Got two or three announcements this evening. It's good to be back. We had a good trip, and we learned a lot, and we had a, and I'm gonna do a put together, gonna fit it in where it would fit kind of towards the end of Philippians here in the next three or four weeks. Not that we're gonna be at the end of Philippians in three or four weeks, but when we get to that closing section, I'll probably do a one, possibly two night overview of the life of Paul. because that's really the focal point of this trip, was in the footsteps of Paul. And so we had a really good trip, and we went to places that I've been to Greece before, doing much the same thing, but we went to places we didn't get to go to the last time, and spent a lot more time at places we did go the last time, which was much better. And then we went to Rome and did some things there, several things there in relation to Paul that I'd wanted to do when we went there on a personal vacation, but we just didn't have time to get all of that done. So it was good. And we had a guide in Italy who had his PhD in archaeology, so we didn't learn anything at all. And we went to... ancient port called Ostia Antica, which was the main port for Rome up till about the end of the first, end of the second century. And then the Tiber River shifted about half a mile or more. And so that pretty much ended the port. But we went there and this, our guide had worked there as an archeologist for 11 years. So we didn't learn anything there either. So and of course, I'm not going to get into all that. I learned enough about the sewage system and the water and drilling wells and how the water flowed through the pipes. So that's not all that helpful. So anyway, that's it. Prayer requests just, well, the two announcements was I would be back in the pulpit on Tuesday, but part of me is still probably over the Atlantic. And then a reminder just that in your in here don't bring coffee soda you can bring water, but that's it into the into the auditorium. And then two notes, Dave Welch, some of you may know who Dave Welch is. He was a founder of a series of organizations that have been quite effective. And I'm not sure when he started them, but they were in full swing when I moved back to Houston 20 years ago. But he was the founder of the Houston Area Pastors Council and the Texas Pastors Council and the U.S. Pastors Council. And these organizations have been, you know, you'll often see the media go and they'll interview some pastors and they'll say, well, this pastors group says this, this and this, and they're all liberal and they only go to the liberals. Well, we were the biblical conservative answer to that. Dave was taken to be with the Lord suddenly on Sunday. And so my question is, OK, now what? Be interesting. But anyway, so Dave has gone to be with the Lord. And then I got an email just before I came today from tonight from Rick Ingram that Dan's just continuing to sort of retreat into himself More and more and so he doesn't even recognize He said he tried to call him video call the other day and Dan didn't know who he was so we just continue to pray that the Lord will take Dan home soon and all of us Dan included have been praying that for two or three years, so Anyway, that's that sort of the update on all of that. I So let's get started. We'll have a few moments of silent prayer, and then I will open in prayer. Let's pray. Father, we're just so thankful that we have you to come to and that we recognize that the primary purpose we're on this earth is to serve you and to get to know you better and to think and live as you would have us to think and live. And Father, we're just thankful for the many ways in which you have provided for this congregation and this church and the impact that it has and for the opportunities that many have had to go to Israel and go to Greece and Italy. And just because of the impact it has on us in understanding your word better and understanding the background, the culture, and what the Apostle Paul was up against in many places. So Father, we're thankful for that. Father, we pray for Dave Welch's family. And this was sudden and unexpected. And Father, we pray for them. We know that you will comfort them. And we pray for the organizations that he started, the impact they have had in informing churches and individuals of the significant issues that touch on the role that Christians have in our culture. And so, Father, we pray that there'll be someone who can step into his shoes and can continue to go forward with that. Father, also we pray for Dan Ingram. We're just thankful for all of his siblings who are able to gather around him and to do so much to help him and make him comfortable during this time. And Father, we just pray for him and that you would take him to be with you soon. And we know that's been his prayer for the last two or three years. And so, Father, we're just thankful the opportunity they've had and the witness that they have had and for his ministry. And we just pray all these things in Christ's name. Amen. As you can tell, I picked up a bit of a sinus infection while on the trip, but so what else is new? All right, we're going to review for a couple of minutes the last lesson that we covered. This was on the death of Christ. It was lesson number 35. And as we went through this, we looked at how God understands justice, and justice flows from God's character. God is just, and he is righteous. And His righteousness is the standard of His character, and His justice is the application of that standard to His creation and to His creatures. And that sin is the basic problem of humanity. Sin is always against God because sin is defined as a violation of God's character. So all sin is ultimately against God. It may impact people around us to whom we should apologize, but sin is against God, and so we don't sin against other people. We sin against God because sin is the violation of God's standards. We saw that because of sin God demands payment. He demands restitution. And so life is the issue. Blood often is a metaphor for life. Leviticus tells us that life is in the blood and the blood is the life. And so it's used as a figure of speech to stand for life. And so the payment of blood is payment of life. And the payment of life is because the