08-02-2020

Park Meadows Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

So good to have each of you with us today. We miss our church family and don't get to see them quite as much.

00:13

I haven't announced it officially, but Charlotte and I both had

00:18

COVID -19 and she's always been so healthy. She was over in about three days, she says two days,

00:26

I say three or four days, and I had it for about three weeks, but the last four days or so I've had four good days with no bad days in between.

00:37

So I think I'm good to go now. So cool thing is, when you've had it, you can't give it to anybody and you can't catch it for about three months.

00:46

So I can go anywhere and do anything I want to do now, how about that? So first thing is going to be to see my kids and grandkids.

00:53

So tonight at midnight, my quarantine is over and so is Charlotte's. We're happy about that. We didn't announce it publicly to everybody, but our family was certainly praying for us and one or two people we let know about it.

01:08

But I'm going to write some information on it. I know my friend David Diorenzo had a terrible case of it out there in New York, and I tend to think that what

01:19

I caught was a mutated version. I think that version that hit Italy and New York City and Seattle was stronger, and I think it mutated.

01:29

It's not quite as bad, but you don't want to get it. I can say that. It'll make you where your brain doesn't want to work more in about 10 minutes, and you just tired and you just can't do anything.

01:43

You're totally unproductive for however long you have it. So that can certainly derail a nation, our economy, and our families, and it's very serious, a very real thing.

01:55

Anyway, we're glad we survived it with the Lord taking care of us, and yes, for sure, you just wouldn't, just like Bill Nichols told me privately this morning before we started, he said, you wouldn't kick that thing without the

02:10

Lord doing it. Humans don't know how to fix it, and that's true. So praise Jesus. Glad to be here with you, and we're going to be putting together some information on this disease, and hopefully going to have a

02:23

Zoom meeting with my doctor, Dr. McWhirter from the Dallas area, who's written a protocol for what to do if you catch it, and I use that, and maybe

02:35

Myron Golden will be on there. He also has his own protocol because he's had it and made it through, and I did a combination of what both of those gentlemen said to do, and so I'd love to have them on and share with you what to do in case it hits your family, and even write down to nutrients and supplements you can take that will help, and the great thing is

03:01

I think they've got it hyped up where we're afraid of it too much, but I'll tell you if you've had a medical problem, if you've had cancer and have chemo, that's when you have to be so very careful with it in different medical conditions like that.

03:17

So I was fit as a fiddle when I caught it, so that's why I'm still here now, but I didn't have any other than a few little heart arrhythmia things

03:28

I had when I was 40. I didn't really have anything ahead of time, so Lord just got me through it, and I am happy.

03:36

I'm excited about it. So we'll be excited to share with you the information.

03:43

We had one other thing I'd like to mention before I get started. We have one family that's one of our distant families listening, like so many of you guys, and so many came from Tradeway, and some of you guys out there around the country on with us today.

03:58

One of our families sent an email to me and said, is it possible for us to join the church even though we don't live in Corsicana?

04:06

So we entertained that with our elders and deacons, and it's a positive yes.

04:16

We definitely would love to do that for this particular family, and we're going to do it. We've got to put together some how -tos, like beyond just church on Sunday morning, are there other ways we can do

04:29

Zoom meetings and fellowship, and we'll put together a protocol like that, but we're definitely going to do it.

04:34

So if any of the others of you are interested in that, all you have to do is let us know, and we'll certainly entertain that.

04:43

We're not trying to proselyte you from your own local church at all, so we don't want to do that.

04:48

But if you feel like this is your church, then there's no reason you can't be a member from wherever you live.

04:54

I know that's new, but that's not all that new. I mean, the

04:59

Apostle Paul was pretty close to the church at Jerusalem, but he was never there in town, was he?

05:06

So it's biblical, so we'll be happy to do that with you guys. Let me share my screen at this time, and we'll get started with the main message.

05:29

All right. All right, well, I like that little picture.

05:35

Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice, and they follow me. He doesn't say they might follow me.

05:41

He says, they follow me. And so that's going to sort of be the theme today.

05:47

We're still in Romans chapter 8, and right along in the middle of the chapter where the passages start to talk about predestination, predetermination, and the calling, and justification, glorification, and those things.

06:04

That's the area where we have found ourselves going verse by verse. And as you get used to the way the

06:11

Lord's taught me how to teach through the years, I like to go verse by verse through books.

06:17

But as we come across the major Bible themes or doctrines, we might stop and park there for a few weeks and go off into a tour of the whole

06:27

Bible, studying that doctrine, and then come right back and pick up the next verses and move through that way.

06:33

So it's kind of a mix of expository preaching and topical, but I only do the topical to back up the expository preaching with further parallel passages and so forth.

06:48

So that's what that's about. And so let's go on our little trip today.

06:54

This is going to be exciting, this amazing topic here. And let me review just a little bit in case some of you guys weren't here.

07:03

Over on the left, you'll see seven major points. We've covered the last few messages, and I might want to mention to you everything's archived.

07:10

You can go back to our website, parkmeadowschurch .com. Make sure you add the word church or you'll get the wrong place.

07:18

Parkmeadowschurch .com if you want to hear any of the previous messages on these topics. But some of the places we've been recently,

07:26

Isaiah 46 .8, and basically what we did was we launched out and just said, let's look at some of the most major verses on just the topic of the sovereignty of God throughout the scripture.

07:37

And these are some of the places we landed. Isaiah 46 .8, and this one in particular was one point we made last week.

07:45

And I think it's fascinating because you look down around, but notice up in verse 8, it starts out and calls people transgressors.

07:52

And you'll see who that is in a minute. It's actually people who don't believe that what God is saying about himself is true.

08:00

God calls them transgressors, sinners. They're transgressors of the law and of God.

08:06

And the things he's talking about, he says, remember the former things of old. I am God. There is no other. I am.

08:13

And there is none like me. And I declare the end from the beginning. That's foreknowledge, right?

08:20

That's omniscience and foreknowledge. And from the ancient of times, I declare the things that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure.

08:30

Now, that last phrase is called the sovereignty of God. He is in control of all things.

08:36

He is above all things. He's both outside of all things as the Father, but he's also eminent in our lives as the

08:44

Son and as the Holy Spirit. He's both. And so yet everything that his counsel has determined will happen, it will happen, and he does it according to his good pleasure.

08:58

That is the sovereignty of God. And he calls people who don't want to believe this transgressors. Note that up at the end of verse 8.

09:05

But even more, if you didn't get that in verse 8, look at verse 12. Hearken unto me, you stout -hearted that are far from righteousness.

09:14

These are people who are stout -hearted and they say, I don't believe God's in control, I think man is.

09:20

I think I can control things. I think I can determine my own destiny. I think

09:25

I can determine my future. I can even determine my eternal destiny. And the sad thing is the way the gospel is taught nowadays, and we've just taken it for granted that it's right, but it's not.

09:35

It's a modern convention. It wasn't taught this way in the 1600s, 1700s, 1800s by anyone that I read.

09:42

But now we say, well, Jesus died on the cross for you and he gives off his eternal life as a gift.

09:49

It's up to you to reach out and take that. So you determine your eternal destiny by that choice, whether you take that or not.

09:55

Well, you see, that puts man in control. That puts you in control of your own salvation. And man loves it that way.

10:01

In fact, you probably learned it that way. I know I did and believed it for many years, but I understand now after spending time with the

10:09

Lord and his word that this is not how it works, okay? So people who believe that either they save themselves or they play some role in it, like, yeah,

10:19

Jesus died for me, but I also need to keep the sacraments or I also need to repent or that's a

10:26

Baptist one, sacraments is a Catholic one. Every denomination has added things. And when you add human elements to it, you actually lose everything because it's the blood of Jesus plus nothing that saves us.

10:38

And to take that into context the way I mean it, I know there's many other things that have to happen for us to get saved, but the thing is

10:44

God does it all. We're saved by works. Bet you didn't think you'd ever hear me say that, did you?

10:49

Yeah, but it's God that does all the works. We're not saved by any works that man does or that we do.

10:55

None, none whatsoever. We receive it as a free gift. That's how salvation works.

11:00

That's what grace means, undeserved favor. It's a free gift from God and we simply receive it.

11:07

We don't do anything to cause it. The great cause of salvation, as the scripture says, while we were yet in our sins, hath he quickened us.

11:16

The Holy Spirit calls us and regenerates us and that is the cause of salvation.

11:22

Anything else that you did is an effect of it, not the cause of it. And most people don't get that today.

11:29

But God calls people that think they have to play a role in it or church groups that think the church plays a role in your salvation,

11:36

God calls them stout -hearted and he says they are far from righteousness. Well, you can't go to heaven if you're not righteous.

11:43

You have to have Jesus's righteousness placed upon you. It's one of the 33 things the

11:48

Holy Spirit gives you at the moment you're saved. He places the robes of righteousness on you. It's not your righteousness, it's

11:54

Jesus's. And we're dressed up in the robes of Jesus's righteousness.

