I want you to turn to the book
of Acts chapter 13. The book of Acts chapter 13 and I
want to begin reading in verse 14. Paul and Barnabas had come
here to Antioch in Presidia. And he gives sort of the history
of redemption, the coming of the Savior. And he preaches the
gospel to Jews. And I want to see how he handles
the preaching of the gospel. But I want to look at it this
evening maybe with this thought in mind. This has been a question
on many minds. Men have wrote much about this.
But I want us to look at this evening, how do we preach the
Gospel in the light of particular redemption? How do we preach
the Gospel to unbelievers? In the light of particular redemption,
how do we preach the Gospel to unbelievers? I want to read this
message the Apostle Paul preached. Let's begin in verse 14. But
when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Persidia,
and went unto the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down.
And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers
of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren,
if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on. Then
Paul stood up and beckoned with his hand, and said, Men of Israel,
and ye that fear God, give audience. This people of Israel chose our
fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers
in the land of Egypt. And with an high arm brought
he them out of it. And about the time of forty years
suffered he their manners in the wilderness. And when he had
destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he divided their
land to them by lot. And after that he gave unto them
judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until
Samuel the prophet. And afterward they desired a
king, and God gave unto them Saul the son of Kish, a man of
the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years. And when
he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their
king, to whom also he gave witness, and said, I have found David
the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, which shall fulfill
all my will. Of this man's seed hath God,
according to his purpose and his promise, raised unto Israel
a Savior, Jesus. When John had first preached
before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people
of Israel, and as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom thank
ye that I am? I am not he. But behold, there
cometh one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to
loose. Men and brethren, children of
the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, To you
is the word of this salvation sent. For they that dwell at
Jerusalem, and the rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the
voices of the prophets, which were read every Sabbath day,
they have fulfilled them in condemning him. And though they found no
cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be
slain. And when they had fulfilled all
that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and
laid him in his sepulcher. But God raised him from the dead,
and he was seen many days of them which come up with him from
Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people.
And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise
which was made unto the fathers God hath fulfilled the same unto
us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again. And is it also written in the
second psalm, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.
And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no
more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will
give you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore, he said also
in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer, thine holy one, to
see corruption. For David, after he had served
his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was
laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption. But he whom God raised
again saw no corruption. Be it known unto you, therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins. And by him all that believe are
justified from all things, from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest that
come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets. Behold, you
despisers, and wander and perish. For I work a work in your days,
a work which you shall in no wise believe, though a man declare
it unto you. And when the Jews were gone out
of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might
be preached to them the next Sabbath. And when the congregation
was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed
Paul and Barnabas, whose speaking unto them persuaded them to continue
in the grace of God. And the next Sabbath day came
almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But
when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy and
spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting
and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed
bold and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first
have been spoken to you. But seeing you put it from you,
and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn
to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded
us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that
thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And
when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified
the word of the Lord. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was
published throughout all the region. I want to look at this passage
now, as I said, in the light of what some of us call particular
redemption. I like to use the word effectual
atonement. But how do we preach? If we believe in particular redemption,
how do we preach the gospel to lost people? as the Apostle Paul
did here, but first I want to take just a few minutes and explain
what I mean, what I believe about redemption and when I say particular
redemption or effectual atonement. When the Lord Jesus Christ suffered
and when He died upon the cross of Calvary, He actually obtained
eternal redemption. that was his purpose in dying
to obtain eternal redemption. In Hebrews chapter 9 and verse
14 we're told that, listen to this, not by blood of goats and
calves but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy
place having obtained eternal redemption for us. Now that was
the purpose behind His death, to obtain eternal redemption.
