I have endeavored all the time
I've been pastor here to introduce this congregation to faithful
men who I highly esteem as faithful gospel preachers. And if a man
preaches here, he preaches the gospel of God's free grace, and
I know it, or he wouldn't be preaching here. Not going to
happen. But Brother Bruce Cradtree has
been a friend. faithful friend for 35 years. I don't know of a man anywhere
I more highly esteem or more anxiously hear preach the gospel
of God's grace. He's Pastor of Sovereign Grace
Church in Newcastle, Indiana. Bruce, you come preach for us,
my friend. Thank you so much, Pastor. Thank
you, Frank, for reading my scripture for me. Thank you for being so
kind to do that. Thank you, ladies and you gentlemen,
for the good food, the labor. So much that you do will go unnoticed.
No one's going to pat you on the back. They'll go back home,
most people will, and forget about you next week, but thank
you. Thank you. You know, if one soul
Now the grace of God hears the gospel in this conference and
is saved. Isn't it worth it? And some poor
saint that's cast down and discouraged and is encouraged, isn't it worth
it? Isn't it worth it? Your fellowship,
your friendship, meeting you, seeing you again is worth it.
Thank you. Thank you. Back over in Acts, the book of
Acts, chapter 13, I really don't want to deal with
this chapter, but I do want to look just for a minute at verse
38 and verse 39, because here is the crutch of what the Apostle
Paul was getting at to these people. Acts chapter 13 and verse
38, Be it known unto you therefore. He just preached the Christ who
died. God was so pleased with him,
satisfied with him, that he raised him from the dead and exalted
him. Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through
this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And
by him all that believe are justified from all things from which you
could not be justified by the law of Moses. It's obvious here,
and we'll see in just a few minutes, that the Apostle Paul was preaching
to everyone in this congregation. I don't know how big they were,
how large the congregation was, but he excluded nobody. He was
preaching to everybody without exception. And he was preaching
to them here forgiveness of sins through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there was many in this congregation
Maybe most who were unbelievers, they were unconverted people.
We know that from the context because they went away and blasphemed. And we have no record they were
ever brought back under the gospel to believe it and be saved by. Most of them may have well perished.
They may have well perished. And in the light of this, I want
to ask the question. that has been often asked, and
I want to attempt in my feeble way, and I know that justly you
can say, Bruce, you failed. You failed tonight, and that's
my greatest fear. While I'm anxious to share this
with you, I have this awful trembling that I'm going to fail in my
task of trying to share this with you. But in light of the
Apostle Paul obviously preaching forgiveness of sins to these
unbelievers, And yet them going away, for the most part, blaspheming,
hard-hearted, and perish. Here's my question. How do we
preach particular redemption to unbelievers? You may have thought of that
yourself. I've thought of that for years. How do we preach? It's obvious that he preached
the gospel. It's obvious in the scripture
that the gospel is one of particular redemption. And it's obvious
also the Lord Jesus Christ would have the gospel preached to unbelievers. But how do we do it? It's evident
throughout this book of Acts as you follow these great preachers,
these apostles, that none of them went to lost people, unbelievers,
and said, God loves you and Jesus died for you. Don't you think
it's very telling as we read the book of Acts that you never
see that statement? That ought to tell us something,
shouldn't it? Maybe it's not the gospel to say to an unbeliever,
Jesus died for you. Now some people tell us if we
can't say that, then we haven't preached the gospel. We must
tell people that Jesus died for them or we've got no gospel to
preach. We have a gospel. But it's not
telling people that Jesus loves them and Jesus died for them.
You might as well tell them God has a wonderful plan for their
life. Are we sure of that? Are you sure that God has a wonderful
plan for a lost person's life? We may be surprised. It could
be that he's reserving them to the day of judgment to be punished.