11:59

And if you don't have that, you don't go to heaven. And God says here that you're a transgressor and you're far from righteousness if you don't believe who

12:09

God is. And who does he say he is? He says, I'm the sovereign of everything. And that's something that people nowadays would consider to be pretty strong.

12:18

But Charles Spurgeon back in the late 1800s said, whatsoever may be said about the doctrine of election, in other words, that God chooses who he will save, that doctrine is written in the word of God as with an iron pin and there is no getting rid of it, there it stands.

12:37

You must first deny the authenticity of the full inspiration of the Holy Scripture before you can legitimately and truly get rid of this doctrine.

12:46

And then he said this, and it agrees with verse 12 in Isaiah 46, Mr. Spurgeon, he never went to seminary, never went to college.

12:55

They called him Mr. Spurgeon, not Dr. Spurgeon, but he was the best read man in England by the age of 21.

13:01

He said this, I believe the man who is not willing to submit to the electing love and sovereign grace of God has great reason to question whether he is a

13:11

Christian at all. For the spirit that kicks against this is the spirit of the devil and the spirit of the unhumbled, unrenewed heart.

13:21

Now, that sounds pretty harsh if a preacher nowadays stood up and said, look, if you don't believe God is sovereign and you don't believe he chooses who he wants to save and that everyone he chooses gets saved, if you don't believe that, you're not saved.

13:32

That would be pretty rough for a preacher like me to stand up and say it. So I don't ever stand up and say it.

13:37

I just quote Spurgeon and I quote Isaiah. How about that? That will do it, and then I don't have to say that, right?

13:44

But let me make sure that you don't think I'm saying something I'm not saying, but I will put the first point of review up.

13:50

The first point was last time we talked about that, number one, those who do not believe God is sovereign are not righteous.

13:57

Scripture just says that. I mean, you can say anything you want to say. You can say, well, I don't believe that. Fine. Then maybe you don't believe

14:03

John 3 .16 either. I mean, if it's in the Scripture, you need to believe it, especially if and only if it's taken in context.

14:12

And this is, all right, but let's look here. I want to make sure you see something else. Look at this man, Adam Clark.

14:19

He was a Methodist minister and a great scholar. I think he knew,

14:25

I don't know, five or six or eight languages and translated things into those languages. Brilliant, brilliant man.

14:30

Studied science as well, literature, world history, and he was a theologian, and he was a

14:38

Methodist. Now, this was in the early 1800s, a little bit before, somewhat coexistent with Charles Spurgeon, who was a

14:48

Baptist. This man was a Methodist. Now, if you know the Methodist beliefs, they're known to be

14:54

Arminian, which means they don't necessarily emphasize the sovereignty of God nowadays, right?

15:02

But I wanted to give you a quote from this man because I want to make sure you know what

15:08

I'm not saying. Now, look here at what I don't think Spurgeon's saying. You see back here, number one, those who do not believe

15:14

God is sovereign are not righteous. Okay, so does that mean that, okay, if you're a Methodist, you're

15:19

Church of Christ, you're Pentecostal, all these groups that believe you can lose your salvation, they don't believe in election, they just believe it's all what you choose to do, then

15:30

I think none of them are saved. I'm not saying that because here is such a man. He was a part of the Methodist church and a powerful

15:38

Methodist preacher in the early 1800s, late 1700s, and look how he described

15:46

God. This is Adam Clark's definition of God. And as long as a man or a woman can define

15:52

God like this, I don't think we can say they're not righteous. So it's not a matter of denomination.

15:58

It doesn't matter what denomination you're in. You just have to understand who God is and that you're not him.

16:04

That's the key. But look what he said. Here is his definition of God. God is the eternal, independent, and self -existent being, the being whose purposes and actions spring from himself.

16:18

Now, if that's not sovereignty, nothing is. So this man believes in the sovereignty of God whose purposes and actions spring from himself without foreign motive or influence.

16:28

That is sovereignty. No other being influences what God does. God does what

16:34

God wills to do. This man had this straight. Now, whether modern Methodists have it right today, I doubt it, but you know what?

16:40

Modern Baptists don't have it right today either. They don't believe like Spurgeon did and Methodists don't believe like Adam Clark did today.

16:47

So Satan takes church groups through a cycle and they start with God being sovereign and they end up with man playing a little part in the salvation and go full circle to where the church and man does most of the salvation.

17:02

And somewhere in that cycle, Jesus removes the candlestick and that church is no longer real because Jesus's presence isn't there anymore, that group anyway.

17:11

And they're just an institution with people in it. It's not real at some point.

17:16

But my point is this Methodist understood this concept. Look at that.

17:22

You can't say it more beautifully than that. He is a being whose purposes and actions spring from himself without foreign motive or influence.

17:30

He who is absolute in dominion, is that not the sovereignty of God? The most pure, the most simple, the most spiritual of all essences, infinitely benevolent, beneficent, true and holy.

17:44

Have you ever had people say, well, how could a loving God let this happen?

17:49

You know, people say stuff like that. Listen to what this man, he knew God pretty well. Look what he says about God. He is sovereign and he chooses what he wants to happen according to his own pleasure, but he is also infinitely benevolent, which means good, beneficent, which means he helps everybody, both the saved and the lost, and he's true and he's holy.

18:14

He is the cause of all being, is that not sovereignty? He's everything that is, he's the cause of it.

18:20

Certainly, wouldn't you have to follow that and say he's the cause of salvation? And yet, Arminianism is nothing more than humanism in the church, and it teaches that you play some part in your own salvation.

18:30

Listen, if your denomination taught you that, bless their hearts. Maybe they taught you a lot of good things, but that's not one of them, and you need to let that one go.

18:37

You're saved by the blood of Jesus and the work of Christ and God the Father and the Holy Spirit on your behalf plus nothing.

18:44

You received it as a gift like a little baby being born. The baby had nothing to do with his own birth. Jesus said you must be born again.

18:51

Spiritual birth is just like physical birth. The baby plays no role in it. He just receives the benefits of it.

18:57

The parents did all the loving. The parents did all the planning. God does all the loving. God does all the planning for your spiritual birth.

19:05

You played no role in it whatsoever, and if you think you do, you were taught that by your denomination. Not by this book.

19:13

Nowhere in this book. So that's kind of the topic we're talking about. God is the cause of all being.

19:20

He is the upholder of all things. He is infinitely happy because infinitely perfect, and he's eternally self -sufficient, needing nothing that he had made.

19:33

God is sovereign. He is illimitable in his immensity. It is inconceivable in his mode of existence.

19:43

Man cannot understand how he exists. It's inconceivable to us that he is self -existent.

19:50

No one made him. He's just always been. That's inconceivable to us. He is, it's beyond limits.

19:55

I mean, for us to understand the immensity and how big God is, and indescribable in his essence.

20:03

We can't, what is spirit? We talk about spirit all the time. What is it? Is it smoke? Does it look like smoke? Vapor? What is it?

20:09

You don't know. You've never seen it and can't see it. The Bible says the father is unseen and no man has seen him at any time, save Jesus Christ, his son.

20:19

He's the only one who's ever seen him. No man shall see me and live, the father says. You can't describe what he is.

20:26

He's pure spirit being. We don't even know what spirit means. Think about that. It'll drive you nuts. You talk about him being a spirit.

20:31

You don't even know what spirit means. Why? Why do we not know? Because it's totally indescribable in his essence.

20:41

Known fully only by himself, because an infinite mind can be fully apprehended only by itself.

20:49

People don't write like this now, do they? In a word, God is a being who from his infinite wisdom cannot err nor be deceived, and who from his infinite goodness can do nothing but what is eternally just, right, and kind.

21:07

So don't question about who God chooses to be his bride, Jesus' bride. Don't question who

21:12

God chooses to be saved and who he chooses not to be saved, because he is eternally just, right, and kind in doing it.

21:20

And to put it in the hands of man who is eternally evil, who is eternally fallen in his nature, and whose righteousness is as filthy rags unto

21:31

God, whether that be the mother of a child or the dad or a preacher, to put it in any man's hands would be a huge mistake, and God won't do it.

21:41

And yet everyone wishes he would, but not when you get to really know how things work, you don't wish that. You would rather salvation be in the hands of someone who is totally the upholder of all things, who is completely pure, who is completely good and happy and pleased with his plan, and who can do nothing but what is eternally just, right, and kind.

22:02

That's where you would want the control to be. And thank God that's where the control is. Well, that was a Methodist speaking.

22:07

Now, last time we talked a little bit about this passage in Daniel 4, verse 34, and we picked up a few more points over here.

22:15

God is sovereign, all this is in here. I'm reviewing, so I'm not gonna read this, but it does say that God does according to his will, both in heaven and on the earth, and none can stay his hand, right?

22:28

That's sovereignty of God. Like he chooses what's gonna happen in the world, and no one will change it. No human can change it.

22:35

Do you know that Satan, Lucifer, was the first Arminian? Because he still to this day thinks he can change it.

