Jesus Christ, our mediator, did to reconcile his people to God. And two weeks ago, with question 57, we were introduced to kind of a new subject, and that was to the benefits that all that work that he did in his humiliation and exaltation and his as prophet, priest, and king, all that work that he did, we see the benefits that come from that work. And that's what we're getting into now, looking at those benefits, how they're applied to us, that sort of thing. And we saw that through his work, everything changes for us. By him, we are redeemed out of sin, out of ignorance, out of guilt, out of hell, out of death. out of sickness, out of sorrow, out of bondage to Satan, out of God's curse. You see, redemption covers it all, and we're brought into the household of God to serve Him in righteousness and holiness forever and ever. So it's a huge, huge change that redemption brings, an all-encompassing change and a wonderful change. So we saw that, and then last week we looked at how Christ's benefits are applied to His people. Like, how does He connect us up with those benefits? And we looked particularly at Titus 3, and saw that they're applied to us by the Holy Spirit, who takes us, dead in trespasses and sins as we are naturally by birth, no different than anyone else. The elect are no different except that they've been chosen. And He radically changes us, even giving us spiritual life so that we truly come alive to God and turn to Christ for salvation. It is such a radical change. We saw that it's called the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Without this change, we would never come to Christ. The bottom line then is the only reason that you came to Christ, if you have come to Christ, and the person next to you didn't, what makes you to differ is because of the Holy Spirit's work. Now with question 59, we're asked who it is that the Lord does this for. To whom does he apply the benefits of redemption? Who are made partakers of his redeeming grace? And the answer that I've already read to you, redemption is certainly applied and effectually communicated to whom? To all those for whom Christ hath purchased it. Not any more than that, not any less than that, to all of them who are in time by the Holy Ghost and able to believe in Christ according to the gospel. So there's the part. The last part of that answer is what we looked at last week. The Holy Spirit enables us to be able to come and believe in time and history. But what we're focusing on tonight is that it's effectually applied and communicated or certainly applied and effectually communicated to all for whom Christ purchased it. Make no mistake about what this is saying. It's saying that every person for whom Christ died, every person for whom he purchased redemption, becomes a partaker of redemption. The teaching of Scripture is not, as is commonly asserted, that Christ died for every single individual, and only those who believe receive the benefit. The teaching of Scripture is rather that Christ, in His redemptive work, actually purchases salvation, so that if He has redeemed a person, then that person cannot be lost. Now, the members of the Trinity are not divided so that you have Christ dying for everyone, every single person, and then the Spirit coming along and only applying that redemption to certain individuals to the elect. No, the Father elects those who are to be saved from before the foundation of the world. He elected those who would be saved from before the foundation of the world. then Christ came 2,000 years ago, died for those that the Father had elected, then the Spirit comes throughout history and applies that redemption to each of those individual persons for whom Christ died. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are unified and their purpose and their work of salvation. All three persons are necessary for our salvation. Without the work of any one of them, we could not be saved. So the triune God is the one who brings salvation full and complete to us in all of its parts. Now, this is the teaching of our Lord Jesus in John 6, 33 through 40, which is the text that I have selected for our scripture reading tonight. And I'm going to be using a lot of different passages. for this topic, but we'll read that and I'll say a few words about it and then we'll look at the topic in general. So John 6.33, Jesus is here speaking. He has fed the 5,000. The people are trying to make Him king on the wrong basis. They want somebody that's going to overthrow the Romans and all that sort of thing. They're not looking for someone that's going to die on the cross for their sins. Even the disciples didn't really understand that at this time, but Jesus is speaking to them and trying to communicate this to them in their ignorance at this time. And in verse 33 of chapter 6, he says of himself, for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Then they said to him, Lord, give us this bread always. