Good evening. Please take your Bibles and turn to Isaiah 53. We're going to walk through several passages this evening. This is one of the main ones. Isaiah 53 verses 4 through 12. Isaiah 53 verses 4 through 12. This is God's Word. Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed him strict and smitten of God and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging, we are healed. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. like a land that has led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet he was with a rich man in his death, because he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth. But the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. If he would render himself as a guilt offering, he will see his offspring, he will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will justify the many as he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot him a portion with the great, and he will divide the booty with the strong, because he poured out himself to death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors. Let's pray, please. Father, we bless your name for this wonderful gospel passage, and we bless your name for the teaching of your word from the beginning to the end. That every individual for whom the seed of a woman, the son of David, the Messiah of Israel, the savior of the world, every individual that he died for will absolutely, most certainly, infallibly be justified and go to heaven. We pray you'd help us to see this glorious truth, and that we would understand it better, and that we might rejoice in the perfection of the work of Jesus Christ in behalf of his people, his elect people, the church, whom he came into the world to save. And we pray you'd bless us now to that end, in Christ's name, amen. As we've been walking through this great doctrine of justification before God, it will always be a storm center of controversy, for there is no other revealed doctrine of the faith that is more insulting to the pride and arrogance of mankind than this one. And the thing I want to emphasize to you this evening is that justification is the fruit of God's unconditional electing grace and is indeed the capstone of that doctrine. Justification by faith alone is the extension of unconditional electing grace. We are elected by God unconditionally and not in view of anything at all that we have done, are doing, or will ever do. God does not react to anything that he learns or foresees about us. And the simple reason for this is that God never learns anything. God never acquires knowledge that he did not previously have. I still remember the very first time I ever read through the canons of the Synod of Dort and seeing the official Arminian remonstrance position. God foresees who would believe in him and then predestines those that he foresaw would believe in him. And I remember reading that for the first time thinking, so God learned something that he didn't know before? How is that possible? This destroys not only the gospel, this destroys your doctrine of God. God doesn't learn anything ever. God never acquires knowledge that he didn't previously have. Our election is a pure and sovereign grace alone. There is absolutely no antecedent prompting to God's decision to save any one particular center over another. There is nothing in us that is lovable or that provokes God's love toward us. His redeeming love is solely and only from his good pleasure and by his own prerogative. Even when the triune God described His reason for loving Israel above all the nations around them, His words are striking, and they ought to make everyone here who knows Him through Christ sink to the ground in humble praise and adoration for the sheer magnitude of divine love that we are the objects of. In Deuteronomy 7, God, through Moses, said this to his people Israel, Deuteronomy 7, 7. The Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples. But because the Lord loves you and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. When anyone asks the question, why does God love you? We need to be ready with the answer, because He chooses to do so. Because it pleases Him to do so. God loves the sinners that He loves because it pleases Him to do so. And He owes us nothing. He does not owe us love. He owes us only His judgment. The only thing that fallen sinners really have a claim on with God is his infinite wrath and his displeasure with us on account of our sins against him. We can claim nothing else from him for he owes us nothing. I was asked recently for some good passages of scripture on unconditional election. And there's some good Bible verses that really teach it really, really clearly. And there are many, many passages we could look at, but Romans nine as an entire chapter and particularly verses 11 through 13, I believe is unassailable. And I've often said that this passage requires no defense. All you need to do is read it out loud. Let the person who denies unconditional election unto salvation offer their understanding of this passage, and that understanding will stand as its own refutation. Romans 9, 11, listen. For the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls, it was said to her, the older shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob, I have loved, but Esau, I have hated." Now think about what that's saying. The children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to his choice, would stand not of worse, but of him who calls. It was said to her, The older will serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated. When God spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, after Moses foolishly asked God, Show me your glory. Let me see your glory. God spoke these stirring words, which all of us need to take to heart, mull over in our minds and never forget. When God hid Moses in the cleft of the rock, the scripture records the stirring scene in Exodus 33, 19. Then he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. Now listen, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. And I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. And here God asserts his absolute unfettered freedom to extend or withhold mercy and compassion as he sees fit. For mercy to be mercy, it has to be free. If it's owed to everyone, it's not mercy. If God owes grace to everyone in the human race, it's not grace then. For grace to be grace, it has to be freely given. God is gracious to whom he wills and has compassion on whom he wills. Paul summarizes that glorious truth, Romans 9, 16. So then it is not of the willing one or the running one. It is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show my power in you and that my name may be declared in all the earth. Therefore, he has mercy on whom he wills and whom he wills, he hardens. For evil, wicked, and undeserving sinners to enter heaven at death, God must act in their behalf to do all the saving and to do all that is necessary to assure that the demands of His law are met and that they are fully accepted and justified before Him. And that is the mission which Christ was sent into the world to perform and to achieve. It was to save His people from their sins. It was that of all that the Father gives me, I will lose none. I will present them blameless before God at the last day. Justification before God is the keystone truth of the Christian faith. As I said to you last evening, justification is not the only benefit that we receive from Christ, but justification is the only benefit believers receive from Christ that gets them into heaven, past the last judgment, and saves them from God's wrath at the last day. Make no mistake about it, a failure to understand this truth will result in a false gospel by necessity. The gospel, the good news is that we are justified at the judgment before God on the last day when we're resurrected and summoned for judgment by faith in Christ alone, completely apart from our works, which is a shorthand way of saying that we're pronounced righteous before God on the day of judgment by the shed blood and the imputed righteousness of Christ alone. When you hear that phrase, we are justified by faith alone, what that really means is we get into heaven by the blood and righteousness of Christ alone. That's really what we're saying when we say faith alone. There is and only can be one thing that God sees on that great day, which will gain us entrance into heaven. the shed blood of Christ and his righteousness put to our legal account. This alone gets us into heaven and pass the final judgment. Our personal subjective transformation and our sanctification does not and indeed cannot enter into that final verdict of being justified. This evening, we're going to look at what it is that Jesus did by his vicarious and substitutionary obedience in death. Surprisingly, this is a subject most Christians assume they understand, but many, myself included early on in my Christian life, did not. I did not understand what Jesus did. I really didn't. As an illustration of this, one reformed minister, long ago when I was still on social media, one reformed minister said, to my insistence that justification is the only benefit that gets us past the judgment of God into heaven, he said this, and this is a quotation. He said, I'm not sure justified and getting into heaven are as synonymous as you speak. Justification is always accompanied by the rest of salvation proper, because every sinner that is justified is also adopted, sanctified, glorified, et cetera. I am comfortable saying getting into heaven involves much more than justification, which is not an outlandish way to speak according to the reformers. Now, what are we to make of that statement? I'm not sure that justified and getting into heaven are as synonymous as you speak. Please listen. There is a day of judgment. Everyone agree with that? There's a day of judgment, God is the judge. We're all gonna be there for it. A legal verdict will be rendered by God over each one of us. It will be either justified or condemned. It's a one or a zero. You're either justified or you're condemned. Those that are justified go to heaven, those that are condemned go to hell. Everyone still with me? We're all on the same page? These comments were from a reformed minister, a reformed pastor. He said that saying we're finally saved by our works is not an outlandish way to speak according to the reformers. And in fact, eventually I was sent a long list of quotations from various reformers, past and present, reformed theologians, past and present, trying to show me that, well, they all spoke like this. I actually did an hour long webcast going through those quotations. Every single one of them was out of context. And all you had to do was read the paragraphs before and after the citation to show that is not what they were saying. He says, that's not an outlandish way to speak according to the reformers. And I pointed out, yes, it is an outlandish way to speak. Remember what the reformers and their successors put into our confession? In chapter 