Hebrews chapter 10. As you know,
I was recently in a meeting with Brother Maurice Montgomery down
in Orlando, Florida, where a congregation has just begun just a few months
ago. A pastor and a small band have
pulled out to start a new work, a new work because of the gospel
of God's free grace. And I have prepared this message
and I preached it, or one very similar to it, while I was there,
and I want to bring it to you because I believe the message
to be as important and as necessary for you as it was for that young
congregation in the beginning. Some of you will recall the first
time I was here to preach to you. I said to you when you considered
calling me as your pastor, if there is any place in this town
or any place within a reasonable driving distance of this town,
where you can go hear the gospel and worship God, don't call me
as your pastor. Don't move me and my family down
here, and don't continue with the project of building this
building. Go join up with them. And if you call me as your pastor,
then what you're saying is, there's no place, where we can go worship
God. No place where we can go hear
a man speak for God. No place in this town, no place
around us where we can go hear a man declare the gospel of God's
grace. Now I recognize that some of
you then didn't understand what I said. Some of you may not yet. Many of you do. And I want this
morning to show you once more from the scriptures the vital
necessity of understanding the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus
Christ. My subject this morning is universal
redemption, the most hideous doctrine in the world. My text
is Hebrews chapter 10, verse 29. I do not intend to expound
this verse of scripture. I simply take it as the starting
point for my message. The Apostle writes and says of
how much sorer punishment, suppose you, how much sorer punishment
do you think shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot
the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith
he was sanctified, that is, professed to be sanctified. and outwardly
by his religious behavior was sanctified in the eyes of men.
But now he counts it an unholy thing, and hath done despite
unto the Spirit of grace." Now this is what I want you to see,
and I want you to understand it. That man who treads under
his feet the Son of God and counts the blood of the covenant an
unholy And that word unholy, if you have a marginal reference
in your Bible, means a common thing. Everywhere in this town
this morning, preachers of every rank and denomination are standing
before men telling people the blood of Christ is a common thing.
Common. Common means it's for everybody.
Common means it really doesn't make any difference. Common means
is really irrelevant and insignificant. They count the blood of Christ
an unholy thing, and they despise the Spirit of grace. They commit
the greatest of all evils in this world, and deserve the terrible
vengeance of God's unmitigated wrath. I hope you understand
that is an accurate statement. In this message I want to expose
what I believe to be the most hideous doctrine perpetrated
in the name of God in this world. Some time ago, a young man heard
me on the radio, and I received a letter from him, or a call
from him, rather, and he asked me in his conversation if I would
be so kind as to send him a copy of the message and answer some
questions for him. And he wasn't being a smart aleck,
he wanted to know some things. And he asked four questions.
He asked if I would answer these four questions. Number one, what
is the doctrine of universal redemption? Secondly, why do
you so strongly oppose that doctrine? Thirdly, what do you believe
about the redemption work of Christ? Those were his words.
And fourthly, why do you believe it? And I spent a good bit of
time writing that young man a letter, carefully answering those questions
briefly, but answering them from the Scriptures. I trust God has
used it to give him a clear understanding of the gospel. After I wrote
him, I sat down and thought to myself, looking over the letter,
that'll preach. And it ought to be preached.
And so I'm bringing the message to you. And I'm simply going
to take those four questions and answer them for you from
the Word of God, and I trust that God the Holy Spirit will
give me your attention and cause you to hear and understand what
is said. I'm going to speak plainly and
distinctly. I'm going to speak with utter
clarity. I mean to be understood and I
will be understood. Every one of you sitting here,
everyone who gets this tape and listens to it, if it's aired
on television or radio, everyone who hears it, if they will just
listen, will understand exactly what I'm saying. I don't speak
in such a manner that you might take it one way and might take
it another. You're going to understand what I'm teaching. I recognize
that if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself
to battle? For my part, I am convinced that
ambiguous speech on the part of preachers is both intentional
and treasonous to the glory of God. Ambiguous speech on the
part of preachers is both intentional and treasonous to the glory of
God. What do you mean, Pastor? I mean
when a fellow stands up and preaches and you kind of, I wonder what
he really meant. I wonder if he really meant for
us to understand. and that election and predestination
and so forth, what was he saying? I wonder if he really meant for
us to understand God's sovereign over everything, or does he mean
for us to just limit that in some way? What did he really
say about the redeeming work of Christ? Ambiguous, ambiguous
statements by preachers are intentional and treasonous. I stress that
because I hear fellows fairly often. Folks send me tapes, and
they want me to listen to somebody. This fellow, he believes grace.