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Verse 37, all that the father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the last day." Now, you see in this passage, as well in the reading of God's word there, you see in this passage in verse 33 that Jesus describes himself as the bread of God that comes down from heaven to give life to the world. and He actually does do this. He gives life to the world. It's not just that He makes it available, but He actually gives life. He says that everyone who believes in Him receives this life. Yet He tells those to whom He is speaking that they have not been connected to Him for life because they have not believed. Then He says that everyone whom the Father has chosen will come to him to receive life from him. They will be connected to him by the Holy Spirit, by the new birth. In verse 44, he explains that no one will do this unless the Father draws them. I didn't read verse 44, but he says, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up at the last day. He further says that these are the ones who are taught of God. He quotes that verse. God the Spirit opens their eyes and opens their heart to believe and then they come. They cannot come until God's Spirit does that. Not because it wasn't something that was already in them. They weren't predisposed to come to Him. They were predisposed not to come to Him. But God's spirit gives them life and then they come. And in verse 38 through 40, Jesus makes it clear that every single one that the father has chosen will come to him. His will is one with that of the father. It is not as though there are a group of persons that Jesus is trying to save and another group that the father is committed to save. It's rather that there are those that the father is appointed to salvation. These are the ones that Christ redeemed. And those are the ones that are joined to him by faith. But we live in a day when there's a lot of confusion about this topic. Many people stumble when they read passages that speak about Jesus dying for the world, or about Jesus dying for the whole world, or Jesus dying for the church. And they suppose that this means that he died to save every single person. And so this afternoon, I want to show you what the scripture actually says about those for whom Christ died. First, we're going to see that Christ died for the whole world. Secondly, we're going to see that Christ died for the church, his covenant people in the Old Testament and the New Testament. And third, we're going to see that Christ died for the elect. All of those statements are true. He died for the world. He died for the church, and he died for the elect. But we need to see in what way they're true. First of all, Christ died for the world. The whole world, of course, was lost in sin because of the fall. We looked at this before when we studied about the fall. We saw that just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned. So the sin of Adam spread into the whole human race. In Romans 3, we're told that all the world is guilty before God. All the world has broken God's law. They're guilty. They're condemned. We're told in Romans 6 that the wages of sin is death. So the world was condemned to perish under God's wrath and judgment. That is the condition of the entire world as a whole. The world is condemned. The Bible tells us that Jesus came to save the world. John 3 16 Says for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son That whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life Verse 17 for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world But that the world through him might be saved so when the woman at Samaria the woman at the well referred to Jesus as the Savior of the world and Then she was speaking accurately. He is the savior of the world. John the Baptist speaks of him as that great sacrifice that came to do what? To take away the sin of the world. When he sees Jesus, he says, saw Jesus coming toward him in John 1 29. And he said, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. His language is unmistakingly that of a sacrificial offering. It connects with all of those Old Testament sacrifices. John is not just speaking some weird language out of time, but he's speaking of what was historically represented in all those Old Testament sacrifices, where an offering was made to atone for the sins of the persons for whom it was offered, and their sin was atoned. And he says that the sin of the world is going to be atoned by Christ. Observe that he says that he actually takes away the sin of the world. In other words, by his offering, Jesus makes satisfaction to God for the sin of the world. He expiates it or removes it. Jesus himself, as we saw in John 6.33, said that he comes to give life. to the world. The bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. He does not say that he offers life to the world there, but he comes to give life to the world. He brings life where there is death. Now, this is exactly what was promised to Abraham when it was said that Abraham in the days to come would be the heir of the world, that he would inherit the world. Romans 4.13. For the promise that he would be heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. It was not through what they would do. It was through what God would do, that they would trust him by faith. The promise was made to Abraham and to his seed in Christ, to whom he promised that the nations would be his inheritance. Abraham's and in Christ, particularly spoken of, spoken to through Abraham. In Psalm 2, 7 and 8, we read, I will declare the decree the Lord has said to me. This is the son of God speaking. You, I mean, this is God speaking. You are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will give you the nations your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession Christ then is promised the world there Isaiah 49 5 through 6 and now the Lord says who formed me from the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him so that Israel is gathered to him for I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord and my God shall be my strength Indeed, he says, it is. This is what God says to the son. It is too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, OK, to save only the tribes of Israel and to restore the preserved ones of Israel. I will also give you as a light to the Gentiles that you should be my salvation to the ends of the earth. Christ has promised again that he would save to the ends of the earth. And then Daniel 7.13, I was watching the night vision, says Daniel, and behold, one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. Then to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed. Those were very remarkable prophecies. in the day that they were given, because what was the situation when those prophecies were given? Were the nations coming to worship Jehovah in Jerusalem? No. There were many kings that wanted to have wide dominion, but they recognized they worshipped gods. All the different gods from the different nations were brought together whenever they conquered them. No one really looked for a universal religion. They simply added the gods of the nations they conquered to the list of the gods that they worshipped. The more the better. Yet here you have, in the Old Testament, the promise that the one true God is going to gather the world, that he's going to save the world. Now the question must be asked, does Jesus accomplish this task that he set out to do? Does he actually save the whole world and give life to the whole world? Does he actually obtain this everlasting dominion as savior of all nations? The answer is yes. A very remarkable thing happened after Christ was raised from the dead. His tiny band of followers were instructed to carry the gospel to the whole world. What was the gospel? Gospel was the good news that the offering of Jesus Christ had been accepted for the sins of the world by God the Father. This news was carried to the world. And amazingly, the world began to believe. So that Paul was able to say to the Colossians In Colossians 1.5, that the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, he's speaking to the Colossians, as it has also in all the world and is bringing forth fruit as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth. So he says it's in all the world. The gospel was bearing fruit in all the world. Now to the Corinthians, He could also say that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them. Observe, it's the world that's being reconciled, the world that's being saved. Now, how is God able to do this? Well, through Christ. He made satisfaction for their sins through the offering of Christ, through the sacrifice of the Lamb of God that took away the sins of the world. And that's why John is able to say in his epistle of Christ that 1 John 2, 1 and 2, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not ours only, but also for the whole world. John is saying, Jesus is the propitiation not only for our sins, whose? John and the other apostles, the Jews and the apostles that were with him. But he's saying he's also the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. Now, a propitiation is that which turns away wrath. That's what a propitiation does. If someone is propitiated, their wrath is turned away, their anger is appeased. This is saying that Jesus actually turns away God's wrath from the whole world. by paying the penalty of our sins in His once offering of Himself on the cross. He is the one who turns God's wrath from the world. And when God is thus propitiated, there is no more wrath. There is satisfaction. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. There is no more remembrance of sin. Therefore, there's sin and iniquity. I will remember no more, says the Lord. Now I know that someone will say, wait just a minute. The whole world is not saved. There are people who are still lost in their sin. Jesus even told his disciples that the world would hate them. And in his great prayer in John 17, he said of his disciples, they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. And John said in 1 John 5, 19, we know that we are of God and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. What's more, the Bible tells us repeatedly that there are many who will perish. In Revelation 20, 14, we're told that death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death and anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. But the question I have for you is whoever said that every individual would be saved? Bible says that the world would be saved. It doesn't say that every individual would be saved. That's not the same thing. Take the classic superhero story. The arch-villain plans to destroy the whole world. He's going to destroy the world. So he begins his work and he destroys several cities. And then the superhero comes along and he saves the world. But did he save the world? What about the cities that were destroyed? Well, he didn't say he saved everyone. said he saved the world. True, he did not save those cities, but it's still normal to say, normal way of speaking to say he saved the world. The world would have been destroyed by this villain, but instead the world was saved. Even if only a few cities were saved, the world was saved rather than destroyed. Even if the end result had been that there was only one family, as it was in the day of Noah. The world was saved in that day. The world perished in one sense, but in another sense, God preserved the world through Noah so that the world went on. You see, the world would have entirely perished in sin, but for Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, and as it is now, the world is rescued by him. And so we call him rightly, the scriptures call him over and over and over again, the Savior of the world. Not only that, but there are also in God's promises a promise of expansion of Christ's kingdom to more and more of a universal scope over the years. In the end, it will no longer be true as it was in John's day when John said, we know that we are of God