Before our Scripture reading tonight, we turn to Matthew 20. Before we read there though, I'll read from the Canons of Dort in Had 2 on page 64. I encourage you to read Articles 5 through 9, all of them, if you have time tonight. But I will read Article 8. You may recall that the article that sets forth the doctrine of election positively in Head 1 is Article 6. Head 1, Article 6. Well now, the basic or you might say main or central truth of Jesus' death on the cross is set forth in Canons Head 2, Article 8. For this was the sovereign counsel and most gracious will and purpose of God the Father, that the quickening and saving efficacy of the most precious death of His Son should extend to all the elect, for bestowing upon them alone the gift of justifying faith, thereby to bring them infallibly to salvation, That is, it was the will of God that Christ, by the blood of the cross, whereby He confirmed the new covenant, should effectually redeem out of every people, tribe, nation, and language, all those and those only who were from eternity chosen to salvation and given to Him by the Father. that he should confer upon them faith, which together with all the other saving gifts of the Holy Spirit he purchased for them by his death. should purge them from all sin, both original and actual, whether committed before or after believing, and having faithfully preserved them even to the end, should at last bring them free from every spot and blemish to the enjoyment of glory in his own presence forever. Matthew 20, we'll read verse 17, beginning at verse 17 through verse 28. And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the 12 disciples apart in the way and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes and they shall condemn him to death and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify him And the third day he shall rise again. Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshiping him and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, what wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit the one on thy right hand and the other on the left in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. And he saith unto them, ye shall drink indeed of my cup and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with. But to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my father. And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. But Jesus called them unto him and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you, but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant, even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto you, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. It's especially the end of that verse, to give his life a ransom for many, that I call your attention to tonight. Tonight we do ask the question, for whom did Jesus die? You may recall that a few weeks ago, when we were considering limited atonement, that is the payment that Jesus Christ made for sin, that's the atonement, we emphasized the value and the worth of Jesus' death on the cross. Canons of Dort do that, and that's important in order to make very clear what we do not mean by limited atonement. We do not mean at all that the worth or the value of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross is limited, that somehow He made a deficient, weak, insufficient payment for sin. We confess that He being the Son of God, Also perfectly righteous man, having borne the wrath of God against sin, has made a payment of infinite value and worth to cover wholly the sin of the world." Now we come to the positive. You Calvinists speak of limited atonement. What positively do you mean by that? Positively, what we mean by that is that Jesus Christ did not make a universal payment for sin, that is, a payment for the sins of all men. This is the sense in which the atonement is limited. Jesus Christ made a payment for many, as he says in the text, or for the elect only, as we read in Canons 2.8 this evening. This would be but is not as controversial as it should be in the church world today. It's not controversial in the church world today because in most churches, if the question were asked, for whom did Jesus die, they would probably say, we've never even considered that question. Or they would probably say, you must be asking that question rhetorically because we all understand what the answer to that question is. Obviously Jesus has died for everyone. But if you press them on that, no, I'm serious. I'm asking the question, for whom did Jesus die? And if you would give the testimony and take the time to show them that you're serious, that this is your conviction, that the Word of God teaches that Jesus Christ did not die for everyone, I submit to you that would be controversial. That would cause great offense. But now I do not say this to indicate that we Calvinists confess limited atonement in order to cause offense. The truth of God does cause offense and we do not try to remove that in our confessing the truth, in our testimony to the truth. But this is more than a mere intellectual exercise to ask the question, for whom did Jesus die? This is not an abstract question. This is very practical. We recognize that when we think about this, first of all, we're talking about the nature of the death of Jesus Christ. What did he do when he died on the cross? Secondly, we think about our salvation here. We ask the question, what did Jesus do for us? For whom did he die? And when he died, what did he do for them on the cross? And then, I meant to mention this earlier, This is important for the preaching of the gospel, for when you ask the question, for whom did Jesus die? The answer often is this, He died for everyone, and this is what we preach. This is what we tell everyone, Jesus loves you and He died for you, for all of you. And we will not say that. That's