I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to the book of Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. We'll be launching from there
in our next consideration of what has begun to be a series
called, The Gospel of Your Salvation. The Gospel is a very clear message
in the Scriptures. And it's a very clear message
to the church of the living God who has come to understand the
glory of God in Jesus Christ. It's a very clear message to
those who have been rooted and grounded in the work of a sovereign
God bringing them to Himself by means of His grace through
Jesus Christ and has taught them in the Scriptures that salvation
is totally of the Lord. And therefore, for those of us
who have been taught a right, the gospel is simple. But to
simply make that statement in the most general sense would
be both unfair and untrue because you know one of the most controversial
subjects in religion today and even in the evangelical church
is comprehending the gospel a right, communicating it properly to
the glory of God. There has been and always will
be a struggle with regards to the nature and character of the
Gospel of God because man by nature, mankind by nature, does
not know how to accurately glorify God without stealing some of
His glory for himself. And so when the Gospel is communicated,
Accurately, there is by necessity a humbling of mankind in terms
of his attitude, his thoughts, and his understanding. This is
where the gospel is said by our master to be offensive. The gospel by nature is offensive. Because the gospel says that
mankind in himself has no capacity to participate in his own redemption. in his own salvation at any point
in the scheme of redemption. That mankind is the pure object
of an act of sovereign mercy on the part of God towards him
or he, she, or they will never be saved. When we declare that
salvation is of the Lord, we are saying that men and women
are helpless to save themselves. and that the totality of our
salvation is wrapped up in the person and work of our Lord Jesus
Christ, whom God the Father graciously gave to his people to redeem
them for himself. Thus, when you become an object
of grace and mercy, what you come to discover is that God,
before the world began, had a purpose, had a plan, had a scheme of redemption. called a covenant of grace, through
which he operated to glorify himself in the fall and recovery
of all of his people from the beginning of time to the end
of the world, so that the whole of God's elect, when they are
gathered together in heaven, will easily say unto God, not
unto us, not unto us, but unto your name be glory. Now, this
is the heart of the gospel in terms of its impact upon the
believer. And yet, ladies and gentlemen,
it is not so in our experience. When you first enter into the
Christian world, you find yourself engaged in a battle. And that
battle is a battle of truth claims with regards to who Jesus is. What did he do? Who did he do
it for? where he is now. These claims
you come to discover become lines of division, long-standing historic
battles between religious camps. And the area in which the gospel
of the glory of God, which is offensive to natural man, is
most assaulted is in the area of the doctrine that we are going
to begin to deal with today. Hopefully, I'll be able to sum
it up in another message next week, but maybe a third message
will be necessary. And that is the doctrine of the
atoning work of Jesus Christ. Our message, therefore, today
is the Gospel of Your Salvation, Part 4, The Successful Atonement
of Christ. for his elect. The successful
atonement of Jesus Christ for his elect. And if you take that
title into consideration, you already understand by implication,
what do you mean the successful atonement? Is there such a thing
as an unsuccessful atonement? And what do you mean a successful
atonement for God's elect? Is there such a thing as an unsuccessful
atonement for those who are not God's elect? And the answer is
yes. The vast majority of preaching
today proffers to you and I an atonement, a kind of atonement
that fundamentally denies the success of Jesus Christ in that
work of atonement for his people. and it relegates his work to
only a potential for the salvation of men, but not in actuality. And this you need to know, because
such an assertion stabs at the heart not only of the work of
Christ in terms of the redemption of your soul, but at the character
of God in terms of his intentionality to save. It not only stabs at
the character of God, which you're going to learn over the next
couple of weeks, in terms of his intentionality to save, but
it raises man to a level of which the Bible never ever countenances. And that is that man has the
capacity to negotiate with God for his own salvation by choosing
God in order that God might choose him? and thus affect the atonement
so that he becomes the beneficiary of what Christ did on Calvary
Street. Was that clear to you guys thus far? And I want you
to understand if you're feeling a sense of apprehension and a
sense of vulnerability, it's because you have bought into
that kind of interpretation for decades. It is the prominent
and prevalent as it were, declaration of Christ's work on Calvary's
tree to almost the whole world. Here's what they say. They say,
Christ died for your sins, but only if you accept him will the
merits of his work on Calvary's tree be of any benefit to you. So long as you don't accept him,
Christ died for your sins in vain. Isn't that the essence? Isn't that what you derive from
what they preach? Oh, bless God for a savior who loved me enough
to die for me. But if I don't accept him, if
I don't receive him and make him my Lord and savior, I end
up going to hell and he died in vain. Now, come on, children
of God, isn't that what you have heard over and over and over
and over again? And the only reason you have
not saw that as not only being a misrepresentation of the gospel,
but also highly heretical, when it comes to the character of
God and the actual salvation of people is because you didn't
see the implications thereof. And we're going to deal today
with the doctrine of the atonement with regards to what it actually
did and for whom it was actually done in a basic introduction. We will build on this doctrine
over the next couple of weeks so that you understand very clearly
that when someone comes to you by way of your big screen TV
the end of a message that has nothing to do with Jesus and
says God loves you has a wonderful plan for your life all you need
to do is accept him as your Lord and Savior and just repeat after
me and you're good to go when once you hear that understand
they have no knowledge of how salvation really truly works
and it is part of a psychological scam To put men and women into
a position that they don't actually experience in terms of the work
of grace. To bring a man or a woman out
of darkness into his marvelous light. So there's some things
I want us to work through. It may turn into preaching in
a little bit, but today you must be educated. So turn your brains
on and start thinking these things through with me. One of the real
hurdles over which these people, these proponents of this position
has to do, they have to deal with two choices. One is to either
recognize that God's sacrifice of his son Jesus Christ in his
death on the cursed tree was a total success without the slightest
loss of its aim or purpose. so that heaven is filled with
the emblem of white everywhere, denoting victory over sin, hell,
and death for Christ and those for whom the Father had given
Him, or we must acknowledge the dreadfully debacled effort of
a God who gave all He had to win men to Himself, and at best
He gained a few, This, ladies and gentlemen, by all human accounts,
far from good news, is bad news. It's the most horrible news in
the world concerning a sovereign, omnipotent God who does whatever
he pleases. to have offered his son to the
world as an atonement for sin. And the vast majority of the
world are able to disannul the effects of that atonement by
ignoring him or rejecting him and denying him and perishing
under the wrath of God anyway. Do you guys understand the implications
of that? Let me bring it home for those
of you who have never ever even contemplated what I am saying.