The death of Christ is not limited, is it? It's not limited at all
in its power. It's only limited in its purpose. It will accomplish and has been
accomplishing that whereunto it was purposed. Matthew 1 21
his name shall be called Jesus for he shall save his people
from their sin now that was the purpose of him coming and he
said this is my blood of the new covenant which was shed for
many for the remission of their sin why was that blood shed for
the remission of sin If you and I believe that Jesus merely offered
Himself as a sacrifice for sins and we stop there, if we say
that He died upon the cross and merely gave Himself as an atonement
for sin and stop there, then we could say, all right, that
was for everybody without exception. Just a sacrifice was made for
sins and now it's left up merely to each individual to make that
effectual by believing in that sacrifice or sin. Christ did
no more for one than he did for another. But a man makes the
atonement effectual by believing in it. But when we talk about
atonement, it's more than just Jesus Christ dying. It's more
than just Him up on the cross and given His life and atonement. It's much closer than that, is
it? Much closer than that when we talk about atonement and redemption. The Bible says that He suffered
for sins. That means He was punished for
sins. Punished for sins. At the hand of wicked men, even
by devils, And more than all, he was punished of God. God Himself, we are told, smote
the Lord Jesus Christ. We beheld Him smitten of God
and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. On the cross of Calvary, every
sin that Jesus Christ bore in His body received a full recompense
of what they deserve. The justice of God, the court
of heaven, was more satisfied in the sufferings and death of
Jesus Christ for sin than justice is in the eternal punishment
of the sinner in hell. Eternal misery cannot satisfy
for one sin. That's why the suffering never
stops for the sinner. But in those hours upon the cross
and in the death of Jesus Christ, the justice of God and the court
of heaven was completely satisfied for every sin that Jesus Christ
burned. Listen to Isaiah 53 11. God saw
of the travail of his soul and was satisfied. God saw the travail,
He saw the suffering of the soul of Jesus Christ and was satisfied. Now let me ask you this question.
How could the Lord Jesus Christ be justly smitten and punished
for sin when He Himself was holy and undefiled and separate from
sinners? How can it be just in God smiting
His soul and smiting His body and punishing Him since He bore
no sin of His own? And He didn't have any of His
own, did He? He was born holy, he lived holy, and the scripture
says he offered himself without spot to God. But here is the
crux of particular redemption. Right here is the hinge upon
which makes the difference between a general atonement and an effectual
redemption. This is it. He was justly punished. Because God saw our sins upon
Him. Now this is why we believe in
particular redemption. And when I say particular redemption,
I mean it was for specific people. He took the sins of specific
people unto Himself. And wherever God sees sin, when
He brings judgment upon Him, He punishes the sin and He punishes
the man in whom the sin is. And upon the cross of Calvary,
Christ was punished for our sins. But He could not have been punished
unless God saw those sins. God saw those sins upon the Lord
Jesus and therefore He punished those sins in Him. Now I want
you to look at that over in Psalms chapter 69. We'd never make some
of these statements if we didn't find them in the Word of God.
And we find this here in Psalm 69. All of this Psalm is speaking
of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God. We have several
places here that quotes Him that applies this to Christ in the
days of His flesh. For instance, look here at verse
4. Psalm chapter 69 in verse 4. They that hate Me without a cause
are more than the hair of My head. Now you'll find the Lord
Jesus quoting this in John 15, 25 and applying it to Himself. It was said in their law, they
hated me without a cause. Then look down in verse 9. The
zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. Remember John 2.17? The Lord Jesus, this was quoted
concerning Him. And then look over in verse 21.
They gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave
me vinegar to drink. That's what they did to the Lord
Jesus. It was quoted there in the book of John. So with that
in mind, this is speaking to the Lord Jesus. Look in this
in verse 5. Look at verse 5. Here is the
Son of God speaking. This is absolutely amazing. O
God, thou knowest my foolishness. And my sins are not hid from
thee. Now we know He had no sins. It
would be blasphemy to say the Son of God could sin. He was
tempted in all points, but He could not sin. But here He says,
You have known My sins. And this word sins means two
things. It means to transgress, to fall
short, but here in the Hebrew it has another meaning. It means
guilt. now has known my guilt." Now
when the Father in heaven put upon the Lord Jesus the sins
of all of His people, He took those sins and here He calls
them His own. But they became His own in such
a real way, He says, I feel the guilt of them. It's more than
just bearing the sin. He bore him in such a real manner
that he felt such a responsibility for him that he felt the guilt
of him. Now why is that so important?
