Pastor, just a word with regard
to books. Go Publications has just published
my commentary on Galatians, Discovering Christ in Galatians. If you want
a copy of it, I would encourage you to get it and study it. I
believe the Lord gave me some direction in preparing it, and
you want to understand what it is to walk in the spirit, live
before God without the yoke, the oppressive yoke of legal
bondage, I would encourage you to get the book and study it.
And these books, I don't make a dime on them, don't want to,
don't take a dime on them. Whatever they cost us and the
publishers, that's what we settle them for. And so you can see,
please don't see me, see Shelby. I don't like to keep up with
anything. All right. Turn with me, if you will, to
Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. This congregation has had a rich,
rich, rich history of blessedness. Your pastor, Brother Breedlove,
faithfully taught you the gospel. All those years Brother Farrell
came down and preached to you on Thursday evenings. You've
been here now, what, 12, 13 years? What a tremendous blessing for
the mayhem that's been involved in your lives from the beginning
of your existence together as a congregation of believers.
And you have been so greatly blessed of God and taught the
gospel of God's grace. Sadly, there are many who forsake
such a tradition. And by that word, I use it in
the best possible sense. Paul said with regard to the
traditions, sometimes using them evil, sometimes good, but I'm
talking about a good tradition, the tradition of the gospel,
the tradition of faith in Jesus Christ the Lord, multitudes,
multitudes who have enjoyed the same privileges you have enjoyed
for many years. Individually and collectively
as congregations, abandon those privileges. Abandon the gospel
of God's grace. And usually it's little by little
through compromise. The responsibility is in the
pulpit. Preachers lead folks astray. Ralph Barnard used to
say somebody ought to put a 10-cent bounty on preachers. That might
be too high. They just get so disgusted with preachers, self-serving
preachers. They want to make a name for
themselves. They want people to follow them. They want to
succeed. They want to have folks make
professions of faith. And because they don't see God
doing what they think God ought to be doing, they start to trim
the message. I know many in what's called
reformed circles. That's another sermon. I know
many in what's called reformed circles who have begun in the
last 10, 12 years to compromise the gospel of God's free grace.
Now let me tell you specifically what I'm talking about. Total
depravity. Unconditional election. particular
redemption, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance
of the saints. These things men compromise and
they start to tone down the message a little and bend here and there
because they think by compromising the message they can make the
gospel more palatable to rebels who hate God and get folks to
join the church and follow after them. And the point that is most
vital, that which is most vital to the glory of God, that which
is most vital to the comfort of God's people, the redeeming
work of Christ is where the compromise always begins. That's where it
always begins. I know a good many people who
Twenty years ago, stood firmly teaching the accomplished redemption
of Jesus Christ at Calvary when he made atonement for our sins
and put away our sin by the sacrifice of himself, who today, well,
now we've got to restudy that. Anytime you hear a preacher go,
we've got to start rethinking things. Kiss him goodbye. It's kissing goodbye. We've got
to state things differently. Now, you know, there is a sense
in which God loves everybody. Let me tell you what that means.
That means there's a sense in which God's love's not worth
spit. There is a sense in which God wants to save everybody.
If there is a sense in which God wants to save everybody,
there's a sense in which God's will doesn't matter. Well, we
believe in common grace. Common grace is useless grace. We believe there's a sense in
which Christ, you've got to tell sinners there's a sense in which
Christ died for everybody. If Christ died for everybody,
in any sense, whatever, his sacrifice is utterly useless and you trust
a false Christ. Now, I want this evening to speak
to you as plainly as bluntly, as clearly as I possibly can,
about the most hideous doctrine in the world. The most hideous
doctrine in the world. Somebody say, well, those folks
who deny the virgin birth, that's it. No. I'll tell you what gives
my soul peace and strength and comfort. in the midst of the
greatest difficulties, more than anything else. It's not God's
sovereignty. It's not God's providence. It's
not God's election. The Son of God loved me and gave
himself for me. That means everything's all right,
no matter how it appears. The Son of God loved me and gave
himself for me. That means God won't charge me
with sin. The Son of God loved me and gave
himself for me. That means he rules the world
for me. That means God will with him
also freely give me all things. and any attack upon the blessed
accomplishments of Jesus Christ as my Redeemer when he laid down
my life for me is an attack upon the glory of God, it is an attack
upon the faith of the gospel, it is an attack upon my own soul. The most hideous doctrine in
the world today and any day is the doctrine of universal redemption. Look here in Hebrews chapter
10 and verse 29. Hebrews 10 verse 29. Of how much sorer punishment,
how much greater punishment, suppose you, shall he be thought
worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God? tramples beneath his feet as
dirt in the streets the Son of God. Who does that? And have counted the blood of
the covenant, the blood of Jesus Christ, the sacrifice by which
all the blessings of the covenant are brought home to God's elect.