11.2, listen, faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness is the alone instrument of justification. Yet it is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces and is no dead faith, but worketh by love. And then question 73 of the larger catechism. How does faith justify a sinner in the sight of God? Listen carefully. Faith justifies a sinner in the sight of God, not because of those other graces which do always accompany it, or of good works that are the fruits of it. Not as if the grace of faith or any act thereof were imputed to him for his justification, but only as it is an instrument by which he receives and applies Christ and his righteousness. They themselves make sure there's no possible way you can misunderstand what they're saying. At the last judgment, the first part of the answer to question 90 of the larger catechism, what shall be done to the righteous at the day of judgment? Those that are in Christ, those that are believers. Listen, at the day of judgment, the righteous being caught up to Christ in the clouds shall be set on his right hand and there openly acknowledged and acquitted. Shall join with him in the judging of reprobate angels and men and shall be received into heaven. So where are the reformers talking about? And then we're finally saved by our works. Is that part of their theology? Is that part of biblical Christianity? No, not at all. Or here, we're finally saved by the confirmation of our faith by our good works. And then we're saved through that fruit. Is that part of their thinking either? Is that taught in scripture? No and no. That open acknowledgement and legal acquittal is our justification by the blood and righteousness of Christ alone. We are received into heaven because Christ justifies us. The legal requirements of the law, which are in themselves a reflection of God's nature as perfectly holy, have been met by our surety, our legal substitute, Jesus Christ. Absolutely not part of a person's entrance into heaven is grounded upon our sanctification, our works or our fruit. And I would suggest to you, I wanna point out to you, if it were, no one's going to heaven. Because only the righteousness of Christ can meet the requirement of God. And if any part of you is trusting in your sanctification to play some role in getting you into heaven, I want to urge you not to trust in that, but to trust only in Jesus. Getting into heaven is by faith alone because justification alone is what gets us past the judgment of God because justification is Christ's righteousness being transferred into our legal account before God. So we're dressed in the robe of his righteousness and his crossword being accepted as the full payment for all of our sins. And that is the only thing that can get you past the final judgment. Nothing else can. Okay, I hope that's clear. I hope that's clear to you. As soon as you begin to confuse this by speaking of being saved by our works, because those works always accompany faith. Well, the reformers anticipated that. And they said, faith justifies a sinner in the sight of God, not because of the other graces that accompany it, nor of good works that are the fruits of it. And when they speak of justification, just as in Scripture, they're talking about the one-time judicial act of God, whereby our persons are accepted and accounted as righteous in God's sight once and for all. The very grounds upon which we enter heaven itself at the last day, as the great theologian Charles Hodge called justification. And justification gives us a legal title to heaven, a legal right to go to heaven. And now onto the work of Christ and what he accomplished in his obedience and death. You'll see this all is woven together in God's word. In the Westminster Confession, chapter 11.3, listen to this paragraph. This is glorious stuff. Christ, you wanna know what did he do? Here's what he did, listen. Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are thus justified. and did make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to his father's justice in their behalf. That's what he did. He fully discharged the debt for our sins, and he made a proper, real, full satisfaction to his father's justice in their behalf. To affirm that paragraph of the confession is to force you to be either a Calvinist or a Universalist. You've either got to be a Calvinist or a universalist. Those who believe that Jesus did these things for all men in Adam's race, without exception, will be forced eventually by resistless logic, either to abandon the idea of a substitutionary atonement, the idea that Jesus fully discharged the debt of all those for whom he died, or they'll have to embrace that all men are going to heaven, or to join scripture and become a Calvinist. One of the things I've labored to make clear in my own teaching is that historical Arminian theology, I didn't realize this long ago, growing up in a non-reformed church, historic Arminian theology quickly abandoned the idea that Jesus paid the legal penalty for sinners of the cross. They very quickly discarded that doctrine. Many don't realize this. but the idea of a true legal substitutionary atonement does not and cannot fit with the idea of a universal atonement of Christ for every individual in the human race. The whole notion of a judicial legal substitutionary cross death of Christ in the place of sinners is a distinctively Calvinist doctrine. Many years ago, when I first worked through Dr. Robert Raymond's, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith, he