He claims to believe a little grace, and I listen. And he's
preaching where folks despise it. And he says things that you
listen to. You say, well, yeah, that's pretty
good. But another fellow sitting there
listening to him who hates God and hates the gospel of God's grace
says, yeah, that's all right. That's pretty good. The man's
a traitor. He's not the servant of God,
he's a traitor against God. John Hazleton, I just read a
brief book by this fellow John Hazleton, who was a preacher
a hundred years ago, and he made this statement. I want you to
hear it. I'm going to do a review of the book in the next week
or so, but listen carefully. He said, the servants of God
must not only be for the 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. In Nehemiah 13, verses 23 and
24, we read of the degenerate Jews that their children spake
half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak the Jews'
language, but according to the speech of each of the people. What a statement! They call me
half-way talk like Jews and half-way talk like folks who worship Ashdod.
They call me half-way talk like they worship God and half-way
talk like they worship an idol. What a description of our day.
Many women who claim to believe God speak half in the speech
of Ashdod. Hazleton said, so it is this
day. The clear, bold, distinct phraseology of Scripture is not
heard as it should be. We are commanded to preach the
word, but not an ambiguous language which may be explained to suit
both sides, but which satisfies neither. You see, it is quite
possible for a man to tell the truth and at the same time deny
God. Very possible. Turn over to Acts
chapter 4 for a minute. Acts chapter 4. I'm going to
get to the text, I'll get to the questions in just a moment,
but I want you to see this. Most everybody preaches out of
the Bible who claims to be Christian. There are not many who don't.
This is a true story. I just got a note from our friend
Paul Harris that was an Anglican, I may have told you already,
over in England and one of the Episcopal bishops. They always
give up something for Lent. He gave up something for Lent.
This is rare. He gave up, usually it's chocolate
or ketchup or salt or something, liver, maybe something they don't
like. He gave up something he didn't like. You know what he
did? Christian bishop. He gave up
the reading of the Bible for Lent. He's going to read the
Koran just during Lent season. But most people aren't that foolish. Most who claim to be Christians
at least pretend to speak from the Word of God. They open the
Bible and they read from the Bible and they use Bible language.
But it's quite possible for a man to stand in the pulpit and tell
the truth exactly and at the same time deny God. Let me show
you an example. The Apostle Peter, he and John
had just healed the impotent man at the gate of the temple.
And they were arrested for healing this man. And they had been called
before the Jewish Sanhedrin. Now remember who these boys are. These are the boys that just
managed to get the Son of God crucified. These are the fellows
who had just managed to turn the whole nation against Jesus
Christ, the Son of God. These are the fellows who persuaded
Herod and Pilate to have this man, Jesus of Nazareth, nailed
to the tree. Now Peter and John are standing
in front of them. They know what kind of power these fellows have.
And they said, by what name and by what authority have you done
this? And Peter could have said, He
could have said this. Brethren, we have done this in
the name and by the authority and by the power of the Lord
God Jehovah, the only true and living God. And he'd have been
coming to the truth. And he'd have caught a long fire.
Everything would have been rosy. The old saying, he'd have been
gone over would have said, Amen. That's it, boy. We believe that.
But Peter knew to whom he was speaking. And he was not about
to vacillate. He had already experienced that.
He was not about to be treasonous again to the Son of God. He had
already experienced that. He stands before this Sanhedrin
crowd, and he says, as far as you do what you've got to do,
I'll do what I've got to do. I'm here to tell you that this
man stands before you whole. Look what he says. Verse 10.
Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel,
that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified."
He didn't have to say that. Yes, he did. He's going to be
true to God, he did. He's going to be true to their
souls, he did. He's going to be honest, he did. In the name
of Jesus Christ, that despised Nazarene, whom you crucified,
whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand
before you whole." You see the difference? God's
servants, God's servants do not vacillate with regard to truth.
God's servants do not speak in ambiguous terms. God's servants
are heard and understood when they speak of the things of God.
Those who are not understood are not understood because they
don't want you to understand them. That's exactly right. Now
let me answer these four questions for you, as I did for that young
man, and I pray that God will be pleased to use them. First,
he asked me, what is the doctrine of universal redemption? You
hear me refer to that horrible scheme of theology frequently. And I know there is a danger
of building up a strong man just to knock him down. I don't want
to do that. That would be a no profit to
anyone. It's not hard to do, but that's a useless exercise.
I want to state the doctrine of universal redemption as fairly
and as honestly as I possibly can in the very words it was
taught me and in the very words I hear me and teach it today.
This is the doctrine that I was taught in both the colleges I
attended where the gospel of God's grace was despised. It
is the gospel that is being preached and permeates the whole of religion
in our day called Christianity. First, briefly stated. The doctrine
of universal redemption may be summarized in three statements.
These three statements. This is what we're talking about.
First, those who teach universal redemption would have us to believe
that the Lord Jesus Christ died for all men without exception. Well, what's wrong with that?
Everybody believes that. I know that's one of the problems.
I listened to Peter Jennings the other night on ABC News.
They were doing a survey, you know, everybody got real excited
because that bunch of nuts out in California committed suicide
looking to go to heaven on a spaceship. They should have stayed with
the gin and tonic. They would have had just bad hallucinations.
But they were doing a survey and they wanted to find out what
people believe about God and the Bible and Christianity and
faith. And you know, 94% of those surveyed
in this country, these are the same folks Ninety-four percent
of which are in favor of this thing or that thing or the other
abomination in this world, but ninety-four percent, they said
they had faith in God, believed in God. Fifty percent of them
nearly said they believed the Bible was the Word of God. And
Jennings summarized their faith like this. I don't know where
he gets to be an authority on theology, except that every mother's
son is. Everybody thinks they know what
the Bible teaches. He said, Christianity says, that Jesus died on the
cross outside Jerusalem and provided salvation and eternal life for
everybody. No, Christianity doesn't say
that. Paganism says that. Idolatry says that. The notions
of men say that. Jesus Christ did not provide
anything, he accomplished something. And there's all the difference
in the world. But we are told that Christ shed his blood for
everyone in the world equally, that he made redemption, salvation,
and eternal life equally available to all people. He died for all
men without exception, as much for those who perish in hell
as for those who are saved by his grace. He did no more for
those who are in heaven than he did for those who are in hell.
All are equally the objects of his love, the objects of his
grace, and all are equally the objects of his atoning sacrifice.
Bill Dean said in New York, you went to Tennessee Temple, didn't
you? It's exactly what they taught you. It's exactly what they taught
you, if you paid attention. It's exactly what they taught
you. Then we're told Christ did not actually secure and guarantee
the salvation of anyone by his death on the cross. but only
made it possible for all men to be saved. They tell us Christ
made salvation possible for everyone. Those who preach universal redemption
say that Christ did not actually redeem anyone. He didn't actually
justify anyone. He didn't actually put away anyone's
sins by his death. But when he died, he made it
possible for everyone to be redeemed. Made it possible for everyone
to be justified. Made it possible for everyone's
sins to be put away. And then thirdly, they would
teach us that man, by his act of faith, gives merit to the
blood of Christ, and makes the blood of Christ effectual for
himself, for the redemption of his soul and the atonement of
his sins. Now I'm not talking off the top
of my head. I'm not just taking this stuff up. I'm not pulling
it out of the air. I'm giving direct quotes. Several years
ago, Sheldon and I were driving out of town. At that time, Al
Giesler was pastor of First Baptist Church here in town. And I'm
using the name because I want folks to know exactly what I'm
saying. And I presume he's not embarrassed for me to quote what
he said. He made this statement. And I told him, I pulled out
a piece of paper, I told Shelby, I said, get out a piece of paper
and write that down. I don't want to forget it. This is exactly what he said.
