I Believe in Limited Atonement!

Let's turn our Bibles, please, to Romans chapter 8, and you don't have to do it every

Wednesday night, so you get to choose, and it is sort of the last week of the year, so I thought, well, let's go someplace we all know, let's do something we all enjoy and look at a well -known text and rejoice in some of the truths that bind us together.

So Romans chapter 8, and I was thinking as I pondered this text, once again, there are certain words that you hear in the political discourse of our day that you aren't supposed to use, even though they accurately describe your views, because you know they're not popular.

And so, a couple years ago, there was a very well -known leftist politician in the

Senate, as I recall, who was going after some businessperson in some governmental situation in one of these things where they call you before the

Senate to testify, and this particular woman was getting somewhat upset, and started to say, well, if you aren't careful, then we'll socialize.

Take over your businesses. And you can tell that what this woman wanted to do is she wanted the government to take over doing what this business did.

But you see, you're not supposed to say that openly. Everybody knows that's what that particular political perspective wants to do, but you're not supposed to say that, because then people can label you, they can identify you, and as long as you don't say that, you go, oh, no, no, no, we don't want to do that, but everybody knows that's really what you're up to, you see.

Well, there are certain words you're just not supposed to use, and we're even told, I remember a student of mine once in seminary came to me and he was taking an evangelism class in the same seminary, and he said, you're not going to believe what we were told in this evangelism class.

We were given a list of words that you're not supposed to use, like wrath, and judgment, and punishment, and I'm just sort of going, well, how are you supposed to explain

Christian truth without using those words? But the idea being that certain words will have an automatic negative response in certain people's minds.

Now, we all recognize that that's true. I mean, when it comes to advertising, we are all influenced by advertising, and we know that you can buy books all over the place today about what colors you should use in your advertising, and what certain colors mean, and all this stuff, and you know around here, we're not real good at that stuff.

Maybe we should be buying Pastor Frye those marketing books and stuff, and maybe I think they would all get burned in his backyard, but we could try, and we just don't go that direction.

We don't worry too much about the color wheel and how people are going to respond. He's never given me a list of, these are the words you shouldn't use, the pulpit, and stuff like that, and that's probably why we're all here, but that might be why there's only as many of us here as there are, because we live in a day where there are people, they just hear a word, and their emotions just kick in, and they won't think about things, they won't think about whether it's true or false, just a word is enough to do it.

Well there is a word, or actually it's a phrase, in our beliefs, that, let's be honest with ourselves, once in a while you're a little gun -shy about using that word.

That's not a term we use a lot, gun -shy, but you know what it means. A friend of mine back east heard that sometime next year

I've been invited to go up to Alaska again, and yeah, they're going to take me hunting again up in Alaska, and there's some big stuff out in those woods in Alaska, and so he has given to me, actually not lent to me, actually gave to me a rifle, and those of you who are hunters,

Mr. Callahan knows this, hunters know, it's a .338 Winchester Magnum, nice rifle, that's a big gun, that's going to take that thing out to the range, and I'm going to sit down,

I'm going to be sighting that thing in, making sure the scope that's on it's right where it needs to be, right as I'm sending that impulse down to this finger right here, to gently squeeze that trigger, you know what the problem is?

I know what's going to happen. That thing's a beast, and it's going to be like George Soto walking up to me and going wham on my shoulder.

Now the first time I might be able to get it off pretty well, but then this thing's going to start aching, and the next time

I send that message down there, I might start moving just a little bit, might anticipate the pain of what it's going to feel like when that thing goes off, that's called being gun shy, you're going to jump a little bit, you're a little scared about what this thing's going to do.

Well there's some phrases that sometimes we're a little gun shy about in our theology, and we might believe them, but the fact that we try to find other ways of saying them, and we're a little slow in getting to it, and when we say it we're pretty quick to explain ourselves, might tell us we're a little bit gun shy about it.