cited at length an article written by an Arminian scholar, Dr. J. Kenneth Greider, wrote the article on Arminianism in the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. And it's an excellent article. He is a true Arminian theologian. And listen to this paragraph that Greider, who is a, he is a Wesleyan scholar. This is an Arminian theologian, a professional theologian from that tradition. Listen. Quote, a spillover from Calvinism into Arminianism has occurred in recent decades. Many Arminians whose theology is not very precise say that Christ paid the penalty for our sins. Yet such a view is foreign to Arminianism, which teaches instead that Christ suffered for us. Arminians teach that what Christ did, he did for every person. Therefore, what he did could not have been to pay the penalty, since no one would then ever go to hell. Arminianism teaches that Christ suffered for everyone so that the Father could forgive those who repent and believe. His death is such that all will see that forgiveness is costly and will strive to cease from anarchy in the world that God governs. This view is called the governmental theory of the atonement. And I want to point out to you, the governmental theory of the atonement is heretical. It is wrong. It is seriously wrong. His germinal teachings are found in Arminius, but his student, the lawyer theologian, Hugo Grossius, delineated the view in Methodism's John Miley, best explicated his theory in his Atonement of Christ in 1879. Arminians, who know their theology, have problems cooperating with Calvinist ministries. He puts in parentheses here, Billy Graham campaigns. That's a Calvinist ministry? See, but Greider is being consistent. If you think Jesus paid the penalty for your sins, and his thinking, that's a Calvinist idea. That has no part in their system, no part in Armenian theology. They got rid of that long ago, the idea that Jesus paid the penalty. Historic Arminianism denies that outright. Substitutionary atonement of Christ, out the window. Why do they do this? Because they believe, as Greider said, what Jesus did, he did for every person. And therefore what he did could not have been to pay the penalty, since no one would then ever go into eternal perdition. No one would ever go to hell. Do you hear what Greider is saying? Christ, by His obedience and death, did not discharge the debt of anyone at all. Christ did not make a proper, real, full satisfaction to His Father's justice in anyone's behalf whatsoever. And so what we are looking at here in God's word this evening is unique to the Calvinistic system. You cannot affirm that Jesus died for the full penalty of the sins of every human being in Adam's race, and at the same time think that only some are gonna go to heaven and some will go to hell. Something's gotta give. If the penalty is really, truly, fully paid, and not just hypothetically or potentially paid, then the penalty, eternal damnation, is gone. No one could ever be sent to hell because the judicial legal ground of their condemnation was already dealt with by Christ. Hence, Arminianism historically was backed into a corner. Either we got to be universalists and think everybody goes to heaven, or we've got to get rid of the substitutionary atonement all together. And Arminian theologians got rid of it. They discarded the atonement, the penalty paying atonement. Dr. J. Kenneth Greider, along with other Arminian theologians of subsequent ages, like John Miley, did exactly the same thing. Charles Finney, many don't know this about Finney. Finney discards the substitutionary atonement, says it's befitting a romance novel, mocks it, makes fun of it. One cannot affirm an atonement of infinite intrinsic saving value. And at the same time that Jesus believed he did that for every single human being in the race of man. And scriptures are clear, hell is a real place and there are some who will be going there. Obviously those people were not saved by the work of Jesus Christ. Some people, not all people end up in heaven. The Bible teaches clearly that the work of Jesus Christ, as our confession says, by his obedience and death did fully discharge the debt of all those that are thus justified and did make a proper, real and full satisfaction to his father's justice in their behalf. Now, before we walk through Isaiah 53, I'd like you to turn your Bibles to Romans 5, 6-11. I want you to see this in Scripture here. Romans 5, verses 6-11. Wonderful block of text, glorious stuff. Romans 5, verses 6-11. Romans 5, verse 6 says, For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. And I want to ask you, do you see anything potential about what Jesus's cross accomplishes in this passage? Is Christ's shed blood a provision which men by their free will can at any point avail themselves of? Clearly not. The shed blood is what justifies us legally before God and saves us from God's just wrath against us. Romans 5.8 here is very clear. God's love toward us is demonstrated in what? Christ's death for us. Can the sinner in hell say, God loved me and Jesus died for me? Surely not. Look at verses 10 and 11 again, you see it? If while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son. Can that be said of everybody in the world? Can that be said of everybody who is presently in hell? They were reconciled to God through the death of his son. Can they say with the apostle Paul, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Christ who loved me and gave himself for me. Do the sinners in hell say, God, Christ who loved