Calvinism Sermon: Limited Atonement (Part 5 in series)

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Open your Bibles to Revelation 5, 9, again, Revelation 5, 9.

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Now, by the way, for those of you guys who are new to the Scriptures, new in your relationship with Christ, that is the book of Revelation, not revelations.

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Revelation 5, verse 9.

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I'm going to start in verse 8. Hear now the words of the living and true

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God. When he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the

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Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls of full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

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And they sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

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You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God and they will reign upon the earth.

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As far as the reading of God's holy word, let's pray. Father, I want to thank you first and foremost,

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God, for loving us. God, thank you that you love people who are not worthy of you.

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Thank you, God, that you've given grace to people, Lord, who have despised you.

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You've given grace to the helpless, to the sinners, to the ungodly. God, to the wretches, to the wicked.

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God, you have extended grace and mercy that is undeserved. Lord, it is not owed to us.

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You, God, have loved sinners. You say in your word that Christ died for the ungodly, not for the righteous.

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You say in your word that your love is displayed in that Jesus died for sinners.

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You, Lord Jesus, have said that greater love has no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends.

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And God, you've laid down your life for people that were your enemies. And God, you've made us friends.

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You love us with an everlasting love that will never, ever fail or pass away.

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God, your mercy and grace is something that causes us all to be in awe of you.

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Thank you. God, please bless today's message. I pray that, God, it would bless your people.

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It would, Lord, encourage us. It would solidify our faith and understanding and help us to understand the atonement.

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I pray that, God, you would help us to have our questions answered, the ones that you allow us to ask, that you answer in your word.

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I pray, God, that you would speak by your spirit through an unworthy servant and myself. I pray that I would decrease,

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Christ would increase. God, that you'd bless your people today with the knowledge of your truth.

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In Jesus' name, amen. Powerful passage, revelation written by the

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Apostle John. History tells us about the

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Apostle John and what took place. We know all the apostles died martyrs' deaths, save one of them, and that was the

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Apostle John. Not for lack of trying, though, Nero, if we look at history and look at some of the traditions that have come up, this isn't in the

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Bible, but just some stuff to consider. In history, we see that the Apostle John essentially was captured by Nero.

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Now, Peter and Paul were killed under Nero's reign. Nero captured

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John, and the story goes he was boiled in a pot of oil, but he didn't die. Nero was very superstitious, and Nero was freaked out by the whole situation.

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So the story, as the tradition is, is that after this boiling in a pot of oil and John surviving that,

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Nero was so freaked out by it, he sent John into exile to an island called Patmos, and that's where John got this revelation, the revelation of Jesus Christ.

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And in this amazing book, and by the way, if you're new to Christ, you should not start in the book of Revelation.

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You really need an understanding of the Old Testament imagery from which John is drawing, but this book is powerful.

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It's not meant to terrify you. It's meant really, this book, I believe in many ways, is a victorious book.

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It's about the victory of Jesus and what he accomplished. It's about really, I think in many ways, satisfying our desire for worship of God because it displays the complete victory of Jesus over all of his enemies, and the victory of Jesus throughout all time.

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But there are so many moments in this particular letter written by John, who also wrote the gospel according to John, so many moments that really testify to what the redemption of Jesus was actually about.

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What did he accomplish in his atonement? And there's these two pastors in particular I'm going to read to you today, one from Revelation 5 and then one from Revelation 7, that speak,

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I think, very, very distinctly towards this issue of the atonement, what was accomplished.

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One in Revelation 5 .19, powerful, you just heard it, is that Jesus actually purchased people for God out of every tribe, tongue, and nation.

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It doesn't say in the text that Jesus purchased every nation, every tribe, every tongue, but that Jesus purchased people out of every tribe, tongue, and nation.

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And it's interesting too, it says that God has made us a kingdom, priests to God, and it says that we will reign where?

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On earth. That's something to consider too, just as a side note, the perspective is earthly.

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We're going to reign on earth, God's kingdom is on earth, God's purchased people out of every tribe, tongue, and nation.

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And then the next text we'll look at a little later refers to this number before the throne, this vision before the throne, so large you can't even number it.

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Sounds a lot like what was said to Abraham about what God was going to do in Abraham's seed. What was he going to do?

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He was going to give Abraham a people. He was going to give Abraham a seed that will ultimately bless the entire world, the whole world, not just, of course,

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Jews, but the whole world will be blessed through believing Abraham. He would have descendants as numerous as the what?

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It would be like the sand on the seashore, and I don't know about you, but if you've ever stuck your hand into just the sand on a beach, and you take a look at those little grains of sand, and then you think about those promises, and you look up at the stars in the sky, and you see where there's no light pollution, you look at the number of stars that are out there, and you know we know about astronomy today, and you consider the number of stars, that number is vast, it is huge, it is incalculable in many respects.

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But John speaks to that, and it's important. What we're talking about today is from the acrostic, tulip,

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T -U -L -I -P. People refer to it as Calvinism. I think that there are many ways you need to be more definitional, but people also refer to this as the doctrines of grace, the teachings of grace.

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How big is God's grace? How powerful is God's grace? What did God actually accomplish in redemption?

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The tulip works like this, total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints.

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Now, if you guys are new, I'll just get you caught up without doing an entire sermon over again. When we talk about tulip, or the doctrines of grace, this was a response to the remonstrance, the protest of the followers of a man named

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Jacob Arminius. What had happened was, during the time of the Reformation, there were people who protested the church at large in their day.

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They were saying, we don't actually agree with a lot of the things that are being said right now. We don't think that man is so dead in his sin that he can't actually cooperate with God to make salvation possible.

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We don't agree with that. And we think that when God chose to save, when he elected and predestined, those words are in the

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Bible, the Bible teaches those things. We don't think that was on the basis of his own sovereign will and grace.

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We don't think it was just simply God's freedom to give grace. We think actually God, in a sense, chose people based upon their choice of him.

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And when it came to the atonement, what they wanted to say was that, the argument essentially goes that Jesus' redemption on that cross, that work on the cross, it didn't ultimately save anybody perfectly.

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It didn't accomplish redemption. It merely made people savable. It made salvation a possibility if people would coordinate and cooperate with God to make it possible.

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And when it came to the issue of irresistible grace, they were saying ultimately that God can want to save.

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He can choose to save. Jesus can die for people on that cross. And when

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God tries to apply that redemption, human beings can ultimately thwart the plan and purpose of God and resist

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God. If God wants to save, tries to save, he can't ultimately manipulate the quote -unquote free will of man.

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And when it came to the issue of that salvation, once someone has it, whether they could lose that salvation, they were undecided.

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Some would say, yeah, I think you can lose your salvation. Some were saying no. And so there was this controversy.

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Now what happened was there was something called the Synod of Doors. And that is where dozens and dozens of scholars, pastors, theologians met over a hundred times over the course of a period of time to respond with the scriptures to this remonstrance, to this protest.

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And what they responded with has become known as the Five Points of Calvinism or the

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Doctrines of Grace. Now note in that that when we talk about the Doctrines of Grace and we talk about explaining grace in this entire issue,

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Tulip wasn't something essentially conjured up by a man named John Calvin. John Calvin was actually dead at the time.