Let's say you are the smartest man, the smartest woman, the
smartest couple on planet earth. And let's say you loved people
and you saw that most people, everybody but yourself, were
a bunch of knuckleheads. Now, in order for you to actually
have a relationship with them of any lasting merit, you have
concluded that you're going to offer your own darling child
as a substitute for them in your magnanimous love. in your magnanimous
care. You're going to offer your own
darling son. You're going to kill him and
shed his blood as a substitute for their sin, which has moored
itself in relationship to you. Only those people will have to
come to find out what you did on their own. They'll have to
come to receive it or reject it on their own. And if they
don't, well, at least you showed them that you love them. Does
that make any sense? Does it make any sense at all? Now, on a human level, we would
call that also a debacle, a failure, wouldn't we? If the human race
rejects the love you've offered to them in your son, of which
you said you have not only allowed your son to die, you have allowed
him to suffer in their stead, you have allowed him to pay for
their sins, and they still end up in hell? What kind of love
is that? What kind of sacrifice is that? What kind of act of power, of
wisdom, of might is that? It is nothing but failure at
every part. And this is what we are struggling
with in this present generation of evangelical preachers, whom
I would say, ladies and gentlemen, the vast majority of them understand
what they are doing. Only a few are simply parroting
what they have been told by their upline. The vast majority understand
what I am getting ready to teach you, and that's this, that God
is no failure. He has never failed at anything
that he has ever done. He does all his will. He does
all his pleasure. His very thoughts are the affirmation
of what he does, because he can't lie, change, or fail. God always
does exactly as he pleases. Therefore, if men perish, they
perish according to their will, and they perish according to
the sovereign purpose of God. Y'all got that? If men are saved,
men are saved according to God's will and by the grace of God
in Jesus Christ because none of us deserve heaven. Did you
get that? Those who are saved versus those
who are lost are no different in their nature. Those who are
saved are saved by grace and those who perish, perish because
they want to. You guys got that. So it's time
for us to go to work and understand a few things about the atonement
so that you and I, as children of God, do not misrepresent it.
There are three views. They're called the universal
atonement view. Universal atonement is what people adduce from the
scriptures, I would say, in an unclear and unbalanced method
of interpretation by which they rightly assert that if Christ
died for our sins, as the scriptures say, he died for our sins, Then
that means our sins are put away. Then that means I don't have
to face the justice of God. Then that means I'm saved. That
is a very good conclusion to draw. Only they believe that
Christ died for every single human being in the world. And
if that's true, they have a problem. Because the Bible is clear that
hell is filled with lost individuals today. And that the judgment
that John saw in Revelation chapter 20 verses 11 through 15 is a
judgment that was not a mirage, but a clear prophecy. I saw the
dead, small and great, stand before the great white throne
judgment. And the heavens and the earth
fled from before Him with whom they had to do. And the books
were opened. and the dead were judged out
of those things written in the books. And there was another
book open called the Lamb's Book of Life, and whosoever name was
not written in that book was cast into a lake of fire, which
is the second death. Multitudes will perish, according
to Jesus, going down the broad road of seeking to obtain salvation
by something they do, are neglecting God altogether. For the Bible
plainly says There is a way that seems right unto men. That's
the broad way. You know how broad that way is,
ladies and gentlemen? You don't even have to put any
effort in to be on that way. All you have to do is open your
eyes. Most people are on that way. The Bible says it's a very
narrow way, a straight way. And you know that narrow and
straight way? It's Christ and Christ alone. by faith alone,
through grace alone, apart from any works, all to the glory of
God alone. Are y'all following me? And the
man or the woman that does not preach or teach this is a heretic
and a false prophet. You got that? A heretic and a
false prophet. And we are dealing with, in this
present generation, a denial of the glory of God in the heart
of the Father's Word and giving Jesus Christ to us. Now, the
second view is called a potential atonement, which is the prominent
view that most of your evangelical pastors lay out before you, as
I have just articulated earlier. God loves you, Christ died for
you, but His death means nothing until you accept Him. You know
what that's like? That's like somebody giving an
individual, giving their child for you in order to save you,
but you're already dead. And then they come appealing
to you to accept the merits of their son's death on your behalf,
as if somehow you're going to rise from the dead on your own.
Accept Jesus and be saved. How ludicrous. You see the implications
of a potential atonement doctrine, which is prevalent in all of
our churches? It's this, that they deny that mankind has no
ability in himself to respond to the overtures of the gospel
and receive Christ as Lord until, as you learned last week, you
are first born again. Until you are born again, All
the angels in heaven can shout and scream 24 hours a day. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And you won't budge an inch. Thus, the world is in such a
predicament that unless God does something for them first, they
will never respond to the gospel in a saving way. Are y'all hearing
me, ladies and gentlemen? When you and I are working through
what we call the gospel of our salvation, here's what you will
discover. That the cross work of Jesus Christ, the cross is
the apex. It's the fountainhead. It's the
pinnacle. It's God's quintessential centerpiece
of something that he started in eternity past and will culminate
in eternity future. based upon the work of his darling
son for us in time 2,000 years ago. Y'all got that? That the
cross of Jesus Christ spans eternity past and eternity future. And
that the men and women of this world who enter into the blessed
state of being in glory with God for all eternity are objects
of a God who loved them before the world began, hunted them
down, and brought them into the auspices and blessings of Christ's
work on Calvary Street. Y'all hear me, right? Y'all hear
me, right? This is very important for you to know because if you
aren't getting it right yet Here's what we're saying for those of
us who are ministers of the gospel at grace. We are saying that
Salvation at no time was ever conceived in the mind of God
as having to have to do with both God's work and your work
You heard it last week for those of you are new learn this axiom
Christ work Plus your work will what? never work Please understand
that for if it's by your work plus Christ's work Then you get
some benefit in the salvation and you get the right to steal
God's glory For you were smarter than the other guy next to you
because you accepted Jesus and he didn't Are you hearing what
I'm saying? perish the thought of But this
is at the heart of the battle in the evangelical church and
scholarship, and we are seeing churches go more and more apostate
under what I call a humanistic psychological gospel that doesn't
do anybody any good while at the same time still in God's
glory. Now let's make some concessions. In fact, let me share with you
the last position, because there are three positions. The first
is a universal atonement view. Untenable. Some people are perishing.