penalty for sin is death. And it's spiritual death, but spiritual death has as part of its consequences physical death. And so God demands that this penalty be paid. And so he plans to do that perfectly through the plan of salvation that he would send a Savior who could satisfy his justice and that through that payment that God's justice would be satisfied with the payment of the death of the Savior as he paid the penalty for the sins of the world. And through the various covenants God taught the significance of blood being a sign of these covenants. And the second part of that lesson we looked at the Passover as a picture of Christ's death for sin. The lamb, a Passover lamb that was without spot or blemish was a picture that sacrifice of the lamb for the family would be the sacrifice instead of in the place of the firstborn son. And so this is a picture of God's Son who would die in our place on the cross to satisfy God's justice. God put these elements in place to prepare us so that we could identify the Savior when He came. And at the cross He satisfied the Father's justice and paid the penalty for mankind so that He could free us from the slave market of sin. And then the last question was why do Jews and Gentiles reject the death of Christ? And that is that they reject for any number of reasons, but mostly arrogant rebellion against God. Now, in this lesson, we're looking at a question, and in the notes, I have phrased the question in a grammatically correct manner. For whom did Christ die? Now, a lot of you may not recognize that this is a major issue and has been in theology for a number of years, that on the side of Calvinists, strict Reformed Calvinists, You have an acronym to indicate the five points of Calvinism, which is not all that there is to Calvinism, but it's the core in their soteriology. And it goes, the acronym is TULIP. T is for total inability, actually, not just total depravity. I believe in total depravity. Every part of our nature is impacted and corrupted by sin. But total inability, that means a man cannot even express a positive volition towards God. And in Calvinism, total inability means that you're not even, you can't even respond positively to the non-verbal witness of God and His creation. And so the U then stands for unconditional election. Everyone's born spiritually dead and under the curse of sin. And so God goes eeny, meeny, miny, moe, and He picks those who will be elect and those who will not be. and its most serious forms didn't originate with Calvin. It originated much, much earlier. Probably the first to systematize it was Augustine the Bishop of Hippo in the early 5th century. And the unconditional election means that God chooses whom will be saved and who will be condemned. That's double predestination. And that was Augustine's position. The L stands for limited atonement. Since the only people who are going to be saved are those whom God chose, Christ died only for those elect people. And so he did not die for everyone. And so they'd go through various exegetical gymnastics in order to avoid things like, well, Christ died for the sins of the world. But for them, that meant only those who would be saved. So that's a big question, big debate, and the I stands for irresistible grace, that God the Holy Spirit will irresistibly draw, and irresistible means that you can't fight it. You will, when the Holy Spirit is drawing the elect, they will respond. And since they're truly elect and truly saved, they will give evidence of that through their perseverance. that they will endure and they will sin, and they may sin for long periods of time and have periods of carnality that are long, but it is not permanent, and they will always demonstrate that they are a child of God. Last part is what is at the core of lordship salvation, and it is much more. Louis Ferry Chafer explained perseverance of the saints only in terms of one aspect, and that was eternal security. It is much more than eternal security. So as we look at this lesson, it's a long one. In the PDF, it is 45 pages long. The average lesson is 30. And so I can usually get through, it takes me two weeks to get through one 30-page lesson, so this lesson's gonna take three weeks to get through that. So, okay, so what did Jesus do with his life, just in terms of remembering what we covered in the previous lesson in this chart? is that you have human beings. Man was created. He was created righteous, but because of sin, all human beings are unrighteous. On the left side, there needs to be a death to pay for sin. And Jesus paid that penalty of death for human sin through His being judged for our sins on the cross. This applies to believers when we trust in Him, and also that the Savior needs to live a perfect life by God's standards, and He lived a perfect life, and His righteousness is that which is So Jesus lived a perfect life and his righteousness is imputed to human beings and that applies to all believers so that we will have life forever with God. So what we have been looking at as we got into the New Testament is first of all the question of who do you say that I am, the question that Jesus asked of Peter and of the disciples, focusing on who is Jesus. And then the next lesson was on the birth of Christ, dealing with the importance and significance of the virgin birth. And then an overview of the life of Christ and fulfilling messianic prophecy. And then the last lesson was the death of Christ. And then in this lesson we're answering the question, for whom did Christ die? So in the previous lesson, we looked at this chart. answering the question, what did Jesus come to the earth to do? First of all, He came to explain God's Word. This was covered in Lesson 34. And He came to live a perfect life, to demonstrate that He was sinless in His humanity, so that as sinless humanity, He was qualified to go to the cross and to die in our place and pay the penalty for our sins. Because He was God, that value of that payment was infinite, and so it could pay the price for the sins of the whole world. In lesson 40, we looked at the fact that He was coming to announce the kingdom of God, the millennial kingdom that would come in the future, and He would reign over Israel from David's throne. and that he will fulfill those Old