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And here's what you need to know about the Doctrines of Grace and the Five Points of Calvinism. It has ultimately zero to do with a man named

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John Calvin. I mentioned to you guys before that when Calvin was alive, if you were to walk up to him and say, hey, explain

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Tulip to me, he would have walked you into his garden and he would have picked something for you. This is a tulip.

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He wouldn't have known what you were referring to. It has nothing to do with a man named John Calvin. When we talk about Calvinism, it's a simple word that helps us to get into a larger discussion quickly.

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I'll give you another one. Monotheism. What's that mean? There's only one God. Monotheism.

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So when I say to somebody, I'm a monotheist, not a polytheist, it's a simple way to describe what

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I believe about a whole host of issues. One God, eternal, self -existent, no gods before, none after.

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He is the first. He is the last. We're monotheistic. I'll give you another word. Trinitarian.

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Trinitarian. Is that a word in the Bible? No, but it's a word that was essentially coined by Christians to essentially describe what the

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Bible says from cover to cover about God. One eternal God by nature, three eternal co -equal persons, namely the

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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Trinitarian, over against Sabellian. Now, by the way, if you're new to Apology at Church and you're like,

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I have no idea what any of these things mean, believe me, it's very, very important. And this is about the God that we worship.

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I'm going to challenge you as a Christian right now, if you're checking out right now because you're saying, I don't understand these concepts, I don't understand the history,

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I want to challenge you as a Christian to love truth and to be rigorous in your thinking as Christians.

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We sort of fall and pray in our day to a version of evangelicalism that is so far removed from our history and it ultimately hurts us as a church when we don't know and try to understand the

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God that we actually worship, the God that we follow with our whole lives. These are important issues and let me just say, there are brothers and sisters who lived and fought and bled and died for these truths to preserve them for you and for me.

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When we talk about Calvinism, here's a broad statement. We would say that Jesus was a

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Calvinist. We would say that Paul was a Calvinist. When we say that, we don't mean anything to do with a man named

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John Calvin. We're talking in terms of what does the Bible say about the condition of man.

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We say, Ephesians chapter 2, Paul says, you were dead in your trespasses and sins.

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You were by nature children of what? Wrath. The Bible teaches what?

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John 6 .44, Jesus says, no man can come to me.

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It literally says, no man is able to come to me, unless, what takes place?

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Unless the Father who sent me draws him, and Jesus says, and I will raise him up.

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If you want a summary, if you want a summary of the doctrines of grace, we can give you so many passages, but let me give you

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John 6 .44, that's it. John 6 .44, no man can come to me, no man has the ability.

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Spiritually unable, unless what takes place? Unless God does something in us, and then it says that God raises up the one he draws.

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If God draws for salvation, then Jesus raises them up.

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Who does he raise up? The one that could not come to him. There's the whole picture in a single shot,

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John 6 .44. When we talk about tula, what we've done so far, we talked about total inability, unconditional election.

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What do we mean by that? Not that people are as sinful as they can possibly be. We believe that God actually restrains evil, he actually curbs evil at times.

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Great example, want one? This is a good one. One of my favorites. How many times do we see in the gospels, where Jesus is there and he's proclaiming things to them, and he's preaching the gospel of the kingdom to them, and what takes place?

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They get so frustrated with Jesus, and they hate him so much, that they actually plot to kill him, or they want to kill him.

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Or, there's a time in John 10, where he says, I and the Father are one, and this angers them.

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Why? Because he is essentially saying he is equal with the Father. And they heard it.

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And that, if he's not God, is blasphemous. I and the Father are one, and it says they pick up stones to kill him.

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And he says to them, for many good works have I shown you from the Father, for which of these do you stone me? And they say, for thy good works we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, in that you being a man, make yourself

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God. What did they want to do? They wanted to kill him. There were times in the gospels, where you can see that Jesus is preaching to them, and they want him dead.

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And what's it say? He slips through the crowd, and he gets away from them. They wanted Jesus dead.

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But God had determined a specific point in time, the right time, the planned time to bring about our salvation.

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And what does Jesus say when this cross work is going to happen? What's he saying? He said,

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I can call upon the Father for angels to come. Right?

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I'm doing this on my own accord. No one's taking my life from me. I'm laying it down myself.

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There were times that they wanted him dead, and Jesus said, no, now is the time. Now you can have me.

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There's the restraining hand of God. An unconditional election. We talk about election. We say that, watch, if God looked through time to see who would believe in him, then that means that God is learning things, which destroys his omniscience.

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God knows all things because he decrees what will and won't take place as he shapes time.

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But what we say is that when God determines to save, it's

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Ephesians 1. It's that God chose us in him before the foundation of the world.

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That he predestined us to adoption as sons. That God, before the world began, determined to save a people in Jesus Christ to give them grace, though they don't deserve it.

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And when God looked through time, he would not see God's seekers. Nobody would be looking for him.

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Romans chapter 3, there is none who what? Seeks for God.

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There are no God seekers. If God looked through time to see who would believe in him, and then chose them on that basis, he would see a graveyard.

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Because the Bible says what? We are dead in our sins and trespasses. Unable to come to God apart from God.

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Romans chapter 8 very clearly says, those who are in the flesh cannot submit to the law of God.

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They're not even able to do so. If you're in the flesh, Paul says in Romans 8, you cannot do what is pleasing to God.

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So what has to take place? God has to take a person who's spiritually dead, and he has to bring them to what?

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Life. He has to raise them up. He has to do what he says he's going to do in Ezekiel 36. What's that?

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It says that I will remove a heart of what? Stone. And I will give you a heart of what?

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Flesh. I'll put my spirit within them and cause them to obey or observe my statutes.

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The Bible teaches that God raises people to newness of life. And what we say is that when

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God plans this redemption, listen closely, this is a big one, you get this, you'll get the whole thing. The Father chooses to save a people in Jesus.

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He gives people to Jesus Christ. You're going to hear that today. And that Jesus accomplishes their redemption.

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He enters into the world, he perfectly represents them, he dies a death they deserve, and he's risen from the dead.

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He gives us that perfect redemption, accomplishes it, not merely makes it possible. And we would say that the

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Holy Spirit of God brings that salvation to the person in their life, raises them to newness of life, gives to them the gifts of repentance and faith.

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2 Timothy 2, 24 -26. The Lord's servant must be patient when wronged, able to teach.

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And what's it say? In humility correcting those who oppose themselves. Watch. If perhaps

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God may grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth.

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We say that God, the Holy Spirit, grants the gift, the ability of repentance.

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That faith itself, you are the believing one. Know that. This is one of the major mischaracterizations of Reformed theology.

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I think Orthodox theology. People say, oh, so what? So you don't really believe God's doing the believing for you?

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No. You believed in Jesus Christ only because God granted you those gifts to cling to Christ.

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Faith is a gift of God, isn't it? Philippians 1, 29. It has been gifted to you not only to believe in Christ, gifted to believe, but also to suffer.

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What do we say as Christians? I'll take the first, you can keep the second, right? Thanks for the gift. You can keep it, right?

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Bible says in Ephesians 2, verses 8 and 9, what about faith? What's it say? You know it as a

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Christian. By grace are you saved. What? Through faith. By grace are you saved through faith.

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Watch this. And that, tuta in the Greek, referring to the preceding, the grace and the faith, that, not of yourselves.

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It is the gift of God. Not according to works, lest any man should boast. We're talking about the grace of God, the freedom of God and salvation.

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Now, a couple quick points to think about as you move forward. We can't go anywhere until this basic presupposition is laid down.

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Before we move on, so we can remove obstacles to understanding, let's lay down this presupposition.

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Ready? God is holy. That's my presupposition. Man is sinful.

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That's my presupposition. Grace cannot be demanded. That's my presupposition.

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If you can agree with that, stop and think about it. If you can agree that grace cannot be demanded to be grace, then you'll understand what we're talking about when we talk about the grace of God.

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What people tend to say when they think about God saving people freely according to His own choice and will is they say this, if God chooses to save and there are people in hell, it means that God chose some and didn't choose others and they say what to it.

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That's not what? Fair. What does it say?

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What does it say when we say that's not fair? It says a lot about what we believe about God's holiness and our sin and God's mercy and grace.

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You know what's amazing about this discussion? Come with me in this for now. Think about this. We talk about God in this discussion in a way we do not talk about any human judge.

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You don't see a lot of people going to courthouses and standing before the judges in courthouses where people have been proven to be guilty.

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There is evidence. I'm not talking about things where there's speculation and not guilt. I'm saying a person that's like, yes, I did it.

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There's video footage. All of it. I did it. We don't walk into courthouses very often and say to judges who are handing down the sentence, your honor, you ought to give mercy.

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You are obligated, your honor, to be a good judge and give grace and mercy to every single one of these people.

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Do we do that? We don't do that in any other context. But all of a sudden, when we talk about God as judge, when we talk about God as the offended one, and we talk about us as the criminals in his universe, we say to God, no, you are not allowed to determine in yourself who you give grace and mercy to.

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But the Bible speaks directly to this, brothers and sisters. In Romans chapter 9, what does it say? I will mercy whom

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I shall mercy, and I will harden whom I harden. And watch this. You might say to yourself, well, that doesn't seem right.

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That doesn't seem fair because that means you're in control completely and then who's resisting your will?

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Well, the Bible speaks directly to that too in exactly the same passage. And you know what it says? Who are you, oh man, who answers back to God?

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The thing formed will not say to the one who formed it, why have you made me like this? Doesn't God have the right over the same lump to make vessels of honorable use and vessels of dishonorable use?

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What's that lump? What is it? It's sinful humanity.

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It's Jews and Gentiles. It's every single one of us in the same lump of sinful humanity.

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Now, here's the question. What does the entire lump deserve to be cast out?

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But what does God do? He actually makes vessels where he gives mercy to. He makes them for honorable use.

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And others, he says, I will harden. I will give you what you want. I will give you what you desire.

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And the amazing thing about clay, I mentioned this last week, I'll just say it quickly. I love that Paul uses that example.

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Through inspiration, Paul uses the example of clay. Clay has natural properties.

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What does clay want to do? It wants to harden.

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Clay naturally hardens. What do you have to do to clay to get it to harden?

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What do you do? Let clay be clay. You could, of course, speed the process up and all those things, but it is by nature something that hardens.

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And God gives us this perfect example of the potter over the clay and the freedom that he has to give mercy to whom he chooses.

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And grace and mercy cannot be demanded. All right, here we go. Let's talk about Owen's quote quickly.

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I did it during the opening of service today, but I want you to go to it to see it. I put it there in the bulletin so you guys can have it to consider.

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Here is a fundamental thing to understand in terms of the atonement. Let's go through it quickly. John Owen.

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Again, the death of death and the death of Christ. Fantastic work. Get that and put it in your library. Owen says,

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The father imposed his wrath due unto, and the son underwent punishment for either all the sins of all men, all the sins of some men, or some of the sins of all men, in which case it may be said that if the last be true, all men have some sins to answer for, and so none are saved.

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If the second be true, then Christ in their stead suffered for all the sins of all the elect in the whole world, and this is the truth.

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But if the first be the case, why are not all men free from the punishment due unto their sins, if he died for all the sins of all men?

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And your answer, Owen says, well, because they don't believe, because of unbelief.

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Owen says, I ask, is this unbelief a sin, or is it not?

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If it is, then Christ suffered the punishment due for it. He died for that too.

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If he did, why must that hinder them from more than their other sins for which he died? If he did not, he did not die for all their sins.

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Here's the question about the atonement. Was it particular redemption?

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Was it for people that God chose to give mercy to? Was it definite?

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Did it accomplish salvation? Or was the atonement something that only made salvation possible?

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Here's the question. Did Jesus' death on the cross simply make people savable?

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Did it give the potential for salvation? Or can we say, Jesus absorbed the wrath of God for all my sins on that cross, and he bought me on Calvary's tree?

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Can you say that? You know this too, this is a big one, and consider this. When we sing songs in Christian churches around the world, when we say things like that in our songs, that Jesus bought us on that cross, that he fully exhausted the wrath of God on that cross, that he was thinking about me on that cross, know this.

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You are now in the realm of the reformed view of the atonement. That's Calvinistic view of the atonement, that Jesus died for me.

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When you say things like that, he was on that cross, bearing the wrath of God in his own body for all my sins, past, present, future, and he bought me there.

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When you say that, you're talking like a Calvinist. Welcome to the club.

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So the question is, was salvation merely a possibility, or was it an actual salvation?

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And the only way we can answer that, brothers and sisters, is not through our own philosophies. It's not through our own tradition.

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What's our ultimate standard, brothers and sisters? What is it? Come on now, help me out.

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The scriptures. You should be much faster with that one, by the way. What's the answer?

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The Bible has to tell us. What's the main problem? And this is what I want to make sure I suggest to us.

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I want you to hear this. Please listen to this. This is very, very important. People, and you know this too, if you've been in this for a while, you know, if you've been in this discussion, you had to have heard this.

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People say, this issue is too complicated. I don't think the Bible is clear. We just can't know.

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Brothers and sisters, I want to steer you away from that kind of a claim. God has spoken to this over and over and over, and I don't believe that in any way,

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God is not clear. So what's the problem? Why, when

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America started, was the predominant view reformed? How come it was essentially

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Calvinistic through and through? And now we have predominantly more of an

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Arminian view of the atonement really spread across our own country, the West in general.

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How come? Is it because the Bible's not clear? We just can't know? I want to suggest to you that it's not the clarity of the scriptures that's the problem.

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It's our own philosophies. It's our own traditions. It's us approaching the issue like this.

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Well, if God chooses on His own, and God chooses to give mercy to whomever He wills, and if Jesus actually purchases that salvation, and God can't fail to bring it about, if that's true, then it destroys the concept of free will.

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What are we doing? We're allowing our own tradition to actually obscure and make fuzzy what the

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Bible clearly says about redemption. So I want to encourage you if you're listening to this to allow the scriptures to speak to this.

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To allow yourself to take even things that you're emotionally committed to, traditions that you believe for a long time as a

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Christian, to take those things and to put them before the feet of Christ and to say to God, I will believe what you say.

