And that's true. All other ground
is sinking sand. If you're looking for something
that you've built to be your hope, then those hopes will be
dashed in the end. Jesus said that a man who builds
his house upon the sand is a foolish man, right? Didn't we sing that
as a kid? The wise man built his house
upon the rock. The foolish man built his house. Although, we
aren't the ones that builds the house, right? He's the one that's
building it. Well, all right, turn with me
if you would to Isaiah 53. I know I've already had you turn
there once, but we're actually gonna start looking at Isaiah
53. Before the break, we just kind of got started. We did a
lot of talking beforehand and got to the time of break. I want
to make sure everyone had a chance to take that break. We looked
and seen that we are a friend of God and that Jesus has said
that he lays down his life for his friends. And we find in Isaiah
53, probably one of the best passages in all of scripture,
showing that efficacious work of Jesus Christ. Again, you're
probably going to hear that term efficacious quite often throughout
the next few weeks when it comes to speaking of the atonement
of Christ. And I think that's very paramount
because the work of Jesus Christ whenever he died for his people
It actually did something, okay? It didn't just make something
possible, it actually did something. The purpose for atonement in
the Old Testament types and foreshadows was to accomplish a purpose,
to actually fulfill something on the part of someone. Okay? And so that type and foreshadow,
if we look back and see that, it even screams more and more
that. Now, before we really get into
this, let me just make a few observations about this doctrine,
this doctrine of efficacious or effectual atonement. Some
call it limited atonement. Some call it particular redemption.
Some call it efficacious or effectual atonement. I don't mind any of
those phrases and everything. Those phrases tend to cause stirs
a lot depending on which group you're talking to. But whether
it's limited, whenever we say limited atonement, we're talking
that it's limited not in its power, but it's limited in its scope. It's limited in who it's
intended for. Okay? When we say particular
redemption, we say that because it was for a particular group
of people. When we say that it's effectual,
we mean that that atonement actually had an effect upon those for
whom he died for. Okay, so any of those terms to
me is acceptable terms. I don't mind those at all. I
tend to steer away from limited atonement more than the other
ones because it just is misunderstood by so many people. And it does
cause a pretty good rile up. And sometimes, you know, and
I'm not saying that the terminology is going to change the heart
of a person, but you might have more opportunity to share with
somebody something if you don't use the term that they're already
Drilled in their head anybody who ever says that the tone was
limited, you know, they are they're already accustomed to Calvinistic
terminology Then you know, you may have a better opportunity
to share with though then the truth If if that terminology,
but I mean I'm not saying you know that we need to water anything
down or be afraid of anything I don't have any problem using
that term I'll just you know, I have to take a couple extra
steps to explain what I mean by that, you know And what are
we saying? Let me just make this clear also
before we get into this When we say limited atonement, and
I say limited in its scope, I don't mean what Andrew Fuller means
either. Okay? Andrew Fuller says that the atonement
of Jesus is sufficient for all men, and efficient for only the
elect." That it's powerful enough and was for all men, but its
application is only for the elect. That He died for all men in that
way, but then it's only applied to... Listen, if Christ died
and does not apply what that death procured, then he's a failure
as a Savior. Because the reason that he died
was to be the Savior. Okay? Was because he was the
Savior. He was the surety. He was standing
in place for someone and the death that he took was so that
whoever it was he was substituting for would receive the benefits
of his substitution. Okay? So all these terms, substitution,
propitiation, reconciliation, redemption, all these things
are actually all found in the meaning of atonement. Whenever
it says that Jesus was the, that now we have received, in Hebrews
it says, now we have received the atonement, Jesus' atonement,
that word atonement, if you look at that word and its uses throughout
the scripture, it doesn't just mean someone who died, okay?
It wasn't just a sacrifice. That word atonement means all
those words. Reconciliation. It means propitiation. Those are different words. They
mean different things. That word also means that there
is a, if you actually break the word down, at-one-ment. At-one-ment. It makes the person
for who the atonement is made and the one who needs to be atoned
Okay, the one who desires the atoning and the one who needs
to be atoned for, it makes them one, at one with each other. There's nothing that's causing
a division anymore. And so while propitiation would
probably be the closest term to atonement, it also means to
be reconciled. While propitiation means an appeasement
or a turning away of wrath, Reconciliation means a bringing together again
of friendship or bringing together of two parties who are estranged. Now, God has never been estranged
to us, okay? We were estranged to Him. When
we fell in Adam, we were estranged to God. God has always been pursuing
us. He has always loved us with an
everlasting love. We are not estranged with Him.
We were not His enemies. We were enemies towards Him,
but He never considered us His enemies. He was always our enemy, but
He never considered us enemies. It says, while we were yet enemies,
but that was our direction towards Him, not His direction towards
us. Because we were always loved
with an everlasting love. We were always His children.