22:40

He's read the word of God more than you and I have, but he thinks he can change the end. That's an Arminian. You cannot change

22:47

God's will. The scripture says it there in verse 35. And Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful king in his day, ran the whole world in his day.

22:56

He came to understand this, and in verse 37, he says, God's, all of God's works are truth and judgment.

23:05

And those that walk in pride, he is able to abase. There's a message that he gave to Arminians.

23:12

You walk in pride, you think you control things, God will abase you. He's able to do that. So we see from this little passage here that God is sovereign, that God rules over all the affairs of men and nations, that no man can change the predeterminate will of God, that God is true and good and just, and a special little message for Arminians, all right?

23:32

Then we went to Isaiah 40, 21 through 25, and we picked these up. God is sovereign in creation.

23:40

God rules over all the affairs of men and nations. Look at verse 23. He brings the princes to nothing.

23:46

He makes the judges of the earth as vanity. He can take a president or a world leader and just remove them in an instant.

23:52

I remember when he did that to Mark White, who used to be governor of Texas. He attacked Lester Roloff's home for children.

23:58

Lester Roloff's one of the greatest, Dr. Roloff was one of the greatest preachers in my early young years as a

24:06

Christian. He's with the Lord now, but he had a home for young people with 300 acres and his cure rate for young teenagers that were on drugs was about 75%.

24:15

The state of Texas had about a 25 % cure rate, and yet Mark White shut down the homes, and guess what?

24:21

God removed him from governorship of Texas. You've never heard of him again. God can do that.

24:28

God raises them up for his purposes, takes them away for his purposes, and so there you have it.

24:37

To whom then will you liken me or shall be equal to me, sayeth the Holy One. So God is the only sovereign.

24:43

That's what that passage says. This is a good review. All right, look at verse 10. I mean, number 10.

24:49

God is sovereign over the number of days in our lives. Look, this is good to know. If you're afraid of the coronavirus, like you're not going to die of it until it's your time to die, period.

24:57

You just won't. If it's not, if your mission's not over, it can't kill you. All right, so take some peace from that.

25:05

All these verses say that. And then number 11, God brings good and evil into the world.

25:11

Most people say, no, God's only good. He doesn't ever bring evil thing. Well, God himself said in Proverbs 16, 4, that he does.

25:17

The Lord has made all things for himself, for his own purposes, because of his great plan.

25:22

See, he sees the whole of the plan, the end from the beginning, and he says, it's a good plan, even though it includes the fact that man,

25:30

Adam and Eve said, you know what? We don't want to just have good. We want to have evil too. And they asked for it, and God gave them what they asked for, because they did what they wanted to do and sin, and he held them responsible for it.

25:42

And the curse came, and the fall came, and God wasn't surprised by any of it. He said

25:48

Jesus was crucified before the foundation of the world. It was God's plan for it to happen that way. And that was evil, but it was

25:54

God's plan. I mean, we would say it's evil, right? But God said, no, this is my will. So that surprises people.

26:00

But you know, most people don't know God. They worship a God they've invented in the figment of their imagination.

26:06

Just like Paul said, there are different Jesuses, different gospels, and different spirits. But he said, there's only one true

26:12

Jesus, one true gospel, and one true Holy Spirit. And so yet people are so easily deceived by stuff they hear preachers say, when it's not in the scripture.

26:21

I bet Brother Otis and I, years ago, removed over 100 words and phrases from our vocabulary that we used to teach and preach, because we heard another old preacher say it, and it wasn't in the

26:30

Bible, so we got rid of it. You've got to do that too. Takes work, but you've got to eliminate stuff that's not biblical that you think is.

26:38

All right, now we went into this little part here, which is kind of fascinating. In Jude, in Matthew, where Jesus was asked, he tells his story, and in the story they said, well, sir, did you sow good seed in the field?

26:53

Then how did we get tares? And Jesus said, no, I don't sow anything but good seed. I didn't sow the tares.

26:59

And the tares represent people who will never receive Christ, and the wheat represents people who will receive

27:05

Christ. He said, I only put the wheat here. He said, an enemy has done this. So the enemy, later he names that enemy as Satan.

27:14

And right down here in verse 39, if you just skip from 28 to 39, the enemy that sowed them is the devil, right?

27:21

The harvest is the end of the world, the reaper is the angels, as therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this age.

27:29

So Jesus said, look, I didn't put them here. Now that's a neat topic for another time, isn't it? Is how did Satan put them here?

27:35

We may talk about that sometime, but not this time. But then look at this, Jude 4. There are certain people, the

27:43

Bible talks about, certain men who crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained.

27:51

That's called foreordination or predestination. It's very similar terms in the

27:57

Bible. This is talking about predestination. These men were predestined, predetermined to be condemned.

28:03

They were ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness. They were teaching false doctrine, denying the only

28:10

Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, where does it say they're gonna end up? Drop on down to verse 13 in Jude.

28:16

It says, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

28:26

So number 12 is, if God elected the saved, he also elected who would not be saved or who would be lost.

28:32

No one wants to believe that today, no one. But back in the 17 to 1800s, 95 % of all

28:37

Baptists believed this way. Now only 5 % believe this way. Isn't that funny? Wonder what changed it. Could it be the false prophets

28:43

Jesus said would be here at the end of the age? Could it be the bad preaching that confuses us?

28:49

Question you could ask, couldn't we? Well, what did Jesus say? Jesus said to them,

28:56

I go my way and you shall seek me and you shall die in your sins. Where there I go, you cannot come.

29:01

He didn't say you won't choose to get saved. He said, you can't come. But who is he talking to? The tares. He can tell the difference.

29:08

In verse 24, I said therefore unto you that you shall die in your sins for if you believe not that I am, you shall die in your sins.

29:16

Now, these are unbelievers and they're going to die and go to hell. But he also looked at them and said, you cannot come where I'm going, which meant they didn't even have the ability to choose to come.

29:27

Now that blows your mind if you hadn't read the scripture carefully. But it's because God the Father is in control of who gets saved.

29:34

And Jesus only saves the ones God the Father tells him to save. He said plainly that's how he does it.

29:39

That's the way the Holy Spirit, how does the Holy Spirit know who to call? He tapped me on the shoulder one day in my car driving to work and saved me.

29:47

Why did he do that to me? And maybe not some of the friends I went to school with back then. Well, because the

29:52

Father told him to come get me. And he only does what the Father says to do. And Jesus said this,

29:58

I only speak and only do the works that I've seen the Father do. So that's how it works. So God chooses who will be part of Jesus's bride.

30:07

It's just throughout scripture. It's very uncomfortable to those of us who have heard modern preaching.

30:13

John 8 43 says, why do you not understand my speech? And he's talking to these leaders, theological leaders.

30:20

He said, even because you cannot hear my word. Now let me ask you this, could you be saved if you can't hear the word?

30:27

Let's say someone presents the gospel plainly. Jesus died for your sins, was buried, rose again a third day.

30:34

Do you believe in that? If you do, you can be saved, but they can't hear that. They can't understand it. They can't hear it with understanding.

30:40

So could they be saved? No. And Jesus says right here, you don't understand me because you can't.

30:46

You can't hear my word. Why? Because you're of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father you will do.

30:54

So see, this is not in the control of this person. I mean, it is in Jesus's control. It's not in the control of the person he's talking to.

31:01

Jesus didn't say, look, I died for you, and I gave salvation because here it is. If you choose to take it, you can determine that you'll go to heaven.

31:09

If you choose to reject it, you can determine you're going to hell. He didn't present it that way, did he? He didn't give them the choice, not these people.

31:18

And isn't it interesting that he told us not to be very careful who we witness to and where we witness, and to only witness to people that the

31:29

Holy Spirit tells us to witness to. Yet your preacher will say, go witness to everybody. Go knock on doors, tell everybody the gospel.

31:35

Well, Jesus said, cast not your pearls before the swine lest they turn and rend you. So you don't give the gospel to everybody.

31:43

You give it to who the Holy Spirit leads you to. But guess what? You have to have an ongoing walking, loving relationship and fellowship with the

31:51

God to know that. And that's way harder than living by a set of rules that your church or pastors are on Thursday night, we're going to go out and witness.

31:59

Well, that's a set of rules. You just go do it because he said to. It's harder to walk with God so much that you witness to everybody the

32:06

Holy Spirit tells you to as you go. But that's how it's supposed to be done. Rabbit trail, but I like it.

32:15

And then last time we talked about who did Jesus die for, all right? And you have all these amazing quotes that I gave last time.

32:24

Just look at this one. If it were Christ's intention to save all men, how deplorably has he been disappointed,

32:32

Charles Spurgeon said, because not all men are getting saved. So if he died for everybody, he failed mostly because a huge number of people are not going to be saved.

32:40

That can't happen. And then a more modern preacher, John MacArthur said it this way. If Christ paid the penalty for everyone, every human sins, how could

32:50

God sentence people to hell for the sins that Christ bore the punishment for? He couldn't, so everyone would be saved, but that's not happening.