me and gave himself for me? Certainly not. Look at Isaiah 53 again, turn back there, Isaiah 53. One of the clearest testimonies to the fact that the work of Jesus Christ is not a hypothetical provision, which may or may not avail in behalf of all for whom he did it. It is rather an absolutely effective work in the stead and place of every person for whom he did it. Look at verse four. Surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. That Hebrew verb that's translated born there means to carry a load or a burden. The consequences of sin, which rightly and justly fell upon us because of our sin, they are more than we could carry. So Christ carried them. He himself carried that burden. In fact, that ultimate consequence of eternal damnation. It's a burden that in the end will crush the unrepentant all the way to hell itself. What we must recognize is that this burden, this load is the weight of infinite wrath from the infinite Holy God that we have offended. Nothing that I do or you do could ever lift this weight of burden off of us but Christ. Nothing that I do or you do could even lift the smallest part of that weight of burden off of us. He alone has the strength to carry it. At the cross where Jesus died, he actually, properly, really, truly carried that debt of sin for us. It is not hypothetical, but real. In the depths of Christ's agony, when he was delivered over to his enemies to be afflicted, wounded, bruised, chastised, and given stripes, he experienced the fullness of God's real, true, and just wrath against the real sins of his real people. There was no mercy for Jesus, no respite, no intermission, no peace. He bore that load, the text says. That infinite wrath was taken off of us and placed upon his holy and strong shoulders. He carried our griefs, it says there. Who's the our? It's the elect of God, it's the church, it's the people he came into the world to save. Our sicknesses, our sorrows. Who is that our? It's God's elect people, the church Jesus was purchasing with his own blood. Look at verse five, it continues. But he was pierced through for our transgressions. Okay, stop there. Not pierced through for the transgressions of every human being in the race of man. It's for our transgressions. You see the rest of it, verse five. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our wellbeing fell upon him. And by his scourging, we are healed. Not everyone in the world, but we are healed. Here we have the man of sorrows, carrying the sorrows of his people, bearing the chastisement for their peace, being wounded, slapped, spat on, beaten, scourged, and ultimately nailed to a cross to die. But all of it, every strike of the hand, every blow to his head, every stripe on his back, every nail on his hands and feet, every thorn in his brow was for our transgressions, for our iniquities. Ask yourself that important question. Who is the our here? In the phrases, our transgressions, our iniquities, our wellbeing. It is the church. It's the elect of God. It's those chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Those that were in him when he went to the cross. The church that Christ purchased with his blood, the people elected by name individually from all eternity to be his possession and his beloved bride for all eternity. It is not a nameless, faceless group. It's not a nameless, faceless group. It's not the entirety of Adam's race and the hopes that maybe some will take them up on his offer. It is for our iniquities that Christ is pierced and crushed and bruised and dies. There's particularity, there's specificity to these elected and beloved people. That's why our confession says, Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are thus justified and did make a proper, real, full satisfaction to his father's justice in their behalf. Now look at verse six. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. There must not ever enter into your heart any toleration for the idea of justification by works righteousness or getting into heaven in some way by the fruits of your faith or by your subjective transformation or your sanctification or your fruit or anything like that. When Paul mercilessly, relentlessly cursed and condemned the Judaizers of Galatia and their false gospel of justification by faith plus obedience, Paul made a statement that we would all do well to heed in our lives when it comes to false teachers and false gospels, which add works to the grounds or cause of our justification, that add works or fruit to getting into heaven. Paul said in Galatians 2 verse 5, to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour. Not even for one hour did we tolerate this. The moment that Adam ate from the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, justification, getting into heaven by works ceased to be possible. Soon as Adam ate that fruit, works entering in in any way, shape or form to us getting into heaven is off the table now. Permanently. And the only way we can get into heaven, God has to add a human nature to himself. He can't be born of a, have a human father or else he would have original sin just like we do. He's got to be conceived, born of a virgin, enter into that broken covenant and achieve its entire righteous requirement by himself and go to the cross and pay the penalty by himself. And we simply rest and lean on that. And you can't mix that with anything. You can't mix that with anything and it still be what it is. Romans 3.20, by the deeds of the law, no flesh should be justified in his sight. Ephesians 