The Substance and Practical Implications

Bibliography for the Doctrine of the Atonement

0:09 Now, before turning to the doctrine of the atonement, realizing that there are many preachers and Sunday school teachers present and humble saints of God who love to read and search out the ways of God, I want to give you a bibliography of books that will help you to explore some of the depths of this glorious doctrine as with your Bibles you seek to know the mind of God, receiving the gifts of God, even teachers given to his church. I'll run it by quickly. If you don't get all the names of the books and the authors,

0:50 you can get the tape, and I've talked with the tape man, and they will be included on this evening's tape. I would heartily recommend, if you can come across a volume of Thornwell's works, Volume 2, his two sermons, one on the necessity of the atonement and the second one on the priestly work of Christ. Strangely enough, those profound biblical and theological treatises were preached as sermons at the College of South Carolina in the 1800s. Masterful treatises on the atonement.

1:32 And then, of course, Hugh Martin, the saintly, unusually perceptive Scottish theologian, his companion volumes, The Atonement, from which I've quoted this week, and the recently reprinted paperback by the Banner of Truth called The Shadow of Calvary. That's his fascinating term for Gethsemane. And he calls Gethsemane the Shadow of Calvary, and it's the most penetrating exposition, of the narratives of Gethsemane that I have ever found in print. And then, thankfully, Smeaton's two volumes are reprinted,

2:18 our Lord's teaching on the atonement and the Apostle's teaching on the atonement. And if any of you men are committed to preaching a series of sermons on the key text on the atonement, I know of no two volumes that will be of greater help in carefulness, little painstaking exegesis of every explicit atonement passage in the Gospels and in the Epistles than Smeaton's two-volume work on the atonement. And then, of course, the work by the late, beloved, and esteemed Professor John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied,

3:00 a book which, perhaps more than any other in our generation, has led people to the path of redemption. It has led people into an appreciation of the atonement that has been nothing less than revolutionary. And then, a little older classic by James Denny, The Death of Christ. And then, two books by Leon Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, and then a more recently published book called The Atonement.

3:30 And you will find his treatment of some of the matters that I will touch upon in just a few minutes. A few sentences in one of the points of the sermon tonight opened up very fulsomely and accurately in this more recent book by Leon Morris called The Atonement. And then, of course, Gardiner Springs, The Attraction of the Cross, from which I have quoted. And then, there's been a reprint of the one section of the ancient or older theologian Turretin, translated out of...

4:06 the Latin, I believe, into English, called The Atonement of Baker Reproduction. And finally, Warfield's Person and Work of Christ. Now, as I give the bibliography, let me give a suggestion. If you want to do something that will encourage the heart of a true shepherd of Christ, some of you get together at Christmas time, anniversary times, birthday times, and buy your pastor books, he's a shepherd after Christ's heart.

4:40 He is committed to feeding you with knowledge and understanding, but he also has to feed his kids and feed his car. And often, that means he doesn't have a lot of money left to buy books. So, if you want to do things that will gladden the heart of a pastor, better yet, you deacons, come together and establish an annual book allowance and get your pastor to vow that he will not spend one penny of that book allowance for...

5:07 any books, or anything other than books, and for no books, but those that will truly feed his soul, that he in turn may feed you, the people of God. Now, I'm sure there are many other books on the atonement which many of you have found helpful, but these are proven commodities, and I heartily recommend them to you. Now, let us again pause to seek the face of God. I know that many of us are weary at the end of a long week of mental and spiritual activity, but God has graciously sent a little break in the humidity and temperature.

Prayer for the Spirit's Presence and Review of Previous Studies

5:47 Now, let us pray that the Spirit will come and crown our meditations on the atonement with the felt presence of our crucified and risen Savior. Let us together seek the face of God in prayer. Holy Father, in a world full of pain, full of bitterness, mutual exploitation, men at one another's throats, nations warring constantly with each other, how we thank you for this oasis that we have had this week,

6:29 here in this little town nestled in the quietness of the fields about us. Thank you for our civil liberties. Thank you for the relative stability, Thank you for the relative stability, of our government. Thank you for the protection of the law that enables us to meet without fear that someone will burst through the door and that there would be the chatter of machine gun, the clanking of chains with which to bind us and carry us off to prison.

7:00 Oh God, we thank you for our liberties. We thank you for an open Bible. Thank you for Wycliffe. Thank you for men who paid a dear price, Thank you for men who paid a dear price, Thank you for men who paid a dear price, that we might have this Bible in our own native tongue.