Wherewith he was sanctified, that is the blood he professed
to believe in by which he was outwardly sanctified. He counts
that blood now an unholy thing. You get your concordance, look
it up. You know what that word unholy means? You can write it
out beside it. Common. Ordinary. The blood of Christ was shed
in common for everybody. The blood of Christ is something
ordinarily given for all men. It's an unholy thing. That which
is unholy is unsanctified. It's common. It's ordinary. And
those who do so have done despite unto the Spirit of grace. Now
this is what the Spirit of God declares. That man who treads
under his feet, the Son of God, counts the blood of Jesus Christ
an unholy thing, counts it a common, ordinary thing. And that which
is common and ordinary is in no sense special. He despises
the Spirit of grace and he commits the greatest evil in the world
and heaps upon himself justly the terrible fury of God's unmitigated
wrath. In this message, I want to expose
the evil of those who teach that there is a sense in which Christ
died for all men. It doesn't matter what degree
they say that. It doesn't matter how far they
carry that. To suggest that the Son of God
laid down His life for somebody who goes to hell is to deny the
gospel altogether, and there's no excuse for it. Some time ago,
I was sitting in my office and I received a call from a young
man who had been listening to me on the radio. He politely
asked me to send him a copy of the message that he had heard
that morning and asked if I would answer four questions for him.
These are his questions. He said, Pastor Fortner, what
is the doctrine of universal redemption? Second, why do you
so strongly oppose that doctrine? Third, what do you believe about
the redemption work of Christ? And fourth, why do you believe
it? And I sat down that day, put
aside what I planned on doing, and spent most of the day answering
his questions. I trust God used them for his
benefit. After I wrote the letter, I thought
to myself, that needs to be preached everywhere. So in this message,
I want to simply tell you what I told that young man, and I
pray God will use it for your soul's good. Again, I repeat,
I'm going to speak plainly and distinctly. I don't speak with such plainness
of speech accidentally. It's on purpose. I want you to
know exactly what I'm saying. How many times have you gone
and listened to a fellow preach and you said, Wow, that's deep. I just couldn't get that. Let
me tell you why you couldn't get it. I promise you. If you
ever hear me preach or ever hear that man preach or any other
man preach, you say, I don't understand what he said. It's
because the preacher didn't want you to understand or because
the fool didn't understand what he's talking about himself. One
of the two. One of the two. If the trumpet
give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to battle?
For my part, I'm convinced that ambiguous speech on the part
of preachers is both intentional and treasonous, treasonous to
the souls of men and treasonous to the glory of God. One writer
of old said the servants of God must not only be for truth, they
must also be against error and evil and that manifestly and
always vacillation and weakness of statement are to be deplored. Definiteness of speech is needful. This is what Nehemiah said of
the Jews in his day. Their children spake half the
speech of Ashdod and could not speak the Jews' language but
according to the speech of the people. And that's just the way
it is today. People in our churches half talk
like pagans and then throw in a little religious overtones
and talk like they believe free grace. Shortly after we built
the building where we are in Danville, There was a local preacher
who came by who was attending Louisville Seminary, Southern
Seminary at Louisville. And he, you know, did real estate
and sold insurance, preached on the side, pastored a large
church just down the road. And he said, before he left,
he realized he wasn't going to buy anything. He said, tell me,
what's the difference in what you preach and what I preach?