2.8, we're saved by grace through faith, not by works, lest anyone should boast. And Paul makes the amazing statement, Galatians 2.21, I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness, if justification comes through our obedience, Christ died for nothing, he died in vain. Why can't we save ourselves? Why can't we contribute anything to getting into heaven before God? Why can't we do anything at all in that vein? Because verse six says it, you see it? All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. The suffering servant of Isaiah 53, he would have to come and die in the place of those who hated him. rejected him and despised him precisely because they were lost sheep, unable to find their way back home. It is God's grace and love and power that finally breaks through upon the rebel sinner. It is God who supernaturally opens their blinded eyes and supernaturally unplugs their deaf ears. It's God who terrorizes their souls and over their sin and the Holy Spirit who convicts them of their misery and shows them their inability to do anything about it. It is God who grants faith and repentance unto life to his elect people. It's Jesus who by his death on the cross secures our faith, secures our repentance and the satisfaction of justice. It's Christ who does it all. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all, it says in verse six, Isaiah 53, verse six. The most important word in the Bible, I remember one reformed theologian saying this, it's a little Greek preposition. The Greek preposition, huper. And when that preposition modifies a noun in the genitive case, you translate it as in behalf of. Many years ago, really struggling with this idea, I was what you would call a Christmas Calvinist. Noel, Noel. Okay. I was a twip, not a tulip, a twip. And really wrestling with this doctrine of did Jesus only die for his elect people or did he die for the whole world? And I was reading Leon Morris's excellent book, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, and this verse I'm gonna read to you was the game changer. Galatians 3.13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse, huper, the Greek preposition, in behalf of us. Christ has redeemed us from the curse, having become a curse on behalf of us. And the way that Morris walks through what that means and what that word redemption means, there is no possible way that Jesus redeemed people that are going to hell. No way. The curse of the law is gone. If he did that for them, there's no possible way they can go to hell. There's no judicial grounds upon which they could be damned. The redemption of Jesus's church is by means of a substitutionary curse bearer. Christ redeemed us from that curse, from the curse of our disobedience, the curse of His law, by becoming that curse in our behalf. As verse five says there in Isaiah 53, He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him. By His stripes we are healed. That is the curse, the curse of our disobedience being laid upon Him. 2 Corinthians 5, 21, he made him who knew no sin to be sin. There's a little Greek preposition again, who pair to be sin in behalf of us, that we would become the righteousness of God in him. He became sin in behalf of us, in the place of us, in order that in him we would become the very righteousness of God. And so there are two credit things. There's two imputations that are in view here. Jesus did not become inherently evil or inherently sinful when he was nailed to the cross, but our iniquities, the guilt of them was really imputed to him. He remains inherently sinlessly perfect all the way through the whole ordeal, but he is legally treated as if he had lived our lives. Isn't that terrifying to think? And then he suffered at the hands of the Holy God as if he had done everything I've ever done in my life. Everything you've ever done, if you know Christ, He was treated legally as if He had done it all. Our sins were reckoned, they were charged, imputed to Him. God made Him who knew no sin to become sin in our behalf. Christ redeemed us from the curse by becoming a curse in our behalf. And the other imputation, praise God, is that His righteousness is then imputed to us. Our sin is laid upon him. His righteousness is imputed to our legal account. Romans 4, 6, listen to it. Just as David describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. And then verse eight, Romans 4, 8, blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. That's the first time that's ever happened. My manuscript got stuck together and I was missing a page. I'm like, wow, I'm missing a whole page. Okay, look at verse 10. But the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. If he would render himself as a guilt offering, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. Do you hear what that is saying? What he came to do, he will do it. He will succeed in doing it. It will prosper in his hands. He's not taking a shot at saving everyone. He came to save his people from their sins. He will be this guilt offering. He will see his offspring. He will prolong his days and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. And here again, Christ's work is not hypothetical. It's not a provision. It is specific and entirely effective and successful. He will see his offspring. and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. He will succeed in this grand mission and purpose. Christ made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. The triune God that we love and know and worship here, he does