7:17 We thank you for our Lord Jesus. We thank you for the gift of the Spirit. We thank you, oh we thank you, for the privilege of contemplating together, as we have done in this week, our privileges and responsibilities as parents, contemplating that life, that fascinating life of Joseph, that fascinating life of Joseph, that fascinating life of Joseph, the man of God, and the privilege of contemplating your beloved son dying for sinners. Oh Lord, come now in this, our last meditation on the atonement, take every listener, every boy, every girl,

8:00 every man, every woman, take the preacher, and oh God, may we all be caught up in such a sense of the Spirit's mighty presence, in such a sense of the Spirit's mighty presence, that we shall know that you are here, taking of the things of Christ, and making them both clear, and precious to our hearts. Hear us, oh hear us we plead, for the sake of your beloved son, as we present our plea before you, in his own worthy and exalted name.

8:45 Now as we come this evening to this, our fourth and final study, of the biblical doctrine of the atonement of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I shall just briefly review where we've been, and then God willing seek to complete this overview of this grand biblical doctrine. In our initial study, I sought to convince you of the centrality of the atonement in biblical revelation. And our study led us to the conclusion, And our study led us to the conclusion, And our study led us to the conclusion, that the doctrine of the atonement is nothing less

9:27 than the center of gravity of the Old and the New Testaments. In our second study we considered together the setting of the atonement in biblical revelation. And using the extended analogy and imagery of the archer's target, we contemplated those related biblical truths, we contemplated those related biblical truths, within which the doctrine of the atonement is revealed to us in Scripture. Then yesterday in our third study, we began a contemplation of the substance of the doctrine of atonement

10:10 in biblical revelation. And in that study we had time to consider only two categories of thought. First of all, the origin of the atonement, and from the Scriptures we concluded that the origin of the atonement is nothing less than the free, unfettered, sovereign love of God to hell-deserving rebel sinners. Then secondly, we contemplated its essence.

The Essence of the Atonement: Substitution and Priestly Activity

10:45 And I asserted that the essence of the atonement is to be understood in these words, it was substitution. Submission is more specific. Submission is more количеistic. Submission is more individualistic.

11:08 Submission is more stress-resistant. Antidraft supper. Submission is aảt grindstone. Submission is aả tempo in holy water.

11:23 Submission is aả when you want to. Submission is aả energy. Submission is aả fuel. Submission is aả diese intuizione.

11:23 as the seat, as it were, of the incensed majesty of deity against human sin. And the Father bruises the Son. The Father pours out the vials of His wrath upon the Son. In the language of Romans 8.32,

11:44 He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. But in the second place, under the essence of the atonement, I sought to demonstrate that there is another block of Scripture which emphasizes the priestly activity of Christ in the atonement. And the focus of this dimension of truth is not so much that He was the recipient of the wrath bearing of God, but that He was the active priest who, standing, standing in the very sanctuary of heaven, was both offerer and offering,

12:28 and combined in Himself all of the types and shadows separated in the Levitical priesthood and in its rituals by the very necessity of the case, but wonderfully joined in the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. And perhaps the best summary I can give of that point, and this will conclude our review, is to give you a little tidbit of Hugh Martin. But in the unseen spiritual world, while His body was hanging on the cross, He was pouring out His soul unto death in spontaneous action of His own,

13:12 as self-instigated, self-sustained, self-controlled, as was that of Aaron, when He brought the goat on which Jehovah's lot fell and offered him as a sin offering, and the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, He presented alive before the Lord to make atonement with him and let him go into the wilderness as a scapegoat. No priest ever standing daily, ministering and offering oft times, was ever more faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only was He so free from coercion in His office,

13:55 or so gloriously active in discharging that office, as this man Jesus, when He offered one sacrifice for sins. Nor did this man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sit down on the right hand of God, a more free and more powerful agent, than when He offered one sacrifice for sins, when He offered that sacrifice which earned Him the throne. We speak of His doing and of His dying. His dying was His grandest doing.

14:37 And oh, I love that language. We say that we are saved by the doing and the dying of Jesus. And in a popular way, we are attempting to express that the righteousness of our justification is comprised of the threads of His life of holy obedience, as well as the threads of His vicarious suffering. And so we say we are saved by a righteousness comprised of His doing and His dying.

