Hebrews chapter 2, and let's
begin reading verse 9 and read this chapter again. I think one
of the things about going through a book, one of the most important
things, maybe just getting to read it, read it time and time
again, will help us familiarize ourselves with it. Verse 9, chapter
2 of Hebrews, 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 man. For it became him for whom are
all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons
into glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
suffering. For both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he
is not ashamed to call them brethren. saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church while I sing praises
to thee. And again, I will put my trust
in him. And again, behold, I am the children
which God hath given me. For as much then as the children
are partaker of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise did
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death that is the devil. and deliver them who
through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he
took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God,
to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that
he himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to secure,
to aid, to help them that are tempted. I want to really just
think tonight about verse 9. We looked at this and we covered
this in one of our previous studies. But I wanted to take the next
two weeks tonight and the next time we meet on a Wednesday night
to deal with basically three things concerning the death of
Christ, the atonement of Christ. And I want to look at the extent
of the atonement, the design of the atonement, and the effect
of the atonement. I want to look tonight, though,
just at the extent of the atonement. How far-reaching is the atonement
which Jesus Christ made upon the cross of Calvary? Then next
week, we'll look at the design and the effect of it. Now, there's
three things, four things, really, that all begin with my introduction.
These things, the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, has been
a source of controversy. I don't know how many hundreds
of years. I know myself for three or four hundred years, especially
the atonement has been debated by theologians, the extent of
the atonement, the design of the atonement, the effects of
the atonement. Here, these four things basically is what people
believe concerning the atonement of Jesus Christ. Some men think
that the atonement of Christ reaches to everybody, that all
the world, all people in the world without exception is going
to be saved, finally. Now, I don't know anybody personally
that believes that, but there are people that believe that.
There are some universal Unitarians that believe that the death of
Jesus Christ is going to save everybody. I know some people
that lean in that direction, but I don't know anybody that
really personally believes that. The second thing people believe
is this, the death of Jesus Christ, the atonement of Christ has removed
the obstacles in reference to the pardon and salvation of all
men. John Bunyan himself argued for
this. Dear John Bunyan said, how can
we go out and preach the gospel and tell men they must repent
and believe the gospel if the atonement does not reach them
in some sense? If you can't say Christ died
for you, then how can you tell that man to come to God by Christ
and even command him to do that? But you could say the same thing
about election, couldn't you? Bunyan was very strong on election,
and it's the same way with his view of the atonement. If God
elected a number of people but not all people, how can you go
out and preach to all people to repent and believe the gospel
when all aren't elected? So you could use that same argument
for that. The third group of people say
this, and this is what most fundamentalists believe. Most of your churches
and most people that gather to worship, they believe this third
thing concerning the atonement of Christ. That Christ died for
all men without exception, but His death only is applicable
to those who believe it. That Christ did as much for one
as He did for another. He did as much for those who
go to heaven as for those who go to hell. The difference is
believing it. They say believing it makes it
effectual. Now, no matter where you go,
you'll probably run into this view. This is usually the view
that most people hold. The fourth view is this, that
the atonement of Jesus Christ is limited to those that the
Father gave to Him. I lay down my life for the sheep. So there's the four things, three
especially, that you'll see in our day. Now let's look at the
extent of this atonement tonight. We know that it's limited. We
know the atonement of Christ is limited. The apostle tells
us here in verse 16 that it doesn't reach the fallen angels. So we know in that sense it's
limited. God's never lifted a finger,
as we say, to atone for sinning angels. When they sinned, He
left them alone. And they're reserved under chains
of darkness and to the judgment of the great day. So we can say
it's limited in that sense. And I never read in the scriptures
where the atonement of Jesus Christ reaches animals. We're
never told that he died for animals, any animals. And we're never
told that it reaches inanimate objects. It doesn't reach the
earth itself or the stars or the moon or the sun. The death
of Jesus Christ then is limited to start with to human beings,
to sinning humans. He tells us there in verse 17,
He made reconciliation for the sins of the people. It's human sins that Jesus Christ
atoned for. But does the atonement extend
to all the human race without any exception? Hasn't an atonement
been made for every man and woman and boy and girl that will ever
live upon this earth. Has Christ obtained as sure an
atonement for those who perish as he has for those who are finally
saved? Now why do we even go here? Why
do we ask this? Because this is the controversy.