Well, one of those truths is laid out for us here in Romans chapter 8, and see if when we read it, you can recognize what it is.

Let's look at the golden chain of redemption, let's dive right into the meat of Romans 8, the section

Pastor Fry is longing to get to, that's why he's rushing so quick to get through the book of Romans, to get to chapter 8.

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

For those who before knew, He also predestined to become conformed in the image of His Son. So that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.

And these whom He predestined, He also called. And these whom He called, He also justified. And these whom

He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all. How will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus. He who died, yes rather, who was raised, was at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

Now you're probably thinking, ah, it's that terrible word, predestination.

He also predestined. Now, I realize that there are people who might be a little gun shy about that term.

And it's certainly abused a lot today. There are people who will talk about, oh, you terrible people believe in double predestination.

They will try to create this concept that's called equal ultimacy. That is, you believe that God predestined to heaven, but He also predestined to hell.

As if the act of extending grace, unmerited favor, in fact, demerited favor, the power that has to go into that act of predestination, the entire work of salvation, incarnation, the perfection of the work of Christ, atonement, the

Spirit coming and bringing spiritual regeneration, as if all of that is equal to and the same as the act of justice, whereby

God, in His justice and in His holiness, allows

His law to justly come to bear against sinners who love their sin and hate

Him, as if those two things are exactly the same. That's one of the big arguments that people are using these days.

It's a lie, if you can't tell the difference between those two things. The need to raise a dead sinner to spiritual life and justly condemning a sinner who wants to stay in his sin.

If you think those two things are the same thing, well, okay. I mean,

I believe that God's decree of predestination includes reprobation, but if you can't tell the difference between those two things, well, are you driving tonight?

I don't want to be on the same road with you, because it might be a little bit scary. But that's not what

I was thinking. It really wasn't. And it wasn't the calling and the justifying or anything else.

Here's where it is. If God is for us, who is against us?

He who did not spare His own Son, but what did He do? What did

He do? Delivered Him over for us all, how will

He not also with Him freely give us all things?

I've said many times, many, many times, just follow the pronouns in this text.

Just follow the pronouns. Yes, we had the golden chain of redemption. We had that beautiful statement,

Those whom God foreknew. That doesn't mean had foreknowledge about what they're going to do. Oh, we've all heard the text just abused over and over again.

Foreknew is a verb. It's an active verb. It's something God does. And yes, it's amazing to think about the fact that before we even took the first breath, before we even came into existence,

God chose to enter into loving relationship with us. Not based upon what we do.

Not based upon this, I'm going to look down the corridors of time, and oh, I'm going to do whatever I see my creatures allowing me to do.

We know the foolishness of that perspective. We've seen the golden chain of redemption.

We've seen the sovereignty of God. He foreknew. He predestined. He called. He justified.

He glorified. He provides everything. It's put in the past tense because from God's perspective, it's a finished thing.

It is certain. But you see, the phrase that sometimes we're gun -shy about, is that phrase, limited atonement.

Yeah, I think particular redemption might even be a better phrase. But you know what?

The longer I have thought about the atoning work of Christ, the longer I've thought about the cross, and yes, you all know,

I'm writing two articles and two books on Islam. I know some of you think

I'm nuts. Okay, that's fine. But the more I've studied that, and the more I've listened to Muslims speaking, the more

I become convinced we must be open and biblical, balanced, yes, but we must not be embarrassed to proclaim the fact that A, Jesus Christ is

Lord. He's Creator. He's Lord. He's King of Kings. He's Lord of Lords.

And His cross is a powerful demonstration. The reason

I say this, is I've been listening to this lengthy presentation by a

Muslim man. Muhammad al -Sharif is his name, if you're interested. And every time he talks about Christians, and I haven't gotten to the section where he talks about how to bring

Christians into Islam, I'm just coming up here on a ride or two away, but every time he talks about Christians, and he talks about encounters with Christians, and what the evangelism, he doesn't use that term, their term is dawah.

