Turn with me, if you will, to
the book of 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 2. Now we believe, according to
the scripture, that our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished redemption
for God's elect when he died at Calvary. We believe, according
to the scriptures, that when he died as our substitute under
the wrath of God, He satisfied divine justice, and thereby paying
our debt, secured the everlasting salvation of all for whom he
died. We believe, according to the
writings of this blessed book, that all for whom Jesus Christ
died shall be with him in glory. But the fact is, there are many
who do not believe the testimony of Scripture with regard to the
death of Christ. There are many who rather than
believing on him unto life everlasting, rather than trusting Christ alone
for redemption, trusting Christ alone for righteousness, trusting
Christ alone for acceptance with God, rather than doing that,
they will subject themselves to the thoughts and whims of
religious men, and prefer to choose their own righteousness
and go about to establish their own righteousness rather than
submit to the righteousness of God that's in Jesus Christ. They will take the scriptures
that lead us to eternal life. The very word of God that leads
you and I who believe unto the throne of God, the very word
of God that is as stair steps bringing us up to glory, they
take that very same word, the very same scriptures, and they
are stumbling stones over which they trip and fall into hell.
And that's not by accident. That's not by accident. God has
arranged it so that those who will not believe can't see. He's arranged it so that those
who will not bow to his son cannot see their destruction. Now I
want you to see this. Turn with me to 1 Peter chapter
2 and verse 6. 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 6.
Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, behold, I lay
in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that
believeth on him shall not be confounded. Now that word is
variously translated throughout the scriptures, Old Testament
and New alike. It simply means that those who believe on Christ
shall not be confused. They shall not be put to confusion.
They shall not be ashamed. That does not mean that they
shall never be confused, never be ashamed, or never be put to
confusion in this world. We all have experienced those
things. I have at times been ashamed because of my lack of
faith in him and I'm ashamed of that now. I have at times
been ashamed and confused because of my lack of understanding in
the things of God. But what this text means is this,
those who believe on Christ shall never have cause for shame before
God and shall not be put to shame when this thing's over. They
shall stand steadfast, accepted in the beloved. Read on. Unto
you therefore which believe. And the secret is believing.
If you believe, this is true. If you don't believe, you can't
be pumped, primed, worked up any way, any which how, no matter
who the preacher is. But if you believe, unto you
therefore which believe, Jesus Christ is Lord. Precious. But to them which be
disobedient. Now you see that? To those who
are disobedient, that's what it is not to believe. You've
heard the gospel. God commands you to repent, to
believe on his son. You say, no, I won't do it. I'll
believe on myself. I'll trust in myself. I'll lean
to my own wisdom, my own understanding. To you who believe not is the
stone which the builders disallow. The same is made the head of
the corner. And to those who are disobedient to the unbelieving,
a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, even to them which
stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. As he is revealed in the Holy
Scriptures, our Lord Jesus Christ is to the reprobate, the unbelieving,
the self-righteous man, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. And this is by divine arrangement.
God has so written his word that the unbelieving will get tripped
up by it and stumble over the scriptures as stumbling stones
to hell. God has fixed it so that they
who are determined to cling to their own righteousness, their
own merit, their own worth, so that those who are determined
to cling to themselves as their own saviors and will not submit
to the righteousness of God in Christ, simply will stumble over
Christ and the gospel of God's free grace and fall into hell.
Now this is exactly what happened to the Jews in Paul's day. Look
in Romans chapter nine. Romans the ninth chapter. That righteousness which is established
by, revealed in, and found in Christ alone is to the unbeliever
a stumbling block. Now this is what I'm saying.
To you who believe not unless God stops you, indeed to every
one of us, unless God prevents it, we will find some way to
put our hand in the affair of salvation. unless God prevents
it. And if you put your hand in the
affair of salvation, doesn't matter what you claim to believe,
doesn't matter what you claim to experience, doesn't matter
how much you say, I believe the book, the blood and the blessed
hope, doesn't matter how much you talk about grace, when you put
your finger in this affair of salvation, you stumbled over
Christ and missed him, and you'll fall into hell. Look here in
Romans chapter nine, verse 31. But Israel, which followed after
the law of righteousness, Israel, they followed the law. Man, they
fought for it. They died for it. They followed
after their religion. They followed the customs and
traditions of the law. They stayed with it. But they
have not attained to the law. They've not attained to the law
of righteousness. Why? Wherefore? Because they
sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law.