Well, you'll preach what the church believes and what our
church believes. And I said, Doug, have you got a little while?
He said, I've got plenty of time. I said, let me ask you if I understand
you correctly. I said, if I understand correctly
what you preach, now correct me if I'm wrong. You believe
that when Jesus Christ died at Calvary, he made it possible
for all men to be redeemed. He made it possible for all men
to be justified. He made it possible for all men
to be forgiven of all sin. But He did not actually redeem,
justify, or accomplish forgiveness for anyone. But rather that man,
by his faith, gives merit and efficacy to the blood of Jesus
Christ for the salvation of his soul, for his redemption, his
justification, and his forgiveness. I said, is that what you believe?
Is that what you preach? He said, well, yes. I said, that's damning
heresy. That's damning heresy. The God
you worship and the Christ you preach is nothing but the idolatrous
figment of your imagination. He's an utterly useless God and
a useless Savior. Utterly useless. Of course, we
haven't had much conversation since then. Do you have to be that plain?
In Acts chapter 4, you remember Peter on one occasion trembled
and cussed and denied that he knew the master. before a young
lady. And he learned something from
that experience. God graciously strengthened him
by, in Acts chapter 4, he was imprisoned. And the Jewish Sanhedrin,
who had themselves been the ones who had the Son of God crucified,
had Peter arrested. And they said, now, we strictly
charged you not to preach or teach in this man's name. How
dare you do this? And he talked about this man
who'd been healed, this lame man. And Peter could have said
this. He could have said, this man
was healed and stands whole before you in the name and by the power
of Jehovah, the Lord God of Israel. And do you know what he'd have
been doing? He'd have been telling the truth and denying God. Because those Jews would have
said, well, amen, brother, that's what we believe. We're on the
same team. We're going down the same road.
Everything's all right with us. But Peter had learned his lesson.
He said, if I die, I die, but be it known unto you. And all the people of Israel,
By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified,
whom God raised from the dead, does this man stand before you
whole? That's called the faithful confession
of the Redeemer. Now let's look at these four
questions. I'll be as brief as I can. Number one, this young
man asked me, what is the doctrine of universal redemption? And
I know there's a danger of building up a straw man just to knock
it down, and I hope I'm more honest than that. It would be
of no profit to anyone for me to do so. I'm going to state
this doctrine as plainly and as clearly as I was taught it
in two of the most reputable, if you can use the word reputable
to describe them, two of the most reputable fundamentalist
Baptist Bible colleges in this country that I attended. This
is what I was taught. This is what I hear men preach
today. I hear them state it from the pulpit. I hear them state
it in private conversation. They say the Lord Jesus Christ
died for all men. That Christ shed his blood for
those who go to hell as well as for those who go to heaven.
He did the same thing for one as for the other. They are all
the objects of God's grace and love and the objects of Christ's
atoning sacrifice. They tell us that Jesus Christ
made salvation possible for all men. Doesn't that sound wonderful?
That would be fine to tell men that Christ made salvation possible
for them if you were talking to living men who had some ability
to complete the work. But the fact is, men are dead
in trespasses and in sins. And to declare that Christ made
salvation possible for them is to declare there is no hope whatsoever
for them. They tell us that man, by his
faith, gives merit to the blood of Christ. That man's faith makes
the blood of Christ effectual for the atonement of sin. I've
often heard this illustration used. The atoning work of Christ
is like dynamite. And the dynamite is there, all
the power is there. It just takes your faith to ignite
the fuse and give it power. In other words, the sacrifice
of Christ is useless without you. His atoning work makes no
atonement without you. His putting away of sin is a
fabrication until you make it true. We're told that man makes
Christ's blood effectual. Shelby and I were driving out
of town one Sunday night. I don't usually listen to heretics. But
I turned on the radio, and I was going to be driving most of the
night, and I wanted to get pumped up, and that'll do it. Pastor
of First Baptist Church in Danville, Kentucky, Albert Giesner. He
was there for many, many years. He was coming to the conclusion
of his Sunday evening sermon, and he made this statement. And
I grabbed it. I said, Shelby, write that down.
