Lord, we're thankful to be together again. You've been so good to us. We're thankful for your kindness, for your love, for all of the ways that you show us that we are your children and you take care of us. And we pray, Lord, that today our worship would be a reflection of our gratitude, that you would be pleased with everything that we do here. that you would guide us by word and spirit, that we would worship you in spirit and in truth, that we would have great joy no matter our circumstances in life, that as we worship we would experience great joy because of Christ and who he is and what he has accomplished for us. And so we pray for your help this morning as we study your word, as we worship today in prayer and in song and in the reading and hearing and preaching of your word, and we pray that our fellowship would be sweet. We ask, Lord, for your blessing on our children in Sunday school this morning, that you would meet with them, that you would teach them your word that would be stored up in their hearts, that they would not sin against you. And so, Lord, be with us, guide us, give us light onto our path, and may it all be for Your glory alone we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, so we are in paragraph eight of chapter eight of our confession, and this paragraph I call Christ the effectual Savior. And I'll read the paragraph if you want, since I don't have it on the screen, if you want to look in the back of the Trinity Hymnal, our confession is back there if you want to read along. It's chapter eight, paragraph eight, Give you a second to get there. Someone's there, just shout out a page number. 674. Or five. Which one is it? 675? Oh. Okay, on both. All right. All right, paragraph 8, chapter 8, it says, to all those for whom Christ has obtained eternal redemption, He does certainly and effectually apply and communicate the same, making intercession for them, uniting them to Himself by His Spirit. revealing to them in and by His Word, the mystery of salvation, persuading them to believe and obey, governing their hearts by His Word and Spirit. and overcoming all their enemies by his almighty power and wisdom in such manner and ways as are most consonant to his wonderful and unsearchable dispensation and all of free and absolute grace without any condition foreseen in them to procure it. So there's our paragraph, a lot going on here. This paragraph is centering on Christ's role in securing redemption through His obedient life, His sacrificial death, and applying it without fail to the precise individuals that God has decreed. And that opening clause of the paragraph that says, to all those for whom Christ hath obtained eternal redemption, It is establishing the purpose of explaining the doctrine that we call particular redemption. Joel Beakey and Paul Smalley explain it as Christ died to redeem a particular people, those chosen from every nation by God for salvation. In other words, God does not Excuse me, Christ does not offer a vague or hypothetical remedy for humanity in general. Instead, He secures a deliberate, effectual redemption for a people that the Father chose from before the foundations of the earth. This really builds on what we see in our confession in chapter 3 which states that salvation proceeds from God's sovereign purposes alone. And then back in paragraph 5 of this chapter explains that Christ purchased an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven for all those the Father hath given unto Him. Oh, we're getting closer there, all right. So, this particular and effectual redemption that Christ obtained draws directly from the language of the book of Hebrews. We see in chapter 9 and verse 12, it says, He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. And so, this is pointing to this finished, permanent, and eternal accomplishment. This is in very much stark contrast to the temporary repeated rites of the Old Covenant where they're constantly sacrificing the animals. Jesus Himself declares, all that the Father has given to me will come to me and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. So, this is not a random or conditional or merely potential redemption. This redemption is sovereignly directed and it infallibly...is infallibly applied to its intended objects, to God's people, to the elect as the Bible declares. Now, I think it's important as we think about this doctrine to understand that it does not undermine the free and universal offer of the gospel. Perfect. Thank you so much, Judy. No problem at all. Okay, no problem. All right, that was the first one. See it? That was the second one. Enjoy. All right, on to the third. A little delay. There it is. All right, cool. So this doctrine, particular redemption, as is sometimes accused, does not undermine the free and universal offer of the gospel. Rather, the very particularity and infallible efficacy of Christ's redemption is the warrant that we have to proclaim Christ as the all-sufficient Savior to every sinner without exception. Let me give you a few thoughts from various Puritan writers. was one of the most rigorous defenders of particular redemption or definite atonement. If you think about the tulip, we're talking about the limited atonement, but that language, most theologians don't