and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. The time will come when what John said then will no longer apply. Instead, it will be the case as prophesied in Psalm 86, 9, that all nations whom you have made shall come and worship you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. In Psalm 72, 11, yes, all kings shall fall down before him. All nations shall serve him. God is now in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, and he will continue until the job is finished. Romans 11, 25 through 31 speaks of the fullness of Israel and of the Gentiles being brought in. Paul says, I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion. that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved as it is written, the deliverer will come out of Zion and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. Concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, Yet you have now obtained mercy through their disobedience. Even so, these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you, they also may obtain mercy. Jesus Christ came to save the world. He died for the world, and so the world lives and will live. In time, the world will believe. Jesus has interceded for the world in John 17. He doesn't pray for the world, those that do not believe. But then he goes on to say, I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word and talking about the future, that they may be one as you father and me and I and you, that they also may be in us and that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory which you gave me, I have given them that they may be one just as we are one, I in them and you and me, that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. Now, to what extent the world would be saved, in other words, what proportion of people, I cannot say. We know that at the end there will be tears that will be rooted out when the judgment day comes that are in the world and that will not be among those who are saved. But we know that as the world is, that the world is saved by Jesus Christ. He came to save it. He will save it. He does save it. He is saving it. Okay, so that's the first thing. The second thing is that Christ died for the church. By church, I use that in the sense including the people of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, His covenant people, the Great Assembly as it's called in Psalm 22. So, the Bible tells us that Christ died for His church, for the covenant people. In Matthew 1.21, it is promised that she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save, who? His people from their sins. His people are those who are in covenant with God. In Psalm 137 and eight, it promises redemption to Israel. It says, O Israel, hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is abundant redemption, and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Same is said of the church in the New Testament. In Acts 2028, Paul says, therefore, take heed to yourselves. He's speaking to the elders. Therefore, take heed to yours to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. Notice it says the church was purchased. If Jesus purchased it, he will get it. He bought it. The price was right. It was good. The redemption price was was sufficient, so he purchased the church. He will be given the church. Ephesians 525 through 26 tells us that Christ loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. He's going to accomplish that. He will do that. Now, this should be a great comfort to us. When Jesus went to the cross, it was for the whole church. As the head of the church, He went before God, is our representative. He calls us brethren, because we are all sanctified by His shed blood. Hebrews 2.11, it says, for both He who sanctifies, that's Christ, He's the one that sets us apart to God, and those who are being sanctified, all the people that are being sanctified, are all of one. For which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assembly, I will sing praise to you. So he looks at all of the covenant people as his brethren. And he because he sanctified them by his blood, he recognizes them as brothers. And when the scripture says in Isaiah, all we like sheep have gone astray, the we is covenant people, isn't it? But the Lord has laid on him The iniquity of us all. So the iniquity of the covenant people is laid on Christ. In this, Jesus is like the high priest in the Old Testament who performed his work, having the names of the twelve tribes written on his breastplate. The priest went in with those names to offer atonement for those ones who were written. As a priest, he represents us and offers himself for us. Exodus 28, 21 says, and the stones shall have the names of the sons of Israel, 12 according to their names, like the engravings of a signet. Each one with his own name, they shall be according to the 12 tribes. Jesus' offering, of course, does its job. It's effective in taking away our sins. Hebrews 10, 14 says, for by one offering, he has perfected forever. those who are being sanctified. Therefore, the church is saved. Therefore, the church will continue forever in the blessing of God in Christ. Matthew 16, 18, Jesus says, I say to you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church. The gates of Hades will not prevail against it. Even death and the grave will not conquer the church, but it will go on forever. But this does not mean that there are no false sons in the church. The Bible is clear that there are among the covenant people false sons who will be cast out. Jesus said it himself in Matthew 8 11. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west. He's talking about the Gentiles. Sit down with Abraham. They'll come to the true faith. Sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So sons of the kingdom cast out. There will also be, of course, false sons among those Gentiles that come in over the years. In John 15, Jesus says in verse one, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me, notice that, in me, see the branches are part of his covenant people, that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. And then in verse six, he says, if anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered. And they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned. Now, there is a sense in which we can say that the blood of Christ bought even those persons that are cast out. There's a sense in which we can say that. The Bible says that such were bought by the blood of Christ in a relative way of speaking. Second Peter 2.1, for example, it says, there are also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies. Peter's saying that's gonna happen in the New Testament church. Even denying the Lord who bought them and bring on themselves swift destruction. You see, there are covenant people, so they are said to be bought. Hebrews 10 29, likewise, says of how much worse punishment do you suppose? Will he be thought worthy who has trampled underfoot the son of God, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing and insulted the spirit of grace? He's not regarded the blood of Christ as something that was holy, something that was special, that was presented by God for redemption. Yet he was in the covenant. He was sanctified by that blood somehow. Well, as I say, it was in a relative sense. You see, these were not bought personally. If they had been bought personally, then they would be saved. The blood of Jesus would have its saving effect. The idea is that they were part of the church of the covenant people that was purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. And so by their association with the church, they were set apart by the blood of the covenant. The whole covenant people are set apart to God by the blood of the covenant. As in Romans 11, they were part of the tree in the same way that a dead branch is part of a tree. As a dead branch, they will be cut off, as Jesus said in John 15, and be cast away into the fire because they do not participate in the life of the tree. Now, a comparison. This can be compared to our own sanctification. as individual Christians, our personal sanctification. There are dead parts in you right now as a believer that do not belong. There is corruption that remains in you and it must be purged away and it will be purged away by the Lord. As long as those dead parts remain, they are still a part of you. It's still you, but they will be cut off because they're not really of you. We shall be saved, but not that which is corrupt in us." So you see, the person is saved and the corruption is cut off even as part of the salvation. So all of you who are members of the church, take note. Beware of covenant presumption. Just because you're part of the covenant people of God does not mean that you'll be saved, just because you're part of the church. It's sanctified, set apart. It's only those who believe among that number that will be saved. The dead branches will be cut off just as surely as the living branches will be saved. So you see that it is not that Christ died for the dead branches, but somehow His death had no saving effect on them. It is rather that Christ died for the whole tree He died for the church and the church is surely saved, but he did not die for the dead branches of that church. Part of the salvation of the tree includes cutting off those dead branches because it wouldn't be a complete salvation if the dead branches remained. So then Christ died for the world. The world is therefore saved. Christ died for the church. The church is therefore saved. And finally, I want you to see that Christ died for the elect. He calls these his sheep. When he speaks of them as individuals, he calls them his sheep. John 10, 11, he says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for what? The sheep. Not for the goats, but for the sheep. Jesus does not give his life for the goats, but only for the sheep. He knows who they are. In John 10, 14, he says, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and am known by my own. As the father knows me, even so I know the father. And I lay down my life for everybody, the sheep and the goat. No, I lay down my life for the sheep. that he knows, he will gather every single one of those who are his sheep into the fold. John 10, 16, he says, and other sheep I have, which are not of this fold. They've not been gathered in yet. Them also I must bring, and they will hear my voice. And there will be one flock and one shepherd. They'll hear the call of God. They'll be awoken by that call and they'll come. The Holy Spirit will connect them to Christ through the gospel. The result is that not one of them will perish, not one of the sheep. John 10, 27, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand. Not one of these will perish because Christ died for them. And if he died for them, then his death will accomplish what it was purposed to accomplish. What was the purpose to accomplish? Salvation. His death does more, you see, than merely make salvation possible. It actually saves. Consider these facts. He died to redeem and to purchase. So if you go to purchase something, pay for it, to redeem it, then you've paid the price and it's given to you. Galatians 3.13 says, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Doesn't say he put up the money for our redemption, but it says that he actually redeemed. The result of our redemption is