We were His adopted. We were His elect before the
foundation of the world. We were in Christ before we ever
fell. And thus we were not His enemies
as He has hatred towards, but we were His beloved that He loved. But we were the ones who needed
to be reconciled. And so the reconciliation between
God and man came in the atonement. And whenever Christ died, what
that procured, what that brought was a coming together again. For all that Christ died, He
reconciled them to God. God could be reconciled to man
and man to God because The sin that separated them was taken
out of the way. There was an appeasement of God's
wrath. There was a turning away of God's
wrath. There was a covering of God's
wrath. We were covered so that God's
wrath, it's like a shield keeping us from the wrath of God. Christ
is that shield. His atonement secured no wrath
for God's people. So whenever we talk about atonement,
atonement isn't this proposed or suppositional thing
that could just be, you know, it might be there if you'll receive
it. No, what Christ did guaranteed the atonement or guaranteed all
those things, reconciliation, propitiation, all those things
for those for whom he died. You go back to the Old Testament
sacrifices and you'll see whenever those priests took those sacrifices,
offer those sacrifices, that person that brought that whatever
it was whether it was a lamb whether it was a whatever it
and brought that and that priest offered that up that that offering
taking the place of that person who brought it whenever that
priest killed that animal or took that sacrifice offered it
to God when God received that to himself and accepted that
he accepted that on behalf of the one who brought it OK, and
on the Day of Atonement, whenever that priest went into the Holy
of Holies and he offered up the sacrifice for that day for the
whole nation, he went in And it was applied to them. That lamb, that blood that was
shed and sprinkled upon the altar, God came and received that to
Himself. For everyone for whom that was,
they were counted as atoned for. in the type in the foreshadow.
Now the blood of bulls and goats isn't what saved them, okay?
Don't get me wrong. That ain't what actually was
their atonement, but that signified and it was for only them. It
was only for Israel. It wasn't for everybody else.
It was for them. So whenever the priest made an
atonement, he didn't make atonement for the Jebusites and the Hezekites
and all the whateverites that were out there. He did it for
the Israel, the people of Israel. Now we see that in the type and
shadow that that atonement actually secured something for those people. We see in Christ's death that
He secured and it was applied or it was laid to the account
of everyone for whom He substituted. So, we have to deal with the
fact that if this notion of universal redemption is true, then Jesus
Christ is the ultimate biggest failure that ever was. because
not only did he live perfectly and he died vicariously, he died
in the place of somebody else, but God was unjust because God
punished his perfect son who had done nothing and didn't apply
the purpose for why he was dying, didn't apply that to anybody. Nobody got the benefits. I mean,
if universal redemption is true and you boil it down to its essence,
then salvation is a possibility only if we do something. So Christ didn't secure anything. I like what my Uncle Tom used
to always say, how he would approach people on this and everything.
He would ask the question, whenever Jesus died on the cross, did
he die for anyone specific? And a lot of times people don't
know how to answer that, especially the one universal atonement person.
They'll say, well, no, he died for everybody, but no one in
particular, no one specific. And the reason they have to say
that is because if Jesus died for them specifically, then specifically
for them that had to do. But if they have this ethereal
cloud of you know, blank faces of people out there that Jesus
died for, and the faces only become populated whenever someone
chooses him, you know, then the atonement becomes effectual.
It becomes effectual for those who believe. And that's kind
of what Fuller is saying, is Jesus died for everybody, but
it only becomes effectual to those who believe, to the believing
ones. It's only effectual for them.
No, no, no. Jesus died for a specific group
of people and they became the believing ones because He died
for them. They became the believing ones
because He was their substitute. His substitution secured every
good work that God had ordained and they obey it. You say, well,
what do you mean by good works? Well, I'm talking about faith.
I'm talking about belief. I'm talking about trust. I'm
talking about love. I'm talking about worship. I'm
talking about all the things that are salvific in its essence. Everything the New Testament
speaks of as salvific things that man does, those are the
good works that God has wrought in our heart, and he's done that
and secured that by the atonement of Jesus Christ. that came by
Him saving us and calling us with that holy calling before
the foundation of the world that it might be manifested in time
that we were His. He blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, but in the fullness
of time, Christ came and died and it showed what Christ did
for us and then in the application of that, whenever we are quickened
of the Holy Spirit and we are converted by the Gospel of Jesus
Christ and we come to Christ and we trust in Christ and we
believe on Christ and we love the Word of God, we love the
people of God, we love holiness, we desire the things of God, That is a manifesting that we
were in Him before the foundation of the world. It's a manifesting
of those things. And so whenever we come to the
atonement, if the atonement is only something that makes something
possible, then Christ didn't accomplish anything. Everything
that He said, the words about who He was, He shall save His
people from their sin. And the very thing that He said,
it is finished, The very words that he said, you know, I've
lost none. I have done the work that you've
called me to do. You know, it is the will of my
Father that I should lose none. And I've done the will of my
Father. All those words are meaningless.