like that language. I do not. Particular atonement, I like to use because we are particular Baptists, and that's what that's referring to. But Owen was one of the most rigorous defenders of this doctrine. And he repeatedly insists that the infinite, intrinsic worth of Christ's sacrifice, wholly apart from its application, grounds the promiscuous offer of the gospel. He wrote this. He wrote, it was in itself of infinite value and sufficiency to have been made a price to have bought and purchased all and every man in the world. that it did formally become a price for any is solely to be ascribed to the purpose of God, intending their purchase and redemption by it. And yet at the same time, the same innate sufficiency that authorizes this indiscriminate call that we're preaching the gospel to all men, he says that innate sufficiency of the death of Christ is the foundation of this promiscuous proposal to elect and reprobate because the blood of Christ is of infinite value and dignity, sufficient in itself for the redeeming of all and every soul in the world. Therefore is the gospel preached on to all, and every soul is commanded to believe on him with assurance of acceptance and remission upon that belief. Yet, this hinders not but that God may intend the application of this all-sufficient sacrifice unto some in particular and not unto all." So, what does he say? Every man, every woman, every child can sincerely be called to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. not because Christ died equally for all who hear, but because Christ's death is intrinsically sufficient for all who hear, while God divinely intends and effectually applies that death only to those for whom the Father has given Him. The same harmony between particular redemption and the warm, unrestricted proclamation of Christ was vigorously defended later by Thomas Brooks and the guys we call the Merrow Men during the Merrow Controversy in the 18th century. These men were often accused of Amaraldianism, and Amaraldianism was a doctrine of a French Reformer, and the idea there was that Christ's atonement was of infinite value, and so they had a doctrine of hypothetical universalism. but that it was only efficacious for the elect since only they were given faith to believe. But they denied that. They denied this idea of a hypothetical universalism. They held to definite atonement, but they insisted that the gospel is not a conditional scheme of abstracted benefits, but it is an offer of the living person of Christ Himself crucified and risen. Thomas Boston taught that the warrant to hold forth Christ, to proclaim Christ to any sinner, does not lie in a secret decree or a supposed universal extent of the atonement, but in the infinite sufficiency and suitability of Christ in His person and in His work. Try and break this down a bit. What Thomas Boston was not saying is that we should tell all sinners Christ died for you. But instead, he believed, and I agree, that we can tell sinners Christ is dead for you. Now, that may not seem like a difference, but there is a difference. Boston explains this, he says, he's writing of another author, Puritan named John Preston. He says, therefore he says not, tell every man not that Christ died for him, but tell every man Christ is dead for him. That is, for him to come and believe on. A savior is provided for him. There is a crucified Christ for him. The ordinance of heaven for salvation for lost man is the use making of which he may be saved. Even as one had said of old, tell every man that has slain any person unawares that the city of refuge is prepared for him. namely to flee to that he may be safe and Everyone bitten with a serpent that the brazen serpent is set up on the pool pole for him namely to look on to That he may be healed but these Were eminent types of Christ and upon the latter the scripture is full and clear in this very point and so what he's saying is that it is right that to tell every sinner without distinction, there is enough in the crucified Christ to save you. He is full, he is suitable, he is an all-sufficient Savior, and so take him and be saved. This is what we call, theologians, Calvin wrote about this a lot, Sinclair Ferguson wrote a book with this title, it's called The Whole Christ, Hodes Christus. In other words, Christ cannot be divided from His saving benefits. And this all rests on the very same foundation of what John Owen was writing, namely that the death of Christ is of infinite value. And so, the promise that all that the Father gives me will come to me, and if you come to me, I will not cast you out, that may be laid directly before every single sinner with unqualified certainty. It is absolutely true, whoever comes to Christ by faith will be saved. And so, the elect alone, however, we understand, will unfailingly come because the Father has given them to the Son and the Spirit will effectually draw them. And yet, no sinner is excluded from this call because the Savior himself is infinitely worthy and able to save everyone who does come. And so, particular redemption does not present the mere possibility or some frustrated desire of God. It holds the living Christ forward who has already accomplished an eternal redemption He sits enthroned with all power, and He