15:11 But the point of Hugh Martin is, His greatest doing was His dying. And the distinction between the active in the passive obedience and suffering of Christ at this point contains a fatal flaw, for he was never more active in his obedience than when he stood in the sanctuary of heaven and offered himself without spot unto God through the sustaining energy and power of the eternal spirit. Well then, trying to grasp the substance of the atonement as to its origin and to its essence,

The Purpose and Effects of the Atonement: No Extras

15:55 now let us consider very briefly in the third place the purpose and the effects of the atonement. The purpose and the effects of the atonement. And it is here that a variety of scriptural terms and concepts, confront us, each with a specific dimension of what was accomplished by the vicarious or substitutionary curse-bearing,

16:28 as that substitutionary curse-bearing relates to a differing dimension of man's sin in relationship to God and God's relationship to man in his sin. Now put on your thinking caps for the next moments. There are no extras in the redemptive work of Jesus. When you go to purchase a car, you can buy the stripped-down model or the one that's loaded with extras.

17:05 Now a car was created or manufactured in Detroit or elsewhere to carry someone from one point to another, in the capacity of a four-wheeled motor vehicle. And all that is necessary to comprise a car is those or are those things which will enable a car to accomplish that basic function. Now to have power windows and power steering and power brakes and power everything else, these are extras. They are not essential to the function,

17:46 and to the intention of the manufacture of an automobile.

17:52 But in the atonement of Christ, there are no extras. Every dimension of the atonement answers to a real and concrete problem arising from man's real condition as a sinner, and God's character as a holy God committed in sovereign love to save sinners. So that I cannot fathom why any Christian who says he has some felt awareness of his sin

18:29 is either bored with or indifferent to tracing out the various facets of his glorious redemption. For every facet, every facet of the redemptive work of Christ answers to some peculiar facet of his need as a sinner. And in the next five or six minutes, I'm going to run by you very quickly these purposes and effects of the substitutionary curse-bearing of the Lord Jesus which are presented in these various perspectives in Scripture.

The Atonement as Expiation, Propitiation, Reconciliation, and Redemption

19:11 In one sense, the work of Christ in substitutionary curse-bearing is set before us as an expiatory sacrifice. That is, a sacrifice which forms the basis of the putting away of man's sin. It was by sacrifice that sin was put away, and man was welcomed, and into the presence and fellowship of God. Therefore, in Hebrews chapter 9, verses 24 to 26,

19:52 the substitutionary curse-bearing of Christ is designated as an expiatory sacrifice. Hebrews 9, 24 For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in...

20:12 a pattern to the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us. Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest enters into the holy place year by year with blood not his own, else must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the end of the ages, he has been manifested, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. So you see the emphasis in this passage.

20:55 He made an expiatory sacrifice. That is, by his substitutionary curse-bearing, God could righteously put away sin and welcome the sinner into his fellowship. That is, by his substitutionary curse-bearing, God could righteously put away sin and welcome the sinner into his fellowship. That is, by his substitutionary curse-bearing, God could righteously put away sin and welcome the sinner into his fellowship.

21:12 That is, by his substitutionary curse-bearing, God could righteously put away sin and welcome the sinner into his fellowship. And his favor. I commend to you, Professor Murray's treatment of this on pages 24 to 28 in Redemption Accomplished and Applied. But now we also see in Scripture that the atonement as to its purpose and effect is designated a propitiation.

21:36 Now I know it's common for preachers to knock translations of any kind, from any age, and I have no desire to enter the translation-knocking society. But I say it is a shame that modern translations for the most part have done away with this word propitiation because the word propitiation means to turn away divine wrath through the substitutionary curse-bearing, of the Son of God. In Romans 3 and verse 25,

22:19 Paul, having expounded for three chapters universal sinfulness, tells us that now God has resolved the great question, how can God be just and yet justify sinners? And the answer in verse 25 of Romans 3, whom God said, He has set forth a propitiation. He set him forth a sacrifice to turn away his wrath. Likewise in Hebrews 2.17,

23:00 1 John 2.2 and 1 John 4.10, Christ is either said to make propitiation, to be given as propitiation, and yet wonder of wonders, he himself is called the propitiation in 1 John 2.2.