not what scripture teaches us to preach as the gospel, that's a false gospel. What then will we say about Jesus' death in the preaching of the gospel? And what then will we say in calling sinners to believe in this Jesus Christ? Will we say to them, you may believe in him because he loved you and died for you, every one of you? No. But we will preach the gospel and call sinners to believe in Jesus Christ in the light of what Jesus Christ himself teaches us about his death in this text when he says, Let's consider tonight the atonement, a ransom for many. We're going to look at the nature of the death of Jesus Christ first of all, secondly, the scope of that death, and then thirdly, the result of Christ's death. What did Jesus Christ do when he died? That's a very important question. And the question that indicates that there's something unique about Jesus' death. When most people die, you don't even ask that question. You don't ask, who did they die for and what did they do in their death? But that's the question we have to ask about Jesus. And there are two things from this text that Jesus tells us about his death. The first one's very obvious in the King James. His death was a ransom. And what is a ransom? A ransom is the price paid to set a slave free. So think of a slave. He is in bondage to his master. And someone comes along and proposes to his master, I want to redeem that slave. And redemption, the redemption of a slave means he is delivered from his bondage and he goes free. He has liberty from that bondage. I want to redeem your slave, now name your price. And when the owner says, well, I would like 500 US dollars, something like that, that $500 is the ransom price that secures the redemption of the slave so that he's set free from bondage. This is what Jesus is saying about his death. When I die, it's going to be a ransom price. that is going to secure the redemption of many slaves in order for them to go free, these people who are in bondage. A ransom price needs to be paid. And that's exactly what I'm going to do when I die on the cross. Jesus says here in the passage, this is my mission. This is why I came into the world. This is why God sent me into the world for this very purpose that I will give my life a ransom to pay for slaves to go free. Jesus is conscious of Isaiah 53 here. of that great passage in Isaiah that speaks of the servant of God, that's Jesus Christ, who must come to give his life for many. Jesus knows that from Isaiah 53, verse 11. Verse 10 says that he will be offered, God will offer him his soul as an offering for sin. And then in verse 11, it says he shall see the travail of his soul. and shall be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. Jesus is very clear. This is what my death will be. That ransom price for many slaves to be delivered from bondage. This means, I point out to you, that the pre-millennialists are dead wrong then in saying that when Jesus Christ came the first time and died, that he failed in his mission. You see, they say Jesus came in order to establish an earthly kingdom for the nation of Israel. He wasn't able to do that. The nation of Israel actually rose up in rebellion against him and crucified him. That's why he has to come again to try to establish that earthly kingdom that he failed to establish the first time when he died. Jesus' words here flatly contradict that. No, my mission is exactly to die. to make a payment as a ransom price to free slaves. This also means that we must reject what the Arminians say about Jesus' atonement, His death on the cross. That He, in His death, only set an example Now when we look at this text, we recognize that Jesus is speaking of his death on the cross as an example to his disciples. And I'll say something more about that. But the error of the Arminians is that they say that's all Jesus' death is. He set an example. They are offended by what they call blood theology. They're offended by the idea that Jesus had to go to the cross to make a payment, to suffer, pain, punishment, shed blood in order to make a payment for sin. So they deny the idea of a ransom and say, all Jesus did on the cross was set an example of a man who was devoted to God, willing to die for his cause because he had such great conviction, or he's an example of love. A man who has great love for God and gives his life, Jesus says, I give my life a payment, a ransom for many. Now all of this was pictured by God in the Old Testament. You think of slavery, you think of the law of God, Exodus 20. God says to the people, I led you out of the house of bondage in Egypt. God speaks to the people of His stretched out arm, His mighty hand, to lead them out of that slavery in Egypt to Pharaoh and the Egyptians. And the question that I ask you tonight is, how will you explain that mighty hand and that stretched out arm of God that brought the people of Israel out of Egypt? Will you point to the ten plagues? Perhaps that's what you think of right away. God poured ten plagues upon the Egyptians to destroy them and to convince them finally to drive the people of Israel out of Egypt. Or maybe you point to the Red Sea. God opened up that dry path for the Israelites to pass by safely and then when Pharaoh and the Egyptians followed after, God caused the sea to close upon them and he drowned Pharaoh in the Egyptian army. There's the mighty hand of God that freed Israel from bondage. The answer What is the mighty hand and the stretched out arm of God that freed the people from bondage? The answer is the blood of the Lamb. The blood of that Lamb was the ransom price that secured the freedom of the people of Israel. Without that, the people of Israel would not have been distinguished by God from the Egyptians. Without that blood covering the people of Israel, God would have poured all of his plagues upon them and destroyed