I'm going to turn over to Isaiah
chapter 53. You know, years ago, I went to work with a friend
of mine named Oki. He was a businessman, and he
had a little, he had a little paperweight on his desk. And
I caught him out of his office one day, and I adjusted it a
little. A little later, he had some customers
in front of him. And they kept looking at him
really strange. And he finally asked him what this meant, the
customers did. And he turned it around to look
at it so he could see it. He had a little stone that said,
smile, God loves you. And right underneath it, I had
taped on the words, except you, Esau. And Oakey said, my friend
Dan's with you. God's love is a particular thing.
I've mentioned this before, and I want to speak this morning
about particular redemption. Isaiah chapter fifty-three, everyone
knows. Look at verse six. This is my
text. This is my text. all we like sheep have gone astray,
and have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all." The first thing that's said here
is, all we like sheep have gone astray and turned everyone to
his own way. What you see in these verses
here is a biblical fact that all men are fallen sinners in
Adam. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We're born this way. It's the result of Adam's fall.
Romans chapter 5. Don't turn there. I'll just read
it to you. Wherefore, as by one man's sin entered into the world,
and death by sin, so death passed upon all men, for that all have
sinned. We've all sinned in Adam. We're
sinners in Adam. David said in Psalm 51, 5, Behold,
I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me." We're sinners from birth. Have you ever wondered why when
a Jewish boy was born, eight days later he had to be circumcised? Eight days. Give the kid a break. Eight days. Mother had to go
through forty days of purification if it was a male child. That's
what's taught over in Leviticus. We won't go there, but Leviticus
12-4. If it was a male child, she had
to go through 40 days of cleansing. And if it was a female, it was
80 days of cleansing. She brought in another person
who could bring in other sinners. And so, she had to go twice as
long. Just the corruption, the guilt
of bringing in a sinner into this world was something you
had to offer a sacrifice for. What's that all about? It means
we've been bad from the get-go. We were sinners the day we arrived
here. We didn't come here innocent.
We did not come here on trial. When we got here, the jury had
already met. We were condemned the day we
were born. Condemned sinners. Totally depraved. And what's more here, personally
depraved. You see that? All we like sheep
have gone astray, but we've turned every one to his own way. We've
got our own personal way of being sinners. We're practicing sinners.
Some of us went to the left, some of us went to the right,
but all of us went away. Practicing sinners, self-determined
sinners, perfecting our own particular style. I was perfecting my style
as a sinner. And everyone in this room has.
Nobody has ever been born just like you. All going in our own ways, all
having one thing in common, we were not going towards Christ,
and frankly, we could not go towards Christ. It was not within
our ability. Now somebody would argue, what
about my free will? What about your free will? You know, water is free to flow.
It's not free to flow uphill. It is contrary to nature for
water to flow uphill. I'll tell you how unlikely it
is for a sinner to ever seek God on his own. You might as
well go and watch Niagara Falls and see if it ever reverses its
direction. It's not going to happen. Earth becomes the center of the
universe, and the sun starts going around it, will be the
day that you and I, by nature, can change what we are. The Ethiopian
cannot change his thoughts. We're just that way. We're just
that way. Depraved human nature. Look at
Psalm 14. Two psalms I want you to look
at real quick. Psalm 14, put your hand on it, and Psalm 53. First three verses, Psalm 14.
The fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works.
There is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven
upon the children of men to see if there was any that did understand
and seek God. They are altogether gone aside.
They are altogether become filthy. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. Look over at chapter, Psalm 53.
The first time I saw this, I thought it was just a You know, you see this and you
think, well, it's just a mess-up. Somebody's put the psalm in twice. It's
not a mess-up. It's here for one reason. The fool has said
in his heart, there's no God. Corrupt are they. They've done
abominable iniquity. There's none that doeth good.
God looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if
there was any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one
of them has gone back. They're all together become filthy.
There's none that doeth good. No, not one. That's repeated
twice, just so you make sure it's understood that this is
talking about God's view of every man on the earth. He ransacked
heaven and earth with his omniscient eye and could not find a good
man. Paul quotes this. Look at Romans
3. We saw this earlier today. Romans
3. I love this. When Paul gets around to quoting
those verses we just read. Look at verse 9. He's talking
about comparing the Jews and the Gentiles. What then? Are we better than they? No,
and no wise, for we have before proved, both Jew and Gentile,
that they are all under sin. As it is written, there's none
righteous, no, not one. There's none that understands.