not attempt to do anything. He doesn't try to do anything. He does not throw the dice and hope things work out. Verse 11, you see it? As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will justify the many as he will bear their iniquities. John Owen, the great Puritan writer, one of the first books he ever wrote, the death of death and the death of Christ. One of the finest expositions of that last phrase of verse 11, you see it? By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will justify the many as he will bear their iniquities. He points out everyone whose iniquities were borne by Christ will be justified by Christ. You cannot say he bore the iniquities of every human being in hell, because if he bore their iniquities, he will justify them. He will justify the many as he will bear their iniquities. I never made that connection. Owen points that out in his book, and you think, how did I miss that? He will justify the many as He will bear their iniquities. If He bore their iniquities, if He died for them, they will be justified, they're going to heaven. That sentence is one of the clearest statements of the biblical doctrine of limited atonement, particular redemption, or as I like to call it, real atonement. You have a hypothetical atonement that accomplishes nothing, and then you have what the Bible teaches, a real atonement, a real redemption, a real curse bearing substitute that is effective. Particular redemption, definite atonement, is all the way through the Bible. Think about what it says. Why will this righteous servant justify many? He will bear their iniquities. Brethren and friends, every single individual sinner whose iniquities were borne by Christ at the cross will be justified by him. It's inescapable from the passage. And here we have yet one more clear, simple, straightforward assertion of the absolute efficacy of the substitutionary work of the savior in the place of those he intends to justify and bring into heaven. And he bore the sin of many. You see the very last phrase of verse 12. He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. This is exactly identical to what Paul taught, what Jesus himself taught about the nature of his mission. Remember John chapter 10, I lay my life down for the sheep. I lay my life down for the sheep. And then he tells his opponents, you don't believe because you're not of my sheep. Justification alone is the reason that no judicial charges of law-breaking will ever be brought to bear against us on the day of judgment. Our sanctification, our pursuit of holiness, our putting sin to death does not, cannot enter into that verdict of justified, has no role in getting us into heaven whatsoever. That is the special accomplishment of Christ alone. Remember what that reformed minister told me? Quote, I'm just gonna read it again. I'm not sure justified and getting into heaven are synonymous as you speak. Justification is always accompanied by the rest of salvation proper, because every sinner that is justified is also adopted, sanctified, glorified. I am comfortable saying getting into heaven involves much more than justification, which is not an outlandish way to speak according to the reformers. Sadly, this fellow fundamentally misunderstands what the Bible is referring to when it speaks of the justification of sinners. Justification alone is the reason that our sins are legally pardoned by God and the reason our persons are accepted in the sight of God. And justification is the only reason that we enter heaven after death because God's act of justification alone addresses our legal status before his law at the judgment seat. Sanctification doesn't address that legal issue that we have with God. It doesn't. Now, is everyone justified, sanctified? Yes. Does sanctification finally save us? No, can't. The other graces that always accompany justification, the other things that God does in our lives, we bless and praise God, we're no longer the slaves of sin, that we're making progress and holiness, but those things cannot save us. Justifying faith receives and rests upon Christ and his righteousness for pardon of sin and for the accepting and accounting of our persons as righteous in the sight of God for salvation, it says in the larger catechism. To be as clear as possible to you. The sinner's confidence. For what it is that will get them into heaven at the last day at the final judgment is not anything they've done as a Christian, and it is not anything God has done in them in terms of sanctifying them or making them more holy. The Christian's confidence for what is gonna get them into heaven past the judgment of God is Jesus Christ's obedience and death, and Jesus Christ's obedience and death alone. That's the gospel, and that's our only hope. Now, We hear all that. Well, that sounds great. That's good. That's very encouraging. But I struggle so much with sin, even now after following Christ for years. There are times I feel like I'm moving backwards and not forward at all. How can Jesus still love me? My sins have me in a death grip at times and they just won't let me go. I fight and I fight and I come up short and we have marriage problems and there's problems with kids and I have problems with my temper. I have problems with being discontent. I have problems with being grumpy. I'm battered and sore. I feel terrible. I feel low, worthless, so very, very ungodly. Listen to this virgin quote. from his best-selling book, All of Grace. You know, Spurgeon wrote 185 books in addition to the 65 volumes of