I don't want to forget it. He said, Jesus loved you. died
for you, and has done everything he can to save you, but it will
all be vain unless you believe." And with pretended tears, he
said, what a shame. It will be that Jesus' death
will be in vain for so many. I fully agree, a shame, but not
for you, for him. It is a shame that he attempted
what he failed to do. A shame that he tried what he
could not accomplish. A shame that he wanted what he
does not obtain. The shame is his if he's a failure. I once heard Jerry Falwell make
this statement. If you go to hell, you will go
to that awful place in spite of the fact that God himself
has done everything he possibly could to save you. Now I'm going
to tell you as plainly as I know how, either those men have no
clue who God is or I have no clue who God is. It can't possibly
be that both of us know and worship the same God. That's a fair,
honest statement of the doctrine of universal redemption. And
I've shown God's enemies all the kindness I intend to show
them. I've done better than they will. I've honestly presented
their doctrine. I ask you to consider some questions. Would, you suppose, the Son of
God lay down His life for a people for whom He refused to pray? I just have a hunch. That if
you had a choice of either praying for somebody or dying for them,
you'd pray for them first. That pretty reasonable? I believe
you would. And the Lord Jesus said twice
in John 17, I pray not for them. I pray not for the world. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me. I pray not for these alone,
but for them also who shall believe on me through their word. I ask
you to consider this. Would the Lord Jesus, who is
infinitely wise, shed his blood to redeem multitudes who were
already eternally damned in hell? Judas was already in hell. The
sons of Korah were already in hell. The inhabitants of Sodom
were already in hell. To suggest that Christ laid down
his life, died for, and made atonement for folks who were
already in hell is absolutely ludicrous. Would the God of glory
sacrifice the son of his love to die in the place of a people
who he positively declares to be the objects of his hatred?
What did he say about Pharaoh? He said, I raised Pharaoh up
for one reason, to dump his carcass in the Red Sea so that everybody
would know I'm God. The only reason I put him on
the throne. What did he say concerning Esau? Jacob have I loved, Esau
have I hated. Now if you can figure out a way
to make that loved a little less, I'll pay you pretty good for
that. The word is hated. And to suggest that God Almighty
took the son of his heart's infinite love and sacrificed him for the
object of his determined hatred is utterly, utterly ludicrous. All right, here's the second
question the fellow asked. Why do you so strongly oppose
that doctrine of universal redemption, the teaching that Christ died
for all men, for those who perish in hell as well as for those
who are saved by God's grace? I oppose it because it is more
harmful to the souls of men than any doctrine in the world. I
speak strongly but deliberately. I reject the doctrine of universal
redemption, universal atonement, call it whatever you will, as
absolute damning heresy. I denounce it as the most hideous
doctrine that has ever been perpetrated out of hell. It is that doctrine
that denies the very deity of Jesus Christ the Lord. It denies
that Jesus Christ is himself God, for it declares that Jesus
Christ is a failure. The Lord Jesus, our Savior, could
not possibly have shed his blood to redeem those who are not redeemed,
to save those who are not saved, to forgive those who are not
forgiven, to justify those who are not justified, and I'll give
you five reasons. Number one, this doctrine, the
universal redemption, declares that there is no power, no merit,
no efficacy in the blood of Christ without man's contribution. Nothing to it unless you believe.
Nothing to it unless you make your decision. Nothing to it
unless you contribute your part to the work. That means that
man is his own savior. The Word of God everywhere limits
the design, the extent, and the purpose of the atonement. Let
me be crystal clear. The Word of God everywhere limits
the atoning work of Christ to God's elect. It is designed for
God's elect. It was executed for God's elect. It accomplished the redemption
of God's elect. Well, y'all limit the atonement
The Armenian will-worshipper, and that's what Paul calls them.