Testament prophecies and promises related to a future kingdom. And then now we come to Roman numeral four, his death for all mankind. So this slide, how does God see justice? God has a rescue plan. B, we looked at this, God planned to have justice through the Savior. C, Jesus died to satisfy God's justice. And D, Jesus invites everyone to benefit from the justice that he obtained. So that brings us up to this point. In the Garden of Eden, when the serpent tempted Eve and then Eve responded and and sinned then God identifies the consequences of that first for the serpent then for the woman and then for the man and when he addressed the serpent he said that the seed of the that the seed of the serpent would bite the seed of the woman on the heel, but the seed of the woman would crush the head of the seed of the serpent. And so there's that foreshadowing of the seed, referencing the Messiah, that the Messiah would be wounded. In the covenants we see the significance of blood atonement and the blood sacrifice signifying a spiritual death, not a physical death, but it is the picture of that spiritual death. And so that's part of the covenants that God made with man. In the Passover we see that this, the very sharp imagery of the lamb without spot or blemish that is sacrificed on behalf of the family so that the firstborn in the family does not have to die so the animal serves as a substitute. And this is all to depict the fact that the Messiah would have to be killed as a substitute for mankind. So because all human beings are cursed, that curse of sin is paid for by Christ on the cross, and those who trust in Him, there will be no curse. So this brings us to where we are tonight. A, who did Christ die for? Then B, why must people believe in Jesus to be saved from eternal death? This is an important question. The exclusivity of Christianity is unique. among world's religions. And so people balk at that. Why do you say you're right and everybody else is wrong? C, we'll look at the question, is mankind's personal response to Jesus the most important impact of the cross? And D, how can God be so cruel as to send people to the lake of fire? And then E, we will not get to tonight, that is the Bible talks about election. What does God mean by election? And does God just cherry pick who will be saved and who will not be saved. So we're going to start with the question, for whom did Christ die? So we have to go through a pattern that we see in the scriptures. We go all the way back to the flood, and we start in Genesis, and we're going to look at the flood, and then we're going to look at the Passover, and we're going to look at the cross. because these Old Testament pictures help us to understand how God offers a plan of deliverance, but it's up to the individuals to choose whether they will accept God's plan or not accept God's plan. So the first big judgment in history is at the flood. Everyone on earth is given the opportunity to hear the message of deliverance from Yahweh and to accept His salvation. And so we see in Genesis chapter 6 that for a lengthy period of time, Noah is offering salvation. He is referred to as a preacher of righteousness. And that's really the core issue in the gospel is that we need to become righteous in order to have eternal life. We learn from Genesis 15.6 that Abraham believed God's message of salvation and God imputed it to him as righteousness. And so it is that imputation of righteousness that's necessary in order to have salvation. So aside from Noah, nobody else responded to God's offer of salvation. And so we have the judgment. Second Peter 2.5 tells us that God did not spare the ancient world but saved Noah. one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly." Then the next big event that pictures salvation is the events at the Exodus. Everyone is given an opportunity to respond. The Egyptians are all given the opportunity. Moses goes to Pharaoh, explains the whole situation to him, that God is demanding that his people be let go, that their people be freed. And, you know, ten times, nine times Pharaoh says no, and on the tenth time the judgment's going to be the death of the firstborn in every household. And finally, Pharaoh relents and lets them go, but he's going to go after them as soon as possible. In Exodus 9-20 we read, Isn't that fun? That's going to drive us nuts. We'll just have to work with one screen. Okay, so Moses gives a warning. There's a grace period. If you think about the nine plagues up to the tenth one and try to work out the timeline there, I think that this took a couple of years. I don't know anything to hang that on, but it takes time for all of these things to work out and to have their impact and for them to have, why did that come back on? It takes time, you know, when you have the water turning to blood. So obviously by the time you get to the second plague, which is the flies, the water is back to normal. Well, that took some time to clean all that out, because it wasn't just the Nile that turned to blood. A few days, more water is going to flow down there. It's all water, in the wells, in the freshwater, everything, all the water turned to blood. And how long does it take to clean all of that up? And then you have the frogs, and then the flies, and all of these other things. And just the death of all the frogs everywhere. Frogs were in your pantry. You'd open the drawers for your dishes, and frogs would jump out. And then when they all died, there were dead frogs everywhere. and that's going to stink, and that's going to attract flies, and on and on and on it goes. So there's this time of grace that God is giving to him to respond to the offer of deliverance. And when it finally comes and they depart on the after the Passover and the night when the firstborn of every household is killed except for in Israel. None in Israel died because they were all obedient. That a mixed multitude, as it's put in the King James, it is both Gentiles and Jews. Are you going to try to turn that off? There you go. Brilliant. OK. So you have a mixed multitude that goes out. So it wasn't just Jews. There were a number of Gentiles, a number of Egyptians who also accepted God's offer of salvation. And it was this group that left Egypt. Then when we come to Jesus, When God