There's none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out of
the way. They're all together become unprofitable. There's
none that doeth good, no, not one. You know, back there in
Psalm 14 and Psalm 53, where he talks about the fool that
said in his heart, no God. You know, often you think of
that as being an atheist. Oh, there's an atheist in my,
I go to school with. He says there's no God. He's
a fool. No, that's not what that's talking
about. That word there, God, is Elohim. It means, no Lord
for me. No Lord for me. And every one
of us came into this world saying, no Lord. No Lord for me. I'm
a fool. You're the fool. No, Lord, it's
me. There's none good. There's not one righteous. None.
None. None. Paul even goes further.
He actually goes away from the generalities and look at here.
He starts naming the particular organs of the body here, just
in case somebody's misunderstood. Your throat's an open sepulchre.
Your tongue you've used to see. The poison of Asp is under their
lips. The mouth is full of cursings and bitterness. Their feet are
swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways. The way of peace they've not
known. There's no fear of God before their eyes. Everything
about you, right down to your eyes, there's no fear of God.
And whatsoever things does the law say, if it says to them that
are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world may become guilty before God. That's who that's all about.
All the world become guilty before God. Now, I'm telling you, depraved,
none good. And what I want you to see here
is this. If that's true, and it is, and if the election is
true, and anyone who's ever read the Bible knows there is an elect
group of people known as God's sheep. To deny that is to just
shut the book. It's just to close the book.
Now, if it's true that all of us are totally depraved, than
those who say God looked down through the telescope of time
to see who would believe on Him, and who would be pretty good
people, and who would live fair to midland lives, and decided
He'd make them His elect. Those folks are completely wrong.
It cannot be. God couldn't have looked through
the telescope of time and found anything in you to merit any
of His attention. He couldn't have found that with
an electron microscope. There's not an organ in your
body It's not defiled. Your understanding is fallen. Your will, you will not seek
him. Your will is fallen. Your understanding is fallen.
What I want you to know, I'm here today, believe me, is that
his election of his people is absolutely unconditional. He
did it because he would. I said, you want a reason? He
would. And the great thing that I'd
like to tell you today is that he did this for an innumerable
host, far beyond any number that man can put upon it. A group
of people that he's loved with an everlasting love, who are
going to spend eternity singing about the blood that was shed
for them. And that really brings me to my point here, the atonement
itself. This is a rock upon which everything
else is built. It's the only hope the sinner's
got, and it's going to be the joy of the saints throughout
the ages. The joy of the saints throughout
the ages. And the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. Back there in the text, you see
that? Now there are people in the world, and this is common
today, It's known as Arminianism, it's
become so prevalent in the world. People had believed that the
Lord Jesus Christ had all the sins of all the people that were
ever born put on him at the cross. This is a very great mistake,
and I'll show this to you later. But they do this in an attempt
to make salvation as broad a thing as possible. They want to, they
feel as if it was a demeaning of the value of the work of Christ,
to say it was for somebody in particular. But as one old man
said, they make a very wide bridge, but it doesn't go across the
river. It just won't get the job done. And what happens at
the end of all this is if Christ died for every single man, every
single woman, and the decision to accept him has been left with
them, then obviously the glory of their salvation is theirs. That's the bottom line. It's
theirs, the glory. That's why when you talk to people,
I work with people, when they talk about salvation, they'll
always say, I'll never forget the day I I'll never forget the
day I went forward, or the day the preacher preached, and I
came up front, and I began to shake, and I accepted. That's what they talk about in
salvation. But I tell you, if you ever get it in your head
what salvation's about, you're not going to be talking about
it. You're not going to be talking about it. Christ died not to
make salvation possible for all men, not to make it possible
for those who would just let him be their Savior. He died,
my friends, for his people. I've actually heard folks stand
in the pulpit and say that God Almighty has done all that he
can do, and now it's up to you. If you're Billy Graham and he's
a poet, it's all up to you now. God's done all he can do. Yeah,
we're in trouble. I've actually heard preachers
say that the angels are looking down over the banisters of heaven,
waiting to see if you'll accept Him as your Savior. As if your
will is some impregnable fortress that He cannot overcome. And
it's all up to you. Oh my, it's just nowhere. You're
never going to find it. Nowhere in the Bible do you ever
find God Almighty getting on the throne. Tell you something
else, nowhere in the Bible do you ever find a sacrifice that's
a general sacrifice. Now, you think about it. I mentioned
that woman a while ago. She had just had a child and
she's going to go through a purification process and go down and offer
a lamb on the fortieth day. Who's the lamb for? Is it for
all the ladies in the area? Well, no, it's for that woman.