deliverance from the kingdom of darkness. Colossians 1.13 says, he has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. Okay, so he died to redeem or to purchase. Secondly, he died to justify. So his death does justify. Romans 5.8, God demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. So if he died to justify someone, to make them righteous with God, he does make them righteous with God. He died to propitiate. So his death does propitiate. I read 1 John 1, 1 and 2. I mean, I keep saying 1 John 1, 1 John 2, 1 and 2. It says, my little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 4, 10. And this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. See, there was a definite purpose stated here for his coming, to be a propitiation. He came to turn away the wrath of God, in other words, the judicial wrath of God, and so by his suffering, he did turn away the judicial wrath of God. And fourthly, he died to expiate. So his death therefore does expiate or cleanse from guillotine pollution. Titus 2.14 says, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people zealous for good works. Hebrews 9.14 says, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And fifthly, he died to reconcile. So if he died to reconcile, his death does reconcile. Romans 5.10, for if when we were sinners, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Second Corinthians 5.18, Now all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Colossians 1.21, and you who are alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death. to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in His sight." So you see that what Christ set out to do, all these things that He did in His death, set out to do by His death, He does do. All this shows then that He did not come to us with mere potentiality to make salvation possible. He actually came bringing salvation, imparting salvation, bestowing salvation. He came not to try to save, but to save. Some people complain that by saying that Christ did not die for every individual, that we limit the atonement. I cannot accept that statement. It is God who has chosen. who to save, and he has chosen not to save every individual. He is the one who limits who will be saved, and he is under no obligation to save even one of us. And as for the atonement, the atonement the Bible describes is not an atonement that tries to take away our sin, sometimes succeeds and sometimes fails. What would it be for Christ to redeem everyone and then for them to not be redeemed? That would be an atonement, you see, that failed to atone. No, the redemption that Christ accomplished paid the full price of sin. It doesn't fail to purchase those for whom it was set down. What all this means is that you can come to him with full confidence. He doesn't. He not only promises that everyone who comes to him that that that he He not only promises that everyone whom he has been given to save will come to him for salvation, but he also promises that everyone who does come to him and believes will be saved. John 6 36 says, But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe all that the father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me all by no means cast out. So you see, there's two statements there. all the ones that God has chosen and that Jesus laid down his life for, everyone of them will come. And the other statement, everyone that comes will be saved. So there's never a situation where you have an individual that says, boy, I sure like to be saved. And he tries to go to Jesus and Jesus says, I'm sorry, you're not elect. It doesn't happen. If anyone comes to him, that person will be saved. But no one does come to him. except by the working of the Holy Spirit, someone that Christ has laid down His life for. Those are the only ones that do come. So this means that there will never be a person who wants to be saved and cannot be saved. And that means that you can have full assurance that if you want to be saved, if you want to come to Christ, if you come to Him and you look to Him and you call upon Him, He will not cast you out. It's an absolute certain thing. So no one is blocked from coming. It's just that we don't want to come because of our hardened hearts unless God works in us. And then we thank him for his grace that has changed us so that we were willing and able to come to him for salvation. Let's call upon the name of our God. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what Jesus Christ has done for us. We thank you for the confidence that it gives to us that he doesn't fail. in his purpose to save the world, to save the church, and to save every single one of his sheep. And we pray that you would help us to see how all of this works out so marvelously in the scriptures, that everything you say is true, that nothing is contradictory. And Father, we know that that there is a lot of confusion on this matter today, and we pray that you would help us, Lord, to be clear about this so that we can give Christ the honor that is due to Him for His redeeming mercies, that His redeeming grace is that which does indeed redeem, that it accomplishes exactly what it was purposed to accomplish. And we pray, O Lord, that we would also be free of the notion that we somehow raised ourselves up that somehow we redeemed ourselves for we did not. We only are able to respond to the call of God when it comes to us with the effective power of the Holy Spirit. So we pray Lord that you would teach us to to be humble before you and to give you all the glory for our salvation and to bring our our crowns and lay them at Jesus' feet. We thank You for what He has done. We ask for Your blessing now on us in His name. Amen.