to read and mark your holy word, its truth with meekness to receive and by its holy precepts live. People of God, we come now to the reading of God's Word and we'll read first from 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and we'll read one verse there, page 1228. And then we'll turn over just a few pages as it goes 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians and we'll read Ephesians 2 and we'll read verses 6 to 10. Verses 4 to 10 of Ephesians chapter 2. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21. Speaking of Christ, For our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. And then turning over a few pages to Ephesians chapter 2. Let us hear again God's holy word. Ephesians chapter 2 beginning at verse 4. But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of work, so that no one may boast. For they are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. so far the reading of God's holy and inspired word. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our Lord endures forever. And then one more reading, now page 268 in the Small Forms and Prayers book. Page 268. And again, the 400th anniversary of the synod of Dort, which is kind of an ongoing celebration because they met for more than a year. So you can kind of celebrate it for that whole time, right? And so that is the canons of Dort, which were written at that synod, particularly about God's salvation and grace. And so the second main point of doctrine is Christ's death and human redemption through it. And so we read from that head to article 8 on page 268. And being of some length, I will read article 8. The saving effectiveness of Christ's death. For it was the entirely free plan and very gracious will and intention of God the Father that the enlivening and saving effectiveness of his son's costly death should work itself out in all his chosen ones, in order that he might grant justifying faith to them only, and thereby lead them without fail to salvation. In other words, it was God's will that Christ, through the blood of the cross, by which he confirmed the new covenant, should effectively redeem from every people, tribe, nation, and language, all those and only those who were chosen from eternity to salvation and given to him by the Father, that he should grant them faith which like the Holy Spirit's other saving gifts he acquired for them by his death, that he should cleanse them by his holy blood from all their sins, both original and actual, whether committed before or after their coming to faith, that he should faithfully preserve them to the very end, and that he should finally present them to himself a glorious people without spot or wrinkle. That's the confession which we hold in common. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, is it possible to read Ephesians chapter 2 and to not think that all of salvation, including faith, is a gift of God? Well, it's certainly difficult. So difficult, in fact, that perhaps you, like me, have known someone who grew up in a church which did not speak about what we sometimes call the doctrines of grace. And the testimony was that upon coming to a mature understanding of the doctrines of grace and all of what Christ's death on the cross means, and salvation, redemption through it, they might have a testimony that, yes, they grew up in a church and never heard a sermon from Ephesians 1, Ephesians 2. It was simply not spoken of. It is difficult to look at Ephesians 2 and to even think about saying that all of salvation, including faith, is a gift of God. But there are some who try. There are some different ways this attempt is made. And our confessions, particularly in the rejection of errors part, and we'll read a couple of those as we go through tonight, The Confessions calls this kind of error an error of poison, a poisonous error. Poison, which is Poison, which is something disguised often, right? What is poison? Poison is usually something deadly, and it's put into something else, like, you know, think of the poison in the wine or the poison in the cup. It's disguised. It's disguised to be something not deadly, but in reality, it is deadly. It is poison. Why would our confessions, and they are our confessions, the rejections of error, when you make confession of faith and say, I believe that all of the articles are summarized in the confessions of this church, or the complete doctrine of faith, a summary of it. The rejection of errors is included in that. We don't read the rejection of errors very often. I mean, we don't have to start there, but they are part of our confessions, the rejection of errors. Why such strong language? Why poison? Why such a word? It is because salvation is of God. Every part of salvation is possible only with God. God. That is the reality taught by the Word of God, summarized by the Confessions. Salvation by Christ is effective. It is effective. Salvation by Christ is accomplished. This salvation is particular. It is powerful. there is nothing halfway or half-complete about it. And those are our points tonight that salvation is particular, that it is powerful, particular atonement, powerful atonement. So let us come to that first point, particular