For they stumbled at the stumbling stone. Here's Christ. He set before us a cornerstone,
a chief cornerstone, the head of the corner, the foundation
stone on which the building is built, the stone on which we
stand before God. But they come along and cling
to their righteousness and their religion and stumble over him.
Look at it. How come? As it is written, behold,
I lay in Zion. a stumbling stone and a rock
of offense, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Why? Because they would not submit
to the righteousness of God, the righteousness of God which
is by faith in Christ. That's what Romans chapter 10
is all about. In other words, those very same scriptures by
which the blessings of God the Holy Spirit or by which through
the blessing of God the Holy Spirit, we find steps bringing
us up to heaven. To God's elect, they are blessed
stepping stairs, if you will, bringing us up to glory. And
yet those scriptures are stumbling stones to the reprobate and unbelieving. And that's what I want to talk
to you about this evening. Stumbling stones or stair steps. We're going to look tonight at
some scriptures, those texts of scriptures over which men
most commonly stumble, those which Arminian blasphemers most
commonly rest to their own destruction, by which they would attempt to
deny the gospel doctrine a particular and effectual redemption. And
we're going to look at those things not with the Not with
the desire, the purpose, or even the inclination to try to answer
the Arminian's cavels. I have no interest in that. I'll
leave that to other fellows. I'm not interested in trying
to explain away what the Arminian Sanskrit teaches. That's for
other men to take care of. I want to take those scriptures,
though. which the Arminian commonly uses and spits in the face of
you as you try to witness to them, and those scriptures which
perhaps to some of you cause you some concern and some confusion
with regard to the gospel doctrine of particular effectual redemption. And I want to show you the message
of those very scriptures. Now they can be categorized in
three groups. There are scriptures in which
the word all is used, with reference to the death of Christ. And so
many would say, well, since the word all is used, then it means
all and Christ died for everybody in the world. There are scriptures
also in which the word world is used, with reference to the
death of Christ, by which the people who are the objects of
our Lord's redeeming love are described. They're described
as the world. Now, very frequently, People will say, well, I know
what all means, and I know what world means. When the Bible says
all, it means all. When the Bible says world, it
means world. That means Christ died for everybody. It'd be smart
to quit trying to interpret God's book by Webster's dictionary.
It'd be smart to take the words found in this book and see how
God uses them in the revelation of his son. Let me give you one
example. In Luke chapter 2 and verse 1, Caesar Augustus sent
out a decree that all the world should be taxed. Well, all means
all, world means world. That means he sent out a decree
for everybody to be taxed. No, he didn't. It didn't have
any bearing on you or me at all. We weren't any part of that all
or that world of which Caesar was the ruler. And so that's
just one small example of where the word all means all who were
under Caesar's domain. And the word world means all
who were part of that Roman world of which Caesar was the ruler,
but of which no one else had any concern. And so the words
all and world do not necessarily mean everybody in the world,
in fact. As they are used relating to
the death of Christ, they never mean everybody in the world.
Don't even suggest that. As I've shown you many times
in the scriptures, not one place in the Word of God is there even
a hint or a suggestion that Jesus Christ died to redeem those who
perish in hell. Such doctrine is utter blasphemy
for it makes the death of Christ to be in vain for multitudes
and means that he tried to do what he fails to do and thus
is a denial of his very deity, his eternal power, and his Godhead. So let's begin this evening first
with those texts of scripture where the word all is used to
describe God's elect. Now we're going to look at them
one at a time, and obviously I'm not going to try to give
you all the various interpretations of scripture. I'm just going
to tell you what it says and let other folks wrangle about it.
First, John 12, 32. John 12, 32. Rather than involving ourselves
in the carpings and cavilings of infidels and trying to answer
them, we'd be wise to just simply look to see what the book says
and to draw nourishment for our souls from it. In John chapter
12, verse 32, our Lord Jesus speaks concerning his death and
his resurrection. He says, and I, if I be lifted
up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. Now you remember
the context. Our Lord has been approached
by these Gentiles who came to Philip and they said, we would
see Jesus. And these Gentiles seem to be
a foretaste and just a token of the fact that Christ would
have his elect from among the Gentiles as well as the Jews.