them. And God would have never led them safely through the Red Sea. What that indicates is that we need to be careful and be very clear about how this ransom price was paid, and even what the slavery was that the people were in bondage to. And we need to remember that the people were in bondage to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians, but that was a picture of their slavery to sin, and that's what applies to us. Do we think about that? How serious it is that we are in bondage, slavery to sin. And then the payment that needs to be made for sin is death. The payment is not merely the suffering of the 10 plagues, drowning in the sea of the Red Sea, but God made clear it's death, the shedding of blood through the sacrifice of the animal, the lamb. And that payment must be made not to Pharaoh, to the Egyptians, but to God. He's the one who's offended by our sin and our guilt. We can say, as we apply the reality now to ourselves, that we are slaves to sin and to the devil. But that doesn't mean that in order for us to go free from that slavery, that the payment needs to be made to the devil. The fact is that when the devil tempted man, tempted Eve and led Adam and Eve into sin, the devil did not take sovereign authority for himself over man. So the devil could say something like this, I want to make you my slave and because I take you into my possession, you're my slave. But the biblical truth is this, when Adam and Eve sinned, this was God's punishment of them. I give you over to the slavery of sin, and I give you over to the slavery of the devil. God has determined that this is man's just punishment for sin. In order to escape that, payment must be made to me. My justice must be satisfied. My law that demands that sin be punished with death, with the shedding of blood, must be fulfilled. So now this is what Jesus is saying His death will be. It won't be merely an example. I am going to make a payment for sinners. I'm going to make a payment to God, and I'm going to make the payment that God's justice demands. The payment of blood, of death, even the death of hell. And I'm going to make a payment then that sets slaves free from sin and from the devil. Secondly, in close connection with the ransom, Jesus is teaching us here in the text, my death will be a substitutionary atonement. There are people, Arminians, who deny this. They will teach that here in Matthew 20, verse 28, The teaching is not that Jesus dies in the stead of or in the place of as a substitute. for sinners, but that when you read that he will give his life a ransom for many, that means Jesus in his death has died for the benefit that is for the blessings of salvation to be given to God's people. Now that's true. We read in the Canons of Dorton, Article 8 of Head 2, that Jesus did die for our benefit to secure many blessings for us. Regeneration, adoption, the right to be called the children of God. Jesus died for our benefit, for that benefit on the cross. Justifying faith, that is, faith that is able to say, I know and I taste the forgiveness of sins. Jesus earned that for us on the cross. He's earned for us also the Holy Spirit and sanctification. He's earned for us preservation, glorification in heaven. That, an Arminian is willing to confess, Jesus died for our benefit, but not, don't say he died in our place as a substitute, because that again is going to require a blood theology. That's going to require a God of justice, a God who demands vindication of his justice, satisfaction of his holiness. He's going to demand a payment of blood of death to be made for sin. A God of hatred and wrath against sin. So they will say that Jesus, according to the scriptures, died for the benefit of sinners, but not in the place of sinners. That stands against the teaching of the text. And that word, for, here in the text. Jesus, as the Son of Man, came to give His life a ransom for many. Now, if you search the scripture, you will find that that's the type of language that you find in many places. Jesus died for sinners. Jesus died For the benefit of sinners, usually is what that word for means in the Greek. But here in Matthew 20 verse 28, The Holy Spirit inspired Matthew to use a word that doesn't mean mainly for the benefit, but it means mainly in the stead of or in the place of, so that the accurate translation would be that he came to give his life a ransom in the place of many. Now, why is that important? Because, you see, The benefits that we receive from Jesus' death depend upon Him being our substitute. If He did not come in the place of these slaves to pay the ransom price that they owed to God for them, there's no freedom. There are no benefits for them in the death of Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, the Israelites saw very clear in Egypt on the day of the Passover that the sacrifice that would be made for them was a substitute for them. When that lamb was slain, the Israelites looked at that lamb and the blood of that lamb and said, that's what I deserve. I deserve to be put to death, to have my blood shed for my sins. That lamb is slain in my place. Jesus is telling us, I came to make a ransom payment that you owed in your place. in order to secure your freedom. Now, we have to apply this truth that Jesus' death was a ransom and a substitute for many to the scope of Jesus' death. For whom did he die? And we have to say that if this is true, we notice that Jesus says he died for many, not all, but if this is true, he gave his life a ransom and as a substitute in the place of many, we have to say then that we could never say he died for all men. If Jesus paid the price of freedom for a slave, then that slave must go free. But it is not the teaching of the Bible, is it, that Jesus secured freedom for all men so that all go free? The Bible teaches us about the reality of hell and that some