32:58

And so that teaching that Jesus died for everyone is false. There are many preachers going back all the way 2 ,000 years, all the way from Augustine, 400

33:06

AD, all the way up to John MacArthur, who's still alive right now, who never believed or taught that Jesus died for everybody.

33:13

In fact, Charles Spurgeon was known as a particular Baptist and 95 % of the Baptists alive on the planet in the 16, 17 and early 1800s were particular

33:23

Baptists. That means they believed that Jesus died only for the elect and that everyone that he died for will be saved.

33:30

Totally not taught that way now, is it? But how did Jesus teach it? Well, look what

33:36

Jesus said in John 10. I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and I'm known of mine.

33:41

As the father knoweth me, even so I the father. And I lay down my life.

33:47

Who'd he die for? Jesus said, I died for the sheep. He said, I didn't put the goats here.

33:55

Satan did. I died for the sheep. Listen, that's what the Bible teaches, but it's not popular today.

34:03

He said in John chapter six, but I said unto you that you also have seen me and you believe not.

34:08

So it's up to you like to make the choice to have eternal life. If that were true,

34:14

I mean, that's how it's presented today. But Jesus said, here's a group of people I'm looking at right here. He said, you have seen me, but you don't believe.

34:23

Why can you, how come you can see God and hear me talk and you're not, you don't believe? He said, well, here's the reason, because all that the father gives me will come to me.

34:34

And him that comes to me, I will no wise cast out. No man can come to me, however, unless the father which sent me draws that person to me.

34:43

See, that's election. That's choosing. That's predestination for knowledge. I knew them before the foundation of the world

34:49

Ephesians one, I knew who's going to get saved and I loved them and I chose them. And then in time

34:55

I called them and the ones I called came. And he says, unless the father draws him and that word means drags.

35:02

So he has to drag us to Christ, even when we're not willing. So it's the Holy spirit that changes our want to and makes us willing.

35:09

And at that point he makes Jesus irresistible to us. And we receive him as our personal Lord and savior, just like the bride who paid no attention to this young groom.

35:17

And he gave her candy and he gave her flowers and he gave her jewelry and he took her out to eat.

35:23

And she finally noticed him. And eventually he said, will you marry me? And she said, I do. That's how it works.

35:29

The Lord has to pursue us. And no man comes to Jesus unless that's happening. But the Holy spirit only pursues the elect because that's who

35:36

God sends him to. And that's where he goes. Now there is a call to the whole world and that's the gospel.

35:42

The whole world is supposed to get the gospel. That's called the universal calling. But the effectual calling is when the

35:48

Holy spirit comes to individuals on their spiritual birthday and gives birth to them. And that's all of God.

35:56

Who did Jesus die for? Spurgeon said, I would rather believe a limited atonement that is fully efficacious.

36:06

That means it's effective for all men for who it was intended. Now I know it's hard to read old writing.

36:13

Here's what he's saying. I would rather believe that Jesus didn't die for everybody but everyone that he did die for will get saved.

36:23

I would rather believe that than believing in a universal atonement that he believes that he died for everybody that is not effective for anybody unless their will makes it happen.

36:35

He said, I don't want to believe it that way. Well, why? Because the Bible didn't teach it that way. The father imposed his wrath due unto and the son underwent punishment for either.

36:47

Now, we probably should take a stand up stretch here because our brain is going to have to get in high gear to catch this.

36:57

What I'm about to read you is something that a great preacher known as John Owen who lived in the 1600s, he wrote this.

37:04

And it is about the sovereignty of God and election and so forth. And that is the title of a book you can go out to Amazon and get.

37:13

Now they shortened the title a little bit and I would buy a newer version of it. I would get the one where J .I.

37:21

Packer wrote the preface to it. J .I. Packer, the guy that wrote Knowing God, famous book all of us read back in the 80s.

37:28

He wrote the preface to the new edition of this book by John Owen. Go out and grab that book.

37:34

It'll change your life. I will read you a little bit of it and we got to go slow because our brains don't like to think like they could think.

37:40

They were all taught logic. We don't study that anymore in high school or college unless you take a course in it, which

37:47

God, thank God I did. And I wish all of you would go take an online course in logic.

37:52

You need to do it. It's under philosophy, school of philosophy in any of these places. Just take a course in it.

37:58

These guys all knew it. Everything they say is not only biblical but logical because God said, come let us reason together.

38:05

Reasoning is logic. So listen to this argument from John Owen in 1660 something, all right?

38:14

The father imposed his wrath due unto and the son underwent punishment for either.

38:23

Let me put that in modern English, okay? Jesus died for one of these reasons that I'm going to list.

38:32

There's only a few reasons it could be for. I'm going to list them for you. That's what he's saying. See, I make that simpler, right?

38:39

And here are the reasons that Jesus died. Now, number one, he either died and was punished for all the sins of all men, which is what's taught today.

38:51

This is the modern gospel. God loves everybody. Jesus died for everybody. So John Owen is saying, okay, this is one of the choices that it could mean that the

39:01

Bible could teach. Or number two, he died for all the sins of some men.

39:09

He didn't die for everybody, but he died to take all the sins away from some men. Or number three, he died for some of the sins of some men.

39:19

Now, it's one of these three choices. This is just logic. In which case it may be said,

39:26

A, that if the last is true, if he died for some of the sins of some men, all men have some sins they'd have to answer for, and so no one would be saved.

39:39

So if you pick number three, no one ends up saved. Now, if you pick the second choice, that he died for all the sins of some men, that if the second be true, then

39:50

Christ in their stead suffered for all the sins of all of the elect in the whole world, and this is the truth.

40:01

So if you understand number two, that he didn't die for everybody, but the ones he did die for, he died for every sin in their entire lifetime, even the ones they haven't done yet, if you're alive today, right?

40:12

If you understand that, then he suffered for all the sins of all those who were chosen by God to be saved, that would be point number two.

40:22

Number C, but if the first case, he died for everybody, if the first case was true, why aren't all men free from their punishment due to their sins then?

40:34

And you answer, well, because of unbelief. And I ask, is this unbelief a sin or is it not?

40:40

And he's just using logic here. If it is sin, if your unbelief is sin, then

40:46

Christ suffered the punishment due into it, didn't he?

40:52

Yeah, he did. Well, if he did, why must that hinder them more than any other sin from being saved, right?

41:00

If he did not, he did not die for all their sins. So here's the point. Listen, if he died for everyone's sin, and the only sin keeping them from heaven is their unbelief, and yet unbelief is a sin, which he must have died for all their sins, right?

41:16

Then they would all be saved, that's his point. Now I know it's hard to read, but it's perfect logic.

41:21

You cannot get around it. So the only possible truth of a choice from scripture, if you take all the whole of the scripture, is number two.

41:31

Jesus died for all the sins of some men, and they are known as the elect.

41:38

Grab the book, read it. You can read it a little slower than I'm going, but you get your mind wrapped around it.

41:43

It's impeccable logic. You can't get around it. If you wanted to argue with he or Charles Spurgeon, you would lose if you don't believe in the sovereignty of God, if you don't believe in election.

41:52

And you want to believe some of these modern preachers that are telling you it's not true, check out their life and see if they live a godly, holy life like these men did.

41:59

See if they pray as much as they did, because they didn't have TV. They didn't have baseball and football.

42:05

We don't either now, God took it away. They didn't have all these distractions. They just spent their hours in prayer and studying the

42:11

Bible, and this is what they say, okay? Now, Arthur Pink, who lived in the 50s, more recent, he said, not one for whom

42:21

Jesus died can possibly miss heaven, all right? So that's in a book called

42:27

The Sovereignty of God by Arthur Pink. You should read this one first, because it's way easier to read than this one. Read Sovereignty of God first, then pick up Death by the

42:36

Death of Christ, if you want to. Those are great books. So who did Jesus die for? Well, we see what these scholars said about it, didn't we?

42:45

It's clear what they believed, that Jesus died for some people, but that particular group, he died for all of their sins, and all of them will be saved, because they're saved by his death and by his blood.

42:57

So everybody for whom his blood was shed shall be saved, is what those men believed.

43:02

Now, what does scripture say about it? Because that's the final authority, isn't it? You know, some people nowadays are so silly.

43:09

They say, oh, I don't entertain anything but scripture. And yet Paul, when he was hanging on the wall of the dungeon, he said to Timothy, or whoever he was talking to at the time,

43:17

I don't remember, probably it was Timothy, he said, look, bring me the parchments and the books.

43:23

So he wanted the scriptures, but he wanted his books too. So he was a scholar, he read other things. You should read other things.

43:29

You need to know what people thought the scripture meant for the last 2000 years. You don't have to agree, you won't agree with everything they say, but you need to read it, because otherwise you'll come up with some new invention that no one ever thought it meant, right?

43:41

And that's called a private interpretation. Scripture says we're not allowed to have that. So we need to consult what believers before us thought things meant.