And our Lord Jesus declares that if he is lifted up, lifted up
by his death upon the cursed tree like Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness. He says, being lifted up, I will
draw like a magnet draws metal, all men, men of every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue unto me. I preach Christ to you, that's
my business as a preacher. I have no other work to do. I
am useful only as that pole which held the brazen serpent was useful
just to lift up Christ. That's all. And as I lift him
up, if God the Holy Spirit speaks by me, he draws sinners to himself. The attraction you see of the
gospel is the gospel. It's Christ crucified. Men today
Try to make the gospel palatable to everybody. Churches have gotten
involved in every kind of silly nonsense under the shining sun.
Build gymnasiums, call them family life centers. A bunch of silly
men get together and dance around like teenage girls and hug each
other and cry and call themselves promise keepers and gather on
the nation's capital and march like a bunch of fools for nothing.
And they call it Christianity. Oh, it's so appealing. It's something
to appeal to men. We've got to appeal to folks.
This is our only appeal. Every other appeal, Bobby, will
take men to hell. If you come to church for anything
else, you've missed it. And if I get you to come for anything
else, I've deceived your soul. The only appeal for your soul
is Jesus Christ crucified. And oh, if he ever gets hold
of your heart, there's efficacy in that draw.
I will draw men out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue
unto me. Look in this passage again. I,
if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. Now then, look at Romans chapter
five and verse 18. Romans chapter 5 and verse 18.
If you're taking notes, you can jot down a parallel passage.
It's 1 Corinthians 15, 22. Here in Romans 5, 18, the Apostle
Paul is dealing with this matter of
justification. And justification, as you know, or should know,
is a legal term. It means to be right before the
law. It means to stand right in court. It means to stand without accusation
on any just cause. All right, look at Romans 5,
18. Therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment came to all
men to condemnation. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men under justification of
life. Now folks look at that and they
say, now there you see. Matter of fact, I had a lady
ask me this very question when I was in Florida a few months
ago. What does this mean? The text says that by one man's
judgment, by one man's offense, judgment came upon all men. And
so by the righteousness of one, the free gift comes upon all
men. I said, did it come on everybody? What do you mean? Did judgment
come on everybody because of Adam's sin? Yes. Did the free
gift come on everybody in the world because of Christ's righteousness? And she looked and thought a
minute. Well, no, but what does that
mean? Well, it obviously doesn't mean that, does it? I mean, that
makes good sense. Some folks are in hell who haven't
had the gift of life. So it can't possibly mean that.
What does it mean then? It means that all who were represented
by Adam when he sinned became themselves subject to death and
died under the curse of the law because we all sinned in him. That's the whole human race.
But the Lord God deals with the race in another Adam. He deals
with the second race of men, chosen from the first race. And
that race of men He deals with in the last Adam, Jesus Christ,
the Lord from heaven. And through His obedience and
righteousness, all who were in Him, represented by Him, obtained
the gift of eternal life. Well, all means all. World means
world. If I walked into Morrison's Cafeteria,
and I happened to be in a good humor at lunchtime, and I said,
desserts for all I'm buying. I don't think anybody in their
right mind would mean that I meant I was buying desserts to ship
to Africa. Nobody in their right mind. They would presume I meant
desserts for everybody here in this room. Does that make good
sense to everybody? That'd make good sense. And when
the word all is used in this context, it is talking about
all who are in Adam and all who are in Christ. The whole human
race was in Adam, and the whole race of God's elect are in Christ. By Adam's offense, we perish. By Christ's obedience, we live. That's exactly what Paul says
in 1 Corinthians 15, 22. For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive. Now look at 2 Corinthians
5 verse 14. We looked at this just briefly
a couple of weeks ago. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 14. Now I want you to follow me through
the scriptures here. I want you to see these texts. And I want
you to see the blessedness revealed in them. For the love of Christ
constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all,
then we're all dead. and that he died for all for
this purpose, that they which live should not henceforth live
unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose
again. Now this is clearly revealed
in these verses. Number one, We were all dead,
dead in sin, dead under the law, dead before the court of heaven,
sentenced to everlasting death. Number two, Christ died for the
all that's mentioned in this text. He died for every one of
them. He died not for all men, the
text doesn't say that, but for all. For all who? All his people,
all his sheep, all his church, all his elect, all the sons he
brings to glory. And all for whom he died, died
in him and in him live forever before God. When Christ died,
I died. Paul said, I am crucified with
Christ. And quite literally, that's not
in the present tense. What he's saying, Paul, is that
when Christ died, I died. When he was crucified, I was
crucified. Now, people today preach this thing of mortification,
you know. I'm crucifying myself with Christ.