will go to hell. No one spoke of that reality more than Jesus Christ. He's the one who in Mark 9 said, there is this place where the fire is not quenched and where the worm dieth not. He's the one who said in Matthew chapter 8 that there are people who will be cast into outer darkness. And He's the one who said in Matthew 25, in the judgment day there's going to be the great separation of the goats who will go to hell and the sheep who will go to heaven. And if the Bible teaches that not all men have been released from the guilt and the punishment of sin, we cannot say that all men have been ransomed. This has to do with the justice of God. In the realm of human life, let's think for a kidnapping for example, we can conceive of this, a vicious, unprincipled man kidnaps someone and leaves that ransom note. In that ransom note says, you want the freedom of your loved one, your friend. This is the price that you must pay. The ransom price for their freedom. And we can imagine such wicked men being paid and then not allowing the person they kidnapped to go free. But Jesus made the payment to God. who is not unprincipled, vicious, wicked, but holy and just. To say that God does not let everyone go free for whom Jesus has paid the penalty of the law to let them go free is to not only question, but really deny the justice and the holiness of God. It's to accuse God of double jeopardy, but God does not commit double jeopardy. He in his holiness and justice does not receive payment from Jesus that frees sinners from the curse of the law and then say, but I'm not going to let you go free. You go to hell. This also has to do with the honor and the power of Jesus Christ. If we say that Jesus died for everyone, that means that he died in the same way for people who go to heaven and people who go to hell. And let me ask you who believe in Jesus Christ, you who know that you're going to heaven, do you want to say that? Do you really want to say, I'm going to heaven, Jesus died for me, and in the same way that he died for me, he died for the people who are going to hell. If that's what we would say, we will never take comfort in the death of Christ. We will never be able to say that his death was powerful, sufficient to save us to the uttermost. We would have to say that there's something that Jesus has left undone, and we'll have to say, if Jesus died for those people and they went to hell, isn't it possible that even though he died for me, I will go to hell too? If we will honor God as the God of justice, and Jesus as the powerful Savior who made the ransom that lets sinners go free, then we must say, Jesus died for many. He died for the elect and he paid so that they go free from sin and sin's punishment. The idea of a substitute also emphasizes that Jesus Christ did not die for everyone. This is where I want to point out that there are people who will accuse Reformed believers, Calvinists, of being logical, cold, rational, interested in a system. This is why you want to teach limited atonement. You want to fit all of the doctrines of election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and so on. You want to fit them together. And it makes beautiful sense, or sense to your mind is a beautiful system of logic, but it's really abstract and intellectual. And I want to point out that that is actually true of the Arminian idea of atonement. It's abstract and impersonal. Think of a slave. Or think of a man who goes to a slave market. He goes there, and he doesn't know any of the slaves. He doesn't have a personal interest in any of the slaves. He just goes there with a lot of money, and he says to one of the men there, here is a check, and I want to, sort of in a general way, pay for the freedom of whoever might be willing to accept that freedom. Now, that's impersonal. And compare that to a man who goes to the slave owner or the slave market and he says, I know that man. I love that man or that woman. And I know how much it costs to free them. Here's the money. to redeem, to set that definite individual that I know by name free. That's not cold or impersonal. That's beautiful and warm. The Arminian says that Jesus Christ went to the cross with nobody really in mind. He went to the cross with no one's name on his heart that he loved and said, I want this person to go free. He went to the cross with just a general idea that I want to make a payment that makes it possible for nameless, faceless people perhaps to be redeemed in my blood. That's contrary to the whole idea of a ransom being paid by a substitute. Jesus says, I'm going to die in the stead of, in the place of many. He means, I know them. I love them. I came into this world for them and to give my life for them. The canons of Dorot indicate that too, and refer us really to John 10 and John 17, which assure us that those for whom Jesus died were known long before Jesus died by the Father. The Father predestinated them, chose them in election, gave them to Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ says, and I know them. all my sheep, the luck given to me by the Father." So that when Jesus says, I came to give my life a ransom for many, he doesn't mean there's this huge crowd of nameless, faceless people that I came to give my life for. But he says, there are these sheep whose names I know. And when he went to the cross, every one of those names were on his heart and in his mind, and he self-consciously said, I'm giving my life willingly and lovingly for them. in their place, paying the ransom price for them and them only. I'll add to that this, that if you study the life and the ministry of Jesus Christ, I ask you to look for anywhere that Jesus works generally and impersonally. Where is the evidence that Jesus Christ came sort of just generally and impersonally to offer healing for all? Recovering of sight to all blind