43:50

We just did that. We've done all three. We've gone all the way back to 88 AD on this topic. If you've been with me the last three or four

43:56

Sundays, 88 AD all the way till Pink, which was in the 1950s, and even

44:05

MacArthur, who's still preaching now. But what does the scripture say? Because that's of ultimate importance.

44:11

And this is what would correct the people we read. This is what tells us whether they're right or not, right? Isaiah 53, let's go back to the

44:18

Old Testament. We'll give you a second to get a drink if you want to. All right.

44:27

Old Testament, all we like sheep have gone astray. Now the question we're trying to ask is who did

44:34

Jesus die for? Did he die for everybody or just for the elect, the sheep or the wheat?

44:41

Is that who he died for? Did he die for the tares? Did he die for the goats? If so, why aren't they sheep? That's my question.

44:48

But the scripture says all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.

44:55

And if you look at the context of who Isaiah is writing this to, he's writing this to God's people. This is not written to everybody in the world.

45:01

You always, 10 commandments of Bible interpretation, you always want to ask who is being written to. Does it apply to everyone?

45:08

Does it only apply to Christians? Does it only apply to saved people? Does it apply to people that live in my day or only that day?

45:14

You got to ask those questions, okay? So who are we talking to here? We're talking about the people of God.

45:20

And you go back to the early parts of Isaiah and read it, you'll see that that's exactly right.

45:26

All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the

45:31

Lord has laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all. Now, if you just pull that context, that verse out of context, you would say, well, right there, it teaches

45:41

Jesus died for everybody. But actually what it teaches is he died for everybody that he's talking to in this context of this passage.

45:50

It's the only way you can interpret scripture. You can't say, well, you know, if he says I'm talking to God's people and he says he died for all of them, that doesn't mean he died for everybody.

46:00

And yet that's what people do. They'll pluck a scripture out and try to prove something with it without looking at what it's talking about.

46:06

You can't do that. You're cheating when you do that. So the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us.

46:14

Now, if you leave the word all, now all is okay. It's in the Hebrew, but it means all the people he's talking to.

46:20

But obviously who he's talking to is found right here, the sheep, okay?

46:26

So he laid on Jesus the iniquity of us. Who is us and who is them, okay? Us here would be

46:32

Jews, God's people, and them would be Gentiles. If you want to talk about it in New Testament terms, us would be sheep, them would be goats.

46:40

Us would be wheat, them would be tares. God's got them in two groups. One group is going to be bound in bundles and burned at the end of time.

46:48

The other group is going to be put in his barn, which is a picture of heaven, right? Two groups. Which groups he talking to here?

46:55

He's talking to the sheep. It's clear from the first part of the verse. And he laid on Jesus the iniquity of us, the sheep.

47:02

I think it'll prove it even farther as we go. Now, if you go back to the very beginning of Isaiah, the book, and ask who is being spoken to in this book, does this mean that Jesus means he put every human's iniquity upon himself, or does it mean he put our iniquity on himself, us being the children of God, the elect?

47:24

Well, look at chapter one, verse one. Ask who is being spoken to. Context is everything.

47:30

You got to study the 10 commandments of proper Bible interpretation. We can make that available to you if you don't have it.

47:36

But look at verse one. The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

47:46

All right? Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they rebelled against me.

47:55

He is writing to the children of Israel. Yes, they're rebellious, but they're still sheep.

48:01

And that's who God laid the sins upon Jesus for, is his sheep.

48:06

Now, that includes not just Israel, but Old and New Testament sheep, right? It's clear who the context is being spoken to,

48:14

God's people. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib, but Israel doth not know.

48:21

My people doth not consider. God is writing this whole book to my people. That's who he's writing to, and he laid the iniquity of his people upon Jesus, is the context.

48:32

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.

48:40

Who for? Who did he die for? Who was Jesus cut off out of the land of the living for?

48:46

Who did he die for? For the transgression of my people was he stricken. Not for the whole world.

48:52

You say, well, what about John 3 .16? Listen, John 3 .16, not talking about all the people in the world, it's talking about the cosmos.

48:58

Jesus died for the entire orderly creation of God in John 3 .16. He not only died to save the elect humans, but he died to save the rocks and the streams and the trees and the earth and Mars and the universe and the sun and put it back in order because the fall of Adam and Eve put everything out of order.

49:17

That's what John 3 .16 means. I've taught on it before and called it the most misunderstood verse in the Bible, John 3 .16,

49:23

because people don't understand what it's talking about. All you got to do is read John 3 .18, 19, 20, 21, and you see what it's talking about in the context if you want to check that out later.

49:33

But obviously here, he died for the transgression of God's people is who the scripture says he died for.

49:39

All right, so who did Jesus die for? Well, let's look at this. As we continue through this beautiful passage in Isaiah 53, the next great doctrine we see is the doctrine of propitiation.

49:53

In other words, when Jesus died, the father was satisfied that his death was sufficient and all that was required to save the people for whom he died.

50:03

That's what propitiation means, satisfied. The father is satisfied. So his wrath and his judgment has been satisfied with Jesus's death for the sins of God's people.

50:13

Look at Isaiah 53 .10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Jesus. He has put

50:19

Jesus to grief. When thou shalt make Jesus's soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed and he shall prolong

50:29

Jesus's days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. All right, now this word for a propitiation here is tzalbe in Hebrew, tzalbe 'ah.

50:39

And it means to fill or to satisfy or to fill to satisfaction.

50:46

So God's wrath and justice were filled completely when Jesus died for the sins of God's people.

50:53

It satisfied the law and God was satisfied. Now he's free to save his people.

50:59

All right, look at verse 11. He shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied.

51:05

The father will see Jesus die and be satisfied. That's this word. This is where I get our modern word over in the

51:10

Greek for propitiation. The New Testament doctrine comes from this in the Old Testament. The first part of the next verse, the second part of the next verse says, by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many.

51:23

So by knowing Jesus, many will be justified. I want you to notice something here.

51:29

In the scripture, it does not say all. It doesn't say by knowing Jesus, everyone will be justified.

51:36

It says many people, many humans will. For he shall bear their iniquities. So whose sin does he die for?

51:44

The many, not everybody. He dies for many. All right, we saw earlier in the same passage, he dies for the sins of his people.

51:55

So here we see limited atonement coming up again. The text does not say he will justify every individual, but rather many individuals from among all the people groups or races,

52:08

Jew and Gentile. So the only sense in which Jesus died for all men is in the sense that Paul meant it when he would use that phrase, where he says all men, not just Jews.

52:18

Jesus died for all men, not just Jews, because Jews didn't believe Gentiles would be saved. And Paul said, no, he died for all men.

52:26

That doesn't mean every individual. It means every people group will have people in it that can get saved and will get saved.

52:32

That's what it means. And it's the only way the scripture fits and it's clear. So here it doesn't say he justified everybody.

52:40

He said he justified many and he bore the sins of many. So it is the many whose sins shall be borne by the

52:49

Savior. This is inherently logical for if we are saved by the blood plus nothing as this whole passage demands, by the substitutionary death of Jesus plus nothing is what saved us, then this demands that all for whom he died shall be saved.

53:07

And we know not every individual goes to heaven because Jesus said so in Luke 13, 23 through 24 and many other places.

53:14

So he didn't die for everyone, lest they would all be saved. So he died for the ones that were

53:20

God's people that he knew before the foundation of the world. That's who he died for. That's what scripture teaches. So that we would not miss this all important truth.

53:28

The Holy Spirit says it again in this Isaiah 53 passage. Look what he says here, verse 12. Because he hath poured out his soul unto death and he was numbered with the transgressors, that's

53:39

Jesus, he bare the sin of many, not all, and made intercession for the transgressors, these transgressors.

53:51

The word here for many means enough for enough of the people for the many of the people, it doesn't mean all the people.

53:58

In the logic and in the Bible, the word all can sometimes mean many because it can mean many individuals from all groups of people, such as Jews, Gentiles, black, white, races, different things.

54:14

And all in that sense, he died for all. Yes, he died for all people groups, but it doesn't mean every individual.

54:20

So in logic, the word all can sometimes mean many, but in logic, the word many can never mean all.

54:31

Check it out. It's just a logical truth. See if you can find a way around that. Many cannot mean all.

54:38

Otherwise you use the word all. And the Holy Spirit's very good at choosing words. He chooses the exact precise word and puts it in the

54:45

Holy Writ and every little word is important. He died for the many, not the all.

54:52

Jesus himself did not teach that he died for everyone. Look carefully at what Jesus said. Mark 14, verse 22.

54:59

And as they did eat, Jesus took bread and blessed and break it and gave to them and said, take eat, this is my body.

55:07

This is what we call now the Lord's supper. It's to me, it was Passover. And he's using the bread as a picture of his own life and body that he would give for them.

55:18

And the wine was going to be a picture of his blood. And he said, and he took the cup and when he had given thanks, he said, he gave it to them and they all drank of it.

55:30

And he said to them, this is the blood of the New Testament which is shed for, look at this key word right here, many.