sent Jesus to the earth, sent the second person of the Trinity to the earth, and Jesus goes to the cross to die for our sins, he dies for everyone. He doesn't just die for the elect, he dies for everyone. I think one reason that Calvinism has been on a rise of popularity for the last 25 or 30 years is because it's a real tight, sophisticated, intellectual, intellectually satisfying system of theology. And people like that, the more chaotic the world becomes, the more people like a real tight system of theology like that. But that doesn't mean it's biblical. So in 1 John 2, 2 we have, but we have to go to passages, and I've got a number of them here. 1 John 2, 2, he himself, referring to Jesus, John writes, he himself is the propitiation, the satisfaction for our sins, and not for ours only. but also for the whole world. John 3.16 says, See, the world is further defined by whoever. Anyone in the world, that relative pronoun is so important. Whoever believes on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Then we get to another very interesting passage in John 12, John 12 verses 32 and 33, which says, And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself. This, he said, signifying by what death he would die. And this is important. This is a great passage. Jesus says that if I am lifted up, I will draw everyone to myself. Now, this relates to the eye in Tulip Irresistible Grace, because in and I'm hoping I can find it in this strange Bible, but I think it's in John. And if you find it faster than I do, let me know. I think it's in John five or John six. And if I don't find it because I don't have it, I don't have it marked. Well, there's a passage that talks about no one can come to the father except the father draws him. But if you read the next verse, it's a quote from Isaiah 56, I think. And basically, Isaiah 56 is talking about what God uses to draw people is the word of God. Okay? So you have the Word of God draws people, and now you have Jesus, the same verb is used there, that Jesus says, I will draw all peoples to myself. Now, the way Calvinists get around this is they say, see, there's going to be somebody from every people group. It's not talking about the possibility of drawing all individuals. But that's not what it says, it says all peoples. This he said by signifying what death he would die. But we have other passages that are important like the first part of 1 Timothy 2 where Paul writes, therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. I underline these, all men refers to how many we should pray for. Who do we pray for? Everyone. Every individual. That's what that phrase means. There are some places where I think all doesn't mean every single individual. When you read in the Gospels and the Gospel writer says that Everyone in Judea went out to see John the Baptist. I don't think that means every single individual living in Judea made a trek out to the Jordan River. The way we use language when we're saying, you know, most everybody, we'll say, well, everybody went out there. But we know it doesn't mean every single individual. But in other passages, it's very clear that all means every single individual. So here we pray for everybody, every single individual, for kings and for all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all men Now, you've got to interpret that in the context. All men, in verse 1, means every single individual, so that all men, in verse 4, should also mean every individual. God desires everyone. If God had His way, every single person would be saved. But it's up to the individual to decide whether or not they're going to accept God's plan of salvation. In verse 5 we read, There we have that word again, a ransom for all. We have to connect the alls, connect those dots. to be testified in due time, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I'm speaking the truth in Christ, not lying, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth." So then we go to Ephesians 2.15. Now I've grayed out one word there because it's usually just translated as a participle, but it's a causal participle. because He has abolished," that is referring to Christ, because Christ has abolished in His flesh the enmity. I was talking to another professor at Chafer Seminary this morning, And we were talking about passages that indicate that the law ended with Christ. And this, we agreed that this passage is the strongest, that Christ abolished. That's the same word, translated abolished, that is used of the, that God is going to abolish wisdom, or excuse me, knowledge and prophecy. It brings it to an absolute end. Christ has abolished in His flesh the enmity. What enmity? That is, that is contained in the law of commandments and ordinances so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace. So this is this new entity that's coming into existence now And it is not coming out of Israel. So this shows a complete break, and the Old Testament is not the precedence for living the Christian life, living the spiritual life in the church age. There's a complete and total break, and something new is established through Christ's example. So He creates in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. So it ends, the cross ended the Mosaic law. There's no more dietary laws, there's no more observance of the Sabbath, no observance of those feast days, none of that. It all ended at the cross because something new came into existence. And so that is what is further developed in the rest of that chapter. So what we see is that there is the offer of salvation to believing Jews and to believing Gentiles, and together they are going to be in one new body, new entity that is called the church. And so we have this diagram that the cross, like a magnet, is drawing people to and attracting people to salvation. But people have a choice. They have the option to say no and to react in a hostility to it. And so some people are repelled by the cross. It is objectionable to them. And I have a friend of mine who got saved when he was in college. And he had grown up in a Methodist church here in Houston. And when he came back, he got the opportunity to teach. No, he wasn't teaching yet. But he was in a Sunday school class. And the person who was teaching it was teaching on