Jesus loved you, died for you, and has done everything he can
to save you. But it will all be in vain unless
you believe. What a shame it will be that
Jesus' death will be in vain for so many. Shame it will be, indeed, not
to you, to him. If Jesus Christ died for you
but could not save you, if Jesus Christ died to put away your
sins but did not put them away, if Jesus Christ died to save
you from the wrath of God, then he is a failure and he bears
the shame, not you. I heard Jerry Falwell make a
similar statement. Exactly these are his words.
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. Not God Almighty. Oh no. Not the one true and living God.
Where on this earth do men get the idea that God tries to do
something? Where do we get the idea that
God is striving or wants or is pleased to do what he doesn't
do? The Word of God states exactly the opposite. Now, that's a fair,
honest statement of the doctrine of universal redemption. In making
it, I've done God's servants or God's enemies all the kindness
I intend to do them. Heretical as it is, I've stated
the doctrine honestly. I ask you to consider these questions
before we go on. When you think, or hear men say,
the Son of God died for everybody, that he died as much for Judas
and the sons of Korah and the inhabitants of Sodom, who were
already in hell, as he did for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who
were already in heaven. That he died as much for those who
perish under the wrath of God as for those who are seated at
the throne of God. Once in a while I wish fellows
would put on a thinking cap rather than pulling it off when they
go to church. Just listen for just a minute to what folks say.
Would the Son of God come nearer laying down his life for folks
or praying for them? Which would you do? If you were
going to do one or the other and not both, which would you
do? Would you pray for folks or die for them? I think I'd
pray for them. I think I would. But our Lord
said plainly, I pray not for the world. You can read it for
yourself, John 17. I pray not for the world. You
mean to tell me he died for folks he wouldn't pray for? He died
to put folks in a savable position whom he would not even ask the
Father to save? Why, that's absurd. Nobody but
a religious nut would think of such a thing. Would the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is infinitely wise, shed his blood to redeem the multitudes
who were already eternally damned when he died. Let's suppose, anybody who likes
to buy wrecked vehicles and fix them up, let's suppose he finds
the first car that was ever made. I mean the first one that anybody
ever put an engine on and rode down the road. He finds the first
one. And he can buy it for $1,000. Only one catch. This car was
burned up. And all there is left of the
car is a heap of ashes, but this is the car. Oh, I'll buy that. I'll put you in a loony bin.
Boy, that's nuts. That's nuts. And yet people tell
us the Son of God shed his blood to redeem those who were already
damned. What wisdom is there in that?
Would God sacrifice his Son, the Son of his love, to die in
the place of one, even one who was positively the object of
his hatred and wrath? Certainly not. And he declares,
Esau, have I hated! Those are God's words, not mine. Read them for yourself in Romans
9.13. Do you mean to suggest, my friends, that God Almighty
thought Esau as the object of His everlasting hatred and wrath
and judgment, would send His Son to die for Him, whom He loves
from eternity with perfect love? It seems to me that any reasonable
person who considers those questions must conclude that there certainly
are some for whom Christ did not die. Now the second question
this young man asked me was this. Why do you so strongly oppose
that doctrine of universal atonement, universal redemption? I'll give
you five reasons. You can jot them down if you'd
like. I encourage you to do so. This doctrine is more harmful
to the souls of men than any doctrine in the world. I speak
strongly and deliberately. I reject the doctrine of universal
addiction as outright heresy, and I denounce it as the most
hideous doctrine that has ever been perpetrated in this world.