atonement. And the reality of the atonement is stated most simply in 2 Corinthians 5, Verse 21, for our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. What is the idea that the Apostle is expressing here? It is that, and this is common especially within the Hebrew language of speaking about sin and the Apostles kind of borrowing from that idea here now in the in the Greek and he's saying he made him to be sent he made him to be this in offering the one on whom sin was placed. Christ was made sin. This is one of those things where I've been with you just long enough now. You've probably heard me say this once or twice. This is one of those things that is a little bit difficult to illustrate within our modern culture, our modern and very informal culture. It's hard to come up with an illustration for this. So I'm going to reach back in time, for the most part, to think of an illustration. What is an illustration of something being placed upon someone? Well, we might think of the anointing of a king, perhaps. So maybe you've seen this in a movie or something. And when a king is anointed, when he is declared king, made king, the crown is placed upon his head and there's something formal there. There's something being declared there. There is authority literally being placed upon his head. Here is the symbol of authority. It's the crown and it's, you know, the priest or whoever, whatever important member of the kingdom takes the crown and formally places it upon the crown prince. And now authority has been put upon, placed upon the head of the new king. In this case, something, authority being placed upon someone else. Again, we have a very informal culture. It's hard to think of anything like this. Perhaps one of the closest things is the ordination of a minister, which we did have here not too long ago. There's the laying on of hands. There is a visible placing of authority. It's not done with the crown, thankfully. There's a lot of reasons why it's not done with the crown, in the case of the ordination of a minister. But there is a laying on of hands. There's a passing on, a placing on of a mantle of authority. And what was a part of many of the sin offerings in the Old Testament? There was a placing on of sin. The priests would take their hands and place their hands upon the lamb as a symbol of sin being placed upon the offering. So in the case of a king being crowned, it's authority being placed upon his head. In the case of a sin offering, a sacrifice, Sin is placed upon the sacrifice. And so Christ, as the Lamb of God, goes to the cross. And because He is God, He can bear the weight of sin. So the weight of all of God's chosen is placed upon Him. All of that sin is placed upon Him. And because He had no sin, He can take the sin of others. And He does this for our sake. For the sake of His people. Right? Who is the hour? It is the saints only. You know, we have a blessing, right, at the beginning of the service. And sometimes it's simply grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. But other times, a few other words will be added. To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ, grace to you and peace from God our Father. Why is that? Well, whether it's stated explicitly or not, it's always assumed. The blessing is for the saints. It's for God's people. Just turn back a couple pages to 2 Corinthians 1, right? Well, verse 2 says, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. But who is that you? We see it in verse 1, to the church of God that is at Corinth with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia. For our sake, for the sake of the saints, for the sake of the faithful brothers and sisters. He made him to be sin, who knew no sins, that in him we might become the righteousness of God. You see, it is particular. It is particular. This lamb is also the shepherd, because scripture speaks in both of these ways to give us a full picture of who Jesus is, right? And so we can turn to John chapter 10, And what is the language there? First, in verse 11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Verse 14, I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. Just as the father knows me and I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep and I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them in also and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. You see, it's every tribe, people, nation, and tongue. It's Jew and Gentile. I will bring other sheep, but it's one flock, one fold, one shepherd. And these are the ones, I know them. I know my sheep. I lay down my life for them. You see, Jesus did not go to the cross and say, I'm gonna die for everybody, and if you believe in me, then this death is for you. No, Jesus Christ went to the cross and said, I know who I am dying for. This is particular, it is personal. If we'd had three points tonight, that would have been the third one. Particular, personal, powerful. We see there are those who would say this is not the case. And so even as someone might say, what are the confessions of this church? The Word of God is summarized in these three confessions, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Bells of Confession, and the