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God, change my mind. I'll say one last thing to this, and I want to just be honest about this.

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I've undergone as a Christian probably two or three times major transformations in my own thinking and theology.

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I was taught things in church and in Bible college that I just took for granted. This guy's an amazing believer, loves

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God, loves the Lord Jesus, and he says this is the way things are. So I just accepted it.

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I bit down. I adopted things that I heard because I trusted my teachers. And I'm not saying don't trust your teachers, don't listen to your teachers, and in some way be abusive to your teachers.

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I'm suggesting that we understand that all of our teachers must be tested by the scriptures.

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It's not my pastor says so. It is my pastor said this and I confirmed it with the word of God.

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That is the truth of God. That's how it has to be. What does the Bible say? And so let's go to our text.

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Are you ready? You got your Bibles ready? Yes? Let's get our fingers ready. It's good to hear the turn of the pages. It's good for the soul and I guess the click of the button for those of you guys that are cheating and lazy.

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Okay, just teasing. Matthew 1, go to a text. Let's look at the particularity of the redemption that Jesus purchased.

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We're going to go through a lot of scriptures so be ready. The particularity of the redemption. Matthew 1, 21.

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It's a famous one. You know it. You probably read it just about a month ago. What's the text say?

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I'm going to start at verse 20. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying,

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Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid for the child who has been conceived in her is of the

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Holy Spirit. She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus.

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Jesus means essentially the one who saves. And it says, he will save his people from their sins.

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Two things. One, he will save. He will save them.

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Not he might save them. He could save them. He should. He will save his people from their sins.

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Second point is he has a people that this is applied to. He will save whom?

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His people. From what? Their sins. In that one statement alone that we always go through at Christmas.

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He will save his people from their sins. There's particularity there. There is the promise of redemption.

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Another text. John chapter 6. This has been a highlight text for us so many times.

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But I want you to have this in your hearts and minds. This is one of the most encouraging passages of scripture for me.

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I gotta be honest with you. When I have moments of deep struggle and pain. If I have moments of darkness that creep in.

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You need to know one of the anchors of my own life is John chapter 6. This has filled my life.

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It's encouraged me. It's transformed me time and time again. When I feel like God is far away.

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When I feel like the world is collapsing. John chapter 6 provides an anchor of my life.

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An anchor of love from God. That I am loved by God. Known by God. And He will never lose me.

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In John chapter 6. Verses 37 and 39.

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The text says. Verse 37. All that the Father gives me will come to me.

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And the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. Now, you'll notice that just before Jesus says this.

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Keep your eyes on the text. Just before Jesus says this. He actually confronts the unbelief of some people.

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In verse 36 He says. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.

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You'll notice that He actually says this in the text. On the heels of confronting those who do not really believe in Him.

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He says you've seen me and you don't believe. Here's these massive crowds following Jesus.

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It looks like a tremendous success in ministry. Jesus is the master evangelist. All these followers.

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The movement is blowing up now, right? And Jesus turns around and He says to these people.

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You've seen me and you don't believe. They were coming for the wrong reasons. They didn't come for life and salvation.

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They wanted the food. They wanted to hang out with the Messiah. They wanted to be on the in crowd. And Jesus says you've seen me and you don't believe.

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Now watch. He confronts their unbelief and He says what about it? All, not some.

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All that the Father has given to me will come to me.

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And I'll never cast them out. The Father has given people to Jesus Christ.

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And Jesus says that every one of them is going to come to Him. And He will never ever cast them out.

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Verse 39. This is the will of Him who sent me. That of all that He has given me, I lose nothing but raise it up on the last day.

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If we believe the popular view of election. That people can ultimately be lost.

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Or somehow that God is thwarted. And He can desire to save people and they can thwart

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His purposes. Then it really makes the statement of Jesus here into meaningless theological discourse.

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Jesus says in the text that the will of the Father who sent Him is this.

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That Jesus loses nothing of what was given to Him. And that Jesus raises up the one that is given to Him.

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There's particularity there. There's a people given to Jesus Christ. And there is guarantee of redemption.

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Now stay in the same book. And move to John 10 now. This is another one of those famous texts that Christians put on very ugly t -shirts.

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And bumper stickers. John chapter 10. It's a beautiful statement. It's life changing.

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It shows the love of God for His people. In John chapter 10. This is the famous passage of Jesus and Him being the

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Good Shepherd. Look what He says in John 10 .14. I am the

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Good Shepherd. And I know my own. And my own know me.

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Notice that there's particularity there. Jesus says there are people that are His.

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They belong to Him. And He says what? I know them. Intimately. I know who are my own.

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And I'm the Good Shepherd. And He says this. I know my own. And my own know me.

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Even as the Father knows me. And I know the Father. Watch. And I lay down my life for.

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Who? Come on guys. Who? This is vitally important to get.

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I know who they are. They know me. And I know them. This is what I don't understand.

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I'll confess moments where I don't understand. I don't comprehend. I don't comprehend this.

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That the intimacy that Jesus has with the

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Father. Like the Father knows Him and He knows the Father. That's the kind of intimacy we have with Him.

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That's an incomprehensible thing that I just don't understand how to explain. I don't understand ultimately if I'm really delighted in that like I ought to.

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I don't. I can't fathom it. That the Father who is in an intimate relationship with the

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Son for all eternity of perfection lacking in nothing. He's the happy God. There is joy and delight forever.

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Apart from His creation. Apart from His people. That God says about that.

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That that's the intimacy that we have. Is that me? Let me see that.

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How about now? Is it good now? Okay. It's a beautiful statement.

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But notice that Jesus says He lays His life down for who? The sheep. Now we know that Jesus uses this terminology.

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Does He not? What does Jesus say? There are sheep and there are what? Goats. There are sheep and there are goats.

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And there's gonna be a division one day. Jesus says He's the good shepherd who lays His life down for the sheep.

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Now notice something here though in the text. 26 through 29.

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I'll start in verse 25. Actually 24. Follow me there. It says in verse 24.

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After Jesus says He's the good shepherd, He knows His own. And He says what about them? He says I lay my life down for them.

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And He says other sheep I have which are not of this fold. He says what? Them I must also bring.

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They will be one flock with one shepherd. And He says this. They say to Him, how long, verse 24, will you keep us in suspense?

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If you're the Messiah, tell us plainly. I've mentioned this so many times before, but if you haven't heard it, listen closely.

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They say, Jesus, if you're the Messiah we expected, then say something.

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Just tell us. Now you would think from the question itself that Jesus was somehow muddy on this.

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That maybe they weren't around. They didn't get the tweet, right? They didn't see it. But the answer from Jesus is actually very, very interesting.

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They say, tell us if you're the Messiah. Don't keep us in suspense. Jesus said, I told you.

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It's not that He never said it. He actually says, I did tell you.

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Tell us if you're the Messiah. Jesus says, I did. I told you plainly. I'm the

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Messiah. I am telling you I'm the Messiah. And they say, what? He says, and you do not believe the works that I do in my

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Father's name. These testify of me. But you do not believe because you are not of my sheep.

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My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

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My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the

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Father's hand. I and the Father are one. Guys, this is beautiful.

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That is this amazing, intimate connection that Jesus has with His people.