by the command of the Father and promise of the gospel may be offered to every man." That is a very important aspect of this. The alternative to that... drifts into a hyper-Calvinistic understanding of redemption, which says we should not tell all men everywhere that they can believe in Christ, because if we do, we're lying to them about the atonement and what is available to them because we don't know who the elect are and therefore we should not indiscriminately preach Christ and man's repentance and faith onto him to every man. And so what ends up happening? Well, by nature of this, their very understanding of the atonement, hyper-Calvinistic churches don't grow very large, do they? because they're not preaching the gospel to anybody. They don't really do any kind of evangelism whatsoever. modify that a bit and tell you, well, we don't know who the elect are, which is true, and so we'll preach the gospel, but we're very, very particular and careful in the language that we use in preaching the gospel so as to not imply to someone that maybe Christ died for them. And so a big part of the Merrill controversy was the fact that this language of Christ is dead for you was a big part of what the conflict was because there were those that said, you should never say that. Because maybe someone will hear that and assume what we think of when we often hear a more Arminian gospel presentation, if you will, where it's people saying, well, Christ died for you, all you have to do is come and accept Him. That He died for everyone, and you just need to come and accept Him. It's up to you now. Well, that's not what we're saying. We're not saying it's up to you. But what we are saying is that Christ is sufficient, that His life and death, His resurrection is sufficient, it's effective, there is enough in Christ to save you, He is offered to you. Now, by faith, come and receive Him. Now what we understand is that there is a moral inability in man in himself to do that. It requires then the work of the Holy Spirit to effectuate that. And that's what the doctrine of particular redemption is dealing with. This work of the Spirit now, and we'll get into this, the irresistible grace of God to bring man onto Christ. And so it's not that Christ isn't offered, He is offered freely and He's offered to all men and this is a very sincere offer of God. He's not saying Christ is here and then secretly saying, but you can't have any of Him. He's saying Christ is here and He is free for you to come and to receive Him. But it is man's moral inability to do that in and of himself that keeps man from doing so. It requires the work of the Spirit in order to effectuate that. And so, the Bible consistently supports this doctrine of particular redemption. The angel proclaims in Matthew 121, this time of year we read this often, that Christ shall save His people from their sins. He's marking out a very distinct group. John 10 says Jesus gives His life for the sheep. That's separating them out from others who reject Him because, He says, they are not of My sheep. The Father has handed these sheep to the Son. Ephesians 5, 25 frames the same truth in the language of a marriage. Christ gave Himself up for the church alone, His bride. And so, not only does Christ obtain redemption for His people, but the confession goes on to state that He doth certainly and effectually apply and communicate the same. In other words, He personally ensures the realization of redemption in the lives of the elect. It is eternal and complete." That's the phrase there, the same. And so, the application is certain because it is based on God's immutable decree, His unchanging decree. And it is effectual because God's power is irresistible. It produces, in other words, actual salvation. It's not something that is put forward and offered as a potential, it is actual. And so the benefits of redemption then are communicated or they are shared with the elect through union with Christ. The statement stands in stark contrast to general atonement views that suggest that Christ's death was procured, but it did not guarantee salvation because application depends on human response. The Apostle Paul, however, declares that if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by His life. And so, the effectual calling overcomes man's natural depravity, and it obtains What it obtains inevitably leads to salvation being applied and mediated by Christ's resurrection life. In other words, what Christ has done and who He is and the work that He is accomplishing cannot fail. And this assures believers that they will persevere in the faith. and it serves to combat doubts and it motivates gratitude within believers. Christians can have certainty that Christ has applied the work of Christ effectually. This is really important. This is far more than mere sort of just having some kind of doctrinal understanding, nice to know, I've learned a little bit more theology, but this really has a lot to do with our assurance, with our perseverance, with having a certain sense that Christ truly is for me and not against me. especially in those really difficult days as Christians, in the midst of our suffering and our trials and the circumstances that we face in this life, in this fallen world, that there will be