We have a gospel to lost people, to unbelievers, and it's one
of particular redemption. Now you may prefer, and that's
fine, I use this term often, limited atonement. I've used
that, I know the pastor uses that. Sometimes when we use that,
we have to stop and explain what limited means, don't we? It's
certainly not limited, it's power. If you raised your hands this
afternoon to how many have felt the power and the depth of your
guilty conscience, wouldn't there be many hands going up? It's
not limited in its power. It has power to wash away the
stain of sin. It can reach the deepest, vilest
sin that anyone ever committed. The blood of Jesus Christ reaches
deeper than the stain is gone. It's not limited into its reach.
It began over yonder in Jerusalem. It's reached here, hasn't it?
It's reached every country, every village, every family in this
world. This atonement has reached them. What's it limited them then?
Well, it's limited to its purpose, isn't it? To its purpose. I've got to get a drink of water.
My lips are dry. Just bear with me a minute, okay?
And I shake. When I preach, I shake. You'd shake too if you were preaching. I'm shaking now. Thirty minutes
from now, I'll be resting until I'll be shaking. I want to see first, I want to
see first, I want to take some time and see first, what is particular
redemption? You say, Bruce, we preach on
that all the time. I hope we do. I hope we do. How long does it take to lose
the gospel? One generation. One generation, brothers and
sisters, we've lost the gospel. Don't be fooled by what this
generation's telling you. Everybody's heard the gospel.
Hardly anybody's heard the gospel. We must preach it to the next
generation following us or we've lost it, Don. We've lost it.
Let me take just a few minutes then, first of all, and see what
particular redemption is. Living in atonement, effectual
redemption is. Well, it's particular. It's particular. It's not for everybody. Everybody's
not going to be saved by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's obvious, isn't it? I mean, it's not being intellectually
honest to say everybody's going to be saved. We don't care much
about being saved in our day, do we? Everybody's not going
to be. So many are perishing. But this
is a particular redemption for a particular people. And it's
something that has been accomplished. Here's what the Bible says. The
Lord Jesus Christ entered once into the holy place having obtained
eternal redemption for us. Now we see that phrase, the brother
disowned, that Christ died for me. We use that freely, but we
use it in a church setting. When you see Christ died for
us, Christ died for you, that's always in a church setting, isn't
it? It's the epistles. It's written to every believer.
The redemption of Christ is for a particular people, and it's
something that has already been accomplished. It's not limited
in anything but its purpose. It's the redemption of every
elect soul. That's what the death of Jesus
Christ is. One man asked Charles Spurgeon,
he said, Spurgeon, what did Jesus Christ mean by his death? What was the purpose in the death
of Jesus Christ? And Mr. Spurgeon said, what's
he doing? If we want to know what God has
purposed, see what he's doing. What is the death of Jesus Christ
doing? It's populating heaven. Heaven
is going to be full of people. There's much people in heaven. And we know how they got there,
they tell us. We've washed our robes and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb. But not everybody out of Adam's
race is going to heaven, are they? That's why we say this
is particular. Not for everybody, it's particular. There's many persons today in
their sins. And to say the death of Christ
did as much or the same for those who finally perish as those who
are finally saved leaves us confused as to what makes the distinction
between those two. What makes the distinction between
those who are saved by the death of Christ and those who perish?
Somebody said, well, it's faith. It's my faith. Bruce, what makes
the difference between me and my dear friend? I believe it
and he don't. Well, glory over you. Glory over
you. If everybody was like you, if
everybody had a heart so pliable and so tender and so soft and
everybody was as obedient as you were and as wise as you were, You're just different. You're
just different. You made the distinction. Isn't it strange that men boast
about how they can affect something in the death of Christ? They
boast about how they make the distinction and yet turn right
around and deny that distinction the death of Christ makes? The
death of Christ has no distinction. I make the distinction. How awful,
how awful. If I believe the Lord Jesus Christ
merely laid down his life as a sacrifice for sins, and that's
all the atonement consisted of, Christ merely dying, then I would
believe he laid down his life for all without exception. And that the difference is indeed
between whether one believes it or he doesn't believe it.