I've got to nail myself to the cross. There's some good things
to be said concerning that, but that's not what Scripture teaches.
We must daily, continually nail our lives to the tree for Christ's
sake, but insofar as God Almighty is concerned, when Christ my
substitute died, I died in him, and so did you. So the law has
nothing more to do with us. The Lord's object in dying for
us is that those for whom he died should not live unto themselves,
but unto him who died for them and rose again. Now you've got
two choices. You can either sit back and say,
well I believe, I just believe Jesus died for everybody and
thus declare that his object in dying is futile and his accomplishments
in dying are nothing. and his purpose in dying is for
nothing, and that he himself who died accomplished nothing,
and thus blasphemed his name. Or, you can believe, according
to the scriptures, that he who died is indeed the Christ of
God, and that he accomplishes his purpose. Therefore, as the
apostle teaches here, all for whom Christ died are made as
the result of his death. by his own invincible grace to
quit living for themselves and to live for him who loved them
and gave himself for them. What's the difference between
the believer and non-believer? Just this, we have been constrained
by the love of Christ, crucified as our substitute to quit living
for ourselves. We've been constrained, drawn
by that great effectual magnet of grace to him who loved us
and gave himself for us. All right, look at 1 Timothy
2. 1 Timothy 2, verse 4. Paul tells us to pray for all
men, kings and those that are in authority. You find that in
the first three verses. He tells us to do so because,
verse 4, God will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge
of truth. Now, if you start to tell someone
about the death of Christ and the certain accomplishments of
his death and you declare to them that every sinner for whom
Christ died shall at last be saved and there's no possibility
that Christ shed his blood to redeem anyone in hell, they'll
quote 1 Timothy 2 forward and say, but God will have all men
be saved and come to the knowledge of truth. Well, that's great,
but let's see who they all are, those kings. and people in authority. Mentioned in the first verses.
Not all men without exception. Not all men without exception.
He's already damned multitudes. Their multitude is already in
hell. Sons of Corbin have been in hell a long time. So He's
not talking about them. He's talking about all kinds
of men. They have all kinds of men to be saved and come to the
knowledge of truth. Black, white, rich, poor, bond,
free, male, female, learned, unlearned, mighty men, lowly
men, learned men, ignorant men. It doesn't matter. For there
is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Look at it now. Who gave himself
a ransom for all to be testified in due time. Again, interpret
scripture in the context. The Lord Jesus Christ gave himself
a ransom for all those for whom he is the mediator. And you find
out who they are in John 17. They're the folks he prayed for,
not the ones he wouldn't pray for. He gave himself a ransom
for all those for whom he stands before God as a mediator, surety,
and substitute. A ransom to be testified in due
time. Maybe this is the due time. I've
come to declare to you, all who will hear my voice, Jesus Christ
at Calvary paid a ransom price for a vast multitude which no
man can number, a ransom price which God in justice cannot deny. And I've come to testify to you,
it's done. It's done. God helped you to believe. Oh,
may God testify it to your soul. See, God has no respect for persons.