Let's get it right. Those folks who deny the gospel
of God's grace are will-worshippers, not God-worshippers. Will-worshippers,
not Christ-worshippers. And they limit the atonement.
They limit its power, its worth, its merit, and its efficacy,
and thus deny the very deity of our Savior. The doctrine of
universal redemption, the notion that Christ died for all men,
those who are damned as well as those who are saved, makes
the grace of God nothing but a frustrated passion in God. People talk about God's grace
as as one of his attributes. And certainly, goodness and grace
is an attribute in God. When we talk about God's grace
as related to salvation, grace is not an attribute, Pastor,
it's an act. How many times have you gone
to visit a friend in the hospital and you look at your friend who's
in horrible straits and looks like This man or woman is dying. And you take them by the hand,
and with sincerity, you say, if there's anything I can do,
anything. And you mean, if there's anything
I can do, I'll do it, anything. And by making the statement,
you're confessing there's nothing I can do. That's how men in religious
circles, in fundamentalist, conservative churches, Baptist churches, Presbyterian
churches, Campbellite churches, Catholic churches, any kind of
churches, that's how they portray the grace of God. The Lord God,
He wants to save you. He's ready to save you. If there's anything He can do,
He will. That's not the language of this
book. The Scripture declares not what God wants to do, but
what God's done. The Scripture don't present salvation
as something God wants to perform, but that which God Almighty has
performed. It's His finished work. It was
finished before the world began. Executed at Calvary and brought
home to our souls in the experience of grace in the new birth and
in the gift of faith. And anything less is not the
gospel of God's grace. Third, this theory of universal
redemption. perverts the character of God. It reduces God's glorious
attributes to nothing but meaningless words. Let me see if I can illustrate
it for you. It reduces the love of God to
nothing. To nothing. I've got a six-year-old
grandson. Now let's just suppose he's down
here with me and we're out here tomorrow afternoon horsing around
as we do when we get together. And he gets running out toward
the street, going out to the highway. He kicks his football
out there and he runs to chase it down. And I look at him, I
said, Will, son, don't go to the highway. You might get hurt.
And he just ignores me, keeps on running. And I said, Will,
please don't go to the highway. You're going to get run over,
son. And I'm just standing there hollering at him. And he ignores
me, keeps running. And, Will, son, don't go to the
highway. Lester slapped me on the head
and said, go get him. Oh, I couldn't do that. What do you mean you
can't do that? Oh, I love him too much to interfere
with his will. What stupidity. What stupidity. Love Love is commitment to the
good of its object. And love that has the power to
save will save. And if God loves everybody, he'll
save everybody. If he doesn't save everybody,
it's because he never loved everybody. The doctrine of universal redemption.
perverts the wisdom of God, turns it into ignorance and foolishness.
Who makes plans he knows will never be carried out? Who pays
for what he knows he will never obtain? And it makes a mockery
of God's justice. More than all else in the scriptures,
the sacrifice of Christ at Calvary is presented to us as a matter
of divine righteousness, justice, and truth. More than anything
else, by mercy and truth, iniquity is purged. It is that God may
be just and the justifier of the ungodly that Christ died.
He sins because of Christ's sacrifice. I am now a just God and a Savior. But justice is a mockery. It is an utter mockery. If Christ paid the debt of my
sins and God demands that I pay it too. Payment God cannot twice
demand. First at my bleeding Syracuse
hand and then again at mine. The notion of universal redemption
reduces the power of God to a helpless, withered arm waiting for man's
omnipotent will to revive it by an act of his mighty decision.
And it completely denies the immutability of God's mercy,
his love, and his grace. God loves everybody. God's gracious
to everybody. God's merciful to everybody.
You must recognize that. How can you preach the gospel
if you don't recognize that? Well, let me ask you something.
What happens when they go to hell? Does God still love them? Is He still merciful to them?
Is He still wanting to save them? Oh, no. No, we couldn't say that.