To call Him Savior is meaningless if He doesn't save everyone for
whom He died. He's not the Savior. And so whenever we look at the
Scripture and we see these things such as atonement, and we see
these things such as reconciliation, these aren't things that Christ
made possible. These are the things that His
death did. He is the propitiation. We're
going to read that. Look with me at Isaiah 53 and
we're going to start at verse 1 and we'll read down probably
one of, as I said, one of the greatest passages of Scripture
showing these things. It says, verse 1, Who hath believed
our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Now
we talked about these verses a while back. And I mentioned
to you that the second question there is actually an answer to
the first. Who hath believed our report and to whom hath the
arm of the Lord been revealed? The one who believes the report
about what Christ has done is the one whom the arm of the Lord
has been revealed to. It's only those who the Lord
reveals these things that believe the report. It says, For he shall
grow up before him as a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground. He hath no form or comeliness,
and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire
him. That's exactly how Jesus came.
Whenever Jesus came born of the virgin, He came not in Jerusalem,
He came in Bethlehem. He came from lowly esteem. He came a carpenter's son, quote-unquote
son. He came not a handsome, studly
man. We see these movies of Jesus
and a lot of times they have this beautiful looking guy with
this long flowing, beautiful, conditioned hair. and perfect
teeth and all this stuff. It says right here that he was
calmly. No one even picked him out of the crowd as, hey man,
there's something about that guy. It says, He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it
were, our faces from Him. He was despised and we esteemed
Him not." Now here it is, verse 4, "'Surely He hath borne our
griefs.'" and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem Him stricken,
smitten of God." Now remember, this is the prophet Isaiah speaking
to the people of God. And of course, again, remember
Israel is a type of the spiritual people of God. So whenever the
prophet is speaking to the people, because we know not all of Israel
are of Israel, and we know not all of those people that Isaiah
was speaking to had the faith of Abraham. Okay? So He's not speaking to them
as a nationality. He's speaking in spiritual terms.
But He was speaking to the people of God, telling them about the
Messiah that was to come. The one that they were looking
to. The one that they were trusting in. The one that their faith
was in. Not in the blood of bulls and goats, but the one that the
blood of the bulls and goats were pointing to. The one that
all the priests had been sacrificing. stood as a type in a foreshadow
for they knew those things. I believe they knew that this
is speaking of the Messiah. Everything we're seeing in the
priesthood is speaking of our Messiah that is to come. The
Bible says that Abraham seen Christ in his day and trusted
on Christ and knew that the gospel was preached to Abraham. I believe
that that gospel was preached to everybody throughout the Old
Testament. that whenever they've seen the
type in foreshadows, they knew they were not looking to that,
they were looking for something to come. But it says here, And
remember, this is Isaiah speaking to this people, and so he's speaking
to the spiritual people of God whenever he makes these declarations. Surely He hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem Him stricken, spitting
of God, and afflicted. Verse 5, But He was wounded for
our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
If the atonement of Christ was not a particular thing for a
particular group of people, why is He using that terminology?
Why is He not saying, but He was wounded for everyone? He
was bruised for the world's iniquities. But He says He was bruised for
our iniquities. The chastisement of peace was
upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to...
Now let me stop there. All we like sheep have gone astray.