Canons of Dort. Perhaps we have longtime members who are quite familiar with the Heidelberg Catechism, pretty familiar with the Bells of Confession, a little bit familiar with the Canons of Dort, and then there's another half-section of the Canons of Dort. There's that rejection of errors, but that's barely part of the confession sometimes. Well, yeah, I think it's probably a good thing that we don't focus on that, that we don't spend a whole year just working through the rejection of errors. But it is here. It is here. And particularly when we think about this, because this error is so common, I think it's helpful to read these rejections of errors. And so we'll read two of them tonight. At this point I'm going to read Rejection of Error 1. There are those who teach that God the Father appoints the Son to death on the cross without a fixed and definite plan to save anyone by name, so that the necessity, usefulness, and worth of what Christ's death obtained could have stood intact and altogether perfect, complete, and whole, even if the redemption that was obtained had never in actual fact been applied to any individual. For this assertion is false now, as it is an insult to the wisdom of God the Father and to the merit of Jesus Christ, and it is contrary to Scripture. For the Savior speaks as follows, I lay down my life for the sheep, as we just read. and I know them. And Isaiah the prophet says concerning the Savior, when he shall make himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days, and the will of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand. You see how does the argument against particular atonement go? Very simply it goes something like this. Well, salvation is of God because Jesus died on the cross. But then it's up to you to embrace that salvation. It wasn't particular. It wasn't limited. It was for everyone. He died for everyone, every single individual person on earth. And then the difference is just if you believe him or not. You see how the turn is made? You see how that removes the personal aspect of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross? It makes it completely blank. It leaves the final step up to, man, it's, oh yeah, he died for everybody, and then what makes the difference is belief. That's what makes the difference. But scripture says that Jesus knew who he was dying for and he was made sin for those. He died for those sins, every one of those sins. Sins both actual and original, whether committed before or after coming to faith. But this was Look in the middle of Article 8. It was God's will that Christ, through the blood of the cross, should effectively redeem from every people, tribe, nation, and language. Okay, so it's other sheep, but this one fold, all those and only those. Only those. He died only for those who were chosen from eternity. And you see, that's what is particular and personal about the death of Jesus Christ. That's what limits it, if you want to use that word, but I think particular, personal, those are probably better words, but it doesn't leave you with a flower acronym, so. It's limited in this way, that it's particular and personal for the people of God. And Jesus knew this. And that's a beautiful truth, is it not? That means when this lamb goes to the cross, when he takes sin upon himself, he is taking your sin, and he knows he is taking your sin. It wasn't just some free-for-all. He died on the cross for the sins of his people and he knows his people by name. He knows what sins he's dying for. He is surely the captain of salvation. So then let's come back to this issue of faith. Where does the faith come from? Because there are only two ways to limit atonement. Either it's limited in the sense that we have just spoken of, that it's limited in the sense of that it's particular, that Jesus died for his people and his people alone. Or it's limited with respect to its power. because it was a death with limited power that could only be embraced by the faith of individual persons. But the power, the power is unlimited. And so we come to our second point that this is powerful atonement. Can God fail? It is impossible. We might say it this way. Remember that line there in the middle of Article 8? All those and only those. Well, we've focused up to now on that it's only those. It's particular. But within that particular group, it is absolutely powerful. All those and only those. All of his sheep. None of them will escape. The one that goes astray, the shepherd will chase down and bring back. Only those, all those. And so it is all a gift. Salvation is entirely and completely a gift, including faith itself. Ephesians 2 verse 8. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God. Now what is the turn that is sometimes made at this very verse? And this can be found. A 17-year-old can find it on a blog on the internet. A 20-year-old can hear it from professors in colleges all across the nation. 