23:22 And if you want a beautiful illustration of what propitiation is, read at your leisure that story in Genesis 32 when old Jacob is going to meet, not so old, but middle-aged Jacob is going to meet his brother Esau. The last time he saw his countenance, murder was gleaming in Esau's eyes. And Jacob, wise as well as wily, sends before him some of his men, and he says, take these gifts to my brother Esau to appease him. And when the translators of the Hebrew Old Testament were translating it into Greek,

24:07 the word they used for appease is this word, propitiation. What would that gift do? Well, it was the hope of Jacob that when Esau saw this abundance of gifts, it would turn away his wrath and that he would look upon him with favor. And that is precisely what the substitutionary curse bearing of Christ has done.

24:35 The wrath which our sins provoked has been turned away because it was swallowed up in his own death. And so, in the third place, the purpose and the effect of the atonement is set before us under the concept of reconciliation. That is, the removal of God's righteous enmity against sinners through the substitutionary curse bearing of the Son of God. For not only did sin alienate man from God, and when man sinned,

25:19 he ran from God, but sin caused God to be alienated toward man. God has a righteous controversy with sinners. And what is it that has laid that controversy to rest and removed that righteous enmity? Listen to the language of 2 Corinthians 5.19.

25:43 Here is the message of the Gospel that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing unto them their trespasses, and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation. And what is that word of reconciliation? Substitutionary curse bearing. He has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

26:16 But then in the fourth place, the effect and purpose of the atonement is set before us under the terminology of redemption. That is, the securing of release from bondage by the payment of a ransom or by the payment of a price. And the Bible says that the death of Jesus was not only an expiatory sacrifice to put away sin, a propitiation to turn away wrath, a reconciliation to remove righteous enmity, but it was a redemption.

27:01 That is, the substitutionary curse bearing was the price by which we were released from the bondage to our sins. And to the devil, Acts 20.28, take heed to the church of God which he purchased with him. Matthew 20.28,

27:27 the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. Ephesians 1.7, in whom we have redemption through his blood. Even the forgiveness of sins.

27:49 Now dear Christian, let me ask you a question. If God has not made these concepts synonyms, isn't it inexcusable for people to be in Bible preaching and even reformed churches for twenty years and have no intelligent appreciation of things that differ? Could it be that our love to Christ is so often so weak and vacillating because we've been too lazy to search out the many faceted glory of the wonderful fruits of his substitutionary curse bearing?

28:34 For our sins had created such a complicated mess. From one sacrosanct, from one dimension, we were pressed down with a mountain of sin that had to be removed before God could enter into fellowship. From another standpoint, we were the constant provocation of divine wrath and anger by what we've done and what we are. From another standpoint, God had a controversy with us and there was righteous enmity because of man's rebellion.

29:12 And from another standpoint, God looked upon us slaves of sin and of the devil and of the world. And what did he do? In the substitutionary curse bearing of his Son, he has made provisions that answer precisely to every exigency which our sins have created. Blessed be God for a salvation that has no extras.

The Atonement as Perfection and Purification

29:45 It answers to our every need. And the Scripture says the works of the Lord are great, sought out of everyone that has pleasure therein. Oh, that we may examine these glorious truths and it could well be as my beloved colleague in ministry, Pastor Greg Nichols and one of the professors in our academy has suggested that there is a fifth major category of the purpose and effect of the substitutionary curse bearing of Christ, that of perfection and purification. I only read a statement from his lectures in Systematics.

30:29 These terms have to do with the worshipers of God and their worship. His sacrifice was intended to change the whole character of the worship of the covenant community. You remember those passages in the book of Hebrews? The old covenant rubric could not make the worshipers perfect, could not make them perfect.

30:54 The blood of bulls and goats can never take away sin. And it is in the substitutionary curse bearing of Christ that God has perfected the new covenant community and brought it into dimensions of intimacy with himself, not known to the covenant community until that time. Well, so much then for that heading. We've considered the origin of the atonement, the love of God, the essence of the atonement, substitutionary curse bearing, the purpose and effect

31:38 of the atonement, to make sacrifice, propitiation, reconciliation, redemption, and possibly this fifth category, the perfection of the covenant community. But now I come in the fourth place. Origin, essence, purpose and effect, now the fourth category, the characteristics of the atonement. And here I trust the going will not be as heavy, but I hope as sweet and even sweeter.

Characteristics of the Atonement: Perfect and Efficacious

32:14 What are the outstanding characteristics of this substitutionary curse bearing of our Lord Jesus? Let me give you three simple couplets of words. First of all, it is perfect and efficacious. Hebrews chapter 10.