The doctrine that Christ died to save all men, both those who
are saved and those who are lost, treads underfoot the Son of God
and counts the blood of the covenant a common, unholy thing and does
despise the Spirit of grace. It is a more damaging, more damning,
more deadly, more fatal heresy than those who would stand and
publicly declare that Jesus Christ is not the virgin-born Son of
God. For at least those men raise
a red flag, and anybody who reads the word of God is warned by
their statements. But here is a doctrine that subtly
declares Jesus Christ is not God, while pretending to declare
that he is. Here are my five reasons for
opposing it. Number one, the doctrine of universal atonement
says that there is no power, merit, or efficacy in the blood
of Christ until man's state ignites that power. I've heard being used the illustration
that the power of Christ's blood and the power of God's grace
is like a stick of dynamite. There's potential power in the
gospel, potential power in Christ, potential power in the grace
of God, but dynamite's got a few. And the fuse must be lit and
ignited in order for the explosive power to go into effect. And
that's the picture of our faith. In other words, the blood of
Christ, the death of Christ, the work of Christ, the grace
of God, is useless without you doing something. Any objections? useless unto you by the mighty
act of your will, by the mighty act of your faith. Give merit,
power, and efficacy to Christ's blood by igniting it with your
will. Essentially, such doctrine makes
man his own savior. People say, oh, but you limit
the atonement. No, God did. God did. And we declare it plainly. Yes,
sir. Everybody has a limited concept of the atonement. Everybody.
We declare that the atoning work of Christ was limited in its
design and in its purpose and in its efficacy to God's elect. Christ died for you. Everybody
else says that it's limited in its power and in its merit to
save sinners. In other words, I remember when I was in West
Virginia, I was there for nine years. The year I moved there,
they started working on that New River Gorge bridge, where
folks parachute and hang glide. They worked on that thing for
nine years. Man, that's a bridge. I remember when it was halfway
across the gorge, those fellows had come from one side to the
other, and the middle section, the spans had not yet been connected.
It was just halfway across the gorge. Now just suppose that
bridge is wide enough to carry everybody in the world halfway
across the gorge. Not much of a bridge. It won't
get you to the other side. You've got to put the connecting
span in. You've got to put the connecting
link in. Otherwise the bridge is useless. But the bridge isn't
that wide. It'll only carry so many people.
But it goes all the way across the gorge. And if you own the
bridge, you're going to cross the gorge. And you're going to
cross with perfect safety unless you're an idiot and jump off.
Now I'm telling you, the death of Christ spans the gulf separating
God and man and secures that those whom God put in his Son
as his covenant people shall be with him at last in heavenly
glory. The doctrine of universal redemption,
secondly, makes the grace of God nothing but a frustrated
desire in God's heart to save. I had this just last night, talked
to some friends, going through some real difficulties. And I hung up the phone and said
to them, And by that statement, I was
saying to him, I realize there's nothing I can do. I would if
I could, but I'm helpless. And I have a frustrated sense
of helplessness. That's the idea most folks have
of God's grace. God doesn't say if there's anything
I can do. God doesn't offer you grace as a tool with which you
erect the house of salvation. No, no, no. Grace is the sovereign
operation of God by which he performs salvation in the hearts
of sinners. There's a huge difference. Fourthly, the theory of universal
redemption perverts the character of God and reduces his glorious
attributes to nothing but meaningless words. It is denial of his very
character as God. Let me see if I can show you
what I mean. It makes the love of God nothing. Nothing. What kind of love would
that be, which has the power to save, but can't save? Now, you stop and think about
it for a minute. I've told you this before, but you take, a
man got his little baby in the house, he got a fire going in
his stove, sitting in the middle of the room, and he takes that
little one, two-year-old baby, maybe four, five, six years old,
and that baby's edging over there toward that fire. And daddy's
sitting right beside him, he says, now son, don't go over
there and touch that stove, it's hot, it'll burn you. And he just
keeps on going. Now son, don't get over there
next to the stove, you'll get hired to burn you. And he keeps
edging over there looking back at his dad like, I know you ain't
going to do anything. And he just keeps on going. And I'm sitting in the room beside
him. I look at Ben and I say, why
don't you grab that boy by the nap of the neck and pull him
out of the way and slap his bottom? Oh, I couldn't do that. How come? You're not able to do that? Oh,
I'm able to, but I couldn't do that. I love him too much to
interfere with his free will. God saved me from that kind of
love. It's not love. And men who say, God loves, but
his love will not prevent your damnation, are utterly idiotic
in their doctrine. Utterly idiotic in their doctrine. More than that, utterly blasphemous
in their doctrine. For such doctrine makes the love
of God meaningless. More than that, it perverts the
wisdom of God into ignorance and foolishness. Who makes plans
that he knows can never be carried out? Who pays for what he knows
he shall never obtain? It makes a mockery of the justice
of God, for to punish a man twice for the same offense is injustice,
it's barbaric cruelty. And it reduces the power of God
to a helpless, withered arm. Here is God's power, helpless, and to you by your
omnipotent free will give God permission to do what he cannot
do without you, to save your soul. Such a God is more worthless
than a rabbit's foot, at least you can sell the rabbit's foot.