When you took a trespass offering to the temple because you'd sinned,
You put your hand on the lamb, it wasn't for all your neighbors,
it was for you. It was for you. When the high priest went in
once a year into the holy place, he had on his breast, you remember
what he had on that breastplate? The names of the twelve tribes
of Israel. There wasn't a Canaanite represented
anywhere. All, it was the names of God's
people on His breast. And that's what I want you to
know. It was a particular redemption. Blood. Blood that was shed. It was never shed needlessly.
As a matter of fact, the Lord Jesus Christ, He didn't die for
all men. He wouldn't even pray for all
men. In John 17, He said, I pray for them. I pray not for the
world. That's what He said to the Father in John 17. Look at Exodus. I want to show
you. Here's a great picture of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I just realized that clock's not working. You people are in
trouble. It's 429. Exodus 12. Look at
this. Now, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Anyone that knows anything about
the New Testament knows that this is a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look here. Verse three, speak
ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth
day of the month shall ye take to them every man a lamb, according
to the house of their father, and a lamb for a house. And if
the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor
next unto the house take it according to the number of the souls. Every
man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.
Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You
shall take it from out from the sheep and from among the goats,
and you shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same
month. The whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall
kill it in the evening. And they'll take the blood, strike
it on the two side posts and on the upper post of the house,
wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh
in that night, roast with fire and unleavened bread and bitter
herbs. They shall eat it. Don't eat it raw, not sodden
in water. Roast with fire his head and
his legs and the pertinence thereof, and you shall let nothing of
it remain into the morning. And that which remaineth of it
in the morning you shall burn with fire." Now, what I want
you to see here As we read that, did you notice that no blood
was applied to a house where one of God's children lived?
If you live by yourself in Egypt, you and your wife, and you didn't
think you could eat a lamb, you went next door, and the lamb
was sacrificed according to the eating thereof. It was done in
reference to the partakers. No vacant homes had blood on
the door. The lamb would not be slain for
those who would not eat of it. That's what I want you to see.
You slew the lamb according to the eating. It was the plan and
purpose of God that not one mouthful of the lamb would be wasted.
And if there was any left in the morning, it was to be burnt
with fire. There was not to be any left.
Not to be any left. Now that, my friends, is particular
redemption. What am I talking about? I'm
talking about an atonement that is exactly sufficient for all
who partake. Exactly sufficient for all who
would take up partaking. The lamb would be based on the
eaters. It's not a drop of that blood
applied to any house where there was no one there. Now, I want
you to know that. The angel told Joseph, you call
his name Jesus. He shall save his people from
their sins. And that's what he did. That's
what he did. And back here in the text, the
Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now what's that saying?
Well, it actually says Jehovah hath made to meet on him the
iniquity of us all. The meeting place of sin. You
know, the Lord told Moses to build an ark in the Old Testament,
and he would meet with him there at the Ark of the Covenant. It
was the meeting place between God and men. There was blood,
judgment. Here, this is talking about Christ
having the sins of His people laid upon Him. One old writer
said it's like focusing. You know, when I was a kid, I
used to I'm sure all the kids did that years ago. Take a magnifying
glass and focus it down. Take all those broad rays of
the sun and burn little critters with it. That's just something
we did. He laid on the Son of God all
our sins. He laid them on. Now, they were
imputed to him, I know, but I'll tell you there's something more
than that here. Look at Romans, 2 Corinthians 5.21. 2 Corinthians
5.21. These are verses everyone's familiar with. 2 Corinthians 5.21. For he hath made him God the
Father, hath made him Christ the Son, to be sin for us who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him." I don't know exactly what all went on there, but I
know this, I know that God was not pretending. He was not pretending. There
are verses like Psalm 40. If you look at Psalm 40, look
at this verse with me for a second. I'm sure this is beyond human
comprehension, but Psalm 40, verse 12. Innumerable evils have compassed
me. compass me about, mine iniquities
have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up. They
are more than the hairs of mine head, therefore my heart fails
me." Everybody I know believes that that's speaking of Christ. Mine iniquities. Look at Psalm
69, verse 5. Now, you can't read the 69th
Psalm and not know that this is the Lord Jesus Christ. There
are over four different verses, five verses in this psalm that
are specifically quoted in the New Testament in reference to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Look here at verse four. They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of mine head. They that would destroy
me, being mine enemies, wrongfully are mighty. Then I restored that
which I took not away." That's got to be Christ. Who's restored
that which he took not away? It's Christ. Oh God, thou knowest
my foolishness and my sins are not hid from me. What I want
you to see is that he owns our sins. He claims to possess them. I love that. I was thinking about
that song here this morning as we were sitting. He took my sins
and my sorrows. He made them his very own. This
was an actual transaction, an actual transaction. He was not
just viewed as possessing our sins, but he possessed them.