The distinction is faith. But the atonement is more than
just Christ dying. The gospel is not that Christ
died. We used to have a Sunday school teacher years and years
ago. Many moons, a new life, a life ago, we had a Sunday school
teacher, we used to sit under He said, you know what the gospel
is? It's the death, burial, and resurrection. Well, you know
Lazarus died, didn't you? And they buried him, and he rose
again. That's not the gospel. That Jesus Christ died, was buried,
and rose again, that's not the gospel, is it? And I'm not being
technical, that's just not the gospel. The gospel is how he
died. He died according to the scripture. You see, if all the gospel is,
and all the atonement is, is Jesus Christ laying down his
life, he could have did that in the manger. Could he not have? He could have rolled up his legs
and feet in the bed as Jacob did and died very comfortably.
If he wasn't too far from Mount Nebo, go to Mount Nebo and go
to sleep like Moses did. If that's all the atonement is,
is the Son of God dying upon the cross, then okay, it may
be general. It may be for everybody and the
distinction in it is you're believing it. But redemption is more than that. And here the distinction between
the general atonement and the particular atonement becomes
very distinguished. In a general atonement, Jesus
merely dies. He just dies. But in a particular
atonement, Jesus suffers an agonizing death. In a general atonement, Jesus
dies and God stands back and says, I've done all I can do
and the rest is up to you. He waits, he hopes that somebody
will take advantage of his efforts and be saved. In a general atonement,
Christ merely dies and he makes a good effort and the world admires
him for making such an effort. It seems so kind on His part. But in a particular redemption,
God is involved. God does not stand back a lot. God is there even at the cross. It wasn't just devils who harassed
the Lord Jesus. It wasn't just that wicked men
smote Him and cursed Him. but God smote him. God was involved at the cross,
not in revelations of love, not upholding his son, but in
revelations of wrath, smiting him, afflicting him,
cursing him. It's going to get close now.
It's going to get close. What did Moses say? He that is
hanged on a tree must be taken down the same day. Why? Because
he that is hanged on a tree is accursed. Listen, not by man
merely. Sure they cursed him. He's accursed
of God. What does it take to redeem a
sinner from the curse of the law? Somebody has to stand in
his stead and be cursed. Let me rephrase that. Not just
cursed, but become a curse. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. How could God curse Christ? How
could God punish His only begotten Son? Let me say it this way. I hope I say this right. When the Lord Jesus Christ went
to the cross, on that cross He was made something that He was
never before. And some people can't enter into
this. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. When the Lord Jesus
left heaven and He come into this world, He was made something
that He was not before. He never ceased to be what He
was. He was holy when He came. But
He was made flesh. He was made of a woman. And He became a man. And He came
out of His mother's womb bloody. Have you ever seen a child born?
We've all seen children born, haven't we? You've seen them
when they come out of their mother's womb and they have to wash them? Look at him! The God-child! God in our humanity! Coming from a mother's womb and
he's hanging dependent upon a woman's breast! How humiliating! And that's God! That's God incarnate. We start there in the humiliation
of the Son of God. And you know it doesn't get any
better. He continues in this life. And He's holy. He lives
before God holy. He obeys all the commandments
of God. And on the cross He's still holy. He cannot cease to be what He
is. But He becomes something that
He was not before. A curse. Cursed. What do we see when he's
hanging there? This curse of God. What do we
see? I like to look at it this way.
My conscience, my poor conscience. I know that I'm weak in this.
I know it. I know that the Scripture teaches
the depths of this that my conscience refuses to enter into. Here's where I go with it. I see him hanging there, offering
himself without spot to God. But I also see him hanging there,
sin. There he hangs, death. Cursed. Cursed of God. Can you enter into that? This
has to do with particular redemption. It's not just dying. It's more
than that. Whatever you were, He had to
take your place. What God was going to do to you,
He had to do to Him. But listen, let's go one step
farther. How could God possibly curse
His Son? How could He possibly smite His
Son? He hated what He saw in Him. He hated what He saw in Him.