Dawah is calling to Islam. It's both evangelism and apologetics. But when he talks about Christian dawah, it's never, ever, a proclamation of power.

It's always man -centered, and it's always, well, the Christians will invite you to accept

Jesus. It almost sounds to me, and I could be wrong,

I don't know who's witness to this man, but it almost sounds to me like this man has never encountered someone who said,

Jesus Christ is your Lord. He is the Lord of every living creature.

He is your Creator and your Maker. Every breath you take and every beat of your heart comes from His hand.

You cannot be neutral about Him. He's not merely some razul. He's not just an apostle. And His death is the only means by which you can ever have peace with God.

Doesn't sound like anyone's ever said that to him in a straightforward way. And so it has struck me with ever more weight that we should not be embarrassed to proclaim a finished work.

I know that people will twist what we say. But you know what? It's not that difficult to untwist it.

I mean, if they're not yelling and screaming at you anyways, it's not that difficult to untwist it.

And in fact, in most situations I've been in where someone has raised this objection, it didn't take much effort and much going to the

Scripture to cause them to see what it was that they were saying and how unbiblical it is.

Think about this text. After proclaiming the sovereignty of God and salvation, what then shall we say to these things?

Here's a rhetorical question. What should be our response to the fact that God, from eternity past, has brought all this to pass?

Well, if God is for us, who is against us?

Who's the us? Are these the words of Buddhists?

Secularists? Humanists? Those who remain in rebellion against God? Are these their words?

Some of you know who Christopher Hitchens is. He hates Christianity. Oh, he hates

Christianity. Douglas Wilson has rightly said about Christopher Hitchens, there's two things we know about Christopher Hitchens.

He knows God doesn't exist and he hates Him. He hates

God. Could we hand this text to Christopher Hitchens and have him say these words?

Or is it not obviously clear, in light of what's come before this, that we have a particular group who has been foreknown, predestined, called, justified, glorified, and it's this group that is the us here.

These are not the words of those under the wrath of God. If God is for us, who is against us?

He who did not spare His own Son.

He did not hold back His own Son. But in behalf of us all,

He gave Him over in sacrifice. It's the same term that was used of the betrayal of Jesus in the

Gospels. Paradidomi. How shall He not, together with Him.

See, He's given Him over. He's given Him. And how shall

He not also, together with Him, freely, and it's the term for which we get grace, charis, to give, give us all things.

Well, if this is every human being who has ever lived, what a mockery it makes of these words.

Think of the Amorite high priest. Fifty years before Moses comes.

The Amorite high priest, he's engaged in child sacrifice to try to get the cross to grow.

The worst, the most vile of human religion, the darkest kind of rebellion against God, a seared conscience, and you're going to tell me these words are about Him?

That God has freely given to Him all things? Really?

Seriously? And yet that's what some people will tell us this is saying.

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all. And who is the us?

Well, verse 33 tells you. If you couldn't figure it out just from reasoning to verse 32, verse 33 tells you.

Who will bring a charge against who? God's elect. There it is.

There it is. God's elect. There is something so tremendously powerful in recognizing that Jesus' death was not a failure.

It was not a failure. It was not God trying something really, really hard.

Oh, there's so many today that really, really dislike the doctrine of the atonement that's found in Scripture.

Substitutionary, penal, oh, this is terrible. Jesus died as an example of God's love.

That's all it was. Yet, when we still believe

Scripture, you have here for us all substitution.

Hupere, that beautiful Greek preposition. In our place, He delivered

Him over in our place. He will with Him freely give us all things and therefore, the question is asked, who will bring a charge against God's elect?

There is no foundation left to bring a charge of condemnation. God's the one, the

Father is the one who is justified. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus, he who died, yes, rather, who was raised with the right hand of God, who also intercedes for whom?

For, it's all right there. I honestly believe

Romans 8, 31 through 34 is one of the clearest, most compelling statements of the particular redeeming work of Christ there is.