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The Father gave them to me. I'm the good shepherd. I lay my life down for the sheep. I have other sheep which are not of this fold, the

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Jews. Them I must also bring. They'll become one flock with one shepherd. And they're like, tell us if you're the

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Messiah. I told you. You don't believe because you're not mine. Now watch this.

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Who does He lay His life down for? Tell me. The sheep. What does

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He say about them? You're not my sheep. I lay my life down for the sheep.

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They're going to come. They follow me. You don't believe because you are not of my flock.

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You're not my sheep. My sheep come. They hear my voice and they follow me.

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You might think for a moment about your own experience. You didn't even know it. You didn't even know it.

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And neither did I. I didn't walk into a relationship with Jesus Christ of peace and hear the gospel and fully understand

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His sovereignty and fully even understand what was happening. I didn't understand what was going on.

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All I knew was my own sin. I saw the Word of God and what it said about His holiness and I knew my life.

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I knew my adulterous relationship. I knew my lust. I knew my theft.

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I knew my murderous heart. I knew all of it. I knew my idolatry.

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It was all before me and I was grieved over my own sin and all I wanted was Jesus. I remember falling to my knees in my closet.

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I remember crying out to God saying, God, I've got nothing. I am foul. I will never be able to give you enough.

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I will never be good enough. And all I said was, Jesus, you're the boss. Take over my life. Save me.

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Please save me. All I knew was all of a sudden, I could do all the things that I wanted to do before and now

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I had this moment where my heart changed and all those things were the farthest thing from my desire.

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I just wanted Jesus in my own heart and my own mind. All I could see is this moment where I just want

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Jesus. But Jesus says here, my sheep hear and they come and I'll never lose them.

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They're in my hand. You see, there was much more going on behind the scenes in your own heart and your own life than you understood.

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It's a sovereign God who determined before the world began to love you despite you, to love you knowing all about you when he did it.

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It's Jesus who determined, I will lay my life down for you.

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I will purchase you with my blood. I will never lose you. There's intimacy here in the redemption of Jesus.

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It's not a peanut butter love just spread across everything. It's the kind of love that's particular and it's amazing.

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Listen, this is what is actually kind of, in a way, offensive how we treat God. Let me ask you this very personally.

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Don't necessarily shout it out but try to answer this question. Do you have particularity with your love?

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Do you have someone in your life that you love with a special love?

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Do you have people in your life that you love with varying degrees of love?

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We recognize as image bearers of God that I love this person but my love for my wife is a different kind of love than I have for this person.

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I recognize in my life that as a Christian, I have love for the body of Christ that is different from the love

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I have for my own family. We have particularity in our love and whom we choose to love and we need to understand as people who are created in the image of God that we actually are created by God who has the same kind of distinctions in how he chooses to love.

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Now watch. Isn't it amazing that in the evangelical world we recognize this instantaneously but we don't always accept the consequences of it?

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What do people tend to say today? Typically dispensational pre -millennialist fans of the Left Behind series, those sorts of things.

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What do they say about the people in Israel? I don't mean that offensive. Forgive me, I don't mean it offensive. I don't mean that to degrade them.

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I mean genuinely. What do they tend to say about the people in Israel today? What do they say? They are

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God's chosen people. We recognize many times in the evangelical

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West we say, what about the people in Israel? God chose Israel out of all the nations to choose to give them his love, to make them the apple of his eye, to make them the crown, his jewel.

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He chose Israel, not the Philistines, not the Hittites, not the Babylonians, not the Romans, not the

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Medo -Persians, not the Greeks. He chose Israel, and we just accept it because the

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Bible teaches it over and over and over and over, and he did. But the

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Bible also says more than that. As you get down through the layers, you understand that when God chose to save, he had particularity in mind.

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He had love for people that he chose to enter into intimate relationship with, and he draws them.

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Now, there's more. In the text, go to John 17. Stay in the same book,

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John 17. What does Jesus say about the particularity? Now, this one's a big one, and I'm sure you've been here before, but I want you in the text with me, guys.

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If you have your Bibles, open them. This can't be because you go to a Reformed church.

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It can't be because this is the club you're a part of. It can't be a click. One thing that's happened over the last 20 years is there's a resurgence of Reformed theology.

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I praise God for that. But what I want to say we need to avoid is where people start saying,

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I'm Reformed because it's a really great club, because it's a respectable communion.

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You can't be Reformed simply because you like the click. You need to be

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Reformed because you're convinced by the word of God. That's why you need to say you're

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Reformed. And in the text, look what Jesus says here, John 17, verse 1, Jesus spoke these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, this is

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Jesus praying to the Father. He said, Father, the hour has come.

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Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, even as you have given him authority over all flesh, that to all whom you have given him he may give eternal life.

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Who does Jesus give eternal life to? The ones the

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Father has given to him. You've given authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all that you've given to me.

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Then Jesus says in John 17, 6 through 8, move ahead in the text. He says,

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I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world.

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They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. I gave your word,

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Father, to the men you gave to me out of the world. Out of the world.

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Now here's a big one. Read further down. John 17, 8 through 9, for the words which you gave me

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I have given to them, and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from you, and they believed that you sent me.

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I ask on their behalf. I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

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And the text says very plainly in verse, in this particular text,

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I am not praying for the world. I am praying for those that you've given me out of the world.

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You can't get clearer than that. Jesus having particularity. There's these people you've given to me.

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I have manifested your word to them. I'm not praying for the world, Father. I'm praying for the ones that you've given me out of the world.

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And then this really powerful text in John 17, 12 says, while I was with them, I was keeping them in your name.

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Who was keeping them? Who? He was. While I was with them,

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I was keeping them in your name, which you have given me, and I guarded them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition, so that the scripture would be fulfilled.

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What's that say? That Judas, falling away and betraying Jesus, was what?

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An accident? He thwarted Jesus' plan? Jesus was like, oops, the one got away from me there.

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What's amazing about Judas is this text says that the one that fell away was the one that you predestined to fall away.

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You determined. And isn't it amazing that we call it the last supper? What happened? We know the story, right?

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What happened with Judas? Judas was to betray Jesus, but watch.

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He couldn't sin against Jesus and betray him until he had divine permission.

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Jesus at that table says to Judas, what you must do, do quickly.

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And then is when Judas got up to betray Jesus, only with permission. God sovereignly wields the universe in such a way that we only get to sin by permission.

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Only when God has a perfect, determined plan that will work out for His glory and our good.

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How's that for hope? How's that for hope in your life and mine? When the world seems to collapse on your head, when there's financial distress, when you lose a job, when you lose a loved one, when you lose a child, when you lose your house, when you lose your car, how's that for the love of God and hope in salvation that God is telling us all things work together for good for those who love

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God who are the called according to whose purpose? His purpose. That's what this story is about.

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Now follow me now some more. If you look in the text of Scripture, you can write these down quickly.

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The Bible talks about with Jesus' blood, He purchased His church. I'm gonna give you the references.

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These are things you already know, hopefully. Acts 20, 28. Ephesians 5, 25 through 27.

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Jesus purchased the church. He purchased His people. He brings salvation.

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Matthew 1, 21. He actually saves the elect.