people, recovering of hearing to all deaf people. When you look at Jesus' ministry, His miracles and His preaching, He's very personal. He knows those for whom He came. to heal them, to bless them, to deliver them from sin. The result then of Christ's death is many things. Two things tonight, especially here in the light of this text. First of all, very simply, redeemed or ransomed sinners go free. That's the gospel. The gospel is not, Jesus died for everyone, loves every one of you. Not on the mission field and not from this pulpit tonight in the congregation. And Jesus will save you if you will cash the blank check that he has paid for your ransom. If you choose to accept him. The gospel is the simple proclamation. Jesus Christ has secured redemption from sin, from Satan, from hell for sinners. And the gospel goes out as a call, not an invitation that is weak and ineffective, but as a call, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And there are many who do not believe in him. and reveal in their unbelief that Jesus did not die for them. But there are many who do believe. And if someone asks you the question, well, how can you preach to sinners to believe in Jesus Christ if you cannot say to them, He loves you and died for you? Our answer to them is, first of all, your thinking is very rationalistic. You're thinking of things now that make sense to the human mind. The only way that I can actually talk to a sinner, a man who's an unbeliever, and get him to trust in Jesus and put his faith in Jesus is to say to him, He loves you and died for you. And then our answer is, we follow scripture. Jesus Christ does not give to us the right to say to everyone, Jesus, that he died for them and that he loves them. But he says, you declare the gospel, that the Son of Man came into the world to give his life a ransom, to pay for the freedom of sinners, to deliver them from hell, to secure for them heaven. And then you call men everywhere to believe, knowing this, that when they believe, It's the grace of God and His Holy Spirit that draws them to believe. Because you see, this is what the Reformed faith says. God knew them in eternity. He knew them when Jesus died for them on the cross. And when the gospel comes to them and declares in their ears, Jesus died to redeem sinners, whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God knows the many who are His elect. and will give them the power to repent, to believe. There's the second effect in the text. Those who believe are changed. That's important too. If you think about it, it's not surprising when you hear, and I did hear of this recently, that there are people who are Christians who are well-meaning from a certain point of view, I suppose. They're concerned about their friends, their neighbors, whoever they are that are unbelievers, and they come to them wanting them to trust in Jesus, to believe in Him, and they say something like this, He loves you and He died for you. And then the response is, well, then I guess everything's okay. And they don't see any need to repent or any need to turn from sin. But when the gospel comes and says Jesus died for sinners, believe in Him, well that calls for repentance. for confessing sin, for turning from sin and following the example of Jesus Christ. And we do need to see that tonight. Jesus Christ closely ties that to his death on the cross. It is, first of all, a ransom for many. But he tells us here, beginning in verse 27, and whosoever will be chief among you, that is, among my disciples, among my followers, my people, let him be your servant. Even as, there's the example, the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many. Do you believe in Jesus as the Son of God? And do you believe that He came as the Son of Man? That Son of Man came to suffer. That He gave His life as a ransom to be sacrificed in your place, to give up His life to secure your freedom. Well, the first application of that is comfort. I don't have to pay for my own sins. I'll never go to hell. I have eternal life through Jesus' death on the cross. But the second application is humility. He's going to be my Savior, but my Lord whom I will follow. And I will not be self-centered, self-focused. But like Him, I will be willing to serve, to serve Him and to serve others. That's the application that Jesus is making to James and John especially, but to all of the disciples. If you understand what I came to do, to serve, not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give my life a ransom for many. You're going to recognize that this is the way of greatness in my kingdom. And then, James and John, you are not going to say, how can we elevate ourselves so that Peter and Nathanael and Levi and all the rest will serve us? But you will say, how can we serve them? That's true discipleship. to be freed from sin, from the punishment of sin, but also from the pride and the selfishness of sin, to serve God and to serve others. And when Jesus says, I came to give my life a ransom for many, that means he's saying to James and to John and to you and me, and that doesn't mean once in a while and as few times for as few people as possible. But as many and as often as I can, I will serve God and other saints. May God so apply his word to our hearts tonight. Amen. Father in heaven, we thank thee for thy truth. Rare in the sense of precious that truth is. That Jesus Christ died to make the full payment for the sins of his people. A truth not to be taken for granted. A truth that we know very well but that we need to be confirmed and to be strengthened in our conviction for our comfort for our testimony to the gospel, but also for our life of following after our Lord Jesus Christ, serving him and serving others, because we're in awe and thankful that for us, he came and gave his life a ransom. So bless us, we pray for Jesus' sake, amen.