days when our sense is that maybe God is against me. But this is one of the doctrines that helps to remind us that surely he is not. that Christ has died for me, he has saved me, he has called me onto himself, and in so doing, he will not let me go. That he has come into my life, he has applied redemption to my life, and so he doesn't, we don't have a theology of he loves me, he loves me not. He loves me, and so there is a purpose in the circumstances that I'm facing in my life, as opposed to maybe He doesn't love me at all, or He's drawn away from me. So if Christ has obtained redemption for us, and He has done so effectually, and He has communicated and applied that to us, Any other position really communicates that Christ is actually weak and ineffective, and He certainly is not. He's not weak in any way. He's certainly not ineffective in any way. Either His work is perfect or it is not. And if it is perfect, then we understand that once He saves us, He saves us eternally. That is very reassuring. It's very life-giving to us. And so the confession goes on to speak then of the intercession of Christ. It says, Christ's application of redemption includes making intercession for them, for us as believers, in His ongoing priestly ministry as He sits at the right hand of God the Father. So far from being a finished work that leaves the elect to fend for themselves, we're not just sitting around trying to figure this out on our own, Christ's priesthood is perpetual. It continues on. He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him since He always lives to make intercession for them, Hebrews 7.25. So, this intercession is not a vague wishing or pleading that might fail. Christ isn't begging the Father and saying, I hope you'll do this, please do this. It is a presentation of His once for all fully accepted sacrifice before the Father on behalf of the very people for whom the sacrifice was offered. Hugh Martin writes this, he says, the essence of the intercession is atonement. And the atonement is essentially an intercession. Or perhaps to put the paradox more mildly, the atonement is real, real sacrifice and offering and not mere passive endurance. Because it is in its very nature an active and infallible intercession. While on the other hand, the intercession is real intercession, judicial, representative, and priestly intercession, and not a mere exercise of influence, because it is essentially an atonement of substitutionary oblation once perfected on Calvary, now perpetually presented and ongoing perpetual acceptance in heaven." In other words, what is he saying here? Christ does not plead for the elect as one who is hoping to persuade a reluctant judge. He appears in the presence of God on behalf of His people as the Lamb who was slain. bearing in his glorified body the marks of the atonement that have already satisfied every demand of divine justice. And so his intercession is nothing less than the continued efficacy of the cross in heaven itself, and it guarantees that none for whom he prays can ever be lost. And so it's Christ coming before the Father praying for us, for you, by name, individually, and saying, I died for this person, and here's the proof. And so, he's pleading the justice of God. In other words, what we're saying, it would be unjust for God to condemn you, because Christ has died for you. That's important. This is why in 1 John, if you confess your sins, he is faithful and what? Just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, I don't know how much you've thought about that verse, but we might assume that He would say, if you confess our sins, He is faithful and merciful or loving or gracious to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But it says just. Why does it say just? Because of this very doctrine. Because we are redeemed. when we confess our sins on the basis of Christ having redeemed us, it would be unjust at this point for God to not forgive us our sins because Christ has already paid the price. And so, Because God is faithful and because He is just on the basis of the righteousness of Christ and Him having redeemed us and applied that redemption to us, the just thing is that God will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so this is Christ interceding regularly, completely, and totally for us. And I think as believers, we don't think about that often enough, that Christ is interceding for us. Christ is pleading for us on the basis of His blood and righteousness. It's not just me sort of having to do battle on my own and hope that God will give me a second and listen to me. No, Christ is interceding constantly, regularly, faithfully on my behalf. And God is just and so on the basis of His nail-scarred hands. His shed blood, His resurrection life, He will hear and He will grant what the Son pleads. It's a beautiful, beautiful doctrine. And so the paragraph goes on to explain that Christ applies this redemption by uniting them to himself in his spirit. This is talking about union with Christ. So this union with Christ is the living bond by which every blessing of salvation is conveyed. And apart from which, no blessing can be received. In other words, to receive the blessings of Christ, you must first be united to Christ. The Apostle Paul