55:38

Now, do you think Jesus is being accurate with his words or sloppy like so many preachers are?

55:45

He's being very accurate and he doesn't say all. And in the Greek, it would be pas, which means all, but this is not that word.

55:54

Notice Jesus did not say that he gave his blood for all.

55:59

He said, he gave it for many. Many is the word polous in Greek.

56:05

And if it's used in the singular, it can mean much. If it's used in the plural, it means many.

56:13

And in this passage, it's in the plural. It means he died for many. It's a perfect translation into English.

56:18

He did not die for all, which would be the Greek word pas. This is the word polous or polous and it means many.

56:27

The word pas in Greek means all. The Holy Spirit could have chosen this word if he meant that, but he did not choose this word in Mark 14, 24, he chose polous, which means many.

56:38

Many cannot mean all. Logic plus scripture equals the truth.

56:45

Jesus clearly said that his blood was shed for many. Not all.

56:50

Can we trust that every little word in the Bible is accurate? Absolutely.

56:56

Now let's go out to another book of the New Testament, Hebrews 9, verse 27. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of, who?

57:10

Many. And unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

57:19

Now who looks for him? Anyone who looks for him can find him. But Jesus himself said, where I go, you cannot come.

57:27

And he said, you cannot hear my words because the Father hasn't given it to you to hear me.

57:33

You won't see me. That's what he said to the Pharisees. He didn't say you might choose to, he said, you won't.

57:38

You won't go where I go because you're of your father, the devil, sheep and goats, wheat and tares. So Christ was offered to bear the sins of the many, not the all.

57:49

He died for the chosen elect ones that God knew would be his children, that he chose to be his children.

57:57

Here again, the Holy Spirit chose to say clearly that Christ was offered to bear the sins of many, not all.

58:04

Mark says in his gospel, Mark 10, 45, for even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many, not all.

58:17

Now you think about what ransom means, okay? Ransom, let's say this person over here's child is kidnapped and this person over here's child is kidnapped.

58:28

And this person has lots of money, that person has no money. And the kidnapper says, I want a half million bucks so you don't get your child back.

58:35

And so this person over here pays him the $500 ,000. This person doesn't.

58:41

Which child gets set free? Not both of them, because the ransom wasn't given for both of them, it was given to the one that belonged to the person who could pay it.

58:51

That's the very definition of ransom. If you study the concept of ransom in the scripture, you will see that limited atonement is true.

58:58

Jesus died only for the elect, only for who God chose. He ransomed many, not all.

59:05

Those for whom he paid the ransom, 100 % of them are set free. They're saved.

59:11

They're set free from Satan, the world, and the flesh. And there you have it. So ransom is used, and by definition, the only people who are set free by the captor are those for whom the ransom is paid.

59:26

And that is the children of the guy paying the ransom. I mean, that's just how that works. And God the Father chose us as his adopted children before he ever even spun the worlds into existence.

59:36

He knew exactly who would be saved. He sent his son to die for them, and that's who he died for.

59:42

And that's many people. If you look at all of the humans who are God's children throughout some 8 ,000 years of human history since Genesis 1 -1, it's thousands and hundreds of thousands of people that he died for, but he didn't die for everybody.

59:56

Or we could say it this way. Everyone who Jesus ransomed will be set free, and he ransomed many, but not all men.

01:00:04

Scripture says it very clearly right here. He bare the sins of many, and down here it says he gave his life a ransom for many.

01:00:16

To give his life a ransom for many, since we know that Jesus said, broad is the way to hell, and many there be that go thereby, we know that not everyone is saved.

01:00:24

Therefore, not everyone has been ransomed. For as surely as Jesus is the great shepherd, it is certain that everyone for whom his blood was given as a ransom will be saved.

01:00:36

Jesus said that, okay? Look here, John 6 -44. No man can come to me except the

01:00:43

Father which has sent him draws me. That's election. These people are chosen, and God sends the

01:00:50

Holy Spirit to wake them up when it's their spiritual birthday. God draws them to Jesus. They receive

01:00:55

Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. There won't be anybody in heaven, by the way, that has not received Jesus as their personal

01:01:01

Lord and Savior, at least not on this side of the cross. And so, look what he says.

01:01:08

I will raise those up at the last day. He didn't say I might. So every single person whom he ransomed and who the

01:01:16

Father sent him to save will be saved. Jesus said that. That's not some doctrine of a church somewhere.

01:01:24

John 6 -39, what it should be, doctrine of a lot of churches, but it's scripture. Jesus 6 -39 said, and this is the

01:01:30

Father's will who has sent me that of all which he has given me. Now, it doesn't say

01:01:36

Jesus died for all people. He died for all the ones God the Father gave him, and of them

01:01:42

I will lose nothing. So do you remember the great scholars of old when they were using their logic just a few minutes ago?

01:01:50

And they come back and they say, well, it must be point number two, and it means that he died for all of the sins of some people, and of those he will lose nothing.

01:01:59

Where'd they get that from? They got it from scripture, from what Jesus said. This is the

01:02:04

Father's will which has sent me that of all which he has given me, I will lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

01:02:12

Does that sound like he puts the eternal destiny of human beings in the human beings' own hands so that they could choose to not do it if they wanted to?

01:02:20

Doesn't sound like it to me, because listen, if the Father gave a certain person to Jesus and Jesus lost them, he would have to answer for it because he's the shepherd.

01:02:30

It's not the responsibility of the sheep to stay in the fold. It's the responsibility of the shepherd to keep them in the fold.

01:02:36

Think about that. You've heard me tell the story about me keeping my grandpa's cattle, and I'm the one that got chewed out if one of them got out.

01:02:44

He didn't go out and chew out the cow. So with regard to the ransom price,

01:02:51

Jesus' blood, it was not given for everyone but for the many, only for the elect, those who

01:02:59

God knew from before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1, Romans 8, and everywhere else in Scripture.

01:03:04

Otherwise, all men from all ages would be in heaven someday, and we know that's not the case. So both

01:03:10

Scripture and logic proves that what's commonly taught today, universal atonement, is false.

01:03:16

It's not taught in the Bible. Now, there is a doctrine which has never been popular.

01:03:25

Even when Jesus taught it, it has never been popular. Let me share that with you, and we'll be done for today, okay? So let's see what that was.

01:03:31

John 6, 43 through 69. I'm gonna drop down close to the bottom first, and then I'm gonna come back up to the top.

01:03:37

But down near the bottom of that passage, it says, from that time, many of Jesus' disciples went back and walked no more with him.

01:03:44

So apparently, Jesus has taught something that offended these people, and these are disciples, okay?

01:03:51

These are followers of Jesus, and they turned away from him and never came back, never walked with him again, after he taught something.

01:03:59

Now, all we have to do is go up in the context from 66 up to around 43 and read, and we can see what he taught that made these people leave.

01:04:08

Wouldn't that be interesting? He said, then said Jesus unto the 12, will you leave also?

01:04:13

So apparently, what Jesus has now taught, even his 12 apostles were thinking about walking away.

01:04:21

Isn't that something? He could read their minds. You think Jesus just said that for no reason? Oh, will you leave also?

01:04:27

He was reading their minds. They were thinking, well, I don't like what he just taught either. That's exactly what the apostles were thinking.

01:04:36

And then Simon answered and said this after thinking about it for a second. He said, well, where would we go?

01:04:41

Now, does that sound like a really awesome reason for not leaving? He didn't say, oh, no, we love you,

01:04:47

Lord. We're gonna stay with you. He didn't say, oh, no, everything you teach is wise and perfect, and we completely understand it, so we'll stay with you.

01:04:53

He didn't say that. He just said, well, where else would we go if we leave? That's not the greatest thing to say, but Peter was known for not always thinking before he talked, right?

01:05:03

Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, so we'll stay. We don't have any other place to go.

01:05:09

That wasn't the greatest commendation that he felt like he loved what Jesus just taught.

01:05:14

So none of them liked it. Not one person in the crowd liked it. And we believe and are sure that you are the

01:05:20

Christ, the Son of the living God, so we'll stay. But that's the only reason. It's not because he liked what he just taught.

01:05:26

So what did he just teach? Well, we gotta go back above this to see what doctrine it is or doctrines that he had taught that so many people walked away from him and never came back, and his apostle almost thought about it anyway.

01:05:38

What was it that caused the multitude of people to walk away from him, even his closest people? So let's jump all the way back up to verse 43,

01:05:46

John chapter six. Jesus therefore answered. I got one that popped in early.

01:05:52

Sorry about that. Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, murmur not among yourselves.

01:05:58

So they were, he's just starting to teach and they're already murmuring because they don't like, because they haven't heard it taught this way.

01:06:05

You see, that's the problem with any listeners, you guys out there today that have a little bit of problems, doesn't sound quite right to you.

01:06:12

Could it be because you've heard so much false preaching on this topic that when you hear the truth from scripture, it confuses you?