Even if one person perished, we could not say that God saved
everybody. Are y'all hearing me? Even if
one person perished under the wrath of God, we could not say
that his atonement was universal, could we? The potential atonement
doctrine doesn't make Christ a savior. It only makes him a
potential savior. The actual salvation comes by
what men do. Y'all got that? The third position
is the position that we preach. And it's this, that when Christ
died on Calvary Street, He actually redeemed particularly and specifically
everyone that the Father had given to Him in the covenant
of mercy and grace before the world began, who were born in
time of the seed of Adam, but were chosen in Christ and called
by the gospel, drawn by the Spirit, made to see their need of the
Savior and bow the knee and say, Jesus is Lord. Everyone. from Adam to the last soul that
will become God's child by which they cry, Abba Father. It will
have been the work of a God before he created the universe. You
guys got that? We call it particular redemption. Specific atonement. Actual, efficacious,
powerful, redeeming atonement. I'm gonna affirm that with us
today. So that when you think about atonement, here's what
I want you to think about. I want you to think about God
having secured the actual salvation of his people by that act. The
act of atonement secured our salvation. It didn't make it
possible. It didn't make it vulnerable,
it secured it. Do you recall when our Lord hung
on Calvary's tree, John 19, and he had got through saying his
last words to his father? He said, it is what? Finished. The Greek phraseology
for the culture of that time was the debt is paid. Did you get that? The debt is
paid. The debt of sin against my people
is paid. The price for which it was necessary
to redeem them from all iniquity was paid. They are free. No more debt. Completely liberated. All because of what Christ did,
not what they did. My goodness, while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. How are you going to steal his
glory? This is Romans 5, right? And I'm just simply establishing
a foundation for you because we are at the heart of the gospel.
People swear they know the gospel and they will slip all over the
place when it comes to this area. And what you have to share with
them is, first and foremost, there's nothing in the Scriptures
that even remotely demonstrates or, as it were, represents the
position that you are proffering. Secondly, if we were to entertain
the position that you are proffering, we would have to make our God
a little demigod who tries but can't accomplish anything until
you let him. And in all so, having been begotten
by the omnipotent God, we say perish the thought. I would rather
see us all perish under the wrath of God than for God to lose an
ounce of his glory just because mankind somehow wants to say
he contributed to his salvation. This is how glorious God is.
Are you hearing me? This is how glorious God is.
This is how glorious God is. So there are some things I want
to set forth in our four points that I think will be a good preface
for us over the next couple of weeks. First and foremost, the
gospel of atonement for sins is universal or unlimited in
its offer, not its application. In its offer, Are you with me,
ladies and gentlemen? Now watch this. We are called
upon by the Word of God to go to every creature in the world
and preach the gospel. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. Isn't that what Mark 16 says? To every nation. Isn't that what
Matthew chapter 28 says? to all men. That's what the scripture
says, right? Now I want you to understand
the offer of the gospel is universal in its scope. We are to tell
people everywhere what God the Father has done and God the Son
in terms of the redemption of sinners. But the gospel is not
a message which says that each and every individual, every single
individual in the world is the object of God's saving grace
in the atoning work of Jesus Christ. If you have your outline,
I want to affirm this with you just because this is terminology
that you hear that's also derived from the scripture, but it's
not carefully considered. Of course, when you read John
chapter 3 verse 16, For God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not what?
But have what? Keep the verse up there. I want
to share a few things with you concerning this verse. It's very
important for you to get it There's not a battle between God the
Father and God the Son y'all got that point number one like
in Catholicism God is this angry monster slobbing all over the
place and Jesus has come to rescue us. Please understand my salvation
and yours originates with the Father The father loved me before
the world began. He loved me before I had a being.
He chose me before I had a being. And because the father and the
son always love each other, the son said yes to the father to
meet my needs. So this is a father-son collaborative
effort without any contradiction or antithesis at all. Are y'all
following me? They love each other and those who know him
know that they love each other. The father sends his son into
the world. He becomes the instrumental means by which you and I come
to know the father's love. Is that true? Watch what the
text says. That whosoever what? You know
what we call that? Condition. Condition. Mark that down my brothers and
sisters who love to use the phrase unconditional love and straighten
your doctrine out. Straighten it out. Unconditional
love at best is what we call a tautology. It's a redundant
statement Love carries within its own meaning everything necessary
to get the job done. It doesn't need the modifier
unconditional But here's what you must know that the Bible
never teaches unconditional love if you're going to enter into
the love of the father and Into the love of the son, you know
what the conditions are going to be faith faith For without
faith, it's impossible to please God. Do you know the folks that
are going to hell? It's the folks who don't believe.
So they're going to be in hell, as it were, ostensibly the objects
of God's love. Now, see, if I was in hell, I'd
say, now, Father, what kind of love is this? You're supposed
to have loved me unconditionally, which means there shouldn't be
any kind of qualifications or demands or interest on my part
by which you bestow your love. And here, because I reject your
love, you're going to punish me? That means the love is what?
Conditional. Please understand that. But here's
what he's also saying that you must get. This is critical. Whosoever
believeth in my Son, my glorious Son, my darling son, my powerful
son, my saving son, the apple of my eye, the first and the
last, the beginning and the end, the all in all, my son, whosoever
believes in him will never perish. You got that? Will never perish.
This is how confident God the Father is. Confident in his son. He placed it all in his son.
He gave it to his son to work it out. He stood back and said,
now what? Go to him. Go to Him. If you get Christ,
you get me. That's what the Father says.
You and I learned it. The Father gave all authority
to the Son, all power to the Son, all dominion to the Son,
that all who honor the Son honor the Father. What I'm getting
at is this. The Father knew full well that
when He invested in His Son the responsibility to redeem a people
for Himself, that He was going to get the job done. Are you
hearing me? This is very critical to our
cause. So we preach, as it were, declaring the gospel to the whole
world, but we have no intentions of even remotely believing that
every person we preach to is going to believe the gospel.