substitutionary atonement. And there was a woman in the class who said, I don't know what kind of God you have, but my God would never let somebody die in the place of somebody else. See, that is liberal theology. You're imposing your view of what is right and wrong on the Bible's view of what's right and wrong. And that is just pure arrogance. But that's where a lot of people are. They've rejected the idea of substitutionary atonement. They've come up with various ideas in the history of Christianity as to what it means that Christ died for us. You know, he died as our example. He died to demonstrate the righteous government of God. A couple of other reasons, but because people find it objectionable to say that God had to pour out the penalty for sin on someone who was completely innocent. My God wouldn't do that. That's where they are. That is theological liberalism. So they are offended and the cross drives them away from God. But the cross also draws them to people and when they trust in Christ then they are declared just. So this is what some people think in the next chart, this is what some people think, but it's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that because of our sin nature, every human being starts life fallen in a state of corruption and that they are totally depraved. They are spiritually dead, separated from God. They are not in a position of neutrality. So you have on the side of the pagan kingdom of man, it's based on work, so man can save himself because he's born savable. And in the most extreme forms of what Augustine was fighting against, which was Pelagianism. And then later what Calvin, later what developed out of Calvinism, there was a reaction by a Dutch theologian named James Arminius And his followers were the ones who developed the five points of Armitianism, which has been facetiously described as, he loves me, he loves me not. He loves me, he loves me not. He loves me, he loves me not. because they don't believe that their salvation is secure. So originally they set up their five points, and then what the Calvinists did was their answer to the five points, and neither one of them are right. And there's a lot you can find that is biblical in Calvinism, but there's a lot that is not biblical in Arminianism. And so that is, that's the basic problem, is it ends up, both end up in some form, ending up in works salvation. Either to validate your salvation or to gain your salvation. So you have on the other side the kingdom of God, which is based on grace, that God will do everything to provide salvation for man, and all man has to do is accept it. And so that when you do, then there is eternal life. What you see in the middle of this chart is the idea that there's a neutral position, but nobody's neutral. Because we're born sinners, we're born corrupt, we're born with an orientation to self-centeredness and rebellion against God. Yet, nevertheless, God has given us enough ability to be able to at least say, well, I'd like to know more. Now, that's not enough to make you saved. There are a lot of people who probably say at God Consciousness, I'd like to know more, but as they learn more, now I don't want to know more. So just because somebody's positive at God Consciousness doesn't mean they're going to be positive when they hear the gospel. And I know a lot of people think, well, that if you're positive of God consciousness, you will be later on. Well, prove it. I don't think so. I think there are a lot of people who want to know God, and then once they find out a little bit more, they go, no, I really don't want that. So you've got to be positive. If you're positive of God consciousness, the only thing significant about that is that means that God is going to make sure that you hear the truth. But he doesn't make sure that you believe the truth. It's still up to your volition. So that's the contrast. So in this next slide, it's really small because of so much is there with these verses. But the position of all mankind on the left side in the pagan kingdom of man is that they are born condemned. And these two, the passages here both come out of John chapter three. So we'll look at the one on the left side first. John 3.18, in my opinion, is one of the most significant of salvation verses and statements on man's condition from birth. The first part, the first clause is positive. He who believes in Him is not condemned. Then it goes to the opposite side. But he who does not believe is condemned already. What does that mean? He's already condemned. What did he do to be condemned? He was born. He's born as a descendant of Adam and he inherited Adam's original sin. And so he is born spiritually dead. He's born condemned. So you're condemned already. This is hard for a lot of people to understand. You're born condemned already. And so what does that condemnation consist? Number one, you're spiritually dead. You have been alienated from the life of God, Ephesians 4, 17. You're alienated from the life of God. So you're born spiritually dead. Number two, you're unrighteous. that you can't do anything that is good. All of our works of righteousness are as filthy rags. So you can't do righteousness. So you're spiritually dead, you lack righteousness, and you have the problem of the sin penalty. Now, what Christ does on the cross solves the first problem, which is the penalty of sin. But that doesn't automatically solve problem two and problem three. because you're still born, what, spiritually dead, and you still lack righteousness. What happens is when we trust in the gospel, then God regenerates us, we're made alive again, and second, we receive the imputation of Christ's righteousness, so that we're not condemned anymore. But the person that is born spiritually dead is condemned not just for his sin, but because he's spiritually dead and he's unrighteous. So he who believes on him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. So when you believe in the name of the only begotten Son, you believe the gospel, you're no longer condemned. OK. But Christ still paid for your sins. That's that's the issue here. Christ paid for the sins of the unbeliever whether he believes it or not. But he's condemned because he is unrighteous and because he's spiritually dead and because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. So verse 19 goes on to say, and this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world and men loved darkness. That verb is in the active voice. The subject is men. They performed the action of loving the darkness. Nobody's making them love the darkness. It's a choice. Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed." Now if we go back for the positive side, we go to John 3.16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Notice how many times we've seen the word believe. It's never accompanied by an adverb. It's not sincerely believed, genuinely believed, heartily believed, none of that's there. Consistently believes, it's just simply believing. Jesus talks about all you need is faith is a mustard seed, and a mustard seed is the smallest seed that we know of, and it's extremely tiny. You don't have to, I don't, if you go to, go to John 3 a minute. It seems like about the fourth or fifth time in the last couple of weeks I've done this. John chapter 3 verse 13, Jesus is talking and he says, no one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven, the son of man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up. So he is foreshadowing the kind of death he will have. So that, he says, whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. Now, if you go back and you look at the episode in the Old Testament in Numbers chapter 21 where you have the serpents, the solution was that they made a bronze serpent, raised it up on a pole, and if you just looked at it, You didn't have to understand how it worked. You didn't have to know anything about metallurgy to say, well, is that bronze serpent, or is that a silver serpent, or is this a copper serpent? All you had to do was know that God said if you look at it, you're saved, and all that saves you is looking at it. And I think that's the case at the cross, that the gospel is really simple. You know Jesus saves, and it has something to do with the cross, and it has something to do with eternal life, and I'm trusting that. and you don't have to write a dissertation on Christology or Soteriology to be able to get saved. you'll get that later. But you hear the promise of God and you just say, I believe it. You're looking at Christ. So John 3, 17, God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world. Notice the emphasis here is on the mercy of God. God's not up there trying to condemn everybody. In fact, the passages we've looked at, he desires all to be saved. So God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And notice you have world in verse 16 and you have world in verse 17 three times. And the issue is at the beginning of verse 18, he who believes in him is not condemned. So, that takes us to the first sub-point, those who accept Jesus are justified. And what that means is that they are declared by God's justice to be righteous through faith. Just like Abraham. Romans 4, 1-3, we'll see this again. Paul has already talked about in chapter 3 that we've all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So how are we saved? And he says, What shall we say then about Abraham, our father, as found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. What did he believe? He believed the Old Testament promise of salvation that goes back to the seed of the woman in Genesis 315, that some that someone will be born the seed of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent and there'll be salvation. Now, as you go through the Old Testament in the progress of revelation, a little more is added, a little more is added, a little more is added. By the time you get to Isaiah, you know he's going to be born of a virgin and that he's going to be called the mighty God, Prince of Peace. and all of those other things, and that gives more and more content. But it's vague in the beginning. You're just believing God will provide salvation in the future. And Abraham believed that, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 tells us it's through faith, not because of faith. Faith is the transmission line, okay? It is not the cause. What's the cause? Back in verse four, it's the love of God that's the cause of our salvation. But the means is faith, and we exercise that faith. And when you look at it, I did this in detail, you can go back and listen to the lessons when I went through Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, that it here is a neuter pronoun. So in grammar, a neuter pronoun has to refer back to a neuter noun. Okay? You call a woman a her. You still do. It's more legal under Trump than it was before. You call a man a him. But if you're not sure, then it's an it. Okay? So grace is a feminine noun. So can a neuter pronoun refer back to a feminine noun? No. It's got to be neuter. or feminine. You've been saved. Masculine. Salvation is masculine. Through faith. This is a, I think it's a participle there. I didn't look at this today. Through faith, which is feminine. So the that and the it are your two pronouns here. So that, not of yourself. So Calvinists want to say that faith is not of yourself. The problem is the pronoun that and the pronoun for it are neuter. And the noun faith is feminine, grace is feminine. What does that mean? Well, in Greek, if you look at a collection of things, and some are expressed by feminine nouns and some are expressed by masculine nouns, then you use a neuter pronoun to refer to the collection. And so what's going on here is that by grace through faith salvation, is the gift of God, and it's not of ourselves. So it's the whole phrase, it's the whole concept, it's not one noun. It's the by grace through faith salvation that's not of ourselves, that by grace through faith salvation is the gift of God, and it's not of works lest any man should boast. So it's through faith, that's how we are justified. So in sub-point two, what happens to people who choose to reject the cross? And so we get another sub-point. Why must people believe in Jesus to be saved from eternal death? So why is this necessary? Well, because that's God's plan. Number one, that's the short form. Jesus said in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one, that's a pretty dogmatic statement. No one can come to the Father except by me. I don't care how right