A man may bear another man's punishment. If you commit a crime,
there have been times in history where they punish somebody else
for your crime. You can be put in jail or you
can be sentenced to death for someone else's crime. But you
know something? You may bear the punishment,
but one thing you can't bear is the guilt. That guilt belongs
to whoever transgressed, whoever committed that sin. So here the
Lord Jesus is saying, Thou knowest my guilt My guilt, then on in
verse 7, look in verse 7. Because for thy sake I have borne
reproach, shame hath covered my face. So there it is. There is the guilt and there
is the shame that he felt for our sins. Jesus on Calvary's
tree took the sins of his people in such a real and literal sense
Not only was he punished for them, but he felt the guilt and
the shame of them. And I don't know which one would
be the worst. Upon his conscience, do you? Upon his soul. The punishment
from heaven because of the sins or the shame and guilt of those
sins that he felt. The transference of sin was so
real Christ being punished for these sins was real, and listen,
God was satisfied for these sins. These three things are real.
Christ burned the sins, those sins being transferred to Him,
God punishing those sins in Him, and God being satisfied for those
sins. This is the question that has
to be asked. And it needs to be pondered.
It needs to be diligently thought upon and answered in the scriptural
way. Do I believe this? Do I believe
this? Do I believe that my sins were
transferred to my substitute? Really transferred in a most
real way. Do I believe that God saw and
punished my sins in my substitute? And do I believe that when my
substitute said, It's finished, God in heaven, the justice of
God, the court of heaven said, I'm satisfied. Do I believe that? Does my heart reside and confide
in that very truth that's taught? That's what we believe when we
talk about particular redemption. Is Christ and Him thus crucified? All my soul's salvation from
sin and the wrath of God and the curse of the law is the faith
of my heart, is my confidence, my full trust and reliance in
Christ the crucified one. Now if He did no more for Judas
and He did no more for me than He did for Judas, how can I rely
upon Him? I don't see how I could do that,
do you? If Judas perished after Judas' sins were put upon Christ
and they were punished and God said, I'm satisfied, then I don't
see how anybody could be saved. You say, Bruce, it's the faith.
It's faith that makes a difference. No, it's not. It's that atonement
that makes a difference. Was my sin transferred? Were
they punished? Is God satisfied? That's what
we must look at first. What took place there upon the
cross? If the conscience is made aware
of its guilt and of the punishment that it deserves, then only one
thing will satisfy that conscience. And that one thing is what satisfied
God. A perfect sacrifice. Sin punished. If I come here this afternoon
and I told you that God would forgive your sins, irrespective
of justice, that God was a God of love, that God was merciful,
that God was gracious, and that He would just forgive all of
your sins, what would you say when you went home and your conscience
began to disturb you and you began to be shaken? What would
you ask? Where's justice? Where is justice? Where is the justice in that?
What the conscience has got to know, brothers and sisters, that
God is satisfied for sin. And that is what I see in the
atonement. There is the transfer of sin,
the punishment of sin, and satisfaction. And then what comes out of that?
What comes out of that? I want to show you. Look over
here in Isaiah chapter 53. Psalm chapter 53, Isaiah 53,
11, you have these four shalls. Steve, we forgive you. You can't separate you from your
wife. That's union. What goes wrong
with her is your responsibility. So we forgive you. Look here
in Isaiah 53 and look at these four shalls here in verse 11. He shall see of the travail of
his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquity. Now you see these four shalls?