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Romans 8, 32. Now I want you to go to Romans quickly. Follow me there to the text. Romans chapter 8.

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This is a big one. We've been in it a few times already, but I want you to see a couple things that I didn't necessarily highlight last time, and I want you to see this.

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Now, if you've ever been to a funeral, if you've ever been to a funeral, it's interesting, right?

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When you go to a believer's funeral versus an unbeliever's funeral, first and foremost, the difference is stark.

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I've had to preach funerals. I hate to preach funerals because I have a difficult time controlling my emotions, first and foremost, but I know that I want to give hope and the

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Word of God to those who are hurting, but I really struggle doing funerals. I've done funerals for Christians, and I've done funerals for unbelievers, and the difference is unreal.

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I went to a funeral once. I got asked. Somebody that was under my care at the hospital, they came into the hospital.

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They were getting off of heroin. They were there for a couple of days. They left. They maybe went to two or three of my messages, and then

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I got a call from his mother. She said, Pastor Jeff, I'm so -and -so's mother, and he talked about you quite a lot when he got out, and he went and he used heroin again, and he overdosed.

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He died. And she said, I would really ask that you would do his funeral.

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Now, this young man never came to Christ. He did not repent and turn to Christ in faith, and his mother said they don't go to church, but he had spoken about me, and so she said,

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I just wanted to ask you, would you do his funeral? And I didn't want to do it, to be honest with you. I didn't want to be necessarily a part of that emotionally.

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I knew how hard it would be, but then I determined that this is an opportunity to preach the gospel, and so I'm going.

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And I go to this funeral, and the place is so packed, you can't even move inside this place.

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So many people flooded out the doors, and there is nothing but darkness in this room.

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There was nothing but sadness and depression and hopelessness. I walked into a room, you can cut the knife with the depression and darkness, a room full of mostly unbelievers, and I went and I preached the gospel, not saying anything about him, but giving the good news of salvation to this room, and the call to repent and believe and come to Christ, who is a perfect savior.

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But it's amazing, because you couldn't do it at that funeral. We do it at funerals for believers, and that's read one of the most popular texts, which is right before you, that is read at funerals.

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Romans chapter 8, what's it say? Starting at verse 28, we just did it, and we know that God causes all things to work together for good, to those who love

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God, to those who are called according to his purpose. Watch. For those whom he foreknew.

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And the word there in the Greek is active. It's not that God took in knowledge, he foreknew them.

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It's active. It means that he chose to enter into intimate relationship with them.

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Watch. He foreknew them. He also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren.

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

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And these whom he justified, he also glorified. Brothers and sisters, listen to it. It says that all things work together for good, he foreknew people, he predestined them, he calls them, he justifies them, he glorifies them.

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That's the golden chain of redemption. You can't break it. He chooses to give salvation, and then he makes it happen.

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Your perspective is you heard the gospel, you saw Jesus, and you trusted him.

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You were justified. You were declared righteous, raised to spiritual life. But from God's perspective, before the world began, your name was written in the

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Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world. Jesus is the Lamb slain when?

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Before the foundation of the world. And watch what the text says. It says this.

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What then shall we say to these things? Follow the pronouns, guys. If God is for us, who's he talking to?

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The ones he foreknew, the ones he predestined, the ones he called, the ones he justifies, the ones he glorifies.

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If God is for us, who is against us?

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He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for what? Us all.

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How will he not also with him freely give us all things?

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Who will bring a charge against God's what? Elect. Foreknown, predestined.

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Us, us, elect. Who will bring any charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies.

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Now, hang on. Now, watch. Watch. Notice how Paul connects predestination, justification, with the work of Jesus on the cross.

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Watch. Who will bring any charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns?

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Christ Jesus is the one who died. Yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

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Now, watch. This is big. This is the whole thing. This is what separates the

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Reformed view of the atonement and redemption and really every other view.

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The Bible says God's chosen a people and the basis for which you can say who can be against us, who can bring any charge is this, that Jesus is at the right hand of the

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Father, he's been raised, and he always lives to make that intercession.

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How can you say those words? God's justified me.

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Who can bring a charge? Who can be against us? You can say it because Jesus is at the right hand of the

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Father, interceding for you, providing for you that work, and it doesn't ever pass away.

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It's a perfect redemption. Now, watch. Here's where it gets glorious. It's why it's a popular funeral text read to Christians.

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Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword just as it is written, for your sake we are being put to death all day long, we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered, but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us.

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For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our

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Lord. You want to know what the five points of Calvinism are about? Romans chapter 8.

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I keep saying that to you, don't I? Like it's about John 6. It's this John 10. It's about Ephesians 1.

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It's about Romans 9. And it's about Romans 8. You catching sort of a theme here?

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It's the story of the redemption that we have in Jesus. You cannot separate

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Jesus' mediation, his intercession. You can't separate that work and its application.

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You can't break it apart. It's a golden chain, foreknown, predestined, called, justified, glorified, no charges.

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Why? Because Jesus is interceding for you. That work is being applied.

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And what's going to separate you from God? Nothing. Don't you love that Paul does that?

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Height, depth, famine, sword, what you got? He's like, come on, give it to me. What else do you think?

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What do you think is going to separate you? Paul says, nothing. God has declared you righteous.

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That was his plan. All right, let's go. Hebrews. Let's look more at what the Bible says about the atonement itself.

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Follow me now. Hebrews 1. By the way, there's no way I can exhaust this.

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And you know that I have sins in the area of time. I confess. There's no way

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I can exhaust it, but I'm doing my best to give you enough to hang on to, to understand what the

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Bible says. Not one text here or there, but the whole story. Hebrews 1, verse 13.

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What's it say about the work of Jesus? Hebrews 1, 13.

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Talking about Jesus, who is at the right hand of God.

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And what's it say? Go into verse 14. Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?

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Now, moving forward, if you go to Hebrews 9, in verse 12.

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Let's start in verse 11. But when Messiah appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle.

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Now, watch. If you're new to Christ, you've got to understand this. The Old Testament priest on Yom Kippur was a sinner who died and had to have someone take his place.

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The whole point about the book of Hebrews is that Jesus is a better priest because he always lives to make intercession.

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He will never die again, and he was sinless. And he always lives to make intercession.

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No other priest necessary. It was a perfect sacrifice. It never needs to be repeated.

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No annual reminder. And the writer of Hebrews says that Christ entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands.

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That is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, he entered the holy place what?

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What? Come on, help me now. Once for all.

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Having obtained what, guys? Eternal redemption. What did

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Jesus obtain? This is where you get down to the nuts and bolts, everybody.

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Brothers and sisters, this is what determines your view of what Jesus actually did. It says that Jesus entered into the holy place, and he accomplished, not with a substandard sacrifice, not with a sacrifice pointing to something else, which is what the blood of bulls and goats was, but he accomplished with his own blood what?

01:04:26

Eternal redemption. Not a potential redemption. Not a redemption that needs to be reapplied over and over and over again like they do in the

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Roman Catholic mass. It is a redemption that was accomplished once for all, and it was eternal redemption.