This is the controversy that has been argued in the religious
realm now for hundreds of years. This verse 9 here is one of the
texts that's been argued over. He said here in verse 9, we see
Jesus who was made a little Lord of the angels for the suffering
of death, crowned with glory and honor that He by the grace
of God should taste death for every man. And that's the text
that's been argued over among other texts. I read sometimes
after Albert Barnes, and I like Barnes in many things, he's one
of soundest fellows on election and perseverance of the saints
and the purpose of God I've ever seen, but he is adamantly opposed
to what you and I call limited atonement or particular redemption. And everywhere words like all
or every man or the whole world is mentioned, he makes it a point
to say, see there, it's for every man. It's for all men. It's for
the whole world. So I've used him in all three
of these examples I want to give you tonight. Let me read a statement
he made concerning our text that Christ tasted death for every
man. And this is what he said, quote, For all, for each and
all, whether Jew or Gentile, bond or free, high or low, elect
or nonelect, Christ suffered death for them all. How could
words affirm more clearly that the atonement made by the Lord
Jesus Christ was unlimited in its nature and design. How can
we express that idea in more clear or intelligible language? That this refers to the atonement
is evident, for it says that he tasted death for them. The
friends of the doctrine of a general atonement do not desire any other
than scriptural language in which to express their belief. It expresses
it exactly, without any need of modification or explanation. The advocates of the doctrine
of limited atonement, particularly redemption, cannot thus use scriptural
language to express their belief. They cannot incorporate the scriptures
with their creeds that the Lord Jesus Christ stays to death for
every man. They are compelled to modify
it, to limit it, to explain it, in order to prevent error and
misconception. But that system cannot be true,
which requires people to shape and modify the plain language
of the Bible in order to keep people from error." Now, that's
an unquote. Now, here's Robert Hawker. He's
on the other side. Listen to what he says. On this
very text, Christ suffered death for every man. It is not to be
supposed that Christ's death was intended a ransom for every
individual of the human race without exception, but for every
one of his brethren, the heirs of salvation, as they are called
in verse 14. And the following verses of the
many sons he is bringing to glory, verse 10, the persons whom he
is not ashamed to call brethren, verse 11, and the children whom
God hath given him, verse 13, These terms very plainly define
and mark the character of those for whom Christ tasted death. So there's the controversy. There
you see the controversy on both sides. And this is why I wanted
to look at this tonight. There's three words, and you've
probably talked with people about these three words, that the controversy
mainly is over. How far does the death of Christ
extend? Did He die for all men without
exception or for the elect? And usually three words are used. The first one here is every man. Christ tasted death for every
man. The second one is the word all
who gave himself a ransom for all. And the third word is the
whole world. Christ is the propitiation for
our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole
world. Now one of the reasons I come
here tonight to teach this lesson because I have no hidden agenda.
I can come here tonight and God bear me witness to say I have
no system to defend. I don't come here with the system
of Arminianism or the system of Calvinism to defend any system. I want the truth. That's all
I'm seeking and that's all I'm wanting to teach you is the truth. A lot of this controversy started
when Arminius and some of those that followed him came up with
a system they call Arminianism. And if you want to know what
Arminianism is, then look at Calvinism and go right to the
opposite. That's what Arminianism is. It's
a system of free will that man is not totally depraved, that
election is conditional, that Christ died for all men without
exception, the saints may still fall away, and then The other
side came up with this system of what we know as Calvinism.
I'm not here to defend either one of those systems. I wonder
sometimes if when we try to fit a system in the Bible, it's when
we begin to get confused. Because the Bible is too big
for a system in it, for any man-made system. And I think when we try
to put it in the Bible, a little system into a Bible, I think
we limit our understanding. You know, the Bible is so big
and when we begin to study it, it's given to us to increase
our understanding and to fill us with joy. When we read the
Bible, we read about the triune God. who He is and what He's
like and what He's did. We read about ourselves and our
circumstances, the precious promises. We read about all of these things.
But if we come to the Bible and we bring a system with us and
read the Bible in the light of that system, we're going to deprive
ourselves of a lot of understanding that we could have. Secondly,
if we come to the Bible with a man-made system, we may soon
become confused. We know a system of religious
teaching won't fit into the Bible. I'll tell you what, I've tried
to bring a system and read it, something I was convinced about,
and read my Bible in the light of that system, and I'll tell
you what, it got me so confused, and you know why? It seemed to
contradict my system. And that's the thing about man-made
systems. I don't care if it's the Armenian
system or the Calvinistic system. When you bring it to the Bible,
the Bible won't fit into that little system. And you say, boy,
that don't seem to match with my system. It don't seem to match
with this. And you get all confused, don't you? That's why we've got
to be careful when we bring our systems into the Bible. And the
third thing I wonder about this, if we don't sometimes grieve
the Holy Spirit, when we do this. I hope we're not even guilty
of this. But some people are, we've seen it. You know a system,
they said these systems, Arminianism, when they got together and come
up with their system, they said we're going to make it easier
to understand. And then when Calvinistic systems come in,
they say it's short, it'll make it easy to understand. And really
it does in a sense, doesn't it? But you know the Bible is not
always easy to understand. Have you ever read verses and
you didn't understand what they were teaching? And what did you
do? You kept reading. You prayed
about it. And you meditated on it. And
you weighed it upon the Lord. Our teachers, I'm amazed sometimes
at what Larry and Wayne's getting out of the Scriptures. But I
tell you this, it's not coming by some process of osmosis. It's
not coming to them while they sleep of the night. They're reading
the Scriptures. They're pouring over the Scriptures.