So in order to magnify and exalt man and his free will, you're
willing to sacrifice the character of God Almighty and declare that
the unchanging God, after all, is as mutable and fickle as you? And that's what it means. He
robs God of His glory to suggest that Christ died for those who
actually perish in their sins anyway. The Lord God Almighty
tells us that He chose us, He blessed us, He loved us, He predestinated
us, He accepted us, He redeemed us, and He forgave us, He called
us by His grace, and He preserves us by His grace, and three times
in the first 14 verses of Ephesians, He said He did it for the praise
of the glory of His grace. And if he doesn't accomplish
that which is his intent, there's no praise to him and no glory
to him because there's no grace in him that really matters. Universal
Redemption, fourthly, makes the work of Christ a futile exercise,
a waste. It makes the precious blood of
Christ nothing more than a wager, a bet, a gamble, in which God
Almighty wagered His glory and the life of His own darling Son,
His blood and His righteousness upon the will of man. If Christ died for all and all
are not saved, then that awful absurdity must follow that Christ
died in vain for some. If Christ died to save all men
and all are not saved, then it must be concluded that he failed
in his most important work, in the mission for which he came
into this world. But this is the language of the scriptures.
Behold, my servant, he shall not fail. He shall not fail. Whatever it is he came to do,
he shall not fail. And I say to any man, any church,
any denomination, any preacher, if the Christ you worship is
a failure, the Christ you worship is antichrist. He shall not fail. Let me give you a direct quote. This is from my first theology
professor, Noel Smith. He was an old man when I met
him in 1968. I was in Baptist Bible College in Springfield,
Missouri. He was professor of biblical interpretation and theology.
As he endeavored to describe hell, this is what he wrote. As I read this, I'm going to
tell you the truth. I'd just as soon hear a man say
that Jesus Christ was not the virgin-born Son of God. I'd just
as soon hear a man say anything. I'd just as soon hear any man
stand in this pulpit and cuss. Listen to it. What is hell, he
asked. It is an infinite negation, and
it's more than that. I tell you, and I say it with
profound reverence, Hell is a ghastly monument to the failure of the
triune God to save the multitudes who are there. I say it reverently. I say it with every nerve of
my body tense. Well, they might be. Sinners
go to hell because God Almighty Himself couldn't save them. He did everything He could. He
failed. trample underfoot the blood of
the covenant, and do despite to the Spirit of grace. If Christ
suffered the agony of the cross for all, and all are not saved,
it shall never come to pass that he shall see of the travail of
his soul and be satisfied. What is this but a denial of
his deity, a subtle but absolute denial that Jesus Christ really
is God? The doctrine of universal redemption
is as useless as it is hideous. That's the fifth reason I'm so
strongly opposed to it. It offers no real grounds of
hope to any sinner. It declares that sin is not pardoned
after all. Redemption is not finished, not
yet. Atonement is not accomplished,
not yet. Not until you make some contribution. It offers no basis of assurance
for any believer. If salvation is ultimately determined
by my repentance and faith, Christ died for me, that's a given.
Christ lived in righteousness for me, that's a given. But it
all depends upon me repenting and my faith. Then I must be
forever plagued with nagging questions. Have I believed enough? Have I repented enough? What
if I lose my mind and I'm not able to go on and I no longer
believe Him and I no longer repent before Him? If salvation depends
on me, I cannot possibly have any assurance before God. But
God didn't say, when you see the blood, I'll pass over you.
He said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And the time
may come when I lose my mind, and in senility of old age, cannot
see the blood, but God Almighty saw it before I did. He saw it
when I did, because He sees it. I see it, and when I can't see
it, He still sees it. Christ is still my Redeemer,
though we believe not, yet He abideth faithful. He cannot deny
Himself. This doctrine, if Christ died
for everybody, He shed His life's blood for everybody. He loves
everybody. He's gracious to everybody. If
that's the case, then you have absolutely no reason to serve
Him, magnify Him, devote yourself to Him, or love Him. In fact,
if He did the same thing for Louis and Don as He did for Judas
and Pharaoh, then He ought to give us praise, because we're
seeking to serve Him. If that's the case, who makes
you to differ? Well, I make myself to differ.