01:06:17

Yes, that's the deal. So you gotta lay aside stuff denominations have taught and just go to scripture, ask the

01:06:24

Holy Spirit to teach you what's the truth and you'll be just fine. But Jesus was teaching this right here when they murmured and when they walked away from him and even his own apostles thought about it and he read their minds.

01:06:36

Verse 44, here's what he's teaching. No man can come to me except the father which has sent me draw him.

01:06:42

That is election, ladies and gentlemen. When he taught that, almost all the people in the crowd and who knows how many people were in that crowd, but we know he had over 500 disciples.

01:06:53

He probably had way more than that. He put 5 ,000 people on a hill one day and taught them. They all left when he taught that except the apostles and they were thinking about it and he read their minds.

01:07:03

And the only reason they stayed is because they said, well, where would we go? Right? Not because they like this doctrine.

01:07:09

No man can come to me. Listen, this is the very thing Jesus taught Nicodemus that the great teacher didn't like.

01:07:16

He said, well, you must be born again. And Nicodemus said, that doesn't make sense. That doesn't have anything to do with the church or the law or the rules we have set up for going to heaven.

01:07:26

Jesus said, no, it's like the wind. It blows where it wants to. God saves who he wants to. And Nicodemus walked away sad.

01:07:33

Right? Now I think maybe later he got saved. We don't know, but I kind of think he did. But that's another topic.

01:07:39

But the point is no man can come to me unless the father which has sent me draws that person to me.

01:07:45

Otherwise they'll never get saved. And that person, every one of them, I'll raise them up. So it puts salvation totally in the hands of the shepherd, not the sheep, and they hated this.

01:07:56

Why? Because Judaism was salvation by works. It was by human effort. And this totally took the power out of the hands of the powerful theologians of the day and they hated it.

01:08:06

They still hate it today. So will your friends and family hate it if you tell this to them. You better be ready if you're going to start teaching this stuff.

01:08:14

You need to teach it, but you need to pray about it and be ready. Well, what doctrine does that sound like?

01:08:19

No man can come to me unless the father draws him. You tell me. Now look at the next verse.

01:08:24

Now this is one of the doctrines that caused him to leave him forever. Jesus, they didn't like it.

01:08:30

And he's the best teacher they'd ever taught. So it's not your presentation that's driving people away, ladies and gentlemen, it's what you believe.

01:08:37

It's what God says is true, drives them away. It either pull them towards him or it'll drive them away. It'll have that effect on every human, one of the two.

01:08:45

It is written in the prophets, Jesus said, they shall be all taught of, in that word of here in the

01:08:51

Greek means by, they shall all be taught by God. Now this is Jesus quoting the

01:08:56

Old Testament. And he's telling them, here's how people get saved, not by their own will, but first of all, they have to have had their eyes open and their ears open and their mind open so that they could actually be taught something by the father first.

01:09:11

They can't be saved until God opens their mind and teaches them about me, Jesus said. See, doesn't he say, no man can come to me unless the father draws him.

01:09:19

So they have to have been taught by God, the father. Every man therefore that has heard, in other words, he had his ears open, that's the calling of the

01:09:28

Holy Spirit, and has learned from the father comes to me. Every one of them does.

01:09:36

Now that doesn't, Jesus isn't saying I'm saving all of humanity, is he? He's saying I'm saving the ones that God the father draws to me and teaches them to open their mind to what

01:09:45

I'm saying and draws them to me, and then opens their ears so they can hear my words and learn from the father, then every one of those people come to me.

01:09:56

So that's how people get saved, not by choosing, but because the Holy Spirit caused them to want to choose.

01:10:03

And the choosing was an effect. The Holy Spirit calling them was the cause and he regenerated them, that's the cause.

01:10:10

The choosing and the receiving of Jesus was the effect. Now tell me that's not different than what you've been taught your whole life.

01:10:18

Yeah, it's kind of spooky, isn't it? It puts all the control in God's hands. Whoa, the all eternal one who's all loving and perfectly just, that's whose hand salvation is in, not man whose heart is deceitful and desperately wicked and who can know his own heart, not that.

01:10:32

Oh, we don't get saved that way? Praise God, no, we don't. And Jesus said it very clearly, the only people that come to him and get saved are people that have already been taught by the father through the

01:10:42

Holy Spirit, I would add, and who have learned about me from the father and then all of them, 100%, every of those people come to me.

01:10:54

Not that any man has seen the father except he which is of God, he sees the father.

01:11:00

So listen, if God knew you before the foundation of the world as his own, then you're

01:11:05

God's. And like Jesus said to the Pharisees, where I go, you cannot come. I am of my father in heaven.

01:11:11

You're of your father, the devil. You see, same can be said of any group of people except we're not

01:11:16

Jesus, we can't necessarily see their heart, can we? But God can. And so the people that get saved are the people that have seen the father and save these people except these people which are of God.

01:11:29

So the people that are of God, they're the ones that can see. They have eyes to see, they have ears to hear, right?

01:11:36

Think about that. Who's in control of this? God the father through the Holy Spirit and his son

01:11:42

Jesus. So who is it that comes to Jesus? Every man that number one has been taught by God the father to come to Jesus.

01:11:51

That's who comes to him and only those. Number two, every man and woman or child who has heard, they have ears that can hear because God opened their ears to hear with understanding.

01:12:06

Number three, everyone who has learned from the father and number four, he that is of God. From the beginning, he chose you before the foundation of the world of ages, the ones that those people, the ones that are of God, they're the ones that come to God.

01:12:18

The ones that are of Satan, that Satan put here, the tears, he planted them here. We can talk about how later, not today, but brother

01:12:27

Otis taught me how from scripture. It's amazing, blow your mind. So you have to come back next Sunday. But anyway, so that's how it works.

01:12:33

Now, he goes on, what doctrine does that sound like here? Where only the ones who are called and taught by God to receive

01:12:44

Jesus will ever do it. What does that doctrine sound like? And then he goes on and says, verily, verily,

01:12:50

I say to you, Jesus speaking, he says, he that believes on me has everlasting life.

01:12:56

Now that's interesting because if you took this out of context and you didn't read this, you would think it's all up to man.

01:13:02

If you used to believe or you don't believe, wouldn't you? But it is true that you have to believe to be saved. But that doesn't follow that it was you that created the belief in your heart.

01:13:13

It was the Holy Spirit who did that and that's called regeneration. You see, that's where people get off. They just pull out verse 47 and they leave out 45, 46, 44, 43, take it out of context.

01:13:25

But it is true that once the Holy Spirit calls you and opens your eyes and he gives you, the

01:13:30

Bible says Jesus's faith, not your little belief, but the faith of Christ that can walk on water and move mountains into the ocean, that faith he gives to you as a gift when he saves you.

01:13:40

And your little belief comes alongside it and reverberates at the same tone as Jesus's faith at that point, but that's an effect.

01:13:48

And you thought that saved you, but it didn't. It was a result of your salvation. And he that believed on me has everlasting life.

01:13:56

All right, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate bread in the wilderness and they're dead.

01:14:03

I am the bread of life. Now, these are things Jesus is teaching that cause people to walk away from him.

01:14:09

He's teaching that salvation is in God's control, not man's. That's what made him walk away. This is the bread which comes down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die.

01:14:19

Now, don't you find it interesting that in this amazingly powerful and clear and strict passage on predestination, predetermination, election, foreknowledge, and the calling, and that he died for not everybody, but for the many, all of that taught here that right with it in these verses, you have responsibility.

01:14:40

He that believes on me has everlasting life. That's something you have to do, right? Well, look at this.

01:14:45

In scripture, almost everywhere you see a sovereignty verse, you will see a responsibility verse.

01:14:53

They're together throughout scripture. Charles Spurgeon addressed this in a beautiful way, and if I have time,

01:14:58

I'll get to it here in a minute. I am the living bread which came down from heaven.

01:15:05

If any man eat this bread, he shall live forever, and the bread that I give is my flesh, which

01:15:10

I will give for the life of the world, the cosmos. Not just humans, but everything in God's created being, existence of physicality.

01:15:22

This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat and are dead. He that eateth this bread will live forever.

01:15:29

He's talking about his body that he gave for us and his blood and receiving it. These things say he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum.

01:15:37

Now, think about this. The responsibility scripture is right here, right in this little area here, right after the sovereignty of God scripture, so they're both existing in parallel together at the same time, and Brother Otis put it to me this way.

01:15:51

No one's ever put it better, not even Charles Spurgeon. Honestly mean it, because I've read a lot of Spurgeon. I never got this as well as from Otis.

01:15:58

And Brother Otis Fisher, who was a member of our church and taught our adult Sunday school class for 13 years until he went to heaven, he said it this way.

01:16:09

Look, God knew Adam and Eve were gonna eat the fruit. It was predetermined. So in reality, from God's viewpoint,

01:16:15

Adam didn't even have a choice. He's gonna eat the fruit. But then he asked me, David, did God tell him he was gonna eat the fruit?

01:16:22

And I said, no, on the contrary, he said, don't eat the fruit. The day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. He said, that's right,

01:16:27

Brother David, well said. But he said, so why did he eat the fruit?