Useless. And it reduces the immutability
of God. to utter fickleness. God says,
I am the Lord, I change not. I change not. Aren't you glad
he doesn't change? We're as fickle as sand by the
seashore. God doesn't change. If anything depended on us, I
mean anything depended on us, We wouldn't stay in five seconds,
but God didn't change. And yet those who teach this
doctrine of universal atonement, universal redemption, that Christ
died to save everyone, would tell us that God loves all men
enough to send his Son to die for them, but then his love turns
against them in wrath in the day of judgment. They tell us
that God is merciful to everyone until judgment day, and then
his mercy turns to wrath. They tell us God is gracious
to everyone until judgment day, and then his grace turns to wrath.
That's nonsense. It's blasphemous nonsense. And this doctrine robs God of
his glory, for it gives man Ultimately, it gives man all the glory of
making the distinctive determination of his everlasting salvation.
Fifthly, universal redemption to a very great extent makes
the work of Christ a futile exercise and a waste. It makes the precious
blood of Christ nothing but a wager, a bet, a gamble in which God
gambled the life of his Son on man and lost the bet. What nonsense! What blasphemy! If Christ died for all and all
are not saved, then that awful absurdity must follow that Christ
died in vain. If Christ died to save all men
and all are not saved, then that awful absurdity must follow that
Jesus Christ failed in his work. And if he died in vain, if he
failed in his work, he is not God and you're yet in your sins. For the scripture says, he shall
not fail. Let me give you one more time
a direct quote from Noel Smith. Mr. Smith was my first theology
professor. He taught biblical interpretation
and theology at Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri
until he died. He was my professor there when
I was just 18 years old. As he endeavored to describe
hell, this is what he wrote. I have never seen but one other
man consistent enough in his Arminian heresy to state what
Nobel Smith stated. But this is exactly the logical,
necessary conclusion to those who teach that Christ died for
all men. This is what Mr. Smith said exactly. What is hell? It is an infinite
negation, and it is more than that. And I say it with profound reverence. My soul is too ghastly to read,
but read it I must. He said, Hell is a ghastly monument
to the failure of the triune God to save the multitudes who
are there. I say it reverently, he goes
on. I say it with every nerve that my body tense. Sinners go
to hell because God Almighty himself couldn't save them. He did everything he could, he
failed. This doctrine is as useless as
it is hideous, for it offers no grounds of hope for any sinner.
This doctrine declares that sin, after all, has not been put away.
Regention, after all, has not been accomplished. Salvation,
after all, has not been secured for anyone. Everything's up in
the air. Nobody knows what's going to
happen in the end. It offers no basis of assurance to any
believer. If salvation is ultimately determined by my repentance and
faith, then I must constantly be harassed by nagging questions. Have I repented enough? Have
I believed enough? What if I should lose my mind
and am no longer able to believe, and am no longer able to repent?