They are not necessarily in order. They are in order if you read
the whole chapter, but you read them backwards. He shall bear
their iniquity. He shall bear their iniquity.
God shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Now look at this. By his knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many. This justified many is
secured because of the rest. It's not faith, brothers and
sisters, that makes the atonement effect short. It's the atonement
that secures the believing of every soul for whom Christ died. Ain't that what he's saying there?
He shall bear their iniquity. God saw and was satisfied. And then He says, by His knowledge,
by the knowledge of Him, He's going to justify many, for He
shall bear their iniquity. If He bore your iniquity, there's
coming a day when He'll justify you by faith. When you look at
this word here, justify, it must mean whatever else it means,
whatever other aspect of justification. It must be faith. He's justified
by faith. So it's not faith that makes
the atonement effectual, but the atonement secures in time
the believing of everyone for whom Christ This atonement was
accomplished for those who will finally believe and nobody else. And nobody else. This atonement
was made for the elect of God and nobody else. That's what
I believe and what I teach about particular redemption, effectual
atonement. Now, in the light of that, how
in the world then can we go preaching the gospel to unbelievers? John Bunyan says we cannot, bless
his heart, he said we cannot. It shocked me when I read that
from Mr. Bunyan. It don't offend me, but it somewhat
confuses me because he was pleading for a general atonement. I hope
he changed his mind, but I don't know. But he put up this argument
and J.C. Ryle put up the same argument.
How do you go preaching to sinners and tell them to come to God
by Christ if an atonement was not made for them? And both of
those men believed in election. You could make the same argument
with election, couldn't you? How can you go preach and come
to Christ? Well, what if you're not one of the elect? So the
same argument could be made about that. But I love dear Bunyan.
I love Ralph. But you know, brothers and sisters,
no man is your master. I am not your master. I read
the Scriptures and I preach to you, but you go home and you
check me in your Bibles. Christ is your master. He must
reign in the Word of God. There are good men who have fallen
short in some areas, but the best of men, no matter who they
are, are not allowed in our conscience, are they? That's the Word, that's
the Christ that reigns in our conscience. But that's what they
said. Let's go on then, back over in our text, in Acts chapter
13, and quickly and see here then how we preach this gospel. If Christ did not obtain redemption
for every man, if He did not put the sins of every man without
exception away, then how do we preach to every man? Listen,
it's obvious there that it would be incorrect to go telling people,
lost men, Christ died for you. I may be lying. What I believe
about redemption, I could well be lying to a person. And that's
why you never see this phrase in the book of Acts. We call
this the Acts of the Apostles. They're preaching. And how did
they preach? Two things they never did go
around telling lost people. God loves you and Christ died
for you. What do we hear in our day? Don't
we hear it all the time? God loves you and Christ died
for you. But we must never confront lost
people with that because we may be lying to them. We may be lying
to them. And what do they know about God's
love anyway? They have to find that out for
themselves, don't they? We're talking about that eternal
love that's in Jesus Christ the Lord. And I tell you, a man will
have to find that out for himself. A man will have to find that
out for himself. But let's look at it now. First of all, here
in our text, look at verse 16 and verse 26. I think this is
very important. We want to see who the apostle
is preaching to. And I don't see how anybody could
go here and say, well, he's just preaching to the elect. First
of all, that would be a silly proposition, wouldn't it? when
we are told exactly who this man was preaching to. Look in
verse 16. whoever that included, all Israel
that was there. And ye that fear God, maybe he's
speaking of the Gentiles, give audience. Look in verse 26, he
even broadens out who he's talking to. Men and brethren, children
of the stock of Abraham. That includes quite a few people,
doesn't it? The children of the stock of Abraham. I mean, there
could have been women there, Jewish women, Jewish boys and
girls. And whosoever among you that
feareth God, So that takes in quite a few people, doesn't it?