Am I right? The other thing is necessary
for you to comprehend. As it says in Romans chapter
10, verses 11 through 13, I want you to see this. Romans 10, 11
through 13. For what The proponents of a
potential atonement say is that Christ died for everybody. And I have been saying for years
here at Grace, you know that. And there may be one or two other
men on the radio in our area who have taught this truth and
proclaimed it boldly. There are some who believe it,
but don't proclaim it boldly. A lot like that. And there are
those who do believe it and proclaim it boldly because they understand
the implications of the alternative. The idea that you and I would
contemplate that every human being from the beginning of time
to the end of time were atoned for in terms of the death of
Christ at Calvary can be nowhere in the Bible affirmed. And the
idea that when the scripture says, go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature, And to every nation,
the idea that we were going to cover every single human being
per capita on planet Earth is not only unscientific, it's unbiblical. Do you know that people are perishing
every day by the hundreds of thousands who never hear the
gospel? Do you know that from the beginning
of time, whole groups of people never had the gospel proclaimed
to them who perished? If in fact folks are going to
be saved by virtue of the gospel coming to them, then God's got
a problem because men and women all over the world don't hear
the gospel before they die. Are you following what I'm saying?
Then we have a real issue with the interpretation that every
single individual per capita must hear the gospel before they
are saved. That would be a mission impossible for us, for you, for
the missionaries who go out For people are perishing too quickly
for us to reach them with the gospel. The text must mean something
else. In the Hebrew language, in the
Hebrew culture, in that first century culture, terms that were
used with regards to absolutes, like the little word all, doesn't
mean all in the general and without qualified sense. Are y'all following
what I'm saying? Like, if I were to say, God has
been gracious to all of us. I'm talking to you. I'm not talking
to Hayward. I'm not even talking to South
Hayward. I'm talking to you. You know what that's called?
Context. Context. When you read your Bible, most
of the time your Bible is the voice of the Spirit through the
apostles or the prophets speaking to God's covenant people. When
you read your New Testament, all the epistles are the apostles
speaking to the church. When it says he died for us,
Christ died for our sins, God was long-suffering towards us.
They are speaking to the covenant people of God. They are not speaking
to men and women in general. Until you are brought into the
covenant, you ain't part of the us. for my brothers and sisters who
don't like for me to use slang language and tell you are part
of the covenant, you are not part of us. It's very important for you to
get this. So read your Bible carefully, because as I've taught
you before, you don't want to give privileges that are exclusive
to people who have a special relationship to God, to folks
who ain't got no... There I go again. No relationship
to God. Are you hearing me? You and I
have already understood there are three covenant paradigms.
A king's servant, he redeemed us. He owns us, we're his slaves. A father's son, he begot us. We've been born again. The DNA
of God is in us. My father can talk to me and
I can listen to him because I'm his son. husband wife he laid
down his life for me I am his bride and as his bride I must
do what he says he's my husband he laid down his life he rose
from the dead he sanctified me by spirit he brought me into
nuptials where he loves me and I get the love back on him I
must be subject to him but this is not true for the whole human
race I already didn't told you many times ladies don't ever
get a man who loved you and everybody else And this is the generation in
which we are hearing men so-called proclaim the gospel to the world. You guys understand what I'm
saying? It's limited in its particular scope because God has never meant
for every individual to be saved. Now, granted, that carries with
it certain concerns of which we won't deal with today. I understand
folks, you know, you got these people. Now, be careful, don't
you become one of them. You got these people that once
they're saved, Now they're arguing with God all the time about how
he saves, when he saves, why he saves, where he saves, and
how come he ain't saving everybody else? Let me share something
with you, saved person. Are you ready? Be thankful that
God saved you. Stay with me again, stay with
me again, because I want to make sure this comes home. You were
a miracle of grace. God was operating counterintuitively
when he saved you. Because there was nothing about
you worthy of saving. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
This is one of them what we call conundrums, phenomenons, outside
of our mind capacity to explain why God saved me could have never
been because of me. So I'll leave his ability to
save others in the way he saved me to him. In Romans chapter 10 verses 11
through 13, the apostle, as he's explaining the necessity of the
preaching of the gospel in order for people to hear, faith comes
by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Here's what he says.
For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be
ashamed. For there is no difference between
the Jew and the Greek for the same Lord over all is rich unto
all that call upon him verse 13 for whosoever Shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be what? People get stuck on the
whosoever The problem with the whosoever
can be solved by verse 12 Because it was introduced in verse 11.
Let's do what we call contextual exegesis. Can we do that for
the scripture said whosoever I? Pastor who is this whosoever
verse 12 says who the whosoever is the Jew and the Greek got
it The whosoever is the Jew and the Greek You know what he did
with the term whosoever he established categories and The category is
Jew and Gentile in the mind of our Covenant God There were only
two kinds of people in the world Jew and Gentile And when he says
whosoever, what he has done was include, but not exclusively,
his own Jewish people with the rest of the world as the category
to whom he is now calling. Y'all got that? You're gonna
see that picked up again in a moment. My point is, whosoever does not
refer to every individual in the world, it refers to the two
classes that makes up the whole world, Jews and Gentiles. The net effect of anyone, whether
Jew or Gentile, calling upon the name of the Lord, being saved
is what our Lord is talking about. Very important to see that. And
as I stated in Matthew 24, 14, preached the gospel to all nations.
Galatians 3, verse 28. You guys have heard this before.