Has the reprobate went astray? No. The child of grace is the
only one that's went astray because they were loved before the foundation
of the world, blessed with all spiritual blessings and in eternal
vital union with Christ before they ever was in Adam, before
they ever fell in Adam. When Adam fell, the elect of
God was then thrust into being astray from God. We went astray
in Christ, because it wasn't after we were born. Now, see,
this is where the child salvationist that believes that, you know,
there's an age of accountability and, you know, there's a time
of innocence and then, you know, after a certain age, then you're
culpable for all your sins and they come to the knowledge of
Christ and all that kind of stuff. The Bible says that we were estranged
from the womb, right? The Bible says that we came out
of the womb wicked, liars, all these things, that we, in the
womb, out of the womb, we have been like that. So, we didn't
go astray after some period of time. When did we go astray? We went astray in our natural
head, Adam. Out of the same lump, He has
created vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor. Out of that
astray lump, He is creating vessels of honor. And He's filling them
with the life that we are hid in, Christ. So in the fullness
of time, that life which is ours that's hid with God in Christ
before the foundation of the world is sent to us in these
earthen vessels. Now, until that time, we are
astray. We are lost sheep, and the Good
Shepherd is finding all of His sheep and bringing them in. That's
why Jesus said, I have other sheep that are not of this fold,
them too I must bring. The Shepherd has sheep, and He
says right here, all we like sheep have gone astray, we have
turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all." See, we have actually, even though
we don't have that imputed to us, we have the imputed righteousness
of Christ, we in actuality have gone astray though. See, that's
why we needed the imputed righteousness of Christ, and that's why Christ,
you know, everybody that disagrees with our eternal justification
view, they say, well, then why did Christ even have to come
to die then if you were justified before the foundation of the
world? Because we actually sin. We actually sin. We fell with
Adam into sin and death, and we needed to be redeemed from
that. The only way that God could love
and show that love and receive us to himself is that Christ
be the substitution because we actually sinned. We have sinned
against God. We have transgressed against
God. While that may not be laid to our account because of Christ,
we have done it and Christ had to die so that that account would
not be laid to our account. I hope that wasn't confusing,
but the reason that Christ had to die, we believe that Christ
has to die. Because I believe in eternal
justification and eternal salvation doesn't negate the fact that
I believe that Christ had to die for his people. That was
the basis upon which God said, not guilty. That's the basis
upon which we stand with the imputed righteousness of Jesus
Christ is because Christ died for us. And so everyone for whom
Christ died, that righteousness is imputed. Everyone for whom
Christ died, they are the sheep that have gone astray and they
are the ones on whose iniquity Christ, or it's laid upon Christ. He says, the Lord hath laid on
him the iniquity of us all. Now if he laid upon everyone
the iniquity, or laid upon Christ the iniquity of everybody, every
man, woman, and child, then every man, woman, and child are going
to receive the benefits that we're fixing to talk about here, okay?
Now keep that in mind. Keep everything in context here,
what Isaiah is telling us. The ones whose iniquity have
been laid upon Christ are going to be recipients of something
because that iniquity was laid on Christ. And they, the lost
sheep, will be returned to the shepherd. Look what he says.
Verse 7, He is oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened
not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shears is done, so He opened
not His mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment, and who shall declare his generation?" Now,
we talked about that phrase. We won't go into that. For he
was cut off out of the land of the living, and here it is, for
the transgression of my people was he stricken. Now, I find
that odd that God would say, for the transgression of my people,
if Christ's death was for everyone. Why does He say, my people? We
also know that God said that I made you a people who were
not my people. Ain't that what He says about
us Gentiles? I made you my people who were not my people. You were
not my people, but I've made you my people. I mean, the Bible goes on and
on and talks about His people, a specific group. We looked all
the last few weeks about unconditional election and we've seen that
the Bible is very clear that God has a specific people that
he has chosen out to be saved and the only way they can be
saved is if Christ has died for them. He says, for the transgression
of my people he was stricken. So only for them, only for His
people was the transgressions laid upon Christ. And He says,
And He made His grave with the wicked and with the rich in His
death, because He hath done no violence, neither was any deceit
in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief, when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand." Now let's just stop there for a minute
and look at a couple of things. Number one, we see that Christ's
seed was in view whenever this was taking place. He died for
his seed. We learn in Galatians that that
seed that is talked about talks about Christ, but it also says
that everybody who is in Christ is his seed. It's not talking
about physicality. It's talking about spirituality.
All those who are of the seed of Christ are those who are brought
to believe, are those who are given to Christ, those who were
elected before the foundation of the world. That's His seed.
That's the generation that is being declared. Who shall declare
His generation? That word declared there, it
means who shall contemplate, who shall think about His generation. He was cut off from the land
of the living. There was a promise that was made to Abraham that
this seed is going to prosper. This seed is going to have seed
that is like the stars in the sand. And Isaiah is telling this
to the people, and the people are obviously saying, whoa, wait
a minute. We heard that the seed of this Messiah is going to be
many. But he's going to die? He's going
to be cut off out of the land? How can his seed or his generation
continue if he's cut off out of the land of the living? See,
that was the quandary here. And he says here, he shall see
his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the
Lord shall prosper in his hand. So the seed is in view there.
Second thing in that verse I want to point out is that it says,
and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Now, the Arminian will tell you
that The Lord takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, meaning
that Christ died for everybody and He wants everybody to be
saved. Well, it says that the pleasure of the Lord, of course,
we read this when we talked about the sovereignty of God, but the
pleasure of the Lord is going to be accomplished, right? I
shall do all my pleasure, right? So what does He mean, the pleasure
of the Lord? He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, okay? See, that's not talking about
eternal salvation, that's talking about temporal salvation. It's
talking about, and I say temporal salvation, don't get me mixed,
understand, with conditional time salvation. It's talking
about in a temporal judgment. Okay? Those who obeyed lived,
those who didn't died. Because the same thing, same
command was given to the righteous as the unrighteous. He said,
if the righteous forsake their righteousness and do unrighteousness,
they shall die. So it's not talking about eternal
salvation, it's talking about living. So what does He mean
here? It shall prosper in His hand.