What did He see in Him? Sins. Mountains and mountains of sins,
transgressions, and iniquities was upon Him. They were in Him. Particular redemption goes this
far, brothers and sisters, it has to do with the transference
of sins. Sins taken from one person are
a host of people and put on someone else. I was reading a man the
other day, he says it's impossible, he says it's impossible, impossible
to transfer sins. With us it is. I can't put my
sins on you, and you can't put your sins on me. But God is not
us. He's outside of us. If He leaves
them on us, we die. But since He's God, He can take
them from us and put them on His Son. And that He did. And His Son lovingly bore these
sins in His own body on the tree. I want to show you that two places.
I want you to take your Bibles and I want you to turn here.
I don't want to just quote these but I want you to turn to Psalms
chapter 69. I was preaching one day and I made
this statement. Just a general statement. You
know what the scripture says and I just went on. And some
young lady said that really bothers me because I don't know what
the scripture says. We do that, don't we? We think
we're preaching to other preachers sometimes. Look at this. If you don't have a Bible, you're
setting by someone who does. Look at this. The 69th Psalms
is concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. We know from all kinds
of scriptures here in it. Look in verse 9. For the zeal of thine house hath
eaten me up. That's John chapter 2 verse 17.
That's the Lord Jesus. That's what was said of him.
In verse 21, They gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst
they gave me vinegar to drink. This is the Psalms about him.
And look what he says in verse 5. Oh God, Thou knowest my foolishness,
and my sins are not hid from Thee. This word sins, it's used
three different ways in the scriptures. One, it's used as a sin offering.
That's one of the definitions of this. That obviously won't
fit here. Thou knowest my sin offerings,
that would make no sense would it? But it also means transgressions,
of falling short. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Thou hast known my sins. And then the third thing that's
always associated with sin, and that's guilt. And you may have
that in your margin. Thou knowest my guiltiness. Is that the Son of God talking?
Yes, that's the Son of God talking. And when God took our sins, the
sins of all His elect people, the sins of His church, and put them upon the Lord Jesus
Christ, all we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone
to his own way, and the Lord God hath laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. And they were so laid on Him
that He said, They're Mine. These are Mine. And they became
his in such a real sense that he felt the guilt of them. And
he says there in verse 7, the shame, shame has covered mine. Now I tell you what may happen.
You may commit a crime and somebody else may suffer the punishment
for it. But I tell you this, they can't suffer the guilt because
they never did it. When the Lord Jesus Christ took
our sins, He said, I feel the guilt of them. They're mine. I feel it, and I'm ashamed of
it. I don't know which one was the
worst. The afflictions, the smiting of the Father in heaven, or the
shame and the guilt that He felt. Have you ever felt guilt? Sure
we have, haven't we? We felt it deeply. We poor sinners,
defiled by sin, sin every day, sin from our birth, and yet when
we feel the guilt, isn't it terrible? How did he feel? Not just one
sin, but a mountain of sins, that innumerable company of sins.
How did he feel when this guilt, this sin was placed upon him? He just didn't die. He took to
himself sin and he was smitten and stricken and afflicted. Look at one more scripture right
quickly. Over to your right in Isaiah chapter 53. Very familiar
passage here. Look in verse 11. Look in verse
11. If Jesus Christ When He died
upon the cross, if He had taken the sins of everybody without
exception that lived in the Old Testament before He came, many
of them perished, didn't they? And went to hell. But if He had
taken all of those sins, you know what? He would have emptied
hell out. Because when He died, He did
more than just carry the sins and fill the guilt and the shame. He then satisfied for those sins. What is particular redemption?
Christ suffered. He died with the sins, a multitude
of sins upon Him. And in that death, He satisfied
the court of heaven. Now that's what this verse is
going to tell us. Look at it in verse 11. He, God the Father,
shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge, by knowing
him, shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear
their iniquity. I love thee shall, don't you?
And you read it this way, just read it backward. He shall bear
their iniquities. And then when He bore their iniquities,
God saw the travail of His soul. He saw Him in His agony. He saw
Him suffering. And God said, I'm satisfied.