Then must I perish? This notion of a possibility
of universal atonement is so far from Scripture that there's
not even a hint of it. It is a doctrine of total human
fabrication. By pouring out his life's blood
unto death, they would teach us that our Savior satisfied
nothing. Divine justice was not satisfied. He did not make an effectual
atonement for our sins. Whereas the word of God teaches
exactly the opposite. Jesus Christ has satisfied justice. He has put away the sins of his
people. He has rendered unto God exactly that which God required
for our salvation, and by his blood has obtained eternal redemption
for us. The sure result of Christ's redeeming
work at Calvary is the everlasting salvation of those for whom he
died. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many. Who are those? The very many
whose sins and transgressions he bears. They should be justified,
every one of them. You remember when our Lord was
in Gethsemane, and Judas led that band of troops, Roman troops
out to get him, that band of soldiers, and they came out against
the Son of God with their swords and with their staves, and they
were going to arrest him like a common criminal. But our Lord
Jesus steps forward and says, who are you looking for? Who
ever heard tell of such a thing? Nobody. This is not a thief.
This is not an ordinary man. This is God Almighty. And he's
demonstrating it. They said, we're seeking Jesus.
And Nazareth, he said, I am. And they fell back as dead men.
The word, I am, prostrated them as dead men before him. He raised
them up and said, now that you know who I am, who are you looking
for? And they said, we're seeking Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I
am he, if you seek me. He points to his disciples and
says, let these go their way. And this is what he did, brother.
In the everlasting covenant of grace, and at Mount Calvary,
he said to the justice of God, whom seek ye. And the justice
of God said, I have come seeking justice for sin, against all
men. And the Lord Jesus points to
those men whom he calls his sheep. And he says, if you seek me,
they've got to go for you. You can't have me and my people. And he, having satisfied justice,
has forever secured the salvation of his people. Now this is the
gospel. Anything contrary to it is a
false gospel. The Apostle said, I have delivered
unto you first of all that which also I received, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures. This young man asked me, fourthly,
why do you believe what you do about the death of Christ? Well,
the word of God plainly states it. Our Lord Jesus, when he speaks
of his death, said twice in John chapter 10, I am the good shepherd,
the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." And the
Pharisees standing back here in the background, they said,
we don't like that. And of course I wasn't talking to you, you're
not my sheep. He speaks as plainly as he can
be. I live my life for the sheep, you're not sheep. I died for
the sheep, you're not sheep. I came to see the sheep, you're
not sheep. I haven't done anything for you, haven't done anything
for you. These are my sheep. This doctrine ascribes the whole
work of grace and redemption to Jesus Christ alone, and gives
him all the praise for it. We declare that Christ has redeemed
us. Turn to Revelation 5 for a moment. Here there, the saints of God
are gathered before the throne and they're singing a hymn. And
this is how they say it. Listen now, this is how the saints
in heaven sing. This is not the Hattie Goodmans,
this is the Choirs of Glory. This is how they sing. They sung
a new song saying, thou art worthy to take the book and to open
the seals, for thou wast a slave and hast redeemed us. Do you sing that? Thou wast slain
and hast redeemed us by thy blood along with every kindred and
tongue and people and nation." Does anybody have a Bible that
reads that way? Any translation written by any idiot? I'll give
you a hundred dollars for it today. There's not a Bible anywhere
written like that. What does it say? has redeemed
us out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation." Why did
he write it that way? Because he means for us to understand,
we were redeemed out of the world, not with the world. And that's
made us kings and priests unto God, and we shall reign on earth. Therefore, the psalmist says,
not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory
for thy mercy. and for thy truth's sake." This
doctrine gives hope to perishing sinners. I'm preaching to some of you
here who are without Christ. I pray
I'm preaching to some of you here who have been made to understand
by God's grace that you're utterly helpless before God. damn trespassers
and sinners. You got nothing to offer me. Nothing. Oh, would to God I could
get everybody, would to God I could get everybody
in this place at the very gates of hell recognizing you deserve
it. Everybody. You mean preacher? You want to strip away every
strand of righteousness? Every shred of goodness, every
claim of decency, all God's stripping away. Until he does, you'll never
trust his son. As long as you've got one stem
of the fig leaf of self-righteousness left in you, you'll never seek
the Son of God. Never. Your sins will never keep
you from Christ, but your imaginary righteousness will. Now is there
such a sinner here? Anybody here who's got nothing Jesus Christ died for you. That's right. I don't have any
question. He died for every sinner that hears me. Everyone else.