35-year-olds might hear this discussed at work, although we're going to use some grammar language in the next few minutes. I'm going to stop as soon as I can. And so usually, you're going to hear that from a professor or a written blog. But maybe you'd hear it in a conversation with a neighbor. So what is the turn that's made here at Ephesians 2, verse 8? Well, it goes something like this. Grace is God's part, and that's the gift. Grace is the gift, but faith is man's part. And you look at verse eight and you say, well, how did they get there? By grace, you have been saved through faith. And that is not of your own doing, it is the gift of God. Okay, so the grace, the argument is made. That is God's gift, but the faith is not. And then there's some, fancy grammar words that are used and it goes something like this. Well you see the pronoun this and this, see the pronoun has a neuter gender and faith has a feminine gender and usually pronoun is speaking about a word, and when it modifies it, they would agree in gender. But since they do not agree here, the this must be referring to something else. It has to be referring to the grace and to the salvation as a whole, but not to faith. And then we stand back and we say, wow, that sounds really fancy. I didn't know that there was a gender to words in Greek, and I can't remember what pronouns are. That sounds really fancy. That must be true. And the 17-year-old reads it on the blog, and the 20-year-old hears it from the college professor. And then the argument continues. Well, that's why we have so many commands that you must believe. And see, how could there be a command of something that you can't do? So it's commanded. We can do it. And when Ephesians says, this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, that's just talking about salvation. It's not talking about faith. Well, it is true that the gender of these words is different. That is true. And it is true that that's a general rule of grammar, that they would be the same. But it's true that that's a general rule. Rules of grammar can be broken. And it's less than half the story, because not only is it forgetting that all-important rule, context, context, context, but it's also forgetting that there's another general rule of grammar, because almost every single rule of grammar is a general rule. But that rule is that when there's a pronoun, it's usually speaking about the word closest to it. And the word order of this verse from the Greek to the English is exactly the same. It's exactly the same. I mean, essentially exactly the same. And that's not always the case. But here, Ephesians 2 verse 8, you read it in Greek, you read it in English, the word order is the same. And so faith is right next to the pronoun this. And so you see the rules of grammar, the general rules of grammar, seem to not be making sense. But what is the context? It does not make any sense if the context here in Ephesians 2 is, we're talking about the immeasurable riches of the grace of God and His kindness toward us in Jesus Christ and that this is all of works so that no man may boast. Oh yeah, but Faith, that's your part. That doesn't make any sense. So if one would throw such fancy grammar terms out, well, first of all, even grammatically, they're not telling the whole story. And second of all, both of those rules of grammar are general rules of grammar. We have to read the whole context. And this makes no sense if it's saying, well, then what? Are you going to boast in your faith that you believe? No. Faith itself is the gift. That is what the verse says and that is consistent with what we see in the rest of Scripture as well. And so our confessions are completely justified based upon Scripture when it says, after that all those and only those line another line or two down that he should grant them faith which like the Holy Spirit's other saving gifts he acquired for them by his death. And so now we'll read another rejection of error. Rejection of error number five. Those who teach that all people have received by the state of reconciliation excuse me, number six, rejection of error number six, who make use of the distinction between obtaining and applying in order to instill the unwary and experience the opinion that God, as far as he is concerned, wished to bestow equally upon all people the benefits which are gained by Christ's death. Simply stated, Christ died for everybody. It's not particular death. But that the distinction by which some rather than others come to share in the forgiveness of sins and eternal life depends upon what? Where does the distinction come in? Their own free choice. Their free choice to believe or not to believe. This is the error. This is the error. The distinction depends on their own free choice which applies itself to the grace offered indiscriminately. In other words, again, the grace does not discriminate. The grace is not particular. The distinction is in faith. This is a quote of a famous grammar man who's done a lot of, wrote a lot of good things about Greek grammar. talking about Ephesians 2 verse 8, he said this, grace is God's part, faith is ours. This error is that the faith, our own free choice is what makes the distinction. So the distinction does not depend, reading the last two lines here now, does not depend on the unique gift of mercy, which effectively works in them so that they rather than others apply that grace to themselves. for while pretending to set forth this distinction in an