The oil mentioned in this passage is talking about all sorts of
men. The Lord Jesus gave himself a ransom for all God's elect,
scattered among the four corners of the earth, every nation, kindred,
tribe, and tongue. And in his time, he will testify
to them of his great grace and mercy. Look in chapter four,
1 Timothy, verse 10. Paul says, for therefore we labor
and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God, who
is the savior of all men. especially of those that believe. He's the Savior of all men, not
in the sense that he saves all men spiritually. I don't know
why that's so hard for some folks to get hold of. But it means
that He is the Preserver, the Keeper of all men. He's the one
who gives you life and breath. He's the one who maintains your
health. He's the one who gives you food to eat and water to
drink and gives your body the ability to assimilate the nutrients
from it. He's the one who keeps you in
sanity and keeps you breathing. And He's the one who's going
to take it away. He's the Savior of all men. But oh, He's especially
the Savior of them who believe. He preserves you in life and
keeps you in grace. Not only preserving you for time,
but preserving and keeping you for eternity. Not only saving
you in time, but saving you forever. God's creative care, His benevolence,
if you will, upon His creatures, is but the outflow or the overflow
of his special care of Larry Chris. He's the savior of all men. Yeah,
everybody's in his hand. He gives life and he kills. He
gives riches and he gives poverty. Everybody's in his hand, but
he does it specially He chose you. He redeemed you. He kept
you. He called you. He's still keeping
you. He'll bring you to glory. Look
in Titus chapter 2 verse 11. For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men. This grace of God that brings
salvation is the gospel of God's free grace. It's appeared to
all men. I'm preaching the gospel to every
one of you. Every one of you sitting here, all of you, hearing
the same message. But then it does something for
some of us. It teaches us. You see that? Now, Diane Campbell
sitting back there is a teacher. And she gives out her lessons,
and sometimes she teaches and sometimes she doesn't. Sometimes
the kids get the lessons, sometimes they don't. That's Not really
the fault of the teacher. Sometimes it is, sometimes it's
not. But teachers pay attention, or kids pay attention, or they
don't pay attention. Kids get the lesson or they don't get
the lesson, but she's taught the lesson nonetheless. That's not
what the word means here. This word doesn't mean just to
give out the lesson, it means to educate. The grace of God
that brings salvation has appeared to all men. We preach it everywhere.
But it educates us. I mean, Bobby, it effectually,
irresistibly, convincingly teaches us that denying ungodliness and
worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously and godly
in this present world. The gospel of God's grace, which
is preached universally in a sense, that is, it is preached freely
to all men everywhere, wherever God sends a preacher. Yet that
gospel is limited in its effect by God's design, effectually
teaching chosen redeemed sinners to deny ungodliness, to say no
to ungodliness, to say no to worldly lust, and to live soberly,
righteously, and godly in this present evil world. Hebrews chapter
2 verse 9. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 9. We'll look at two more texts
where the word all is used. Actually the word all is not
used here, it's the word every. But we see Jesus, who was made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned
with glory and honor. that he by the grace of God should
taste death for every. Now, if you want to, I suggest
that you do. Take your pen and make yourself
a note. Draw a little circle around that word man. It ain't
in the text. It's just not there. You can
look it up in any version you want to, it's not there. The
word every simply has been added by the translators. It's added
to make the text read more sensibly. And that he should, by the grace
of God, taste death for every. You say, well, that's a dangling
sentence. We can't have that. So they add
the word man. But quite literally, rather than
being a sentence, it ought to start with the word every and
have one of those little semicolons beside it. Because this is the
list who the Avery are. And you read the context. In
the next verses, 10 through 17, we see that our Lord Jesus Christ
tasted death for every son whom he brings to glory. Every heir
of his kingdom and his father. Everyone of Abraham's seed whom
he took hold of when he passed by the angels. Everyone for whom
he makes intercession. Everyone whom he calls his brother. And everyone who is in his church. Now then, look at 2 Peter chapter
3 and verse 9. 2 Peter 3 and verse 9. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering
to usward. Now remember, the longsuffering
of God is to usward. God's long-suffering buddy is
particularly designed, purposed, and used for you. How do you
know that? Because in chapter 3 verse 15
he says the long-suffering of our God is salvation. His longsuffering
is designed toward us, his elect, for the saving of our souls.