sermons. I don't know if that guy ever slept. Listen to this quote. I have heard another say, I am tormented with horrible thoughts. Wherever I go, blasphemies steal in upon me. Frequently at my work, a dreadful suggestion forces itself upon me. And even on my bed, I am startled from my sleep by whispers of the evil one. I cannot get away from this horrible temptation. Friend, I know what you mean, for I have myself been hunted by this wolf. A man might as well hope to fight a swarm of flies with a sword, as to master his own thoughts when they are set on by the devil. A poor tempted soul, assailed by satanic suggestions, is like a traveler I have read of, about whose head and ears and whole body there came a swarm of angry bees, and he could not keep them off nor escape from them. They stung him everywhere and threatened to be the death of him. I do not wonder you feel that you are without strength to stop these hideous and abominable thoughts with which Satan pours into your soul. But yet I would remind you of the scripture before us. When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Jesus knew where we were and where we should be. He saw that we could not overcome the prince of the power of the air. He knew that we should be greatly worried by him. But even then, when he saw us in that condition, Christ died for the ungodly. Cast the anchor of your faith upon this. The devil himself cannot tell you that you are ungodly, that you're not ungodly. Believe then that Jesus died even for such as you are. Remember Martin Luther's way of cutting the devil's head off with his own words? Oh, said the devil to Martin Luther, you are a sinner. Yes, said Luther, but Christ died to save sinners. Thus he smote him with his own sword. Hide you in this refuge and keep there. In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. If you stand to that truth, your blasphemous thoughts, which you have not the strength to drive away, will go away of themselves. For Satan will see that he is answering no purpose by plaguing you with them. And then one last little Spurgeon quote. The justification which comes from God himself must be beyond question. If the judge acquits me, who can condemn me? If the highest court in the universe has pronounced me just, who shall lay anything to my charge? Justification from God is a sufficient answer to an awakened conscience. The Holy Spirit by it means breathes peace over our nature. and we are no longer afraid. With this justification, we can answer all the roarings and railings of Satan and ungodly men. With this, we shall be able to die. With this, we shall boldly rise again and face the last great judgment. Behold, bold shall I stand in that great day, for who ought to my charge shall lay. while by my Lord absolved I am from sin's tremendous curse and blame. Friend, the Lord can blot out all your sins. I make no shot in the dark when I say this. All manner of sin of blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, said Jesus. Though you are steeped up to your throat in crime, he can with a word remove the defilement and say, I will, be thou clean. The Lord is a great forgiver. I believe in the forgiveness of sins, do you? He can even at this hour pronounce the sentence, thy sins be forgiven thee, go in peace. And if he do this, no power in heaven or earth or under the earth can put you under suspicion, much less under wrath. Do not doubt the power of almighty love. You could not forgive your fellow man had he offended you as you have offended God, but you must not measure God's corn with your bushel. His thoughts and ways are as much above yours as the heavens are high above the earth." You know, there in Geneva, John Calvin's successor, Theodore Beza, wrote one of the greatest lines ever. He said, the law is in us by nature. And that's why systems of works righteousness appeal to everybody. And if you preach, Jesus will get the ball rolling, and he'll give you grace, and then you make your contribution, and all will be well. That resonates with a natural man. And Beza said, the law is in us by nature, and the gospel is not at all in us by nature. It comes to us completely from the outside. And it's got to be pounded again and again and again into our souls, because it's so counterintuitive. And we work for everything else in our lives. It stands to reason we'd have to work for heaven. But on that front, God says, I will not accept your work. I will only accept the work of my Son. As Paul said in Romans 4, 4 and 5, to the one not working, but believing, his faith is credited as righteousness. So I wanna encourage you again, get out of the Savior business and let Him do what only He can do and receive and rest on Him alone. From this moment until the hour you draw your final breath, it's Christ alone at the beginning, it's Christ alone the whole way there, it's Christ alone when you die, it's Christ alone when you're risen from the dead and stand before God. Only His blood and His righteousness can save us. Let's pray. Blessed Heavenly Father, thank you for choosing to save among the mass of humanity, a multitude of fallen sinners so vast no man can count them. And we pray that you would teach us more and more every day to find our hope in Christ alone, to receive and rest truly upon him, to give our conscience a break, to know that the thunders of Mount Sinai and the broken law there have been hushed by the shed blood of Christ and that we stand clothed in his righteousness if we trust in him alone. We ask this in his name, amen.