you are. I don't care how good you are. I don't care what kind of a learned theologian or Pharisee you are. I don't care how moral you are. No one gets to Daddy except through me. Acts 4, 12. Now who's speaking in Acts 4, 12? It's Peter. Remember, this is a couple of days after Pentecost, and it's Peter and John, they've come back. I think it's the day after Pentecost. They've come back, and they're in the temple, and so this is Peter's second sermon. And in the middle of that, he says, who's he talking to? He's talking to an exclusively Jewish audience. And he tells them, there's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There's only one way. One reason I point that out is there are some evangelical Christians who, in their enthusiasm to love and support the Jewish people, will fudge on the gospel and say, well, Jews are saved by a different covenant than Christians. But then why does Peter say there's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved? It's exclusively Jesus. So God's judgment is death because of sin. Of course, that is spiritual death is the primary penalty as a result of sin, but physical death comes as a result of that. So either man dies for rejecting God's solution, he stays spiritually dead and as a result of that he has to go to the lake of fire, or a substitute dies. God's solution is a substitute will die and he will be the substitute. So when we go back to the chart contrasting the kingdom of man with God's plan, you see these examples of the global flood, the death of the firstborn, and eternal death, and you have God's solution is offered to everybody at the ark. It's offered to all the Egyptians, and some of them responded positively with the Passover lamb. and Jesus dying on the cross. So it's always offered to everybody. It's a legitimate offer to everybody because the sacrifice will cover everybody. So in John 3, 36, we read, he who believes in the Son has everlasting life and he who does not believe the Son, notice no qualifiers, believe is it. He who believes, he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. In verse 18, though we've already covered, he who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. It's really simple. It's very simple. All you have to do is trust in God. So how did God save people in the Old Testament? Well, I've already alluded to that by going to Romans 4. Before the cross, they were condemned for their sin, but they are looking forward to God's provision of salvation in the future. After the cross, God condemns mankind for rejecting His solution, which is the cross of Jesus. So Romans 3.25 says about Christ whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, His blood meaning His death. Propitiation is something that satisfies the justice of God. You know, it's so sad we live in such a world where you have to define words now like expiation and propitiation and superlapsarianism and words like that. Our guide was telling us some stories about things that he has seen over recent years. And he says it's really, really difficult in a lot of situations. For example, he said, After they'd gone to the Sistine Chapel, one of the people in a tour group said, well, now that we've seen the Sistine Chapel, what about the other 15? And then there was the one, he said, that asked him, says, what exactly does BC stand for? Oh, I know, it's before computers. And he saw the shocked look on the guide's face, so he immediately changed and he went, I know, before Columbus. These are not just Americans. These are people from all over the world who come. And he said, the level of historical ignorance among the people on this planet today is beyond belief. And he sees this on a regular basis. So what that means is, and I've been wrestling with this as a pastor, is that with the generation of people that started this church, that we had a great deal of biblical knowledge, and probably with their children as well. But the trouble is, we've got a generation today that we need to reach, and they have no framework. They're like my friend who says, well, it took me a while to figure out who Luke was. They don't know. They don't even have the privilege of growing up in some kind of a liberal denomination where at least they had a Bible, or they saw a Bible, or they learned some terminology. They don't even have that. So pulpits have to get down to where people are. Otherwise, they'll never understand anything that's coming out. So anyway, that's my little rant for the day. Whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith. Again, it's through faith, not because of faith. The cause is the cross. It's the love of God. Through faith is the means of appropriating it. To demonstrate His righteousness because in His forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed. to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. And then we looked at Romans 4, 1, which we just looked at, that Abraham was justified not by works, but by faith in the promise of God. And it was imputed to him as righteousness. So in the past, in the Old Testament, God forgave people in the past because of what Jesus would do on the cross. Remember, God's timeless. So everything in human history is an immediate present for God. You can wrestle with that before you go to sleep tonight, probably stay awake. But God sees it all, and so He can impute Christ's righteousness to those in the Old Testament because He knows exactly what's going to happen in the future. And now God forgives people in the future because of what Christ did on the cross. So we go back to that original chart, what Jesus did with his life and his death. He needed to pay the penalty for sin. He was qualified because he was sinless and he lived a perfect life and so that his righteousness could be imputed to man. So the cross shows God's grace and God's justice and they work together. See, liberalism based on rationalism, 2 Corinthians 5, 7 says, we walk by faith and not by sight. Human reason is looking into yourself and saying, what do my thoughts tell me about the logic of this? or it looks to experience, but we need to look to the promise of God. So the cross shows that God's grace works together with His righteousness and His justice to provide a perfect salvation. So that brings us to