God is not longsuffering with the reprobate and those who are
forever damned. Oh no! He's long-suffering with
us and puts up with them because of his long-suffering to his
elect, determined to save us. And that's exactly what verse
9 is talking about. He's not slack concerning his
promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to his
elect, not willing that any of his elect should perish, but
that all should come to repentance. Now, I'm not a prophet, and I
don't deal in prophecy much. I don't deal in prophecy much,
not because I'm afraid of it, but because I'm convinced that
that's not what God sends his servants to deal with. Folks
who deal in prophecy all the time, avoid dealing with the
issues of your heart. Folks who want to deal with prophecy
all the time have figured out a way to keep from confronting
you with the claims of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The Word
of God is not sent to tell us what's going to happen to Russia,
Israel, or America. The Word of God is given to tell
us our relationship and responsibility before God to the crucified Redeemer,
the Son of God, our Savior. So as you look at this passage,
and it talks about God's long-suffering and His promise concerning the
second coming of Christ. Folks look at it and they say,
well, when is the Lord coming? Folks have been preaching He's
coming for 2,000 years. Folks start making dates and making
predictions, say, well, he's going to come now, he's going
to come at this time, he's going to come after this happens. I'll
tell you exactly when he's coming. He's coming, Mark, when the very
last sinner on this earth, born of Adam's loins, chosen by God's
grace, redeemed by the blood of Christ, is called by his spirit. The only reason this world stands
is because God has an elect multitude whom he's determined to save
for the glory of his name. And when he gets done, he's gonna
snuff the candle out. It's just that simple. All right, now secondly,
There's another whole category of scriptures where the word
world is used to describe the people for whom Christ died.
Let me just read them to you and give you the meaning as we
go along. I'll tell you up front, the word world as it is used
in every one of these instances refers to the world of God's
elect. When our Lord Jesus spoke to Nicodemus in John 3, God so
loved the world, when John spoke in 1 John chapter 2, Christ's
propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but also for the
sins of the whole world, he was expressing to those to whom the
scripture is written, those who were being addressed, he's expressing
to them that which was the most difficult thing on this earth
for them to grasp. The Lord was saying to a bunch
of Jews, bigoted, racially prejudiced Jews. God's love is in no way
attracted to you because you're a Jew. God's grace is in no way made
to be drawn to you or given to you because of your Jewish pedigree. but rather God has a people whom
he loves, whom he's chosen, scattered among every nation, kindred,
tribe, and tongue in all the world, Jew and Gentile, black
and white, male and female, bond and free, rich and poor, learned
and unlearned. As a matter of fact, Most of
God's elect are different from you by a long shot. And I'm telling you the same
thing. Kind of like going down south in the early 60s when I was a boy and
some fella coming into one of our churches and saying, now
fellas, y'all need to learn something. Y'all need to learn something.
Matter of fact, things haven't changed much. It's kind of like
going down south or coming to central Kentucky or coming to
Danville, Kentucky and teaching the same thing today. God's love's
not limited to white folks. White folks alone are not the
objects of God's choice, but God has his elect everywhere. You don't mean to tell me God
loves black folks just like he loves white folks. Oh yeah, let
me tell you. That's exactly Nicodemus' response.
That's exactly the response. You're not saying God loves Gentiles
like he loves Jews. You're not saying that Abraham's
seed is not superior before God. Oh yeah, that's exactly what
the text is saying. Now read with me. John chapter
1 verse 7. John the Baptist came for a witness,
to bear witness of the light. How come? Because there's no
other way for sinners scattered through all the world to find
out about the light. Faith came by hearing, hearing
by the word of God. He came to bear witness of the
light that all men through him might believe. He was not that
light, but he was sent to bear witness of the light. That's
what we do. We come to bear witness of the
light, because there's no other way for you to ever see the light.
You folks say, well, I believe if a man just get the Bible and
read it and search and be honest with the Bible, he'll see the
light. Go ask the Ethiopian eunuch about that. Just go ask him. Oh no, you mean if I was got
to hear a picture? Yeah, that's what I mean. Faith
comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. That was the
true light, verse nine, which lighteth every man that cometh
into the world. See there, Christ gives light
to everybody. He does, he certainly does. He gives the light of conscience
and creation to everybody so that everybody's without excuse.