Well, the pleasure of the Lord, if you remember Jesus, He said,
I come to do Thy will, O Father. It is the will of the Father
that none that has been given to me shall perish. It is the
will of the Father that all that has been given to me shall come
to me, and all that come to me in no wise will be cast out.
It is the will of the Father that I die, and that for everyone
for whom I die they will be one as we are one. Isn't that what the will of the
Father was? I mean, whenever we go through
John, as we've went through our exposition of John up to where
we're at now, we've seen Jesus saying, the will of the Father
is this, the will of the Father is this, the will of the Father
is this. And the will of the Father is that everyone, everyone
for whom Christ makes propitiation, whom Christ makes atonement,
everyone for whom Christ dies or sacrifices for or substitutes
for, everyone will be raised up at the last day. He said,
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and all that
come to me I will no wise cast out, and I shall raise them up
at the last day. He's going to raise up everyone. The pleasure of the Lord prospered
in his hand. If the pleasure of the Lord was to bruise his
son and place upon him the iniquity of us all, and all of us' iniquity
is not removed, then did the pleasure of the Lord prosper?
See, it prospered. Isaiah is telling us in plain
language here that what Jesus is about to accomplish in His
atonement is going to prosper. He's going to be a faithful and
a victorious Savior. He's going to be a successful
Savior. It will prosper. God is not going to turn away
from what Christ did and those for whom He did it is not going
to lose out on any of the benefits of it. on both sides. That's why Christ is called the
God-man, the substitute, the advocate. He's advocating not
only for God, but He's advocating for us. He's advocating for God
because God cannot save us, cannot love us, cannot justify us because
we are sinners. But also, He's advocating for
us because we can't do anything to please God. And so He comes
as God and as man and He makes this atonement to bring at one
God who is holy and righteous and just and man who is sinful
and can't do anything God-pleasing or spiritual. And He makes the
two one. See, that's why Jesus had to come.
That's why Jesus had to be God and man. And that's what He did
in the atonement. That's what God's purpose and
pleasure was, is that sending His own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh would save those for whom He sent. And so He sent His Son to do
that very thing. And it says here that it shall
prosper in His hand. Brethren, if there is anybody
that is found in hell for whom Christ died, the pleasure of
the Lord didn't prosper in Christ's hand. Look at verse 11, he says,
"...he shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied."
There are people today that say that the people that are in hell,
Christ died for them. Did the travail of Christ for them? Is God satisfied with
that? Let me ask this question here.
If Christ died for everybody and every man's sins have been
covered, because the Bible says that they've been covered by
blood, right? The blood of Jesus remits our
sin. By the shedding of blood, there
is remission of sin. His blood has covered us. His
blood has brought forgiveness, reconciliation, all these things. Well, let me say, if that's the
case, then on what grounds are those people in hell? Well, many
of them say because they didn't accept Jesus, or they didn't
receive Jesus, or they didn't choose Jesus, or maybe it's because
they rejected Jesus, because they rejected God's Son. Well,
let me ask you, is that not also a sin for which Christ died?
Me and Larry was just talking before during the break. I'm
thankful that the Holy Spirit put in the Bible Peter's rejection
of Jesus. Peter rejected Jesus with cursings. Is that the unpardonable sin?
Nope. Was he saved when he made those
rejections? Yes, he was. I hear these dispensationalists
all the time talk about this seven-year tribulation and during
this time that there will be people saved during that tribulation
and that the people that, you know, they're going to be calling
you into the Antichrist locations across the country, that they're
going to, you know, if you've ever seen the movies, you know,
they have these military-like bases with all their little Nazi
armband-looking things and all that stuff. They're going to
bring people in. They're going to say, you know,
recant or die. And they say that the person who's truly saved,
you know, they're not going to recant. They're never going to
recant. They'll always go to their death that they can't recant. And I remember in those 70s movies,
The Thief in the Night and Distant Thunder and all like that, Mark
of the Beast and all those, that trilogy. and there were those
people waiting in jail and they was taking so-and-so who was
among their Christian group that supposedly was strong and then
they went out there and then all of a sudden here they come
back in and they realize, oh, they recanted and oh, there's
no hope for them, you know. Well, if you would have looked
at Peter, there was no hope for Peter because he cursed God and
man and said, I don't know that man. I don't want to have anything
to do with him. And the sanctimonious sovereign
gracers would probably have looked at him and said, well, he's not
one of God's elect because he rejected Christ. He doesn't have
any fruits. You'll know their fruits. You'll
know them by their fruits. If you look at the fruits of
Peter during that time, that night, they would say, well,
he obviously is in child grace. Then he must have been saved
after the fact then, because he wouldn't have done that if
he was a Christian. Brother, I'm telling you right now that
we're all still in the flesh, and this flesh will reject Christ.