I don't see any way around it. It takes mental gymnastics to escape this and we really have to ask ourselves the question, why would someone want to escape this?

Why would someone want to escape this? Well, because when you look at it, there's no place for us to shoehorn in our own glory.

You know what a shoehorn is, don't you? Some young people might not. They're not popular, they're not very popular anymore,

I'm not sure why. But you know what? The older you get, the more I like mine. I like the long ones, so you don't have to, oh, there you go, straight in there.

Those shoehorns are great, I got nice long ones, yay long, oh, that's nice. But you know why you need it is because, you know, you've got to get your foot in there and some of us are too lazy to untie the crazy laces and so we use that shoehorn to try to get a foot in there that's really a little bit bigger than that hole is.

Once it gets in, it's alright, because the ankle's smaller, but you need a little help. And what is the very essence of man's religion?

Man almost never, plagiarists, there's a few people today running around, but almost never tries to take all the glory for himself.

In fact, the vast majority of the time. We'll allow, we'll allow God to have the majority of the glory, but you see, the essence of human religion is he can have the glory, but I have the control.

He can stay out there and he can make it available and I can confess to everybody, I couldn't do it apart from him, but he can't do it without me.

It's the very essence of human religion. And that's why people try to twist this, that's because I don't see anywhere in there even the slightest crack in the diamond hard surface that says

God saves to his own glory. I can't find it.

It's not there. And so, I don't have any difficulty.

Someone looks at me and says, and I've had this happen. You all know

I do a lot of traveling. We just booked my flights to England, I'm going to be in London, then up to Dublin, then over to Glasgow, and Glasgow back down to London.

Debate when I land in London, debate when I get back to London. We better hope that the weather's pretty good.

Or I'm going to be on a train somewhere from Glasgow to London, or something like that, but you all know I do a lot of traveling, so I find myself in some unusual places.

And I remember I was in this one place, and it was overseas. This woman comes up to me after I speak, and she looks at me, and she looks scared.

And she looks at me and she says, you don't believe in limited atonement, do you? And you could just tell that if I didn't answer correctly, she was going to feel like all of her traveling there and everything she listened to I just said was just going to be ruined.

And you're going, so what did you say to the lady at the end of the service?

Well, I looked at her and said, yes, ma 'am, I believe that Jesus Christ saves everyone for whom he dies, and he intercedes for them.

Ma 'am, who do you think he's interceding for today? Never thought of it that way.

Never thought of it that way. So I was able to just very quickly say, ma 'am, the high priest in the

Old Testament, when he offered the sacrifice, he had to present the blood of the sacrifice in a holy place.

Everyone for whom he offered the sacrifice was those for whom he interceded. And ma 'am, he's interceding in heaven today in the presence of the

Father, specifically for those he's going to save. Do you really think he's interceding for those who are going to spend eternity in hell and failing in his intercession?

And ma 'am, when you present it like that, the vast majority of the people you're talking to have never heard it presented like that. Never even thought about it.

They've just heard somebody blasting away at Calvinism from a pulpit someplace, and just, when you tie it into that, if they're a true believer, they don't even want to begin to question the sufficiency of Christ's word.

And they're like, I never thought of that. And the lights go on, and the walls come down.

But you know what? We just cannot be embarrassed by what the word of God says.

In fact, we need to glory in it. And I don't mean like some of those folks who just carry their

Calvinism around as a big old badge, and, I'm not a Calvinist. I'm not talking about that.

But this has got to impact everything. It can't just be kept over here, and, yeah,

I'm a Calvinist, I'm sorry. No. It impacts everything. Like I said, listening to these

Muslims, I've been going, where are the Calvinists? Where is the proclamation of power?

May God encourage us to speak with clarity about the wonderful fact that Jesus Christ saves to the uttermost.

His death is perfect. Exactly what the Triune God intended to do in the cross of Calvary.