Verse 29. The next day John seeth Jesus
coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sin of the world. I bid you behold the Lamb of
God, by whose blood, by whose merit, by whose sacrifice the
sins of his people through all the world were at one time taken
away. Behold Him, behold Him. Look in chapter 3, John chapter
3 verse 16. For God so loved the world, His elect scattered through all
the world. God so loved sinners, Our Lord uses the word world
in just those ways. Remember Paul said at that time
you were without Christ, without God in the world. There was a
time, buddy, when we were among them. The world, the world, sinners,
sinners. Hear me. God Almighty so loved lost, rid, doomed, damned, helpless,
hell-bent sinners throughout the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son. Oh, now there's love. That whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. Look in chapter four, verse
42. Our Lord said unto the woman, our said unto the woman, now
we believe not because of thy say. These men who heard that
Samaritan woman's report, they said, we believe not because
what we heard you say. For we have heard him ourselves. And know that this is indeed
the Christ, the Savior of the world. Same thing said in 1 John
chapter 4 verse 14. Jesus Christ the Son of God is
the Savior of the world. That means two things. He's the
only Savior there is. He's the light, the only light. He's the way, the only way. He's
the truth, the only truth. He's the life, the only life
there is. Without Him, there is no light
but darkness. There is no way but a barricade
between you and God. There is no truth but deceit
and lie. And there is no life but death,
everlasting death. The Lord Jesus is the Savior
of the world, the only one there is, for sinners everywhere in
this sin-darkened world. And were it not for him, this
world would have ceased to have been a long time ago. You ever wonder why when God said to Adam, In the
day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. How come he
didn't? How come? How come when God said,
In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die, though
Adam died spiritually, he continued to live in this world, and God
didn't destroy the world as he threatened he would. How come?
Because long before Adam sinned against God and we sinned in
him, the Lord God set up his son to come into this world,
the last Adam, the seed of the woman. And now in Adam's loins,
there is a people chosen of God who must be saved. And so God
preserves and puts off his judgment for the sake of him. and his
seed who shall be saved. And so Jesus Christ literally
is that one who upholds all things by the word of his power and
saves this world from destruction. Not your politicians or mine. Not this political party or this
political persuasion or the other. Oh no! Christ preserves the world
for the saving of his elect. Now then, Look at 2nd Corinthians
chapter, or it's John chapter six. Let me give you this one
in John. John chapter six, verse 51. Our Lord says, I am the living
bread, which came down from heaven. If any man eat, he shall live
forever. And the bread that I will give
him is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world. I give my flesh so that anyone
in all the world might live who eats my flesh, who believes on
me. Do you believe Him? Believe on
the Son of God and live forever. Now then, look in 2 Corinthians
5.18. Paul tells us here that God was
in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. See there, God
has reconciled everybody in the world to him, not hardly. Not
imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed to us
the word of reconciliation. Now this is exactly what he's
saying. There is a people represented by the Son of God, Reconciled
to God by the death of his son, by an act of God's own justice,
by him satisfying his justice through the sacrifice of his
son. Well, who is that world? Who are they in the world who
were reconciled to God? Those to whom the Lord God will
not impute their sins. Bob Ponce, Believing on the Son
of God, God Almighty will never charge you with sin, nor me. Blessed is the man to
whom the Lord will not impute sin. Those meant by the world then
who were reconciled to God by the blood of Christ are those
whose sins have been put away, Jew and Gentile, throughout all
the world by the sacrifice of his dear son. Now then, let me
give you one more text in this regard. John chapter two, first John
two, verse one. My little children, these things
write I unto you, that you sin not. What I'm preaching to you, I
preach to you and urge you not to sin. Don't sin. Don't sin. Resist the evil that's in you
and the evil that's around you with every fiber of your being.
Make no excuse for sin. None. And having said that, You will, you do, you are. And if any man sin, well, that's it. You're gone. Bless God, that's not it. You're
not gone. We have. We have. The only folks who have him are
those who sin. Did you hear that? I didn't say
it by accident. The only folks who have Him are
those who sin. Now if you've got a second when
you don't have any sin, you don't have Him. You got a second when
you stop sinning, you don't have Him. But if any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father. An advocate whom God Almighty
must receive. an advocate upon whose merit
he must receive us who have him. Because this advocate is Jesus,
Savior. Christ, the appointed one of
God, the righteous, that advocate, that Messiah, that Redeemer,
that Savior, who is righteous before God. And he's the propitiation
for our sins. He's the mercy seat. He's the
satisfaction of justice for our sins. And not for ours only. but also for the sins of the
whole world. What does that mean? That means
he's the advocate and the propitiation and the righteousness of God's
elect everywhere. Now there's one third group of
text. Those text which seem to suggest
that some for whom Christ died might perish under the wrath
of God. Let me just give them to you.