That's who does. That's who does. But this is
the language of Scripture. What? No, you're not. Your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have
of God, and you're not your own. Don Fortner, you're not your
own. Your time, your name, your money,
your family, the clothes on your back, the house you live in,
the car you drive, it's not yours! For you're bought with a price. Tommy Robbins, God did something
for you he didn't do for anybody else. He bought you with his
blood. Let me then glorify God in my
body and in my spirit, which are God's and not my own. This young man asked me thirdly,
what do you believe about the redemption work of Christ? Now hear me well. Our redemption
was effectually accomplished by God's darling son when he
cried, it is done. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. Nowhere is it written Christ
tried, or Christ wanted, or Christ made possible. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, for it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. Neither by the blood of bulls
and goats, or goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. This is the doctrine of Holy
Scripture. The Lord Jesus Christ died as a substitute in the place
of His elect. He hath made Him sin for us. that we, by his sacrifice of
himself for us, might be made the righteousness of God in him. The Lord Jesus said, I laid down
my life for the sheep. He loved the church and gave
himself for it. He died in the room and stand
in place of his seed. I recall years ago, Shelby will
remember this, When fellows want to get a little funding, you
know, missionaries or they got started at school or a denomination
or whatever, they want to raise some money, they'll kind of be
mushy-mouthed about stuff and they don't want to state things
too clearly. We had a missionary at our home,
a young man, and he stayed with us for three days and we talked
about this particular subject, particular redemption. And he's
sitting on the couch in our den. Shelby was busting around in
the kitchen, his wife standing over there beside her between
Shelby and myself. And he said, Brother Don, you
know, I would believe in limited atonement if it wasn't for just
two or three scriptures to give me trouble. I said, would you
repeat that? He said, I would believe in limited
atonement. It makes perfect sense. If it wasn't for two or three
scriptures to give me trouble. I looked at him and called him
by name. And I said, you're a liar. Of course, that got everybody's
attention. Shelby quit rattling pots and his wife wanted to hit
me in the head. I said, you're a liar. Now let
me ask you something. Are there two or three scriptures
that give you a little trouble about the doctrine of the Trinity?
If they're not, I can give you a hundred. There are a bunch
of scriptures that you have trouble with about the doctrine of the
Trinity. But the whole testimony of this book declares it plainly. And we do not interpret scripture
with honesty. If we go to this place or that,
pick up this statement or that, and say, oh, that didn't fit
the whole revelation. We got to do something with this.
You don't deal with any legal document like that. You don't
deal with any personal correspondence like that. Only dishonesty makes
men deal with scriptures like that. The fact is the whole testimony
of scripture is that Jesus Christ by the sacrifice of himself with
his precious blood one time forever put away our sins and they shall
never be charged to his people because Christ died in our stead. The fact is no text in all the
word of God There's not one. I defy you to find one that even
gives a hint that Christ died for everybody in the world. There's
not even a hint that he did so. Everywhere in this book where
the death of Christ is dealt with, everywhere his substitutionary
work is dealt with, everywhere in this book, be it prophecy,
type, or doctrinal statement, everywhere in this book where
the redeeming work of Christ is dealt with at all, it is stated
specifically for a specific people, God's elect. Everywhere. There
are no exceptions. By pouring out His life's blood
unto death, our Lord Jesus Christ satisfied divine justice for
us, made an effectual atonement for the sins of His elect, and
put away our sins. The sure result of this work
that Christ did at Calvary is the salvation of every sinner
for whom He died. Turn to Isaiah 53 for a moment. Isaiah 53. Verse 10. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. The word is, it satisfied Jehovah
to bruise him. Nothing else could. He hath put
him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, This is the result. When you make him
sin for us, he shall see his sin. He'll see who they are. He'll see them redeemed and justified
and glorified. He shall prolong his days, that
he's going to rise from the dead. and the pleasure of the Lord,