It's hard anyway. It's difficult. So systems can
be easy. But I tell you it's not always
so when we study the Word of God. And I wouldn't want to bring
my system, no matter how good the system may be, how short
and precise it is, and take a risk on grieving the Holy Spirit,
because I want the Scriptures to fit in to this system. Now let's quickly consider the
extent of the atonement. I may surprise you how this even
ends, but let's consider this. Every man, these three words,
every man, all, and the whole world. If you've got something
to mark these, I want to turn to them and I want you to mark
them. And you'll have to study these out for yourself. I'm just
going to direct you in that direction, and you'll have to study these
out for yourself. But let me go back to what Barnes said again.
Christ tasted death for every man. How could words affirm more
clearly that the atonement made by the Lord Jesus was unlimited
in its nature and design? How can we express that ideal
in more clear or intelligible languages? The friends of the
doctrine of general atonement do not desire any other scriptural
language in which to express their belief. This verse expresses
it exactly without any need of modification or explanation. The advocates of the doctrine
of limited atonement cannot use scriptural language to express
their belief. They cannot incorporate the scriptures
with their creeds that the Lord Jesus tasted death for every
man. They are compelled to modify
it, limit it, or to explain it. Now Barnes is simply saying here
because the verse says every man, it means every man without
exception. And he says if you don't let
it say every man without exception, then you have to stop and explain
it. He would never interpret other scriptures that way. I've
read him for years now and he would never interpret every man
in other places like He did that. And I want to show you. Now look
here in Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. And look in verse 3. Look here
in verse 3. Romans chapter 12 verse 3, For
I say through the grace given unto me, To every man that is
among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to
think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt or
gave to every man the measure of faith. Now let me ask you
a question. Has God given every man without
exception? saving faith. Does every man
have saving faith? He doesn't, does he? And when
I checked Barnes on this verse, he wouldn't even comment on every
man. He just passed it on. Well, how could he? What would
he teach if you didn't stop and explain this every man doesn't
mean every man without exception. What if it meant every man without
exception? Then every man would have saving
faith. Let me show you one verse to
prove every man don't have faith. Look over in 2 Thessalonians
chapter 3 and verse 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 and
verse 2. Look what Paul said here. He said in verse 1, ìBrother,
pray for us that the word of God may have precourse and be
glorified even as it is with you, and that we may be delivered
from unreasonable and wicked men, for all men have not faith.î
But did we not just read that God has dealt to every man the
measure of faith? Then every man is limited, isnít
it? And the way you find out the meaning of it most usually
is to keep it in its immediate context or in the context of
the Bible. Every man in Romans chapter 3
and 12 and verse 3 is those who have faith. If a man has faith,
it's because God has dealt him faith. Every man who has faith,
God has given him that faith. That's the meaning there of every
man. So when our dear friend Mr. Barnes says, you know, you don't
need any explanation, yes you do. Yes you do. And if you don't stop and explain
it and qualify it, you can really get yourself in trouble. And
you can go ahead and look at other places in the Scripture
that this phrase, every man is mentioned. The second word is
this word, all. all and then the whole world.
And some says all means all without exception. And the whole world
means the whole world without exception. I had a friend one
time that got upset with some of us and he was losing his support. He began to preach the grace
of God and he was losing his support. Some of you remember
him. I won't name his name, no need to. I remember the last
time we went and And he said, I want it to go on record that
I believe that all means all. All means all. Does all mean
all? Does it always mean all without
exception? Well, let's look at another passage
while we're close to this in 1 Timothy. Just right on to our
right there just a little bit in 1 Timothy. And look in chapter
2 and look here in verse 5 and 6. In verse 4 he says, speaking
of God, praying for all men, for kings and those who are in
authority, verse 2. In verse 4, for God will have all men
to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one
God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus,
who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. Now if you just read that, and
say, well, all means all, then Christ gave Himself a ransom
for everybody without exception. And I went to Barnes again, and
here's what Mr. Barnes says about this verse.