confirms, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. And again, he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Now the idea of union with Christ is not a metaphor. It is a real, vital, spiritual, and indissoluble conjunction wrought by the Holy Spirit. Joel Beakey explains that union with Christ is forged by the Holy Spirit in the hour of regeneration when He cuts a sinner off from Adam and grafts him into Christ. The Spirit then establishes a spiritual union between Christ and the sinner, a union that is unbreakable, irreversible, and eternal. So from that moment forward, the moment you are united to Christ, you are in Christ. That phrase occurs repeatedly, over 90 times in the writings of the Apostle Paul alone. And all that Christ is and all that Christ has done becomes ours. His death is the death for the believer. the death to sin, His resurrection is our new life, His righteousness is our title in heaven, His intercession is our continued acceptance before the Father. So the believer remains not a distant person, but now we live in the life of Christ. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live. but it is Christ who lives in me," Galatians 2.20. The same Spirit who now dwells in the exalted Christ also dwells in His members, so that the head, who is Christ, and the body, who is the church, share a common life. And because this union is wrought by omnipotent grace and not by any act of man, it can never be broken. It is perfect and unfailing. The confession declares in chapter 17 that those whom God has joined to Christ can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end. Faith, our faith, is not the cause or the ground of this union, but it is the instrument and the fruit of this union. In other words, by faith, A believer consciously lays hold of Christ, and we feed upon Christ, and we enter more and more into the enjoyment of the benefits by virtue of that union with Christ are already irrevocably ours in Him. And so the same Spirit who secretly unites the people of God to Christ at the beginning continually bears witness to the believer's spirit, Paul writes, that we are the children of God, sealing this reality of the union to our conscience. And how does He do so? Through the Word and the sacraments. So Christ doesn't redeem us. and then leave us to connect ourselves to Him by our own wisdom and our own willpower. He unites us to Himself by His Spirit, personally, invincibly, and internally, so that Paul writes, we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, and he becomes to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. This is our union with Christ. One of my favorite, most precious doctrines of all of Scripture is our union with Christ. And from this indissoluble union with Christ flows the next blessing of Christ, and that is that he It says that Christ revealing unto them, in and by the Word, the mystery of salvation. In other words, as the elect, we don't just stumble into salvation by our own insight or some kind of religious ingenuity. Dead sinners are completely unable to discover the way of life in Christ. And so the risen Christ, by the spirit wrought union that we have with him, sovereignly unveils the once hidden purposes of God. Paul calls this the mystery which was made known to the sons of men in other generations, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit. So that mystery, once concealed, in promise and in types is nothing less than what Paul calls Christ in you, the hope of glory, and Christ himself, the mystery of God. And so this revelation is never naked or abstract. Christ reveals the mystery, it says, in and by the word. The same written and preached Word that the Spirit once used to quicken now is the very same chosen instrument by which the eyes of the heart are enlightened. The Bible, our confession says, is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. And it pleases God to tie the opening of blind eyes to ordinary means and the ordinary ministry specifically of the Word of God. The same Christ who is the substance of the mystery is also the light that makes that mystery visible. And so Christ, having purchased his people, now gives them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," 2 Corinthians 4, 6. So, every time the Scriptures are read or preached or meditated on by the people of God, He is giving us a light of the knowledge of the glory of God. And the Spirit takes what is Christ and is declared to his people, and turns the propositions on a page into the living voice of the shepherd calling his sheep by name. And in this way, the elect are brought out of darkness into God's light, and we are kept from ultimately embracing soul-destroying air, and we do not graduate beyond the word of God. We grow even more dependent on it as Christians. For only in the word does Christ continually reveal himself as the way, the truth, and the life. Now, we won't have time to get here, but later on in this paragraph, this idea is expanded even more to deal with the fact that as Christ is revealed to us in the scriptures, It is applied to us by the Spirit and there is an indissoluble union between Word and Spirit. And next time we'll have to get into this more, but the idea being then that the Word of God