And I agree with what Brother Larry said a while ago. There's
a lot of times we reject Christ every day. We reject Christ all
the time. Whenever we sin, you know what
we're doing? We're rejecting Christ. Every time we sin, we're
rejecting Christ. What does he say here? He shall
see the true value of his soul and be satisfied. He's going
to be satisfied. If anybody in hell has been died
for, then God has not been satisfied. If he's satisfied, then that
means there's nothing left. I'm satisfied, okay? You did
that for them and you accomplished that. I'm satisfied with that. You know, sometimes we tell our
kids to go in and clean the room. And 45 minutes later, we go in
to find out that they've not been cleaning the room. And I'll
say, get to cleaning your room. And we'll go back in there and
they've done some work and cleaned a little bit of the room, but
it's not completely clean. And I go in and I look and I
examine, I kind of tell them, Hey, I want it clean. I want
under your dressers. I want all the dirty clothes picked up.
I want your floor swept, all your toys put up. I want your
beds made, blah, blah, blah. I want all this done. Well, whenever
I go in to inspect, if everything's put up, but it's all shoved in
the corner, and I walk in and look at it, I'm not satisfied. Yeah, it's almost all clean,
except for just this little bit. I walk in, I'm not satisfied.
Why? Because I said, clean your room. Well, God said, Be ye holy
for I am holy. He didn't say clean your whole
life up except for just this little part here, okay? No, we
have to be holy as He is holy. The only way that you get that
is if Christ dies for you. And if Christ dies for you, you
get that. You get His holiness. And so for God to be satisfied,
He has to look at the action that has been done and say, that
meets my criteria. That meets my justice. My justice,
righteousness, and holiness says that is equal and particularly instead for this. When I walk
into the room and I see it's completely clean, I'm satisfied. Does that mean that everything
is in exact order? If everything is to my satisfaction,
then I'm alright. If they have a little lint here
or a little lint there, I'm okay with that, I understand that.
Okay, the house gets dusty. When God looks at us to be satisfied,
He has to see His Son. But the Bible says the only way
that he can see his son is for his son to die for them. Not
for us to accept it. Not for us to receive it. Not
for us to believe it. He has to see his son. His son
has to make that death. His son has to make that atonement. And if he makes that atonement,
then it says here that he is satisfied not with our receiving
or believing or our faith. He is satisfied with the atonement
that was made. The dissatisfaction in the atonement
is what makes this over here all right. And so if anybody
is in hell for whom God has given that atonement or Christ has
died for, then they're in hell and God has punished His Son
for somebody unjustly because He didn't apply what He said
in the eternal covenant that He would apply if Christ would
die for them. And also, this person over here
is receiving double the wrath because God put wrath on His
Son and now is putting wrath on him. God would be unjust to
punish both Christ and the sinner for the exact same crime. And God is not unjust. God is
righteous and a just judge. and He will judge rightly. So
if Christ did the work as a substitution in the stead, not instead, but
in the stead of someone else, then God, it says here, is satisfied. He said, He shall be satisfied. By His knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify everyone. Is that what He said? No, He
makes a particular distinction, right? The many. Again, we can
go back up through the context and see who we're talking about.
By His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for He
shall bear their iniquities. So for everyone for whom the
iniquities are bore, There's justification. Does everybody
see that there? Is that clear as day? I mean,
am I missing anything there? By His knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, because he shall bear their iniquities.
Read that backwards. The ones whose iniquities are
bore are justified by the servant. Who is justified? The ones for
whom iniquities are bore. If everyone's iniquities have
been bore by Christ, then everyone is justified. You say, well,
they can't be justified until they believe. And that means God cannot declare
the justice of Christ unless man does some work. Even if it's the work of God
rot in their heart, he still has to wait. The just judge can't
make a just decision based upon the evidence before him. He has
to wait until the acceptance of the one for whom it was made.
Now, again, there's no difference in that and what the Arminian
says. the reformed person that says we are justified by faith
alone, that God can't declare us justified and impute Christ's
righteousness to us until we believe, is not saying anything
different than the person that says Christ has made salvation
possible for everybody, but you don't get it until you do something,
until you believe. Receive ask him into your heart.
Whatever the case might be if you're Campbellite until you
get in the baptistry waters To your Church of God or something.
I don't know what they do there, but Whatever the case might be
no brother the judge is Dealing on legal terms and he says what's
going to satisfy my justice is for there to be a perfect sacrifice
to take the place of that person right there and The only one
that can take the place of that person right there is someone
who is not sinned, who has kept the law, and who has become their
advocate. And Jesus Christ was that person.