01:16:32

Did God make him eat it? And he said, no, he did it because he wanted to, and God held him responsible.

01:16:41

See, that's where the will of man comes in. Adam and Eve did what they wanted to do, and God held them responsible.

01:16:47

That is responsibility, and the result of that was the fall and the curse. And had not

01:16:53

Jesus died on the cross, they'd have gone to hell, but he died for them too. All right, so God had the answer before the problem arose, because the

01:17:01

Bible says Jesus was slain in the mind of God before the foundation of the world. So here we have it.

01:17:07

Now, you have the sovereignty of God. They were gonna eat it, and the world, it's God's plan.

01:17:13

God doesn't have seven plans. He's got one, and this was it. They were gonna eat the fruit, but why'd they do it?

01:17:19

Because they wanted to, so they were held responsible. Now, there you have responsibility. Both are true. They're always side by side in the scripture.

01:17:25

We can talk about that a little more. I know you can't wrap your mind around it in a minute, but some people, like Brother Otis, have been able to wrap their minds around it.

01:17:33

Many, therefore, of his disciples, when they heard this, this was a hard saying. How can we hear it?

01:17:41

And when Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured, he said, does this offend you also?

01:17:47

And you remember how it ended. What if you shall see the son of man ascend where he was before?

01:17:54

You will see that, and it says, it is the spirit that quickens, it brings life. You see, here again, it shows that salvation is of God.

01:18:01

It's the Holy Spirit that regenerates people. It's not stuff we do or the church tells us to do. The flesh profits nothing.

01:18:09

Any of this physical stuff other than the word of God, that's an exception, because it's perfect, but any of this physical stuff like church or people or little things you gotta pray, none of that, none of that is what quickens you or brings you to life.

01:18:21

It's the spirit that does it. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.

01:18:26

So Jesus said you have to have two things to get saved and to continue to walk with him, and that is the water and the spirit.

01:18:34

The water is the word of God and the spirit is the Holy Spirit. Here he says it again. There's other places he says that. But there are some of you that believe not, for Jesus knew from the beginning who there would be that would believe not.

01:18:46

You see, he knows who his own sheep are and he knows who the goats are. Verse 65, and he said, therefore

01:18:53

I said unto you that no man can come to me except it were given unto him from the father. From that time, when he preached that, many of his disciples went away and never walked with him again.

01:19:06

And he said to his 12, are you gonna leave too? Because he read their heart. None of them liked this doctrine and it was taught by the best teacher who ever lived,

01:19:14

Jesus Christ. Isn't that something? John 10, 26 says, but you believe not because you were not of my sheep.

01:19:22

As I said unto you, my sheep hear my voice. Didn't say they might, they do hear my voice.

01:19:28

And I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life. See that's election, that's predestination, that's foreknowledge, that's the calling in space and time and the receiving of Christ and the justification all spoke of in Roman chapter eight and the glorification and all of them will receive eternal life.

01:19:48

Not some of them, all of them. So had he died for everyone, everybody'd be in heaven and they're not gonna be. So it's not true, universal atonement is not true.

01:19:58

But what doctrine is taught right there? All right, well, all of these words, my sheep hear my voice.

01:20:05

They know, I know them and they follow me. Every one of these are in the present tense, now in space and time at the point when the

01:20:12

Holy Spirit calls them. They're in the active voice, which means the subject does the actions. That means that I, the sheep, hear because the

01:20:21

Holy Spirit made me to hear. Now I hear and I know and I follow.

01:20:27

And it's in the indicative mood, which means it absolutely happens. So all of Jesus' sheep will hear his voice and all of them will be saved.

01:20:35

And all of them, he says, I will give eternal life. That's kind of interesting. It says, they shall never perish.

01:20:42

So that's eternal security, isn't it? They shall never perish. Look what this is. In the Greek, the one

01:20:48

English word never is five Greek words. Uk me ais ho aeon, just to say never.

01:20:59

This one means never. It's never not into the perpetuity.

01:21:06

So these people who Jesus died for shall never not into the perpetuity ever perish.

01:21:14

You can't say it stronger than that. Five Greek words to say how secure our salvation is.

01:21:20

But Armenians believe you can lose your salvation. Why? Because they don't understand predestination, election, sovereignty of God is based on that, which puzzles me about modern

01:21:28

Baptists because they want to hang on to the eternal security. That way they can live anywhere they want to in their mind, right?

01:21:34

Can't lose it, right? But they don't believe that God chose who would be saved. Now you can't have both.

01:21:40

They don't work unless you understand the whole scriptures. So they're in trouble logically.

01:21:46

My Church of Christ friends who believe they can lose their salvation are far more illogical because they don't believe in election.

01:21:52

They're far more logical than my Baptist friends who say that they do believe in eternal security, but they don't believe in election.

01:21:57

They're illogical and unbiblical. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand,

01:22:03

Jesus says. That's eternal security. And my Father which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my

01:22:10

Father's hand. So if it's not enough that God put you in Jesus' hand and the Father puts his hand on top, how secure can you be?

01:22:20

What doctrine is that? I've already told you, eternal security. I'd be a terrible teacher. I always tell the students the answer before I give the test.

01:22:27

I and the Father are one. What doctrine is that? Okay, so God is teaching this.

01:22:33

All of these things, did the people love it or did they walk away from it? Well, what was he teaching? Election, foreknowledge, predestination, effectual calling, knowledge and predestination, foreknowledge and predestination, eternal security in the deity of Christ, and they walked away from him.

01:22:49

100 % of them did and his apostles almost walked away from him. Why? Because this is not a mannish religion.

01:22:57

It is not a humanistic religion. It is from above. It is a divine truth that man cannot save himself nor play any part in it.

01:23:09

We can merely receive the beautiful work that God the Father, the

01:23:14

Son, the Holy Spirit have done on our part to save us and receive it as a gift with thanksgiving.

01:23:21

Then the Jews took up stones to stone him. Oh, they really loved that teaching, didn't they?

01:23:26

They're gonna kill Jesus for teaching these things. Jesus answered them, many good works have

01:23:32

I showed you from my Father for which one of those do you wanna stone me? Or you could say many good doctrines have

01:23:37

I taught here, election, effectual calling, foreknowledge, predestination, eternal security, the deity of Christ, which one of those are you gonna kill me for?

01:23:45

All of them, right? So the doctrine of predestination has never been popular even when

01:23:51

Jesus taught it, but it is so beautiful. And it's written upon every page of scripture as with a pin of iron, as Spurgeon said.

01:24:05

I wanna end with this. Charles Spurgeon said this, I see one place

01:24:11

God presiding over all things in Providence. And yet I see

01:24:17

I cannot help but seeing that man acts as he pleases. And that God has left his actions to his own will man's will in a great measure.

01:24:28

Now, if I were to declare that man was so free to act that there is no precedence of God over his actions,

01:24:35

I should be driven very near to atheism. But on the other hand, if I declare that God so overrules all things as that man is not free to be responsible, then

01:24:46

I'm driven at once to antinomianism or fatalism. That God predestinates and that man is responsible are two things that few can see.

01:24:59

They either see one or the other. They are believed to be inconsistent and contradictory, but they are not,

01:25:06

Spurgeon says, it is the fault of our weak judgment that thinks so.

01:25:12

Two truths cannot be contradictory to each other. What a great logical statement

01:25:17

Charles Spurgeon made. If you study scripture in proper context and you see all these scriptures, just the ones we looked at today, that God is totally sovereign, which is redundant.

01:25:28

Sovereign means totally sovereign. He is totally sovereign. He chooses the bride of Christ for his son.

01:25:34

He chooses who will be saved. He sends his spirit into time to save only them. And he sent

01:25:40

Jesus to die only for them and to give his blood, which would be perfectly and completely effective for those people.

01:25:47

And not one of them would be lost. And we see all of that in scripture, then it's a truth. And then when we see scripture where Jesus said, whosoever will may come, that's a truth.

01:25:57

And two truths, as Spurgeon said, cannot contradict themselves. They can appear to weak humans, but they don't.

01:26:06

They are two lines, these two truths. They're like two lines, almost like a railroad track that appear to be parallel, never touching.

01:26:15

They are two lines that are so nearly parallel like a railroad track, that the mind that shall pursue them the farthest, as far as you can go deep into the word and try to understand both the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man, will never discover that they actually converge and are both true.

01:26:32

Not on this earth, perhaps. But they do converge because they're not actually parallel,

01:26:38

Spurgeon taught. They're actually slightly pointed towards each other, but you can't see it. Only if you could go an infinite distance would they get close enough together to become one line.

01:26:47

And that's what he says, and it's so beautiful. He says, but they do converge, and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, whence all truth springs.

01:27:00

Isn't that beautiful? Well, I think we have finished this section on our little journey through the

01:27:07

Bible on the sovereignty of God and election. And we came to the end of it. Now we'll pick up back in Romans chapter eight on the next verse next