Okay, we're going to enter into a new phase today in our study of the doctrine of particular redemption. The teaching that Christ died particularly in the stead of those that the Father gave Him. That it is limited to the elect. I do not believe for a moment that Jesus Christ died for Pharaoh, I believe he's in hell suffering for his own sins today. I don't believe that Jesus died for Judas Iscariot, who was a reprobate, who died in his sins and went to his own place and is in hell today. I do not believe that Jesus Christ died for Pontius Pilate, who submitted to the political and civil pressure of his day and handed Jesus Christ over to be murdered. I don't believe that Pontius Pilate is innocent or that his sins were paid for by Jesus Christ. He's paying for his sins today. I don't believe that Jesus Christ died for Adolf Hitler. If Adolf Hitler did not repent, and there's no evidence that he did and did not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, he is in hell today with his sins awaiting the resurrection of the damned when he will be summoned to the great white throne of judgment and he will be held accountable for all of his personal atrocities, and violence, and hatred, and wickedness, and ungodliness, and He will be assigned a place in the lake of fire by God Almighty. You see, I believe that because Jesus died in my stead and bore my sins, that I'll never have to pay for Him. Because he paid the full penalty. He acted as my perfect substitute. He did what I could not do. You realize a lost sinner can never pay the full penalty for his sins. That's why the lake of fire is infinite. Because his sin debt It will never be fully paid. If you're saved, your sin debt was fully paid. God was satisfied with the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That's how powerful the sacrifice of Christ is. Now we have examined in great detail all of the words that relate to the death of Jesus Christ in the Bible. Redemption, ransom, propitiation, substitution. All of these words and principles clearly demand that Christ die, particularly, personally, for individuals. Then we went to great lengths to see what the Bible says about who Christ died for, what the Bible says about it. He died for His friends. He died for His sheep. He died for His church. He died for His people. He died for many. Every one of those statements give you a particular people, or in the case of the church, a particular institution that He died for. And I think we've proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the idea that Christ died for every man, woman, boy and girl without exception is a falsehood. I don't believe in universal salvation. I mean, you'd have to tear out half of the New Testament to embrace the idea that there's no Condemnation, no hell for those who die in their sins. The Bible clearly teaches that. So now the next few weeks, I'm going to try to answer some of the objections to particular redemption. Because this doctrine is hated in the religious world. There are many objections that are raised against this precious truth. And here's something you've got to settle in your heart when you come to the Bible. And you come to Bible doctrine. You've got to settle in your heart, I'm going to believe what the Bible teaches, no matter what the religious world may say. I'm going to believe what the Scriptures teach. And you will suffer for your faith if you believe the Bible, if you practice it, if you live by it, if you strive to honor the teaching of Scripture. Jesus said in the world you'll have tribulation. I mean, it's a fact. You'll be afflicted. You'll be mocked. You'll be persecuted for your life, for your faith. There's no such thing as a Christianity that is applauded by the world. Because it's so contrary. Biblical Christianity is so contrary to the ideology, the philosophy of this world. So when it comes to doctrines of the Bible that you believe with all your heart and you know that they're taught in the Word of God, you can expect to receive some blowback from those who don't study the Word of God or who have been taught wrong. I say this to our churches in our area a lot. heard the truth preached for a long time. And it's almost like we take it for granted that somebody gets up, opens up the Bible, shows you a Scripture, and begins to preach and instruct and teach right from the Word of the living God. You realize there's a lot of churches where that never happens. Where the main thrust of the service is entertainment. May God help us never to capitulate or compromise with what may be popular but untrue. People call me a dinosaur because I believe in the old paths, the truths that are tried, tested, that our Baptist forefathers lost their lives over. I don't want to forsake them. I want to hold them dear. Because I believe they're God's truths. Now, most of the objections raised against particular redemption center around the passages of Scripture relating to the death of Christ where there are universal terms used, such as the terms world, all, and every. Now, in order to make any sense of the Bible, every text must, of necessity, be interpreted in light of its context, as well as the general teaching of Scripture as a whole. You have to compare spiritual things with spiritual things. Now, it's not my intent, as we go through this, to answer all of the objections and all of the philosophical questions that Arminians may pose, but simply to examine the Scriptures and attempt to explain them according to the principles of sound biblical exegesis. I don't consider myself to be the final authority on the doctrines of grace or the Bible. You realize I'm a sinner saved by grace just like you are. I'm indwelt by the same Holy Spirit that you are. I have the same responsibility that you have to study, to show thyself approved, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth. The only difference between me and you is that I have been called by God for the purpose of preaching and teaching God's truth. You ought to pray for pastors. that God will