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Jesus did something that purchased eternal redemption. That's what the

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Bible says about the work of Jesus. Now stay in the book, Hebrews. Just move over one chapter,

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Hebrews 10, verse 14. Let's start in 11 to get context.

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Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins, but he having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time.

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What does Jesus' sacrifice do? It accomplishes redemption one time for all sins for all time.

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Now watch. If that work was for every single person who's ever lived for all their sins, that means that he accomplished an eternal redemption for them, and it was a complete redemption.

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Do you hear it? So when we say Jesus died for every sin of every person who's ever lived, if we apply what the

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Bible says about that redemption, it means that they received an eternal redemption once for all, perfect sacrifice.

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Now watch. The text goes on to say, chapter 10, it says verse 12, but he having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet, for by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

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Brothers and sisters, if you checked out for even a minute, that is the substance of the entire discussion.

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Come with me now on this last point in Hebrews. It says in the text that this offering,

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Jesus sat down, it was done, he purchased eternal redemption, he always lives to make intercession with that work.

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It says what about that work that he perfected for all time those who are sanctified?

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What does the atonement of Jesus Christ accomplish on behalf of those for whom it was given?

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What does it accomplish? What? Perfection. Perfect redemption.

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To suggest that the atonement of Jesus Christ was offered on behalf of people who would then experience wrath from God in hell, to suggest that is to now step outside of the realm of what the

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Bible says about the atonement. Brothers and sisters, listen. If there are people in hell today, sorry, one day, if there are people in hell one day who suffer for the same sins that Jesus exhausted and removed, that means that God is not just.

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Consider it. If they are being punished in hell for all eternity for sins that Jesus already received punishment, then that means that God has punished

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Jesus, exacted it, and then he will give it to them as well.

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Now if you say no, like Owen says, no, no, they're in hell because their sins were paid for, but they're in hell because of their unbelief.

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It's a great question. Is unbelief a sin? Yes. Then Jesus paid for that too and offered eternal redemption and perfect sacrifice.

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Watch. This is why in history, and you could do a study of this on your own, this is why in history it is

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Arminian churches that have tended to go off into what's called universalism.

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What's that view? Universalism is the idea that everybody will be saved.

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Everybody. Not one person. There's no such thing as ultimately eternal punishment in hell. All people will be saved.

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Do you know what led to that idea? I'll tell you what led to that idea. It's the idea that Jesus Christ's atonement, which was perfect, eternal redemption, was given for all people for all their sins.

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The savvy theologian and Christian will say, if Jesus accomplished eternal redemption, if Jesus purchased them with his blood, if Jesus perfects them forever, if Jesus intercedes for them through that work, then they couldn't be in hell if you take what the

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Bible says about the atonement. Another thing you want to hang on to in terms of a biblical concept is the word propitiation.

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Propitiation. It's in Romans chapter 3. After Paul says, all have sinned, fallen short of the glory of God, what does it say about Jesus?

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That God put Jesus, he displayed Jesus publicly as a propitiation so that he'd be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

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What's propitiation mean? It means a removal, a full removal of wrath.

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The word propitiation doesn't mean kind of removal. It means to fully remove wrath.

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And it says in Romans 3 that Jesus is a propitiation, a full removal of wrath.

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And it says in 1 John 4 9 -10 that Jesus was the propitiation for our sins.

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The full removal of wrath. Now, a couple other texts you want to see is the

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Bible teaches that Jesus saves the many. I want you to see the text.

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Matthew 26 verse 28. You can write it down. We quote it often during the

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Lord's table. What does Jesus say? This is my body. And he says, this is my blood, the blood of the new covenant poured out for many.

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If you look in Daniel 9, there is another text. Go to it later. Read the entire prophecy of the 70 weeks.

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It says that he'll make a covenant with the many. And then in Isaiah 53,

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I want you to see this one. So go quickly to Isaiah, Old Testament, Isaiah 53. It's the famous passage of Jesus in the

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Old Testament. People call it the gospel in the Old Testament. Isaiah 53, it's the whole story of Jesus' life, death, resurrection, why he came.

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It's beautiful. Isaiah 53. Notice this. After it talks about his being cut off out of the land of the living in verse 8.

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In verse 9, his grave was assigned with wicked men. In verse 10, the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief.

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Watch. If he would render himself as a guilt offering, he will see his offspring.

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What's that? Those are his people, the ones that he saves. He will see his offspring.

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He will prolong his days. He won't stay dead. And the good pleasure of the

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Lord will prosper in his hand as a result of the anguish of his soul. He will see it and be satisfied.

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No failure. Watch. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will justify, what's it say?

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The many. As he will bear their iniquities.

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That's what the text says. Now, I'm gonna go quickly through this last section here. I want you to follow me. We're gonna have a day where we do mostly questions and answers and challenges, objections.

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But in terms of Jesus securing salvation, Matthew 18 .11, Luke 19 .10,

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Matthew 18 .24, none will be lost. None will be lost.

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The fact that Jesus accomplished reconciliation, Ephesians 2 .14, Ephesians 2 .16,

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Romans 5 .8 and 10, that redemption, the reconciliation was accomplished.

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I've already given to you Owen's challenge. I think it's very valid. If Jesus died for the sins, all sins of all people, then for what are they suffering in hell?

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And again, if you say unbelief, that was already paid for. Remember the consequences of having an unbiblical view of the atonement.

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Let me just do this for now because we're running out of time here today. Let me give you an objection that's a common one.

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We're going to have a day where we go through all the texts that seem to contradict. We're going to go in and unpack those passages.

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You guys will be able to ask questions as well. But let's go into a popular one in terms of let's let the text speak.

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Here's a popular one as an objection. Ignoring what the Bible says about the many, election, foreknowledge, predestination, no ability to come,

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God saving, eternal redemption, perfecting forever, once for all redemption. Ignoring all of that, we leap to a text like 1

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John 2. 1

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John 2. Somebody hears all the texts about not having any ability to come to Jesus.

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Somebody hears the text about the foreknowledge of God and God predestining and calling and justifying and glorifying.

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Someone hears a text about the eternal redemption accomplished in Jesus and then they say, ah, but what about 1

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John 2? It says, my little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

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And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he himself is the propitiation for our sins.

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And not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

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We hear a text like that and we say, it seems plain on the surface. It says that he's not the propitiation for our sins only, but also for the whole world.

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See? Jesus died for the sins of every person who's ever lived. Now, I understand that at first glance, that proof text seems pretty intense, pretty powerful until you actually unpack it and you let the

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Bible actually interpret the Bible and you actually unpack these words.

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First thing, let's look at the text itself. What does it say that he himself is the what for our sins?

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Propitiation. Now, help me with this. What does propitiation mean? Removal of what?

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Wrath. So let's take the word. Let's let the biblical word speak.

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If we take the word and we unpack it in the text, listen to it now. He himself is the removal of wrath for our sins and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

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So question. If Jesus Christ removed God's wrath, which is what the word propitiation means, if he removed the wrath of God from the entire world, we get

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Rob Bell. Think about it. Think about it.

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There are consequences to your theology. Theology matters. And if you say that this word propitiation means removal of wrath and that actually means every person who's ever lived, then what you get now is universalism.

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Every person has had the wrath of God removed from them. Now, brothers and sisters, is there a place called hell in the scriptures?