He possessed them. The consequences of our sins
were laid upon him. He actually took our punishment,
took whatever hell would be for us. There in a few hours on that
cross, you know, you go to hell or I go to hell, we're going
to burn forever because we can't ever pay for what we are. He can, and he did, because of
who he was and who he is. He's the Son of God. He's the
Son of God, perfectly bearing the consequences of our sin.
And that verse in 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, we now bear the consequences
of His righteousness. I love that. God's not pretending
there either. Those who look to the Son of
God are righteous. They're righteous. They're righteous
in the eyes of God Almighty. Now, that being the case, Well, let's just think about
it for a minute. Was it right that it should be this way? Well,
it says here that Jehovah did it. Shall not the judge of the
whole earth do right? It was right that it should be
this way. It says here in the scriptures that the Lord himself
did this voluntarily. It was not something that was
forced upon him. We were reading this morning
and talking about, look at that Psalm 85. Let me show you something
here. Psalm 85. The brother brought this up in
Sunday School class. Truth shall spring out of the
earth. Verse eleven. Righteousness shall
look down from heaven. This is talking about the Son
of God. Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace
have kissed each other, and truth shall spring out of the earth."
He's talking about the Son of God. Look at Proverbs chapter
8. You know, David talked about how
wonderfully he was made in Psalm 139, how he was curiously wrought
in the lowest parts of the earth. Look at Proverbs chapter 8. I want to show you this verse. Proverbs 8. If you start in verse
23, you'll find out that this is talking about the Son of God.
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, before ever
the earth was. When there were no depths, I
was brought forth. When there were no fountains abounding with
water, when the mountains were settled, before the hills was
I brought forth. While as yet He had not made
the earth nor the field or the highest parts of the dust of
the world, When he prepared the heavens, I was there. And when
he set a compass upon the face of the deep, when he established
the clouds above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, when
he gave to the sea his decree that the water should not pass
his commandment, when he appointed the foundations of the earth,
I was by him as one brought up with him. And I was daily his
delight. The Father was delighting in
me, rejoicing always before him, and I was happy to be in front
of him, with him. Rejoicing in the habitable part
of his earth. You know what that is? What's
the habitable part of his earth that the Son of God rejoiced
in? Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst
not, the body thou hast prepared me. He's talking about the joy
of coming in the flesh to redeem his people. My delights were
with the sons of men. You see that? That word delight
there in the Old Testament, it's a double thing. It's talking
about, he's laughing about this. He's elated about coming to redeem
his people. Now you listen to me, children.
Blessed are they that keep my ways. That's talking about the
Son of God. His delight in coming to redeem his people. He did
it voluntarily. As a matter of fact, when they
came to get him in the garden, you recall, he told his soul,
he told his disciples not to fight. He was a willing, willing
Savior. And He came for willing sinners.
We were willing sinners. And it's right, too, for Him
to have done this. It's right for a man to take on the burdens
of his life. And it's right also that the
method of His rescue would be just like the way of our ruin.
You know, one man fell. And we were made sinners, and
one man stood, and we're going to be made righteous. We've been
made righteous. That's the plan of God. I'm glad that Adam fell
into the garden. I wouldn't have it any other way. You think about
it, if a perfect man in a perfect world, in a perfect environment,
could have one rule and blow it, what's the odds of you doing
a day? Son of God, made sin for me,
justly punished for my sins and your sins. that we might justly
be made the very righteousness of God in him." Now that, my
friends, is particular redemption. Because if that's true of everyone,
if Christ died for every single man that's ever been on this
earth, hell might as well freeze over. There's no reason for it. There's no reason. If God laid
all the sins on him of every man, and he endured the penalty
of every man, then justice cannot ask any more. And that's my hope. That's my hope. When I stand
here today and feeling any peace or joy in my life, it's because
I know that justice has required of the Son what was required
of me. And righteousness and peace,
they've all got together and hugged and kissed. All got together. I'll tell you,
we hold that the very nature of the satisfaction that Christ
made is something that could not have been made for anybody
other than His elect. He was a surety, a surety. If it was for everybody, then
I want you to know whom the Son sets free is free indeed. They're
all free. But it was for His people. It
was for His people. An atonement, not an attempt. We talk about a redemption that
really redeems. I love the certainty of the Bible.
