
Christ, His priestly atonement. in John chapter 17, in verse
2, even as you gave him authority over all flesh, that is authority
over all the human race, every man, every woman who has ever
been born, Jesus has authority over them all. But there's a
second all in verse 2, it is a smaller concentric circle,
that to all whom you have given me, there is the elect. Out of all flesh, the Father
has chosen and given to the Son certain ones. Verse three, they
are those who know God and know Jesus Christ. Verse six, of this
smaller group, this all those whom you have given me, he says
in verse six, I have manifested your name to the men whom you
gave me out of the world. They were yours. They were yours
because you chose them. They were Yours because You chose
them by Yourself and for Yourself. They were Yours and You gave
them to Me, and they have kept Your Word." They're very easy
to see in the world. They are very easy to detect.
You can know what their root is because you can see their
fruit. They are those who walk in paths of obedience to the
word. Now look at verse nine. This
is an extraordinary verse. I ask on their behalf. These whom you have given me.
He says, I do not ask on behalf of the world. Why? Because the Father is pulling
in the same direction with the Son, and the Son is in the same
direction with the Father. The Father is chosen out of all
flesh, certain ones whom He has given to the Son, and as the
Son now intercedes in verse 9, He says, I do not ask on behalf
of the world, because the Father has not chosen the entire world,
and the whole world will not be saved. But, in the middle of verse 9, of those whom you have given
me." He is saying, I ask on behalf of those whom you have given
me, for they are yours. They are yours by sovereign election. Please note that Jesus' intercession
here is not for the world. It is for those whom you have
given me, and those for whom He intercedes in prayer, and
right now, those for whom He intercedes at the right hand
of God the Father are the very same ones for whom He interceded
upon Calvary's cross. The intercession in heaven at
the right hand of the Father and the intercession upon the
cross is identical regarding those for whom He is interceding.
And because at the right hand of the Father, He is not praying
for the world, He is praying for those whom the Father has
given to the Son. Therefore, upon the cross, the
Son is a submissive Son. The Son is an obedient Son. The
Son is one with the Father. The Son will not do His own thing. The Son will not break rank.
The Son will not live in insubordination. The Son will do the will and
the work of the Father, and the Son will lay down His life for
the sheep. One last text, and we're finished.
John 1, verse 29. John 1, verse 29, and we're finished. The next day he saw John coming
to him and said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin
of the world. Someone may say, see there, world,
takes away the sin of the world. John 3.16, God so loved the world,
He gave His only begotten Son, whosoever believes in Him shall
not perish but have everlasting life. Well, first of all, you
must understand this Greek word for world, kosmos, is used ten
different ways in the Gospel of John. It is used to refer
to the entire universe, to the physical earth, to the evil world
system, to a large group, to the general public, to Jews and
Gentiles. to the human realm, to the non-elect,
and also at times to only the elect. So when we come to a verse
like this, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of
the world, we cannot immediately say, well, it means everyone,
because that's not how John uses the word John every time. In
fact, that would be the minority position. Would you also note
that it says he actually takes away the sin of the world. If he takes away the sin of every
person, then no one will ever suffer perdition in the flames
below. It has to mean something other
than every person. If you just look at language
to understand what does it mean. No, this means He takes away
the sin of the world of Jews and Gentiles to be brought into
a saving relationship with the Father. And we know who they
are because He will spend the entire rest of the gospel of
John specifically, carefully identifying who they are as the
sheep and those whom the Father has entrusted to the Son. I wish I could go all day. Maybe
I just did. I wish I could go all night,
but time does not permit. Let me close in prayer. Father,
thank you for this session to give thought to the sin-bearing,
wrath-absorbing, reconciling, propitiating death of your Son
upon the cross. We cannot be wrong at this point. And Father, we praise you for
the mission with which you entrusted to the Son, and we praise the
Son for the accomplishment of this mission of redemption, that
not a one of his sheep will be lost, and all for whom he died
will never perish. We pray this in Jesus' name,
amen.