I'll never smite again. He took that sword out of His
sheath and He slew His Son with it. And justly so. And then he
said, I'm satisfied. He lays the sword down, and he
said, I promise you, I'll never raise it to smite again. I was
furious, he said. And I took it out on him, and
justly so. But there's no more fury left
in me. I'm satisfied. He saw the travail of his soul,
and he was satisfied. And listen to what he says. By
his knowledge, By believing in Him, by knowing Him, my righteous
servant shall justify many. He shall justify many. And we can't eliminate justification
by faith there, can we? He'll justify them by faith in
time. On what grounds? For He bore
their iniquity. Now what's the conclusion we
can come to here? It's not faith that makes the
atonement effectual. It's not believing in the Lord
Jesus Christ that makes the atonement effectual. The atonement assures
that everyone for whom Christ suffered and satisfied shall
come to believe in time. Ain't that what that says? He shall justify them because
He shall bear their iniquities. What is particular redemption
is the living reality that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, on Calvary's
tree, bore and satisfied for the sins of a great host of Adam's
race. And such a redemption requires
and the Holy Ghost secures the salvation of those individuals
through hearing and believing the gospel. That's what it is. You know the world is not ashamed
of a general atonement. Are they? They talk about it
all the time. Jesus died for you. Jesus died
for you. And everybody loves that. The
world has accepted that, have they not? They all talk about
it. It's so kind of Jesus. I'm not,
brothers and sisters, please don't think I'm lying about this,
but this is the truth. He's so kind that he would give
himself for everybody to give everybody a chance. Isn't that
kind of him to do that? No, it's not. It's awful. Because I tell you what a General
Atonement is. Mr. Spurgeon said it's a bridge
that goes halfway across the river. What would you think about a
bridge? Tonight I'll be going across the Ohio River there at
Madison, Indiana. What am I going to think if I
get halfway across and it's suddenly there's no bridge? A General
Atonement gets everybody on for sure. but nobody across for sure. That's not kind, is it? I'm not one, brothers and sisters,
that could feel safe if I had to make something effectual.
If it was left up to me to effect something, I'm just not comfortable
with that. Are you? You ever affect anything
but sin, trouble? The older couple there in town
where my wife worked, they had no children and they just gave
us their appliances. They just bought appliances and
they almost knew so they'd give them to us. They had a little
car, a little Chevy Malibu. Larry, I don't want you to talk
about your Lexus anymore. I have a little Chevy Cobalt.
You think you're a ride rough. But they sold us this little
car. We got a good deal on it. But they said nobody ever sat
in the back seat of it. But when you open up the back
door, you realize why. You can't get in the back seat
of it. It's for little tiny people.
We carry our little grandbabies back in the back. Two of them
fits back there. If I try to get back there, I'd
have to fold myself up and choke myself half to death. I'd be
afraid to try to ride anywhere. Now you may be a little sinner
and you may be very comfortable with a general redemption. Is
there any little sinners here? You're big sinners, aren't you?
Your conscience won't be comfortable resting in a general redemption. It won't. If God ever shows you
your sins, here's what you'll say. I can't affect anything.
And at best my faith is so weak, it can't affect anything. I want something that's accomplished.
I want something that's finished. Here's my sin. All of my sins. And they meet on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And they bring with them all
the consequences of all God's curse, guilt, the curse of the
law, hell and death, all my awful enemies, the wrath of God. They
meet on Him. And all He has to combat it is
His merits. And there we stand looking up
at the cross. Who's going to win out? My sin,
the wrath of God, and death are His merits. I just can't rejoice enough and
to believe that 2,000 years ago my sin was put away. My sin was put away. Isn't that
rejoicing? That's the gospel. Who was Paul preaching the gospel
here to? Well, verse 26, unto you is the word of this salvation
sent. Verse 32, we declare unto you,
glad tidings. Verse 38, through this man is
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. It seemed like the Apostle
Paul was just pointing to people. You back there! Look up here! Look up here! You old lady over
here! Don't you sleep! Listen! I'm preaching to you! Was he earnest? Oh, he was dead
earnest, wasn't he? And listen, brothers and sisters,
not only Paul was earnest, God was earnest. Jesus Christ who
sent him there to preach was earnest. The Holy Ghost was in
him and he was earnest. I'm preaching to you, he said,
the forgiveness of sin. Christ is preached to lost sinners,
unbelievers. And listen. And He is theirs. Christ Jesus is theirs. And all
His saving benefits is yours, Paul said. But on His terms. On His terms. We won't have this being an auctioneer,
will we? Will you take Christ for a quarter?