help them and teach them and enlighten them and empower them. And give them the grace to offer the right kind of example in word and in deed. So, I don't know everything. I'm open to learning truth from the Word of God. I've been searching this book for 36 years, praying that God will open my eyes and show me things. So I would never be so bold as to say that my word is the final word on a subject, because I'm a sinner. I'm prone to sin and error. And I pray that God has given me grace to always preach the truth. I do my best to preach what I know. And if I don't know something, and we're going through a book, and I come to a hard place that I'm not... I'll tell you now, this is what I think this teaches. But now this is a subject. that I'm thoroughly convinced that the Bible teaches the doctrines of sovereign grace. And now, there may be difficult passages, but as a whole, when you compare Scripture with Scripture, I believe that the Bible teaches that God Almighty is the author and the finisher of our faith. and that all grace flows from Him. And that it's never, my acceptance with God is never based on my performance. It's based on the work of Jesus Christ alone. my positional acceptance with God, my justification. It's all by grace. Now, I believe that when you're saved, you ought to live right, do right, talk right, think right, behave right. That's your responsibility. But it's all of grace that you do anything that's right. It's God that works in you both the will and the do of His good pleasure. Now, with all that said, it has to be understood at the outset that the writers in the Bible had a definite Jewish mindset. For thousands of years, God's salvation was, for the most part, limited in extent to God's chosen people in the nation of Israel. Remember what Jesus Himself told the Samaritan woman in John 4.22? He said salvation is of the Jews. The Jews did not believe that God's plan of salvation extended beyond their nation to the Gentile nations of the world. Even the apostles did not fully understand this concept as illustrated by the reaction of Peter in Acts chapter 10 when God commanded him in a vision to go to the house of a Gentile centurion named Cornelius to priest the gospel. It says, In verse 17 of Acts 10, Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision was he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon's house and stood before the gate. Peter didn't understand why God would command him to go to an unclean Gentile. In fact, it says in verse 28, same chapter, and he said unto them, ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company or come unto one of another nation. But God has showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. Do you realize it took the supernatural power of God to convince Peter to preach the Word of God to the Gentiles? You know what a Gentile is. It's you. If you're not a Jew, you're a Gentile. Doesn't matter what nation you're from. And it says there in Acts 10, Then Peter opened his mouth and said of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. This was revolutionary thought to the Jewish mind. And when Cornelius and his house heard the gospel of Christ, they believed on Him, and the Holy Spirit of God was poured out upon the Gentiles in much the same way that He was on the day of Pentecost upon the Jerusalem church. Acts chapter 11 records that the apostles and brethren that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had received the Word of God. They proceeded to question Peter and required him to give an account of the incident. He rehearsed the housetop vision. He told him of the response of Cornelius and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the Gentiles. And He justified His going in Acts 11, 17 by saying, For as much then as God gave them the like gift as He did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was I that I could withstand God? The church at Jerusalem was astounded. And in Acts 11, verse 18, it says, this was their response to Peter's declaration, basically that God had opened up the door of His grace to people who weren't Jews, who were Gentiles. When they heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. I don't know if you've ever noticed this, but after Acts chapter 11, there is increased missionary activity and zeal. among the early churches. They started going everywhere. I like what Tom Wells wrote about the above, the passage that we just quoted. Without the miracles, they would have never come to this conclusion on their own. In speaking to Jews Then the emphasis on Christ's love and sacrifice for the world was necessary. In this way, the Bible asserts that Christ did not offer Himself for Jews alone, but for men of every nation. To me, it's not difficult to comprehend that there is a world of believers, a world of God's elect that are in the nations. It doesn't mean that everybody without exception is going to believe, but there are people in every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue, according to Revelation 5 and 9, that are going to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. God calls them out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. Remember we covered those verses in John chapter 11? where it says in verse 51 and 52, And this spake he not of himself, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation, and not for that nation only, but that he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. So the Holy Spirit inspired the Jewish writers of the Bible to begin to use universal terms in order to show that Christ's redemptive sacrifice was not limited to the Jews as a nation only, but extended to Gentile nations of the world as well. They did not use the phrases to teach that Christ died for all men without exception, but rather that he died for the world of his elect, whether they were Jews or Gentiles, scattered throughout the world. We'll leave off there and we'll get to specific passages next week where the word world is employed. All right, we're dismissed.