I really do. I love the certainty of the Bible.
Nothing's in limbo. You know, when you read the Apostle
Paul, you get the impression that he was pretty definite about
this. Look at Romans 8. Well, we can just start about
anywhere. Romans 8, look at verse 31. What
shall we say, then, to these things? What are we going to
say to these things, if God be for us, who can be against us?
He that spared not his own son," now you just consider that. He
spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall
he not with him also freely give us all things? If he has done
this, if he has given up his beloved son for us, is there
anything that he won't give us? That's what that's saying. Is
there anything he won't give us? Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. There's
not a charge in heaven, hell, earth. There's not a charge even
in the conscience of anyone in this room that can be laid to
the charge of God's elect. It's God that justifieth. Who's
he that condemned? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
is risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who maketh
intercession for us. He's risen and makes intercession
for us right now. You see the certainty there?
Christ that died. An astonishing mass of sin laid
on the Son of God, He paid the penalty and rose to the right
hand of His Father to intercede for the people for whom He did
this." What shall we say then? I love that. Turn back a couple
pages, Romans 5. You say, well, I love the way
it's described here much more than verse 8. But God commended
his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. For if when we were enemies we
were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more,
if he did this while we were enemies, much more shall we be
saved by his life. He now lives. Making sure this
salvation is applied. Matchless security, I'll tell
you. I don't know what you have for security if you don't see
this. I just don't know. At the cross,
I see God Almighty smiting His Son as if He was absolutely,
ruthlessly cruel. And at the same time, I see Him
walking by sinners as if He was just incredibly gentle. I see a righteous judge walking by sinners. Now, there's
only one way that can be done without any taint to his character.
The sins of those people were put on that man, Christ Jesus. That's limited atonement. Indeed
it is. Unless eternal justice can punish
two men for the same sin, that's limited atonement. And that's
the gospel that's preached to you. That's the gospel I believe.
And that's the only gospel that will ever give any real sinner
any real hope. If you're laboring under the
illusion that you're a pretty good person, that you're not
one of the depraved ones I spoke of earlier, That there's somehow
some spark of goodness in your life that you came to this world
with. And that you could just make enough, go to church often
enough. And that you could put enough
in the plate. And that you could be a good enough person and maybe
please your mama and please your daddy. It's just not enough. It's not enough. You know, there's
honor among thieves. Gee, I watched a movie the other
night about the pirates of the Caribbean, or whatever they're
called. They have their code, and you can be considered a good
person in front of people and everybody around you, but you're
still a pirate. You've got the jolly pirate flag
up. The day you were born, you came in here that way. And there's
not a chance in this world of any goodness ever being found
in us. And I'll tell you, when we see what Christ has done for
His people, we see Him taking their sins, and we see they have
no other way of salvation. Boy, that's a sweet thing to
taste. It's an eternal redemption. Look
at Hebrews 9, and I'll let you go. You know, don't you hate
it when they say things like that? Hebrews 9. Talking about certainty here, the writer of Hebrews said in
the ninth chapter, verses eleven and twelve, look at this, Christ
being come a high priest of good things to come by a greater and
more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say,
not of this building, neither by the blood of bulls and cows,
but by his own blood he hath entered once into the holy place. Listen to this. Having obtained
eternal redemption. Could that be all, man? Having obtained eternal redemption
for us. Now, I'm telling you, look at
the next page, the next chapter, flip it over, the tenth chapter,
verse fourteen. For by one offering, he hath
perfected. I love that. Forever, them that
are sanctified, those who are set apart, that's what that means.
He has forever perfected them by one offering. Back here, 926,
Hebrews. For then must he often suffer
since the foundation of the world, but now, once in the end of the
world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself. That's what eternal redemption
is. You think about having obtained eternal redemption. He didn't
come here just desiring to get it. He didn't come here with
some general feeling that he hoped that somehow he would be
able to do something that in some way would enable some sinner
somehow to quicken himself to believe in. That's not right.
He came and obtained eternal redemption. And that redemption
gives us our freedom. It releases us from our captivity.
It takes away the slavery. And it's an eternal thing. I
love that. It's not temporary. It's not temporary. You know,
that used to kill me. When I first got religious years and years
ago, I used to, every Sunday night, they used to preach everybody
to the front of the hall. Up front, you had to pray through.