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Yes. Are there going to be people who spend eternity separated from God? Yes. Why are they there?

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Why are they there? Give it a shot. Why are they going to be in hell? Because of their what?

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Sin. What is the purpose for a place called hell? Judgment and wrath.

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If there are people there undergoing the wrath of God for their sin, it means that their sins were not propitiated against.

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Do you see? Now, let's look at the way the Bible speaks. Take, for example, the apostle Paul. How does

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Paul refer to the gospel? In Romans 1, what does he say? That the gospel is the power of God for salvation, for everyone who believes to the

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Jew first and also to the Greek. What does the

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Bible constantly say? Jew and Gentile now together in one body.

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What has God done? He's broken down the dividing wall, that barrier between Jew and Gentile, and he's made them into one new man.

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That's what the Bible says. But real fast, who wrote 1 John? John.

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What else did John write? John. What else did he write? Revelation. We should look at John's theology and how he speaks to have an understanding.

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And to do that, let's go to the text. Go to John 11, verse 52. John 11, verse 52.

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What could John be saying here that's consistent with what he's already said in the text? John 11, a text you're probably familiar with.

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John 11, 52. But before we get there, start in 49.

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Get the context. Problem now,

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Caiaphas is answering. He's high priest that year, and the context is now this conspiracy to destroy

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Jesus. And what does Caiaphas, the high priest, say? Verse 49. But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them,

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You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people and that the whole nation not perish.

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Now, he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation and not for the nation only, but in order that he might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

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That is the theology that John is operating on the basis of. And when he says that he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but the sins of the whole world, it's the context of Jew and Gentile, not just us, the sins of the nation only, but also for the children of God spread about the entire world.

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That's how they spoke. Another example, by the way, of the word world not always meaning every person who's ever lived.

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It's a great example. It's in John, John 12, I believe, where all these people are following Jesus, right?

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They're all following Jesus. You know what their response was, the ones who hated him? They said, look, the whole world is following him.

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Question, was every person on the face of the planet following Jesus at that moment?

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It was an expression to talk about all the kinds of people, the diverse crowd that was following Jesus.

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And when John uses this terminology, it's consistent with all his theology. It's also consistent with Revelation 5 -9, which we already read.

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What does John say in Revelation 5 -9? That you purchase for God, what? Men from, out of, every tribe, tongue, and nation.

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Now, I want to just say this quickly as an encouragement. Last thing we're going to do today on this point. I told you

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I was going to go to a second text in Revelation. I want you to see it. Revelation 7 -9.

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Now, watch. I know that there are Christians who would disagree with me on this. I'll say this and be transparent.

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I know that there are Christians who love God and are better men of God than I could hope to be who disagree with me on the future.

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I think that they're not disagreeing on the basis of the Scriptures, and I'm ready to argue that. But I believe that when we look at God's salvation here and the particularity of the redemption, people say, so you're saying that God saved this small group of people in all of humanity and He's left the rest to themselves?

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Watch. Even if that were the case, He has every right to do it.

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It's not awesome that God saves some and leaves others to themselves.

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It's awesome that He saves any at all. What should really draw awe from us is the fact that He hasn't left every single one of us to our own sin.

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That's awesome. But I do believe that the promise to Abraham is a meaningful promise.

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Abraham, you're going to have descendants as numerous as the stars. Brothers and sisters, is that a lot or a little?

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How about like the sand? Is that a lot or a little? So, there's more.

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In Revelation 7, verse 9, after John already records that he has purchased out of every tribe, tongue, and nation for God, it says in Revelation 7, verse 9, and after these things

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I looked and behold a great multitude which no one could count.

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From every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the

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Lamb clothed in white robes and palm branches were in their hands and they cry out with a loud voice saying salvation to our

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God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures and they fell on their faces before the throne worshipped

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God saying amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our

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God forever and ever, amen. I actually believe that the grace of God and the power of God is so big.

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My own hope, based on texts like this, is that number at the end of time,

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I believe, will be a number that's incalculable as a way of saying it, it'll be a number that is so vast and big it will far outweigh those who are lost.

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I believe that. People are free to disagree. I think there are a lot of stars, a lot of sand, and when this text says a number which no one can count,

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I think that says a lot about the grace of God. Do you know what? If this story was like this, that there was one person before the throne redeemed, it would still be an awesome story of God's love and grace.

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But the number is vast and wide, and brothers and sisters, you and I go out to proclaim a gospel.

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Watch. Not, here's a suggestion, would you like to follow Jesus, the gospel we proclaim?

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We tell the story of his kingdom and his work. We say he's the Messiah, he's

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God in the flesh, he lived perfectly, he died for sinners, and he rose from the dead. The call, the command, is to repent and believe the gospel.

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What do we say to people? We don't say, Jesus died for you and he loves you so much and he just wants you to let him into your little heart.

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That's not how the apostles preached the gospel. They did not preach the gospel the way that many of us today preach the gospel.

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If you would just give him a chance, if you would just try Jesus, come on, Jesus died for the opportunity.

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Give him a chance. The apostles went out and proclaimed the king. They say, he's king of the world, he is ascended and seated, he died and rose again.

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There's a new boss in town, why don't you come quietly? That's how the word went out, in that vein.

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It was repent and believe the gospel, not try Jesus. And the word goes out, you repent and believe the gospel,

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Jesus is the king, he's risen from the dead, he's ascended and seated, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

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If you believe in Jesus Christ, you will find in him a perfect savior. Everyone who believes in Jesus has eternal life.

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Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. That's the word that goes out. And when it goes out, some believe and some remain hard in their sins.

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And do you know what you know? Is that when you proclaim that gospel from God's perspective, it's 100 % success.

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God will either be glorified in his justice or his grace, but he's glorified. So you go preach the gospel.

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Here's what I'm saying fundamentally. Here's the tail end of the so what. What I mean is this. When you pray for God to open someone's eyes to the gospel and you say,

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God, please open their eyes, please give them mercy. I actually believe those prayers are meaningful.

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I believe that when we pray God open their eyes, we're praying a meaningful prayer because we know, watch, he's sovereign enough to do it.

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And if he chooses in his grace and mercy to do so, nothing can stop him.

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So that's why you pray. We're not praying a fictitious prayer when we know he couldn't do it anyways because he's not gonna mess with their free will.

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We know when we pray for the salvation of people that God often uses that as the means of his work in their life.

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So brothers and sisters, in the history of the Christian church, the greatest missionary movements many times have been from Calvinists.

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So my word to you is this, you don't take this message and say, isn't it great that God has saved me?

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You take this message and you say what Paul says, I endure all things for the sake of the elect.

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They are out there, go get them. Jesus says, he has sheep which are not of this fold, them

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I must also bring and there'll be one flock with one shepherd. Brothers and sisters, you go proclaim his excellencies, go get them.

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Let's pray. Father, I pray that you'd bless the word that went out today. I pray that you would use it to bring about a reformation, a revival in your church.

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Use this God, this message to transform us, to solidify our love and our hope in you and use it

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God to get us on our beautiful feet. How are they gonna hear without a preacher?

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God give this church beautiful feet send them into the world for the glory of Jesus.