It's important for you to see that. Galatians 328 the scriptures
are very clear that as many of us as have been baptized into
Christ have put on Christ and it says there is neither Jew
nor Greek there it is again now he expands there is neither bond
nor free that is slave or free person neither male nor female
for we are all what one in Jesus Christ there's your category
again Jew Greek bond-free male female you know what that text
is not saying Absolutely every individual in the world. He's
dealing with classes of people, classes of people. Whereas prior
to the cross work of Jesus Christ, The gospel in covenant form was
exclusively to who? The Jews. And if a Gentile got
in, they had to be a what? Proselyte. But once Christ died
on Calvary Street, the gospel was opened up to Gentiles. But
don't mix the term Gentiles and Jews as referring to every individual. For you have learned in Romans
9 that even among the Jews, not all of them were true Jews. So
if you start back with the Jews, we can't say that they were all
absolutely redeemed. Paul said in Romans chapter 9,
he says, not every Jew is a true Jew. The children of promise
are counted as the seed. The flesh, that's a whole other
thing. And this is true also among the
Gentiles as well. So be very careful when you want
to appeal to people to believe the gospel using the magnanimous
phraseology. God died for every single person. You won't have any Bible to substantiate
you on that. Go with me now in your Bible
to Acts chapter 2 verse 39. I'm going to show you how the
all phrase is confined. I'm going to use one more verse
to reason with you. Then I want to explain briefly
what atonement is. and then build upon our argument
concerning the fact that the atonement of Jesus Christ was
not potential, it was actual, it was particular, and it was
effective. In fact, we could not be saved
if Christ had not accomplished eternal redemption. Acts chapter
2, the apostle Peter, under inspiration of the Holy Ghost, giving the
keys to the kingdom, is speaking to the whole Jewish band, and
here's what he says over in Acts chapter 2, Verse 38 and 39 now
watch this then Peter said unto them repent and be baptized every
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,
you know what we call that a conditionality for salvation Right now it goes
on to say and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost verse
39 for the promise is unto you contacts to whom is Peter speaking
the Jews and To your children that is the next generation and
to all that are far off. Who is that the Gentiles? Got
that now watch how the Spirit of God qualifies it here it is
here it is ladies and gentlemen as Many as the Lord our God shall
call Got it You got that Peter said
God is calling the people to himself. We call it the gospel
call. The gospel call is the chief
evangelical task of the church. Now men call with their words
as we call men and women to believe the gospel. But unless God calls
through our call, no one is called. Did y'all get that? Unless God
calls sinners through our call, no one is called. For there is
a general call where men hear and then there is a specific
call. As we read in John chapter 5 verse 25, the hour is coming
and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God and they that hear shall live. That's the call we're talking
about. Did you get that? Watch this
now. Many of you have been under the
gospel year after year after year after year after year. Didn't
hear a thing. And then one day, The Spirit
of God in His omnipotent grace opened your ears, opened your
eyes, and like Lydia, opened your heart and caused you to
hear the weight of divine prerogative drawing your soul to Himself. And you said, this day God spoke
to me. It's an eternity of a difference.
It's an eternity of a difference. God must draw you. He must call
you. And when he calls you, he's going
to show you what your savior, substitute, surety, mediator,
king, lover, God has done to redeem you to himself. Am I making
some sense? This is so very critical in the
proclamation of the gospel because in our preaching today, in the
preaching of the general proclamation of the gospel by men today, I
promise you the ring of sovereignty is not there. And this is to
the shame of preaching today. Now, what is atonement? Let me
briefly explain that before I go to my next few points. What does
it mean to atone for sins? Remember what Paul said in our
opening text, Romans chapter 5, verse 11? Listen to these
words. He says in Romans 5, verse 11,
these words. And not only so, but we also
join in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom We have now received what? Let me start back at verse
10 so you can get it. For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God. How were we reconciled to God?
By the death of his son. Much more than being reconciled,
we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also
joy in God. Where did our joy come? Through
the cross work of Christ. by our Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom we have now received what? The atonement. The atonement
is a declaration that God has accomplished a work by which
you and I were formerly enemies of God, formerly adversaries
of God, formerly hostile to God. And guess what else? God was
hostile to you. You were hostile to God and God
was hostile to you. Don't you remember Adam? No,
I'm calling you Adam. Don't you remember Eve? I'm calling
you Eve. The day you decided to do life
on your own without the instruction of your father and you ate of
the tree, you did your own thing. Don't you remember that Eve?
Don't you remember that Adam? And in fact, Adam and Eve, every
time we do it, it happens psychologically. You know what you start doing?
Running from God. Hiding from God. Covering yourself
with fig leaves Hiding behind the tree. Come on. Can I get
a witness? You're not gonna disobey God to his face. I'm sorry. You're
not Adam and Eve ran and hid and did Adam and Eve come to
God or did God come to them? God came to them God came to
them why because they knew in their mind and in their soul
they had violated God's Word and transgression of the law
is sin Transgression of the law is what? Sin is transgression
of the law and it has its psychological. It has its physiological It has
its spiritual and it has its eternal consequences We run from
God the vast majority of the world is running from God hiding
behind the trees all your disciplines in the world all your secular
Materialistic disciplines of the world. They're all hiding
behind the trees. They're all finding ways to say it ain't
so But all they're doing is putting on fig leaves and we've told
you before Over time your fig leaves is gonna dry up wither
and shrivel and your butt gonna start showing. Unless God in
his mercy clothed you in the righteousness of Christ and covered
your naked tail so that he can have a relationship with you,
your good works are gonna send you to hell. Am I making some
sense? I want you to get this now. This
is the psychological collaboration of the whole world in all of
its disciplines to deny God his glory. This is Romans chapter
1. And follow me now. Not only is the secular pagan
immoral world in Romans 1, the religious world is there too.
For you who know what's right but don't do it, you are just
like them. That's what the scripture says
stay with me now. This is very important for you
to grasp What I am getting out at then is that Paul has explained
that we have already received the atonement and because we
have received the atonement There are net benefits that fall out
and we say those net benefits fall out because the atoning
work of Jesus Christ is natural naturally and necessarily Effective
now, here's the term in Romans chapter 5 verse 11. Some of your
translations will translate the word atonement Reconcile you
guys got that now what reconciliation is is the effects of the atonement
now sometimes when we are defining terms we define terms in terms
of the What is called denotative meaning of the word what the
word actually means in itself atonement Like the word atonement
means to cover. To cover. Literally it means
to cover. In the Old Testament, kaphor means to cover. Like the
pitch that covered the ark of Noah in Noah's day, in order
that when the rain came down on the ark, it didn't penetrate
through the ark, so that everything in the ark was saved through
the ark. That ark pointed to who? Christ. He was our Kephar in the Old
Testament. He is our ark. The wrath came
down on the ark, but we were safe. And after the rains had
abated and the skies had cleared up, God told Noah to come out. He opened that latch and everything
was cleared up. The land was dried and he was
ready to come out. And it pointed to the atonement
and his efficacious work in our behalf. Are y'all following me?