It is plain and obvious the meaning of the expression, the sense
which strikes all people unless they have some theory to support. To the contrary, it is required
all the... And it requires all the ingenuity
which people can ever command to make it appear even plausible
that this is consistent with the doctrine of limited atonement.
Much more to make it out that it does not mean all. If a man
is told that all the family must die, the obvious interpretation
is that it means every individual in the family. Now does all mean
all? And I think of every man in the
whole world, probably, if you read the Scriptures, every word,
all is mentioned, and you're going to have to study it for
a while because it's mentioned in a lot of places. You know,
so many places, it doesn't mean every person without exception
at all. It just does. Sometimes it means a great deal
of people, many people, you know, all in a crowd. And sometimes
it means all without exception. What does it mean here? Let me
show you another. Look in Hebrews chapter 8. Look
in Hebrews chapter 8. What I did before, most of you know that I'm a Calvinist.
I'm not ashamed of that. But I am a convinced Calvinist. I didn't come to those doctrines
because somebody told me one night of them. And I said, man,
I came to the truth of those doctrines through a lot of study,
through a lot of study. And I studied both sides. I studied
the Calvinistic side. I studied the Armenian side.
And the truths that I came to, I came through with study, with
a long time of study. And I've studied the other side.
I've studied the Armenian side. And what bothers me about the
Armenian side, it's not intellectually honest. They'll look at these
verses like all, and they'll say, if it says all, then it
means all without exception. But when we go to some other
place, we'll say, no, wait a minute. It doesn't mean all without exception.
And if you apply it to all without exception, I'm telling you, you'll
get yourself in trouble. You'll begin to teach heresy,
and right here is one of the places that all cannot mean all,
and we must not. say that it means all, and Barnes
himself would not say that in this verse here in Hebrews chapter
8. Look in Hebrews chapter 8 verse 11. And this is speaking of the
new covenant. They shall be my people and I
will be their God. Well, let's read it in verse
10. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel after those days saith the Lord. I will put my laws
into their mind, write them in their hearts, and I will be to
them a God, and they shall be to me a people. And they shall
not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the
greatest. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities will I remember
no more." Now, what if we applied Mr. Barnes' logic and reasoning
and interpretation to this passage that all means all without exception? Then all, without exception,
know the Lord. Then all, without exception,
have had their sins forgiven, and God has had mercy upon all. We know that's not true, don't
we? The Bible does not teach that. So all is limited. So when we go to 1 Timothy 2,
verses 4, 5, and 6, and it said He gave Himself a ransom for
all, why not keep that in its context? What's wrong with looking
at the context and say, I will that you pray for all men, for
kings and for those under authority? Why not say all kinds of men?
God will have all kinds of men. Why can't we interpret that that
way? In Mark chapter 1, don't turn
there. I've got this wrote down, but I'll read it to you. There
are several of these places I could turn to, but it would just After
a while you know it would just be repetition. Mark chapter 1
verse 36-37, And Simon and they that were with him followed after
the Lord Jesus. And when they had found him,
they said unto him, Now listen, Lord, all men seek for thee. Now has there ever been a time
when all men without exception sought the Lord Jesus? They never
did when He was here. And they're still not to this
day. When He was here, folks in Africa never sought Him. They
didn't even know He was here. Rome never sought Him. Over in
Asia never sought Him. So all simply means, Lord, all
kinds of people are seeking You. That's what it meant by it. I
am just for studying my Bible and being intellectually honest.
And if sometimes it needs to be explained or qualified, I
have no problem with that. Lastly, this word, the whole
world. I want you to turn to that passage.
I want you to look over to your right in 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2. And look in
verses 1 and 2. Look in verse 1. 1 John chapter
2 verse 1. My little children, these things
write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And
He is the perpetuation for our sins. and not for ours only,
but also for the sins of the whole world." Now, when I was
a young Christian, I read that. You know what I thought? Well,
the sins of the whole world. It wasn't an issue with me at
all until I began to read the Bible. That's what the Bible's
for, isn't it? It's to read and enlighten us
and teach us. Does the whole world here mean
everybody without exception? Well, here's Barnes again. The phrase, the whole world,
is one which naturally embraces all people, is such as would
be used if it be supposed that the apostle meant to teach that
Jesus Christ died for all people, and it is such as cannot be explained
on any other supposition. If he died only for the elect,
it is not true that he is perpetuation for the sins of the whole world
in any proper sense, nor would it be possible then to assign
a sense in which it could be true. That is to say, if it says
the whole world, then it would be impossible to assign any other
meaning to it but every individual in the world. But is that true? If it says the whole world, Because
it makes that phrase, does that mean you can't assign another
meaning to it? You can't limit it in any sense?