And so He died in the place of, and for everyone in the place
of, He died for, the judge says, I'm satisfied with your death,
on behalf of these people. They are justified. It goes on to say, Therefore
will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide
the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto
death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bared
the sin of every man." Is that what it says? He bared the sin
of all? Now it says, He bared the sin
of many. Again, that word many is a quantifier. It quantifies
how many people He died for. He didn't die for everyone. He
died for the many. It's also a qualifier. Only the
many are the ones who are the recipients of that. But look
what He says. He says, He bared the sin of
many and made intercession for the transgressors. made intercession
for the transgressors. So we see here that Christ has
a particular redemption in view. God is satisfied with all those
for whom Christ dies for. Now, if you'll look, and we'll
just look at one more thing here. Turn over to Isaiah chapter 63. I'll say one more thing. Actually,
we're going to look at two more verses, but one more thought
here. Isaiah chapter 63. Jesus is to be the transgressor
for those who are to be saved. Do you understand what I mean
by that? He hath made Him to be sin who knew no sin that we
might be the righteousness of God in Christ. Right? But when
Jesus was made sin, He didn't become a sinner, right? Nowhere
in Scripture does it ever say that Jesus became the sinner. His sin was by imputation. just
as our righteousness is by imputation. Okay? We aren't made righteous
as is in impartation. There's none that are righteous,
right? No, not one. Only Christ is righteous. So
it is imputation. The imputation of sin unto Him,
the imputation of righteousness upon us. Okay? So He became the
transgressor by imputation. But we are the transgressors.
We are the transgressors. But look at Isaiah 63 and look
at verse 9. It says, "...in all their affliction
He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them. In
His love and in His piety, He redeemed them, and He bared them
and carried them all the days of old." See, He just didn't
redeem them and make it possible for them to enter into that glorious
salvation. No, He did all of it for them. In His love and in His piety,
He redeemed them and He bared them and carried them all the
days of old. Look at with me over at Daniel
chapter 9. Daniel chapter 9. We did a study
on Daniel 9 many years ago way back in the old building. And
I've almost kind of got an inkling to go into that again and cover
that 9th chapter of Daniel. That's a very confusing chapter
to a lot of people. Not only in its Christology but
also in its eschatology. But maybe someday we'll go back
into Daniel 9 again. But in Daniel chapter 9, if you'll
look, verse 24, it says, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people
and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression. to make an
end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in
everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy,
and to anoint the Most Holy. Brethren, I don't know what all
y'all's view on everything is, but as I have come to see and
understand, as light has been given to me, and what I know,
if I be not mistaken or led astray, Daniel 9 is talking about Christ. And this is talking about His
people. Seventy weeks are determined
upon Thy people and upon Thy holy city to finish the transgression. The transgression was finished
in His crucifixion. The people of God are the ones
who filled up that transgression. If you remember, Jesus said that
those religious leaders were going to fill up the transgression.
They had not yet filled up their transgression. The transgression
came ultimately in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And it says,
to finish the transgression and to make an end of sin. The work
of Jesus Christ made an end to sin. and to make reconciliation
for iniquity. During that time period, Jesus
made reconciliation for iniquity. And to bring in everlasting righteousness. And to seal up the vision and
prophecy and to anoint the most holy. This is speaking of Christ's
death on the cross. And we see it was for His people.
Again, not talking about physicality, we're talking about spirituality.
For His people, these things were determined. that He would
come and He would be the transgressor, that He would make an end of
sin, that He would reconcile those for whom iniquity had been
participated in, and to bring in everlasting righteousness,
and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.
Everything that was talked about everything that was prophesied
about Everything that was said about what Messiah would do he
did That's why the Bible said that whenever he came he put
an end to the law whenever he came that he fulfilled all the
things that were written of old and that all the transgressions
and the iniquity and all the stuff that was ever slandered
at God's people, the handwriting of ordinances, He nailed them
to the cross and put an end to it. And He saved His people from
their sins. He did that. It was accomplished.
And it was accounted unto them for righteousness. And so we
see here that God's plan of redemption, God's plan of atonement is not
a universal thing, but was a very specific thing because It had
effects. The effects of the atonement
is what tells us that this is not for everybody because what
Christ actually did was atone. He atoned for his people. He didn't make atonement possible.
He was the sacrifice of atonement and atonement was made. Now next week we are going to
look at some passages in the New Testament, Lord willing,
and we're going to see that this atonement is spelled out even
in the New Testament as a particular thing. Especially as we see the
verbiage of Jesus, we also see the writings in Hebrews is very
clear about these things. If you take Isaiah and you take
Hebrews, even if you took everything else, it just took Isaiah and
Hebrews, you would see that God's redemption of His people is a
particular effectual thing and that it is a beautiful thing.