It's very important for you to understand the Old Testament
kefar means to cover to cover and it meant to cover with the
intention of one day removing To cover so the Old Testament
Operated out of the blood of bulls and goats and calves, right?
But none of that blood of the bulls and goats and calves could
ever take away sin It only delayed the process until God's lamb
came when God's lamb came and shed his blood, it actually purged
the sins of everyone who believes on him. Am I making some sense?
This is why I've said it so many times before, the difference
between the old covenant and the new covenant is the blood. The difference between the old
and the new is the blood. The reason why the old could
never tell you, forgiven, forgiven. Justify. Justify. I will never
remember your sins anymore. It's because the blood was inefficacious. It was the blood of animals.
It was only typical. But until the God-man shed his
blood, there was no way for those Old Testament people under that
old system to hear forgiveness because forgiveness necessarily
flows from atonement. Atonement produces forgiveness. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying?
And even when you and I talk about forgiveness, please understand,
listen, only God can forgive sins. Only God can forgive sins
and he forgives it on the basis of justice. So atonement is accomplishing
two things. the alienation of men and women
against God. Isaiah 59 verse 1 and 2, the
arm of the Lord is not sharp that it can't save, its ears
not heavy that it can't hear, but you, you, your sins have
separated between you and your God. Y'all got that? How is God
gonna bridge the gap of the separation of our sins? Through the atoning
work of Jesus Christ. So long as the atoning work of
Jesus Christ is not accomplished, you and I are living in hostile
alienation against God. Pull up Colossians chapter 121.
Colossians 121 tells us that we are alienated from God through
wicked works. alienated from God. Y'all got
that? That means that we are enemies of God, separated from
God. And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your
what? Stay right there. God is good,
isn't he? You and I were born and raised with our fist in God's
face, calling him an enemy. You know why? Because he was
being God. But we wanted to be God. See, we wanted to run our
own world. So we were finding every excuse
not to obey our God. And we were, according to Romans
5, God's enemies. You know when you sin against
God, you're his enemy. Now look at God. I was born and
raised, lived almost 19 years. I was king of my world. I had
some plans, saints. I had some plans. And God interrupted
my plans. I was mad. I was hot. Because God was being God. You
know what he does? He cogs your wheels. He frustrates your purposes. He starts acting in providential
ways where he's starting to come into your life and you don't
like it because omnipotence is shifting your agenda. And you're
fighting against it. Only you getting more headaches
because you're running into an invisible wall. That invisible
wall that you're running into is the purpose of God according
to election. You know what he's doing? He's humbling your sinful
self to bring you to the reality that you are fighting against
God. And by the time he opens your
eyes, he tells you, I paid for your rebellious tale long, long
ago. For while you were yet sinners,
Christ died for you. You come to discover he had already
solved your problem. You know what that means? You
were his enemy, but he wasn't your enemy. Now we get ready
to talk about reconciliation because atonement actually reconcile.
Now, so long as I have not heard the word of reconciliation, I
will act as if I'm not reconciled. So long as I have not heard the
word of what we call emancipation, I will act as if I'm not emancipated. During the days when slavery
was ended, it took a long time for our folks to actually realize
that the declaration of emancipation was already established. What? I've been free for the last five
years? How come master didn't tell me that? That's your problem. That's your problem. Now watch
this now. Because it was going all through
the land. Where were you at? Sleep? And mark this. Mark this, child of God. Long
ago, God emancipated us on his part. You know what that means?
For those of us who are his children, God was never angry with us. We were angry with him, but he
wasn't angry with us. He was happy when his son said,
Daddy, it's done. And all he did in time was draw
us to himself. Am I making some sense to you?
So when we preach the gospel to people, here's what I want
you to get that we're learning this in the Friday study. Don't
tell people to ask the Lord Jesus to make them their Lord. Don't
tell them, will you pretty please accept Jesus into your heart?
Christ is too big for your heart. Your heart's too small for a
sovereign God. You got that? Will you pretty
please be my Lord and Savior? Problem is, you're already too
late. God has made him Lord and Christ
already. You know what we tell men and
women? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
We don't tell them to negotiate. We tell them to believe. Are
y'all hearing what I'm saying? Because what we are declaring
to men and women is an effective atonement already accomplished.
We're not telling them unless you do something, the atonement
won't have any efficacy. The atonement will have efficacy
for everyone for whom Christ died. You guys got that? The
second thing that I want to bring to your attention then, after
we have basically tried to affirm that there's no conflict in the
scripture with the universal call of men to believe the gospel,
nor is there any conflict in the scriptures of the title that
Jesus Christ is Lord of all. So when 1 Timothy chapter 2 opens
up and says that there's one God, one mediator between God
and man, the man Christ Jesus, That's no conflict. There's only
one mediator in the universe. There's only one person in all
the universe that can save anybody. And that one person is whom?
Christ. But just because he's the one mediator doesn't mean
everyone's saved. And neither does it mean everyone
is going to be saved. I'm going to give you one more
verse to help you overcome the ALL syndrome. John chapter 12,
verse 31. John 12 31. This is what our
master said Now watch this start back at verse 30 watch this now
Here's what our master said in John chapter Jesus answered and
said this voice came not because of me but for your sake verse
31 Here it is. Now is the judgment of this world?
Now is the prince of this world cast out verse 32. Here it is. And if I Be lifted up stay right
there the lifting up of Christ It's not what we do in worship
when we say, Lord, we lift your name on high. That's not what
that means. The lifting up of Christ is when our heavenly father
made him the object of his wrath on Calvary's tree and laid on
him the iniquity of us all. Stay right there. When he was
lifted up between heaven and earth, he became the lamb that
was slain. Are y'all following me? The lifting
up was the crucifixion of Christ where atonement was accomplished. Look at the verse. You know what
Jesus just said? Because I will become the object
of God's wrath and thus atone for the sins of my people, I
will draw all men unto myself. The coming to Christ is the net
effect of the cross work. You can't separate the two. The
coming to Christ is the net effect of the cross work. Christ died
in order to draw his people to himself. If he did not die, he'd
have no news to declare. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying? Stay with the text again. I want
you to get this. If I be crucified, I will have atoned for the sins
of my people. And I will draw all unto me. The word men is bracketed because
it's not in the original language. But ladies and gentlemen, do
you believe that what Jesus meant by this verse is that he would
draw every single individual in the world? Do you even believe
that for a minute? Do you believe that on the cross
2,000 years ago, which means there were tens of thousands
of years before the cross, tens of thousands of years before
the cross, where millions and millions of people lived and
died, where millions and millions of people never heard the gospel.