That's what Barn tells us. Let me show you the exact same
phrase which tells us it is limited to a group of people. Look in
chapter 5. John was the only one that used this whole word,
and he often used the word world. Look in chapter 5 and look in
verse 19. And we know that we are of God,
and look at this, the whole world lieth in wickedness, or in the
wicked one. Now, is everybody in the world,
the whole world, lying in wickedness without exception? What about
the children of God? We are of God. We're chosen of
God. We're loved of God. We're redeemed
of God. We're called of God. We're born
of God. Do we lie in wickedness? He said
the whole world. And if we take Born's interpretation,
then there's no other sense in which it can mean but the whole
world. But what if we applied the whole world to this without
exception? Then the children of God are
laying in the wicked one. John was the apostle of the Jews. We're told this plainly in Galatians
chapter 2 when Paul and Barnabas went to the Gentiles and John
and Peter and James went to the Jews. And in the early church,
the Jewish believers believed that Christ died only for the
Jewish nation, for nobody else. And what John came to understand
was that Jesus Christ was not only the propitiation for the
sins of the Jews, but also of the Gentile people. And that's
what He was teaching here, that no, the Atonement reaches farther
than just the Jewish nation. It reaches out to all the world,
to every family and tribe and tongue. That's why He said, Behold
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Now
is John teaching universal salvation? Is he teaching the atonement
of Christ so reached the whole world without exception that
it took everybody's sins away? What does he mean when he says
he takes away the sin of the world? He is just using an expression
which teaches us that The atonement reaches farther than the Jews. It reaches you. It reaches the
Gentile people, no matter how far off they are. People from
all over the world will be saved by the atonement of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The whole world. The whole world. Now let me tell you this, and
you're probably going to say, Bruce, you went through all this
for nothing there, but I'll say this. This is my own opinion
after studying all this, is this. You cannot determine the extent
of the atoning death of Jesus Christ, whether it's for everybody
without exception or for the elect only, by consulting these
three phrases. You cannot determine. the extent
of the atonement by these three phrases. Now, Barnes says you
can, but we've just proved that you can't. You can't say, well,
there it's for every man, so it must be for every man. It
don't mean every man always, does it? You can't say it's a
ransom for all because all don't always mean all. You can't say,
well, it must extend to everybody without exception because the
whole world doesn't mean everybody without exception. And neither
can the Calvinists say and prove by these three phrases that it's
limited. I think one thing as I read these
passages here that it wasn't, they didn't make it an issue.
John was not intended to prove limited atonement. our universal
atonement, when He said He's the propitiation for our sins,
and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.
I don't think that was an issue with Him. I just really don't
think it was an issue with Him. My understanding of Hebrews chapter
2 and verse 9, every man here is understood in its context,
just like we read a few minutes ago. is limited to the sons that
Christ is bringing to glory. Verse 10. Those who are sanctified,
verse 11. The children, verse 14. Those
delivered from the fear of death, verse 15. His brethren, verse
17. Those that He secures in verse
18. If you're a believer tonight
in the Lord Jesus Christ, I don't care if you're a Jew or Gentile,
bond or free, male or female, boy or girl, Christ tasted death
for you. He tasted death for you. No man
will ever be saved from the fear and reality of death but by Jesus
Christ tasting death for him. Every man who is saved from death
is saved in the very same way. Christ tasted death for every
man who is delivered from the fear and reality of death. You're
delivered because Christ tasted death for you. That wasn't even
an issue with a Hebrew writer. I don't think he's trying to
prove limited atonement or unlimited atonement. He was just making
a statement, and I think it's proved who this everyman is by
the context. Next week, week after next or
whenever, we're going to look at the design and the effects
of the atonement. And I think then when we see
the design of the atonement, what was purposed in the atonement,
we see the effects of the atonement, then I think automatically you
see the extent of the atonement. Now I didn't prove the extent
tonight, did I? Not with these three phrases. I can't prove
the extent. I can't say it's limited. And
they can't say it's unlimited. But next week when we look at
the design of it and the effects of it, I think you'll say then,
man, there's the extent of it. How far reaching is it? Some
man asked Charles Spurgeon one time, he said, Mr. Spurgeon,
what did the Lord Jesus purpose by the atonement? And Spurgeon
said, what's He doing by the atonement? So that's what we'll
look at next week.