does not work effectually in our hearts apart from the work of the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God does not work effectually apart from the Word of God. In other words, The Holy Spirit isn't going around just willy-nilly saving people and revealing things to people apart from the Word of God. The Word of God must be present. And so, this is our conflict, I guess, with a lot of charismatic theology. because a lot of it is completely absent from the word of God. It's simply talking often about the spirit is here, the spirit is moving, the spirit is telling me, the spirit is working, whatever, where the scriptures may never even be referenced or read or spoken of. And so the Spirit's not just randomly doing these things. The confirmation of the Spirit's work and word is the scriptures themselves. This is how God has revealed himself to us, and it is through this word that the Spirit is at work. That union is indissoluble, and it must be maintained that the two are never separated from one another. I'm going to have to stop there for time, but we do have two minutes, so if anyone has anything they would like to say. Yeah, go ahead. So I don't even know if they can understand this. Does that make sense? My question is, is it really worth, or how do you have a conversation with a dead person on something that only the spirit can reveal to them? And do you wanna go towards the Calvinistic doctrine that they aren't gonna understand unless God reveals it? Because I think that that might be Sure. Yeah, that's a great point. Well, I'll just say this. I think There is no reason to ever get into trying to explain particular redemption to a non-believer. See, no need for that whatsoever. Why? Because as you're saying, there's no way in which they're going to understand that. And in fact, what often that could do is we sort of get to a place where you have a dead sinner saying, well, I guess this isn't for me. But there's no reason I should even look into this even further or consider this anymore because he obviously didn't die for me. As opposed to us doing what we try to present before this congregation week in and week out, is to say, as Boston and the Merriman said, Christ is dead for you. In other words, I'm presenting to you a living Christ who came, who lived a perfect life to fulfill the law that you could not fulfill, who died a death that you and I and all of mankind deserves. He was buried in the grave and raised from the grave three days later. And the scriptures tell us that if you put your trust and your faith in Him, you will be saved. There's no reason why we should ever shy away from the more, what might be considered general statements of the gospel because none of those are wrong. That's absolutely true. If you believe in Christ, you will be saved. And so we need to be willing to say that and not shy away from that because we have a doctrine that says that there are elect But once again, we also, this is in the secret will of God. What God has commanded us to do is to preach the gospel indiscriminately to all men and call them to faith in Christ. We must do that. Yeah. So that's very important, because that's where this doctrine actually helps us to preach the gospel correctly and properly. Because it's really not the gospel message to go around and tell people, you know, Jesus died for you. You'll just believe that he died for you. Amen. And that distinction he's making is very important. Many people's faith is in the idea that Christ died for them. But what are we called to place our faith in? In Christ. Not the idea of Christ's death, but in Christ himself is a very important distinction to be made. And so often when this is preached or proclaimed that what you hear people saying is you need to believe that Christ died for you. Well, that's part of what we believe, a very important part of what we believe, but ultimately my faith, my trust is in Christ, not simply in what Christ has done. I need, again, what I said before, the whole Christ, totus Christus, all that Christ is and all that Christ has done, and all of that is for me, and the Spirit applies that in our redemption. So, we're out of time. Wish we could talk more. We're not done with this paragraph, so we'll get back to it next time. Let's pray. Lord, thanks again for this time, and we do thank you, Lord, for the whole Christ. all that He is and all that He has accomplished, that we can, with great faith and assurance, tell all men everywhere that Christ is sufficient. And Lord, we are thankful that You have sent Your Spirit to open the eyes of our hearts that we might see and behold the glorious truth of the gospel. We are so grateful that you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins on the basis of Christ's righteousness. We are thankful that Christ is continually interceding for us as your people. We are thankful that you have loved us and that you have called us onto yourself by the power of your Spirit in your Son and that because we are yours, you will never leave us nor forsake us. And so, Lord, we pray that the blessings of these truths that we have discussed this morning will carry on with us as we come before you to worship you today. And we ask that all of this would be done in Jesus' name. Amen.