Do you believe that when Jesus hung on the cross, he meant that
he was going to draw absolutely every single individual to himself?
Do you believe that? If you believe that, you have
failed to understand a right, the doctrine of election. Christ does not say by accident
The father does not draw by shotgun blast, hoping he gets some. He
has arrows that he uses. He does it quietly. He pierces
the hearts of his enemies with his arrows, according to Psalm
45, subdues them under his feet and draws them into himself.
And by the time they wake up, they're in love with him. He's
our heavenly Cupid. He's our heavenly Cupid. Did
you get that? When He says He will draw all
to Him, He meant the all that His Father gave Him. In John
6.37, John 6.38, John 6.39, All that the Father hath given me
shall come to me, because I have accomplished the atonement. Are
you guys hearing what I'm saying? This here is a collaborative
work between God the Father and God the Son. And what I am asserting
to you is, do not tolerate the notion of an atonement that does
not actually work. It denies God his glory. It defies
Christ of his accomplished redemption. It adds more to the sinner than
the Bible allows. It is essentially another gospel. And it's critical for you and
I to get that. What then is atonement? Atonement is the act of God to
deal with man's problem and God's problem. Here's how you can put
it as we move to our second point. God is angry whenever his creatures
sin. The wages of sin is what? Once
you start playing down the doctrine of sin, you have turned against
God. Thus in his holiness, he must punish sin. Every sin will
receive a just recompense of reward Hebrews 2 1 you what that
means if God's gonna have a relationship with me He's got to solve a problem
that he has in himself and you know what that is He's too holy
to dwell with me without first punishing my sin He can't just
sweep my sin under the rug his love can't just say well, you
know, I'm gonna just forgive Jesse. I It would make the cross
of Christ a mockery. And so what he does at Calvary
is two things. This is in Leviticus chapter
16. We won't go here this week. He accomplishes at Calvary two
things. He accomplishes what we call the propitiation of our
sin by the sacrifice of Christ who becomes the object of his
wrath where God pours his wrath on the Son of God. His wrath
on Christ to propitiate God's holiness and satisfy God's justice
that's Isaiah chapter 53 verse 10 11 and 12 he will see the
travail of his soul and shall be satisfied are you hearing
me ladies and gentlemen so the wrath of God is poured out on
Jesus because God's too holy to dwell with me and then not
only does he propitiate my sin he must take it away John chapter
1 verse 29. And John said, Behold the Lamb
of God, which what? Taketh away the sin of the world. But do you believe by that statement
that he's taken away everybody's sin? It's been 2000 years. The folks that are born and living
and getting old and dying are worse today than they were back
then. Where the sin at? It's still here. The sin that
he's talking about taking away is the sin of his people who
live in the world. Are you hearing me? The sin that
he's talking about taking away is the sin of his elect. And
then he's talking about ultimately taking away sin when he comes
in judgment again and destroys his world and creates a new heaven
and a new earth wherein dwells what? Righteousness. All that
is promised by the atonement. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Couple more points to then persuade you on this point number two
the object of the atonement The objects of the atonement are
particular Matthew chapter 1 verse 21. What does it say and they
shall call his name Jesus? For he shall save his people
from their sins You couldn't get clearer than that. Could
you now, you know when you call somebody your people, you know
what you're doing You're making an exclusion That means some
folks ain't your people. See, even in the hood, we call
folks, these my peoples. You may not necessarily like
them, but these my peoples. And you're making a categorical
distinction between those who are particularly yours and other
folks, right? Do you know who these people
are for whom Jesus is called the Savior? His name literally
means Savior. You know whose people, who these
people are? They are his sheep. John chapter 10 verse 15. My
father loves me because I lay down my life for the sheep. Do y'all see that? I lay down
my life. What do we mean? Atonement. Who
is he atoning for? The sheep. Who is he dying for? His people. And let me give you
some basic categories for whom Christ died just for time's sake.
When we say that Christ died, he died for sinners. Got that? He died for sinners. He died
for the ungodly. Got that? He died for the wicked. Got that? He died for the elect.
You got that? He died for his church. He died
for his people. He died for his bride. I'm giving
you a fairly good list right there. Say, Pastor, what do you
mean the wicked, the ungodly, the sinner? I'm talking about
men and women who know that they are wicked, ungodly, sinners. You got that? Because God has
taught them so. That's what's in your commentary.
Listen to me now. What comfort can a Savior bring
to those who have never felt their woe? A sinner is a sacred
thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
Penetrated his heart, penetrated her heart, and persuaded her,
him, them, that you are the only sinner in the world. Luke chapter
10. Don't go there. There were two
men praying. One in the back of the church,
and the other fellow was way up the front by the holy of holies,
hands raised high, head to God, boasting in who he was. Remember
what he says? Lord, I thank you that I'm not
like that wretch way back there, too scared to come talk to you.
I'm glad I wasn't born like that. The wretch in the back smokes
his chest and said, Lord, Lord, have mercy on me. That's the
mercy seed. Be a propitiation for me. Bring
a lamb and pour your wrath on that lamb for me Have mercy on
me watch this and this is the grammatical language the sinner
No other sinner in the world But me Are you hearing what I'm
saying? See salvation is a revelation
It's when God reveals his glory to you as Paul said God who separated
me from my mother's womb. I and reveal Christ in me that
I might preach him to the world. See, listen, if you haven't had
a revelation of this glory of God, you can't admit your sin.
Because, see, you don't have a covering until God comes to
you and snatches off your fig leaves and give you a covering.
You can't admit your sin. You're still running from God.