And so, Lord willing, we'll look at that. Does anybody have any
comments or anything that you'd like to add, brother? Anything that you'd
like to add? I know you love Isaiah 53. I was just thinking about
the scripture of Hebrews. It kind of nails what you just
said, even as it relates to resurrection. I think it's in the 13th chapter
of Hebrews. It's probably in the list for
next week, but the 21st, now, the God of peace, the brought
again are dead. Yeah, there you go Yeah, we it's Again, like I said, you know,
the whole issue of Jesus dying for just a small group of people
or a group of people, and not everybody, was so despised by
me for so long. But if you remember, I mentioned
whenever I first came to the Doctrines of Grace and I put
everything away, I got my Bible out, I started, well, I had certain
colors, you know, anything that talked about election, I marked
in one color. Well, I had one color that I
marked for everything whenever I read that that showed that
Jesus death was a particular or accomplished something for
somebody particular and that that was laid to their account.
I would mark another color and I was overwhelmed as I went through
the scripture and I seen especially whenever you get in your mind
that this book is not written to everybody. This book was written
for us. It is only given to us. It tells
about our God and us. And especially whenever you get
into the individual books themselves, the letters, you will find the
context bear out those things. I mean, especially in the New
Testament, you know, well, like we looked at last week in an
election on Peter, you know, the elect. the brethren, the
beloved, all these things, you see the context, they're written
and are specifically wrote about. And so whenever I begin to see
that the scripture is written in that way, and so it has in
mind us in context as the people of God, then all those verses
that talked about He died for us, He laid it for us, He, you
know, all those things, That just even more made it clear.
But the specific ones like we've seen in Isaiah 53 here that it
wasn't for all but for the many, for the transgressors. Those
transgressors are the ones who are the ones who went astray.
Those transgressors are the ones that he died for was the ones
who was the ones that he would raise up at the last day in John.
Those are the, I mean, so all the verbiage of scripture talks
about a particular people. And that's why we call it particular
redemption. You've probably heard the term
particular Baptist. We would agree with most of what
everything that the particular Baptist taught. of old. The Baptist London Confession
of 1646 and 1647, that was a particular Baptist confession of faith.
And they call themselves particular Baptist because that strict and
particular Baptist is what they call themselves and that's because
they believed in strict communion and particular redemption those
two things were were held by them so that name was kind of
given to them the strict and particular Baptist, not strict
particular, but strict and particular Baptist, two things that set
them apart from some of the other Baptists of that day. But particular
had to do with the atonement. They believed that the atonement
was for a particular people and not everyone. And so they believed
in those very things. So anyway, anybody else got anything? All right, let's stand and we'll
have a word of prayer and we'll be dismissed and we'll go back
and have lunch and visit for a little bit longer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank
You today for Your mercy and for Your grace, and we thank
You for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank You for the Word of
God that has been given to us, that is a record of all the things
that God desires for us to know about Him and about ourselves
and about His salvation. And Father, we're so grateful
for the light that is given to Your people to understand these
things. So many men have taken this book
and applied the wisdom of man to it, and come up with all kinds
of philosophies and theologies and doctrines, but they don't
hold and stand in accord with the things of God. But Lord,
we're grateful that You teach Your people and that You've given
them these things and that it is of no private interpretation.
but that You have come to all Your people and have given them
the truth, and that the Holy Spirit has been given to us to
lead us into that truth. And Lord, I'm also thankful that
You give us a heart that receives that truth and loves it and doesn't
despise it anymore. And Father, we come, especially
with this particular subject, and we come with fear and trepidation,
Lord. We can become haughty and we can become proud, when we
talk about some of these things as it pertains to the doctrine
of grace. We can lift ourselves up and boast about being the
elect, but Father, if anything, it makes us humble to know that
we who were dead in trespasses and sins and were in our nature
children of wrath, that have been given mercy by God and that
Christ called us friend and died for us. And so, Father, I pray
that we might be humbled by that and that as we talk about these
things and we boast about the work of Christ and we bask in
the glory of His redemption and salvation, Father, that we might
not lose sight that it is only because of grace and mercy that
we've received the atonement. And so Father, Lord, I pray that
You might help us as we go through these to not only be faithful
to Your Word, faithful to the doctrine that Christ has laid
out for us, but Father, that we might also be faithful in
its proclamation. and that we might also be faithful
in its delivery. Lord, I thank you that you have
brought these brethren here. We thank you for the safety that
you've given Sister Louise in traveling down. And it's wonderful
for her to be here with us today. And we look forward to the time
of fellowship and visiting that we're about to enter into now,
Lord. And we just ask you to bless the food. Bless the hands
that prepared it, Lord. And may you be with us as we
leave this place today, that you might guide us and direct
us by your precious Holy Spirit, and that you might keep us safe
on our travels and as we go throughout this week, and that you might
use us, Father, to minister the gospel of Jesus Christ to those
that are out there. Lord, in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.