You ever done that? Anybody here ever gone through
that? Had to pray through every week. One week I was saved, the
next week I was lost. And it used to trouble me, you
know, what kind of eternal life is that? If I've got it one week
and I've lost it the next, it just can't be what the Bible's
talking about. And it wasn't. It's an eternal redemption. And
it's an eternal redemption because all the debts I owe have been
paid for. All the debts in my past, all
the debts of all God's people in the past. have been paid for. And all their debts to this very
moment, this very hour, this very day, you've sat here this
morning with things other than God Almighty on your mind. You
haven't worshipped Him as you would or should. And debts in the future, whatever may come, You know,
the Canaanites are still running the land. You know, I think that's
one of the reasons Canaanites were never put out of Israel,
to be a good picture of what goes on in the life of a believer.
Canaanites still in the land. And I want you to know this.
If you live to go through the seven vials that are poured out
in the book of Revelations, and you hear all the trumpets blow
and witness all the plagues come down on this earth, He hath obtained
eternal redemption for us. Now, that's right. That's right. This is no little gospel. This
isn't a gospel about somebody trying to do something. He wants
to save you, but he can't. He's knocking on your door. Come
on now. Son of God ever wants you, you'll
come. And you'll be glad to come. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all. Look back here and I want to
read you something here in the text. I'll show you who this is. He laid on us, on him, the iniquity
of us all. Who is this us all here? Well, let's look at the text,
verse 1. Who hath believed our report,
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? That's the us
all. Those of us who have believed
the report. Those of us to whom the arm of the Lord has been
revealed. Verse five, he was wounded for
our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement
of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.
Who's us all? It's us all who've been healed
by his stripes. Verse eight, look at this. He
was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare
his generation? For he was cut off out of the
land of the living, for the transgression of my people was he stricken."
Who's the us all? It's my people. All us people. His people. He was stricken. He calls them his generation.
It's his generation. His generation. Verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him, he hath put him to grief, when thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin. He shall see his seed, he shall
prolong his day, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand." Who's he talking about? His seed, us all, his seed. You realize that's saying that
Christ on the cross knew who he was dying for. He shall see
his seed. Verse 11 says, He shall see the
travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their
iniquities. Who's this? Us all who have been
justified by knowing him. You see that? They're going to
be justified by his knowledge. They'll know him. That's what
this is about. For us all who know him and are
justified by knowing him. Therefore, I will divide him
a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with
the strong, because he poured out his soul unto death, and
was numbered with the transgressors. And he bared the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors." Who is the all? All those for whom he intercedes.
Milton Howler had that in one of his bulletins, and I just
had to claim it. So what I'm saying to you tonight
is this, or today, is this generation has demeaned
the value of the Son of God's sacrifice. It's everywhere. It's everywhere. We don't demean it by limiting
its value, but we do limit its extent. We believe that Christ
came and died for his children. Every one of them. And when we get to heaven,
I've heard my pastor for many, many years say, you're not going to see an empty
seat. You're not going to see an empty
seat. Everybody that the Son of God died for will be there,
and we'll sing that song, that song of songs about His precious
blood that paid the price for us throughout eternity. That's all I've got, brother. Amen. That was a blessing. One thought that hit me so hard
while I was thinking of that message. I have deeply personal reasons. for despising and loathing the
doctrine of universal redemption. That teaching that says that
Jesus Christ made an effort to pay for the sins of all men,
and it's up to you to make it work for you. I have deeply personal
reasons for despising, and I mean despising, that doctrine. And here's my personal reason.
It takes away my only hope. That's why. Jesus, thy blood
and righteousness, my beauties are, my glorious dress. Mids flaming worlds in these
arrays, shall I with joy lift up my head. Bold shall I stand
in that great day. For who ought to my charge shall
lay, Fully absolved through these I am, From sin's tremendous curse
and shame? When from the dust of death I
rise, To take my mansions in disguise, In them shall this
be all my plea, That Jesus lived and died. You take that away, what do you
got? You got nothing. Such a blessing. Let's pray together. Our merciful and gracious Heavenly
Father, we give thanks for the glorious atonement of Thy dear
Son, the God-Man. And Lord, we believe that what
he did is everything, and we give thanks. Bless this message
for your glory and for our good. In Christ's name we pray, amen.
Duane, would you come and lead us in hymn number 62? And there's
a verse in there particularly that will ring clear regarding
what we just heard. Hymn number 62, around him within
a ground, we'll stand and see.