I'm talking about real sinners. Real sinners. And I'm telling
you that there is accomplished for sinners double for all your
sins. by God's hand. The Son of God has paid your
debt and brought in everlasting righteousness, and it's yours
just as surely as you believe it. Here I am, a sinner. Thirty years ago, thirty years
ago, I had wrecked my life and wrecked everybody's life
I had any influence over. I talked to a very dear friend
of mine just the other day, a pastor. He tries to minister to his brother. His brother's a heroin addict.
He's now responsible for what might be his first drug. I drank every day, every day. And I was brought under the wrath
of God experimentally and terrified with God's justice. And at last, I heard someone
declare the accomplished work of Christ on the cross and looked
to him. I couldn't bring anything but
nakedness and shame and sin. And now 30 years later, almost
30 years of preaching, almost 30 years of reading, studying
this book, trying to instruct others in this book. I've come to the Son of God with nothing but nakedness, corruption,
and sin. Because there is not one shred
of goodness about me. And coming to him just that way,
oh, glory! He declares, this blood is for
thy ransom paid. I die that thou mislead. Pastor, how do you know he died
for you? Cause I trust Him. I believe Him. That's all. I
just pledge to believe Him. That's all. That's all. Oh, but
my faith's not that strong. I'm going to talk about it a
little bit this evening. My faith hardly measures up to
a grain of mustard seed. Well, maybe. Maybe that much. And faith is a grain of mustard
seed. Says to the mountain of my sins, be cast into the sea. And you know where they are?
In the sea. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. Evidence of things not seen. I know my name was
written in the Book of Life before the world began. I know the Son
of God died for me. I know I've been called by God's
Spirit to life everlasting because I believe Him. And I wouldn't
and I couldn't if He hadn't chosen me, redeemed me, and called me. Can you, right where you sat,
believe on the Son of God? Can you? Can you believe it? Can you believe it? Can you cast
your helpless, naked, guilty, doomed, damned soul on the merits
of the Son of God? If so, I'm here to tell you not
that Christ made it possible, but He secured it 2,000 years
ago, yea, from eternity. when he was slain as the Lamb
of God from the foundation of the world. That's the doctrine
of Scripture. That's God our Savior. He hath
redeemed us. Years ago, years ago, there was
a preacher in Chicago walking down the street one winter, and
there's some boys from his congregation. He spotted them in an alleyway.
They had trapped a Old Blackbird. And they were back in the alleyway
just playing with that Blackbird in that old homemade cage they
had. And the preacher walked by there
and he said, he said, boy, what you doing? He said, I was asking
the preacher. He said, what you got there?
They said, gosh, old Blackbird. He said, what you going to do
with it? The boys looked up and said,
we're going to play with him, harass him a little bit, and
I reckon we'll kill him, just the Blackbird. Preacher reached in his pocket.
He said, boys, I got $2. I'll give you that black bird.
Boy looked up at him. He said, Preacher, you don't
know this thing. There's no black bird. He said, I got $2. I'll give
you that black bird. Here he is, caging off. So he gave him
the $2 and held that black bird up. He watched those boys go
around the corner, out of the alleyway, out of sight. And he
opened the cage. And he said to the blackbirds,
I've brought you, you're mine. Now I set you free. And he shooed
them out of the cage and took off flying. He said, I could
almost hear them as they were flying through there. As they
were flying through there, he said, I could hear that blackbird
singing, redeemed, how I love to proclaim it, redeemed by the
blood of the lamb, redeemed through his infinite mercy, his child,
and forever I am. what he's done for me. He bought
me 2,000 years ago, locked, stock and barrel, and now he's come
by the power of his grace, applied that blood to my heart. He said,
I said, you