You don't have to turn there and read them. We'll look at
them in more detail later, perhaps. But in Romans 14, 15, Paul warns
us to destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died. And folks look at it and say,
well, then it's possible that some for whom Christ died will
be destroyed. The word destroyed means to defile,
to mar, to hinder, to corrupt. And this is what it's saying.
You men and women in the faith, you take great care that you
do not behave in such a manner as to hinder mar, defile, and
corrupt the weak conscience of a weaker brother. You be careful
that you don't do that. They're your responsibility and
mine. They're our responsibility. Say, well, we, I'm not responsible
for him. Oh, yes, you are. Oh, yes, you
are. So am I. And if Jesus Christ
died for my weaker brother, If he gave his life for my weaker
brother, I can give up a glass of wine, or a cigarette, or a
trip to the movies, or any of those things that are throughout
the scriptures described as being matters of indifference. Surely
I can give it all up, any of it, for the sake of my weaker
brother, for whom Christ died, lest by my behavior I lead him
to behave in such a manner as defiles his own conscience. And
second, in 1 Corinthians chapter 8, the apostle is dealing with
the same subject in verses 11 and 12, and says, through thy
knowledge shall thy weak brother perish for whom Christ died?
But whom you sow sin against the brethren, and wound their
conscience, their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Now,
I can't do any better than John Gill in this place. He said,
this perishing obviously does not refer to their everlasting
perishing in hell, but it does intend the perishing of your
brother's peace and his conscience or his comfort for a time. And
it's explained by defiling or wounding him, wounding his conscience,
making him to offend through your imprudent use of liberty. So Paul says to us, don't cause
your brother's peace and joy to be disturbed. by leading him
to do that which is contrary to his weak conscience. Take
care that you don't set a bad example or lead your brother
who is weaker than you to do that which he himself looks upon
as evil because of his lack of understanding of things. In Hebrews
10 verse 29, Paul speaks of those who were sanctified with the
blood of Christ being worthy of eternal damnation. And in
that passage, the word sanctified does not mean that they were
sanctified inwardly, but there are multitudes. My soul, we've
seen multitudes who for a while were outwardly
sanctified, separated from the rest of the world, called out
of society, take up the name of Christ in a profession of
faith in Christ's blood. who now trample under their feet
the blood of the Son of God, do despise the Spirit of grace, and count the blood of Christ,
the blood of the covenant, an unholy thing. And then Peter speaks in 2 Peter
2.1 of those false prophets who bring in privately damnable
heresies, denying the Lord that bought them. And, of course,
you're familiar with that text. They deny, not kurios, that word
that's used by God's people as we look to Christ as our master
in whom we delight, but rather the word desperate. They deny
him who is the sovereign despot who has the right to rule them,
to uphold them and dispose of them as he will, because he bought
that right with his blood. And that's what the word means.
It's not he redeemed them, oh no, but he bought them as a possession
to dispose of as he will. And the father has given him
power over all flesh to do just that because of his sacrifice
and obedience unto death for his elect. It's a great pity
that most men and women carp and cavil and stumble over scriptures. These very scriptures, which
teach us the most blessed truths of the gospel, let us not be
so foolish as to ensnare ourselves in trying to answer their carpings
and cavilings, but rather rejoice in the things taught here. Redemption
is God's great work of grace. It was accomplished by Jesus
Christ, and there was no possibility of it being accomplished in any
other way. We could not redeem ourselves, nor could we contribute
anything toward redemption. The redemption that was obtained
by Christ is held in the hands of Christ for God's elect. It
is redemption that is an eternal redemption. And all who believe
on this Son of God, this great Redeemer, were by Him redeemed
at Calvary. Our believing on Him has nothing
to do with the accomplishment of redemption, not at all. It's
the result. Lindsay read it just exactly
right in Romans 5. He said, therefore being justified, the justifying
was done by Christ. Now believing on Him by faith
we have peace. Would you go home tonight at
peace with God? Oh, I would. I would. And believe on the Son of God. And believe it. I have peace. Sinner though I am, peace with God, who reconciled
me to himself by the blood of his dear son, who will not impute
sin to me. Amen. God bless you. You're dismissed.