The gospel was preached to everybody that was there that day, without
any exception, without any qualification. And notice how he says it here
in verse 16. Notice how personal he gets. Men and brethren and children
of the stock of Abraham, to you To you is the word of this salvation
sent. And then he says there in verse
38, Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through
this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sin. It's almost like he was pointing
his finger at him and says, you over there, you woman, listen
up. I'm preaching through Jesus Christ to you the forgiveness
of sin. And then he looks over here and
he sees this vile fellow in the back with his head hung down.
You back there in the back, I'm preaching through Christ the
forgiveness of sin. You there in your robe, you Pharisee,
I've seen you before. To you I'm preaching Jesus Christ
and the forgiveness of sin. He was preaching to everybody,
wasn't He? Was He in earnest? Was He sincere when He was saying
that? And more important, is God in
earnest? Is Jesus Christ in earnest when
He said, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature? Is the Holy Ghost in earnest
as He moved upon the Apostle Paul and said, Preach to everybody
here that through this Jesus of Nazareth and the cross of
Calvary, redemption, forgiveness of sins. He is dead earnest,
isn't He? We must be earnest because God
is earnest. The triune God is earnest. The Lord Jesus was preaching
to that group of Jews in John chapter 6. You remember the great
sermon that He preached? And here is what He said to them.
He said, ìLabor not for the meat which perishes, but for that
meat which endeareth unto everlasting life, which God shall give unto
you.î Now why is that so important? Because those men went away and
did not believe Him. They went away and walked with
him no more. And yet here is what he says, which God shall
give unto you. And the way we must understand
this, I am yours on my terms. Jesus Christ is everybody in
here this evening. I don't care who you are, young
or old. He is yours on His terms. I can preach to you the forgiveness
of sins in this man Jesus Christ, but it's on His terms. And man is so unreasonable. Here's
the problem. He won't have Christ on his terms. I want Him on my terms. I want
to stipulate the condition, but I won't have Him on His terms.
Then you can't have Him. We preach to men repentance towards
God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, stoop
down. You want this water of life?
Then bend down. Bow down is the only place to
get it. Bow down to Him. And that's what
this Word Your Faith is all about. Through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sin. But He didn't stop there, did
He? He didn't stop there. How is it this forgiveness comes
to me and comes to you and anyone? How is it that a man is justified
from all things? It is through faith, is it not?
Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins,
and by him all that believe in him shall receive forgiveness
of sins. All that believe in him shall
be justified from all things. But you notice how He said that?
All that believe in Him shall be justified from all things
by which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. See how
He puts this wedge between this? The works of the law and faith
in a crucified Christ. He says here's what's going to
distinguish you. Are you ready to let go of the
law? Are you ready to let go of works? Are you ready to look
to this Savior alone and Him crucified? Are you ready to quit
mixing it up? That's what faith is, isn't it?
Faith is self-put-down. It's not self-exalted. It's not
what I can do. It is me put off. It is my works,
my vain efforts put off. And looking out of myself to
Jesus Christ alone. And Paul said, when you do that,
your sins are forgiven. And you are justified from all
things. I had a young lady tell us one
time, she said, you are preaching a conditional gospel. And I said,
why? She said, you're preaching that
there's no salvation apart from repentance and faith. And she
said, that's conditional. I said, what did the Lord Jesus
mean when He said, except you repent, you shall perish? What did He mean when He said,
except you believe, then I am He, you shall die in your sins?