Would you take Him for a dime? No. He's preached to men in all His
saving benefits, but on His terms. Labor not for the meat which
perisheth, but for that meat which the Son of Man shall give
unto you. on his terms, on his terms. What's his terms? By him, by
his merits, by his doing, by his dying, by his blood, by his
grace. By him, all that believe shall
receive remission of sins. All that believe shall be justified. That's his terms. That's his
terms. And aren't they reasonable terms?
All that faith means? All that that entails? What does
faith mean? It sure don't mean lifting yourself
up. Faith is self-put-down, isn't it? It's self-put-off. It's looking
outside yourself to Him. I heard the voice of Jesus say,
I freely give. The living water thirsty ones
stoop down and drink and live. That's reasonable terms. But
here's the problem, isn't it? Man is an unreasonable creature. He won't have Christ on his own
terms. No, it's my turn. Then you can't have it. You can't
have it. You'll humble yourself. and come
to Him as the poor, hell-deserving sinner that you are, and with
trembling hands reach out and embrace Him as all your salvation,
or you can't have Him. He's preached to you freely,
but on His terms. Stoop down and drink and live. And you know it's so unlikely
that men are going to do this, that we have this warning. This
warning. That's what he said. Look back
over at it again quickly and I'll quit. In verse 40, Beware
therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken in the prophets. Behold, you despisers, and wander
and perish. For I work a work in your days,
a work which you shall in no wise believe, though a man declare
it unto you. There's a warning. See, when
I preach tonight, I follow it up with a warning. I preach Christ
freely to you. I don't come to you and say,
Jesus died for you. But I'm telling you, in the death
of Jesus Christ, there is a satisfaction for sin. And the evidence that
God has raised Him up and set Him at His right hand. Believe
Him. Bow down to Him. Repent. Seek Him. Men don't come to Christ. They
don't refuse to come to Christ for lack of that atonement. Oh,
Christ didn't die for me, so I can't come. What a sin it would
be if I did come, if atonement wasn't offered. That's why you
don't come. My goodness gracious. What excuse
people will use. It's not for lack of atonement
that keeps men from Christ. It's a hard, dark, evil heart
of unbelief. That's it. And when men get to
hell, when men get to hell, one of the things that'll gnaw on
their conscience, I sat under the gospel. And I heard salvation preached
to me. And I was so stubborn. and so
self-righteous and so ignorant willfully, I would not bow, I
would not listen, I would not believe. And now this gnaws on
my conscience that I've made my own damnation sure. Now men don't go to hell because
of lack of atonement. They go to hell to be punished
for their sins. Boy, don't that make verse 48
so wonderful. When the Gentiles heard this,
they were glad and glorified the Word of the Lord. And as
many as were ordained to eternal life, as many as were set apart,
chosen to life, they believed. Election secures the believing
of all the elect. The death of Christ secures the
believing of all the elect. He shall justify many, for he
shall bear their iniquity. And the Holy Spirit secures their
belief, because they believe through the working of His mighty
power. That's a threefold chord. And
what does the Bible say about a threefold chord? Not quickly
broken, is it? Not quickly broken. Well, let
them preach their general redemption. I wish they'd keep it to themselves.
I wish they'd quit preaching. Never saved the first soul. Never
will. But we got a good redemption.
We got a contained redemption. God bless you. Thank you, Pastor.