C, which is the question, is mankind's personal response to Jesus the most important impact of the cross? And so 1 Peter 3, 18 through 20, we read, Christ also suffered once for sins, that just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison. These are the fallen angels from the Old Testament that intermarried with humans in Genesis 6. who formerly were disobedient when once the divine long-suffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared in which few, that is, eight souls were saved through the water." So God is extremely patient. He desires all men to be saved. The situation is, it goes back to Genesis 3.15, the promise was that the serpent would strike the seed of the woman on the heel, but that the seed of the woman would completely destroy Satan. And the seed looks forward to the virgin birth, and the promised Savior would be wounded by Satan, but it's the Savior that destroys Satan. So we see this in passages like Hebrews 2, 14 and 15, and as much then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, that is Christ shared in flesh and blood, he was a truly human person. that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." So that is our freedom that we have that comes with trusting in Christ as Savior. Then we go to Colossians 2.13, and I have modified this a little bit because you have a series of participles that aren't translated clearly. What Paul is saying is really profound here. These are my three favorite verses for understanding what happens at the cross. Paul says, and you, while you were dead, so you're spiritually dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. While you were dead, He has made alive together with Him. So while we're spiritually dead, Christ makes us alive together, or God makes us alive together with Him. He does it through faith. And then we are regenerated at that point. Why? Because God had forgiven you all, had already forgiven all of your trespasses. Where did He do that? Where did God forgive all of our trespasses? He did it by, verse 14, by wiping out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. So he wiped it out, he obliterated that certificate of debt, I think is how the New King James puts it, or the King James put it. Wipes out that debt. That's forgiveness. Wiping out a debt is what forgiveness is. So He had forgiven you all those trespasses by wiping out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way by doing what? By nailing it to the cross. When did the cross happen? 33 AD. Our sins were nailed to the cross almost 2,000 years ago. not when you trusted Christ as Savior. They were paid for at the cross. And so that's a payment for everybody. Psalm 8, 4 says, What is man that you are mindful of him and the Son of man that you visit him? For you have made him a little lower than the angels and you have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands. You put all things under his feet. And so while God is the sovereign ruler over the universe, he has established a hierarchy in the creation of angel over humans over creation. But that's not going to stand for eternity. In Hebrews 2, 4 we read God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will. For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. The world to come will not be under the authority of angels. But one testified in a certain place saying, what is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of your hands. So what's going to happen is that because of Christ is human, we as humans and the bride of Christ and body of Christ are going to be set to rule over the angels. Hebrews 2.8 says, You have put all things in subjection under His feet. For in that He put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that is not put under Him. But now we do not yet see all things put under Him. But we see Jesus, who is made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. The word for tasting there isn't just going, let me... just a little bit of taste. It's taking the full bite and chewing it up and swallowing it. So it's not just a little bit. Ephesians 4.10 says, He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things. Seeing that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us so fast our confession." So Jesus is known as the second Adam. And 1 Corinthians 15, 45, and so it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being. The last, Adam, became a life-giving spirit. So before Jesus ascended, it's angel-man nature. After Jesus ascended, Jesus is the man who's at the right hand of God. He is over the angels, over the creation. And we see this in Ephesians 1, 19 to 22. There's so much loaded into that verse. The ascension and session of Christ is so profound throughout scriptures and yet here Paul just goes through it in about 10, 12 words. Far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named. So Christ is seated at the right hand and terms like principality and power and might and dominion all refer to the angelic hierarchies. And verse 22, and he put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church. So Christ is the head of the church. So that leads to the question, how can God be so cruel to send people to the lake of fire? I'm going to come back to that question because we've already gone an hour and 10 minutes or so. And we're just going to come back there. And then next time, the primary thing next time is talking about election. And so that is a heavy, heavy topic. So we'll come back and talk about that in the middle section of this lesson, and then we'll finish it up in two weeks. Father, thank you for this opportunity to look at this, to recognize the depth and breadth of your love, that you have provided a salvation that is for everyone. that you have paid the penalty for every sin so that the only issue at this point is what we do with Christ. Trust in Him and accept His righteousness and we become, we have eternal life and we have perfect righteousness so that we can have eternal life with you. Or we reject it and there's eternal condemnation because we are already corrupt and under condemnation. So, Father, we pray that we can come to understand the complexities as well as the simplicity of the gospel and our salvation. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.