There is no forgiveness apart from faith, is there? And not
just faith, but faith in Him. this crucified Christ who satisfied
the justice of God. If you've got just a general
atonement and Christ just died as an atonement for sins and
there's nothing particular about it, and all these other things
didn't take place as the transfer of sin and sins being punished,
then okay, faith, faith, that's what makes it effectual. But people come to believe because
Christ has died for them. And when Christ has been punished
for a man's sin, justice as well as mercy says arrest that man. Give that man eyes to look. Give
that man a heart to believe. Give him ears to hear. Why? Because heaven has been justified
2,000 years ago on Israel. And that man is given grace and
he looks out of himself to Jesus Christ alone and relies upon
him for his salvation. But I tell you, nobody's going
to do that. Nobody's going to do that if
left to themselves. Brother Larry talked this morning
about even the preaching. Isn't this amazing? Jesus Christ
preached. The Son of God preached with
such gracious words going out of His lips. And He said, Why
don't you believe Me? Why don't you believe Me? And
if they won't believe Him, they won't believe us little old preachers,
will they? Grace has to come with the message. The power of
the Holy Spirit has to come with the message. And if it don't,
I'll tell you what will happen. Just what happened with these
people. Just what happened with these people. Next Sabbath day,
the whole city of Gentiles come together. And the Jews, abundance
of those Jews, got so envious and mad, they began to blaspheme
and kick against the Gospel. And here's what Paul told them.
See, and you have put it from you. and judge yourselves unworthy
of eternal life, we turn from you to the Gentiles. So probable
is it that men will not hear of this Christ and Him crucified
and the redemption that He accomplished. So probable is it that they will
turn from it that here we have a warning issued. Paul issued
him a warning right as soon as he quit preaching. Beware, therefore,
lest that come upon you which was spoken in the prophets. Behold,
ye despisers and wanderers perish, for I work a work in your days,
a work which ye shall no wise believe, though a man declare
it unto you. It takes the Holy Spirit, don't
it? It takes the Gospel coming in power. But aren't you glad
for the verse I read to you there in verse 48? Look in verse 48. And when the Gentiles heard this,
they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as
many as were ordained to eternal life, they believed. Ain't that
wonderful? Somebody said a while back, people
turn that around today. As many as believed, He ordained
to eternal life. But that's backwards. As many
as were set aside, as many as were chosen to eternal life,
they believed. They believed. I can preach Christ
to lost people. You can go to your neighbors
and tell them, listen, this man died for sinners. He died for
the ungodly. Believe on Him. Believe on Him. But when they don't, when they
despise their own soul and its own salvation. Don't let them
come up before God one day and say, well, it's because a redemption
wasn't provided. That atonement wasn't provided.
That's not why you didn't believe. Your trouble was a rebellious
heart. Your trouble was a darkened heart.
Your trouble was you hated your own soul and never sought after
its salvation. If you needed Him, you wanted
to be saved from your sins, you would have believed. And in believing,
you would have found that atonement had been made for your soul. But you can blame nobody but
yourself. I tell you what makes hell, hell, brothers and sisters. A man will quit accusing God
when he goes to hell. A man will quit blaming God and
arguing with God when he goes to hell. When he goes to hell,
he'll start cussing himself. What have I done? Can you imagine
these men opening their eyes? And it touched the flames of
hell to open their eyes. You know it did. But boy, as
soon as they felt the flame, they thought, what have I done?
I can't believe that just yesterday This man stood before my face
and in my hearing and said, ìTo you is preached the forgiveness
of sin,î and I despised it and I would not believe it. Cursed
me the day that I was born. And 2,000 years later theyíre
still cursing themselves. But they wonít blame God for
not providing an atonement. So we can preach effectual redemption
and believe it with all of our hearts and still preach Christ
to everybody. We just don't go around offering Christ. Don't
go around offering Christ. I'll give you to Him for a quarter.
I don't have a quarter. Fifteen cents? Do you have a
dime? What terms would you take Him
on? He has set the terms. Stoop down. Stoop down and drink
and live. Look and live. Hear Him and live. I would go as far as to say this.
There's a crucified Savior. There's a risen and living Savior
for everybody that wants Him. Everybody that wants Him. And
those who don't and those who are willing to go on and live
without Him and die without Him in their sins, stop complaining. Stop complaining. You wouldn't
have Him on your terms and He would not stoop to yours. So
quit complaining. Quit complaining. God bless His
Word. Let's pray.