And religion does that. Works religion does that. So
you pay your tithes, and you pray, and you give, and you work,
and you toil, and all you're producing is fig leaves. They're
getting bigger and bigger and bigger, starting to block you.
You can't even see yourself or your words. Then they get heavy
too. Getting back pains and cramps
and everything. Boy, this work is hard, man.
Do you know it's hard getting saved in this church? Yeah, it's
hard. Yeah, it's hard. Yeah, it's hard. And in fact, it's impossible
when you don't understand that God must do all the saving. Are
y'all hearing me? And what I'm getting at ladies
and gentlemen, is that the work of atonement Necessarily accomplishes
God's will in the area of the salvation of his people I want
you to consider with me now one more thing point number four
I'm gonna jump three go to point number four. I'll make this plane
the point number three plane next time point number four What
did Christ do to atone for our sins? I have elucidated several
of them, but I'm just gonna read through them briefly. He died
as a lamb you guys got that I He died as a lamb spotless sinless
lamb that means he was impeccably righteous. He was without sin
He was holy harmless undefiled only human being in the world
without sin This is what qualified him to be my Savior and my substitute
you got that What did Christ do? He died as my father's lamb
under my father's justice against my transgression and my sin against
him. He satisfied God's justice. He
made payment for my sin. He became for me my debtor in
order to rectify God's justice against me. Point number B. He removed the legal guilt of
my criminal life. Y'all see that? That's good. You don't even know it. And it goes back to the point
of this. God, upon the execution of atonement on the part of Christ,
cannot view me as guilty. Are you hearing me? Because Christ
was my actual, actual, actual, actual substitute. Not a potential
substitute, a real substitute. a substantive substitute, a surety
and representative, a go-between. You know what that means? The
space and spot where wrath was supposed to come down on me,
He snatched me out of the way and He came and stepped in under
that and took the hit for me. I'm way over here observing the
person standing in my place bearing God's wrath in my behalf and
the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. You got that? Y'all got that children of God?
Go with me in your Bible to John chapter 18. I want to make this
plain before I close. John 18. So very important for
us to understand the death of christ on calvary street wasn't
potential. It was factual. It was necessary God exalting
god glorifying and soul saving We lord god for the redemptive
work of jesus christ. He died as a lamb. He removed
the legal guilt of my Criminal life so that when he called me
by his grace, I could stop running You know you and I are all fugitives
of justice running from the glory of God,
running from the goodness of God, running from the mercy of
God, running from the kindness of God, because we're guilty
in our conscience until the gospel comes with peace. You know that?
Hooking and crooking, hiding like Adam and Eve. That's what
sinners do when they're not saved, when they have not been reconciled
to God. They run high, fight, and argue. The religious ones
argue with us. Their arguments are to no avail.
Do you hear me? To no avail. Why would I want
a God that intentionally fails to save me just because I say
no to him? Why would I want a God? Who sits
on the circuit of the heavens? Encompassing the universe, upholding
everything by the word of his power through whom we live, move
and have our being in whose Nostrils, his breath resides. Who governs
everything meticulously down to the subatomic particles that
you can't see. Who says, go and come at his
own will. Whose pleasures and purposes
are never frustrated. And he gets glory to his name
in whatever he does. But in trying to save me, I simply
say, no. No. And God fails, I go to hell,
and Jesus died in vain. How ludicrous. Are y'all hearing
what I'm saying? How ludicrous. But I want you
to get this. That's what we call man-centered,
humanistic, deifying man ideology. Which we must abolish every time
we hear it. Man will never steal God's glory. Even at the point of him having
to bow the knee to Christ. He will bow or he will perish. He won't ever be able to frustrate
God's purpose. Ever. That's why I love God. Now watch this. By the time he
comes to me, he doesn't ask me, do I want to be saved? He done
already saved me. Are you with me? Now watch this,
because he knows I'm going to say no. Because there's none
righteous. No, not one. There's none that
seek after God. There's none that do it good.
There's none that understand. We have all gone out of the way.
We have all turned away. We've all went astray. If God
doesn't just snatch you out of hell, hell you will remain. God doesn't come appealing to
you. Will you please let me save you? He said in the book of Isaiah,
I knew you were a transgressor from the womb. That's bad, isn't
it? I knew you was a transgressor.
You know what God has to do when you're a transgressor from the
womb? He has to do something for you that you don't even want
to do for yourself. And this is what we call grace. God doing
something for you that you won't do for yourself. Now, does the
atoning work of Jesus Christ actually accomplish eternal redemption
for his people? Listen to the account. John chapter
18 verses 4 through 9, you know the text our Lord had just got
through praying and Judas had betrayed him and Here's what
we find these folks coming after Jesus These are the rulers first
three Judas in having received a band of men and officers from
the chief priests and Pharisees Cometh dither with lanterns and
torches and weapons. You know what we call this ladies
and gentlemen the law Jesus therefore knowing all things and that should
come upon him, went forth and said unto them, Whom seek ye? Do you see that? Now don't ever,
even one time in your life, ever think that Jesus was a wimp.
He is the one man that went towards the law versus ran from it. Hallelujah! Watch him! He said, Who you seeking? You seeking me? Are you seeking
me? Who are you looking for? Justice?
Who are you looking for? Righteousness? Who are you looking
for? Judgment? Are you looking for me? Now watch
this. Watch this. Say my name. Say
my name. Say my name. Say my name. Your name is Jesus. And they
all fell backwards. Get up. Get up. Say my name again. Say my name again. And they all
said his name. Jesus. Now stay with me for a
minute. If you want me, you gotta let
these go. If you want me, you gotta let
these go. You can't have me and have them
too. You know what that means? He
was a real, actual, substitute, surety, go-between for his people. You know what that means? Justice
cannot twice demand Not first at my bleeding surety's hand,
and then again at mine. That would be double jeopardy.
It would be unjust. It would make God a monster.
It would turn justice upside down. Either Christ's death put
away my sins, or it didn't. And I'm here to tell you. I'm
here to tell you. Every sinner for whom Christ
died when the gospel comes in power, all it says, are you ready? All it says is, let my people
go. Let them go. Let them go. They have been emancipated by
the death of their Savior long, long, long ago. Let them go. Amen. Amen.