the will of God will prosper in his hand. What's that? He
shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied by
his knowledge. That is, by knowledge of his
seed and knowledge of his accomplishments shall my righteous servant justify
many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore our Savior
said, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. And this is the
will of him that sent me, that if every one that seeth the Son
and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I will
raise him up at the last day. Paul says the gospel is this. He says, I deliver unto you the
gospel. H-O-W, how that Christ died for
our sins according to the scriptures. The gospel is not stating that
Christ died for our sins. The gospel is the revelation
given in this book of H-O-W, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures. How was that? Go back and read
the Old Testament scriptures and find out. Aaron, the high
priest, had a breastplate. And on his breastplate, there
were some names written. Anybody know whose names were
there? For the whole world, I'm high priest. No. The names of the 12 tribes of
Israel were there. They made atonement with offering
of a Paschal lamb and the setting free of a scapegoat. Aaron confessed
the sins of Israel, owned a lamb to be sacrificed, slit his throat,
offered his blood in the holy place. And he took the scapegoat
and laid his hands on the head of the scapegoat and confessed
the sins, not of the whole world, but of Israel, God's elect. and
he sent that goat off in the hands of a fit man, carrying
our sins away as Christ our Redeemer did. Every sacrifice in the Old
Testament was made for a specific people, for God's chosen and
for nobody else. When Moses was commanded to tell
the people about the Passover, he said, go tell it in the ears
of Israel. Didn't even tell it to the Egyptians.
Didn't even tell them. Why? Because it wasn't for them.
The sacrifices were lifted up as Christ was lifted up. The
sacrifices were offered to God upon God's altar according to
God's command. And Christ was offered to God
on God's altar according to God's command. The sacrifices were
consumed by the fire of God's altar. Christ, as he was consumed
by the fire of God's justice and wrath, consumed the wrath
of God for us so that God says to Jacob, fury is not in me. That's called redemption. That's
called forgiveness. That's called the putting away
of sin by the sacrifice of himself. How did he die for our sins?
He died voluntarily as our covenant surety. Before the world was,
he stood forth as our surety. And he said, I will redeem them. Lay on me the responsibility
of their sins. Lay on me the responsibility
of their transgressions. Lay on me the responsibility
of their iniquities. Lay on me the responsibility
of all righteousness on their behalf. And I will satisfy justice. I will bring in everlasting righteousness. And the scripture says, the Lord
God trusted him. in whom you also trusted after
that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your own salvation.
And in the fullness of time, the Lord Jesus Christ came here
and died as our vicarious sacrifice. Died in the room instead of his
people. With one tremendous draft of
love, he drank damnation dry. and justice was satisfied. He died as our victorious savior. He said, it's finished. And took
the price of his blood into glory and sat down on the right hand
of the majesty on high and the book says we sat down with him.
And he says to the father, Lo, I and the children whom thou
hast given me, that is redemption, and that is God our Savior. Oh, may God give you grace to
trust your soul to him. I hang my immortal soul on him
alone, on his blood and his righteousness. Not my faith in Him, because
my faith in Him at best is full of unbelief. Not my obedience
to Him, because my obedience to Him is at best disobedience. Not my love for Him, because
I confess with shameful face, my love for Him is at best love
for me. What's your hope? Jesus Christ
died for me. I recall years ago, when the
pharaoh was preaching for me, I was passing, looking at West
Virginia. He was preaching about Christ's rest in the garden.
He said the Roman soldiers came. And the Lord Jesus took the initiative.
He said, Whom seek ye? And they said, we seek Jesus
of Nazareth. And the master said, I am. And
they fell away as dead men. And he said, I definitely know
who I am. Get up. Now, who was it you said
you were looking for? Jesus of Nazareth. I told you,
I am He. If you seek me, And it points
to Peter and James and John and his disciples. He says, let these
go their way. You can have me, but you can't
have them. Or you can have them, but you
can't have me, but you can't have both. And the Son of God says to Divine
Justice, Humsikki, And he says, take me, and these must go their
way. And so his people must go free
by the price of his blood. Amen.