acceptable sense. Remember, it's pretending to be acceptable. I'm still saying that salvation is of God. It's pretending to be acceptable. They attempt to give people the deadly poison. Again, that's what poison is. It pretends to be acceptable, right? They give people the deadly poison of Pelagianism. This is a terrible error. It takes away then from all those things Ephesians 2 is speaking about. Now all of a sudden, in verse 7, the riches of God's grace are measurable. They're measured by how many people believe, and that's what makes the distinction. The kindness of Christ is measurable. He's just a kind, weak, and wimpy Jesus. Believe in me, and that's what makes the difference. No, He is a powerful Jesus. Because sense, it does not depend upon in the sense that faith itself is a gift which flows from the death of Christ. And that's the point of the Apostle here. It is all of God, so that no man may boast. Even the good works which we are to do in service and gratitude, even those were prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. You know, the Apostle is answering every single objection here. He's saying, it's almost like people were making the same error 2,000 years ago. You say, well, salvation is of God, but faith is my part. No, faith is a gift. You say, well, OK, God makes me believe, but then it's me walking in good works that keeps me in faith. No, that too. And Christ's death does this all because Christ's death is powerful. You see, if this is not the case, then we're limiting the power of God and we're leaving essential aspects of salvation in the hands of sinful men, who are by nature children of wrath. All those and only those. Christ died for and accomplished. Salvation is effective. All those and only those. Notice not only Ephesians which makes this clear. John 3 makes this clear. Do not marvel that I say to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. John 3, 7 and 8. You know not how. Mark 4. Yes, there is a command to believe, and that command is declared and given. But Ezekiel 37 makes it very clear how anyone can respond. How can anyone respond to the call to believe? We are a valley of dry bones. We are dead in sin. but it is, and now I read the first two lines of Article 8, it is the enlivening and saving effectiveness of his son's costly death which works itself out in all his chosen ones. It is the death of Christ which gives life and puts flesh on the dry bones so that they can respond to the call Yes, Ephesians 2 makes it very clear and answers every objection in a line-by-line manner, but this is the clear teaching of all of Scripture. People of God, then, do you know the personal, particular, powerful salvation of God? Or are you stuck with a poison that says the essential part of faith is left up to you? Since we're using lots of P words, I surely pity those who are stuck with such poison. They serve a wimpy Jesus, and their confidence is left in a man-centered place. Thankfully, very few Christians pray in such a manner. But the beginnings of this idea seep here and there and creep here and there. But do not embrace the poison. Embrace the Savior, knowing that the Savior embraces you in a particular, personal, powerful way. Amen. Let us pray. Lord God of our salvation. We rejoice. That salvation is of you by you. Through you in Christ. So work in us that which is well-pleasing in your sight. Make our dry bones faithful bones, enlivened bones, and show us even those works which you have prepared for us to do in your service. This we pray in Jesus' name, amen. People of God, as we rejoice in this great truth about salvation in Christ alone, let us sing in Christ alone. Number 265, let's sing the four stanzas together. He is my life, my strength, my song. His cornerstone is solid ground. here in His gift of love and righteousness Scorned by the ones He came to save Till on that cross as He just died ♪ The wrath of God was satisfied ♪ For every sin on Him was laid ♪ Here in the death of Christ was laid ♪ For every bone His body laid ♪ Lying in the blood of Christ was laid Up from the grave He rose again And as He stands in victory Since curse has lost its victory For I am His and He is mine Bought with the precious blood of Christ Built in iron, you'll wear it bad This is the power of Christ in me When Christ was crying to an iron man Jesus commands my destiny. The power of hell knows he but man, Can ever pluck me from his hand. Till he returns or calls me home, Here in the power of Christ I'll stand. Maybe we need to sing that a little more often. I think I have it memorized, but I don't actually yet. We now come for our gifts and our offerings this evening. This evening that's for the General Fund. Following that, the benediction blessing for the people of God, and then our doxology number 563. Yeah. If you would stand, if able, people of God. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen. In the face of Christ our Savior and the Father's boundless love, with the Holy Spirit's favor rest upon us from above. ♪ In union with each other and the Lord ♪ ♪ And possess in sweet communion ♪ ♪ Joys which earth cannot afford ♪ Yeah. Our first election is number 84C. 84C. Oh, Lord of hosts, how lovely.