32:35 When something is perfect, you can do nothing to improve it. When someone draws a perfect circle, if you change any part of the curved line, you destroy its perfection. And the scripture tells us that this is what characterizes the atonement of Christ. It is perfect and efficacious.

33:01 It accomplishes the divine intention. Hebrews chapter 10, verses 10 through 14. Speaking of the will of Christ, His voluntary commitment to take a body that in that body He might suffer and die, by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. Now listen to the words.

33:32 Once for all. And every priest, that is in the old covenant, stands daily by day, ministering and offering oft times the same sacrifices the which can never take away sins. But He, when He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God, henceforth expecting until His enemies be made the footstool of His feet, for by one offering

34:14 He has perfected them that are sanctified. Back to chapter 7 of Hebrews, verses 26 and 27. Hebrews 7, 26 and 7. For such a high priest became us, holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners, made higher than the heavens, who does not need daily like those high priests to offer up sacrifices first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people.

34:50 For this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. Oh, what theology is packed sometimes into one little Greek word and precious to every believer should be the word Hapax. Once for all, it is a perfect and an efficacious sacrifice and atonement, so perfect and so efficacious that it constitutes the immovable rock of the objective grounds of a sinner's salvation. In other words, what do I need

35:35 to know and to believe that through all the eternity Almighty God will never find a gram of sin with which to have a controversy with me? All I need to know and believe is that Christ died for me. Listen to the language of the apostle in Romans 8. This is the beginning, middle and end of the whole question for the great apostle who never forgot that he was before injurious, a blasphemer.

36:17 And let me say this, there is a spirit abroad in certain Reformed circles today that is asserting that the measure to which you appreciate the work of Christ is the measure to which you lose all ability to remember and to feel pained over your past sins. That is heretical to the core and to his grave with the wound of remembering what he was. There is the great paradox of biblical assurance.

37:00 Never forgetting what I was and what I still am. I can say with the apostle in Romans 8, listen to his challenge. He hurls it into the teeth of the entire moral universe. Romans 8.33

37:16 Who shall lay down Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Who among the angels? Who among the seraphim? Who among the cherubim?

37:28 Who among the devils? Who among the demons? May I say it reverently, Who among the trinity? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?

37:39 It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ Jesus that does. That's it.

37:51 End of controversy. Oh yes, the death was validated by the resurrection and the resurrection issued in the ascension and the ascension gave birth to the intercession but these were all the validation and the subsequent fruition and impartation of the blessings of his death. The foundation block of all assurance is the spirit wrought conviction which Christ will never be condemned. This atonement was perfect and efficacious

Characteristics of the Atonement: Complete and Eternal

38:34 but the second characteristic of this atonement is this. It is complete and eternal. Complete and eternal. Hebrews chapter 9 verses 11 and 12.

38:48 Hebrews chapter 9 verses 11 and 12. But Christ having come a high priest of the good things to come through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this creation nor yet through the blood of goats and calves but through his own blood entered in once for all into the holy place having obtained the possibility that people will be saved if they'll do their part.

39:32 This general atonement hypothetical or otherwise atonement Jesus Christ entered the holy place not of redemption for all if only they will do something but having obtained it on behalf of all for whom he was

40:16 surety and representative go back to our target all for whom he was acting as high priest whose names were upon his breastplate all for whom he stood in the position of the representative man the last Adam the man from heaven see it in relationship to the general doctrine of salvation purposed in eternity for a multitude whom no man can number let no one say that definite atonement is simply an inevitable imposition of logic upon the simple doctrine that Christ died

41:01 for everyone I resist with every fiber of my being that wretched and almost blasphemous allegation categories of election in Christ for Christ representative pre-Christ of logical theologians yet or no of the mind of almighty God and therefore the redemption

41:46 is complete and it is eternal another passage that points in this direction chapter nine of Hebrews again and I hope if nothing else Hebrews will become a precious book to you after our study Hebrews 9 23 it was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these for Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands like in pattern to the true in other words the tapestry the tabernacle

42:30 and temple were cut after the pattern of the unseen heavenly tabernacle and temple not the other way around you see people think the real thing was the tabernacle and the temple and the real thing there sort of pictured something up there it's the other way around the real thing was in heaven and the shadow was cast backward from the light of God's countenance from the reality to the temple and tabernacle they're called the shadows but the reality ain't real as I hold my hand up there's a shadow here on the platform my hand is the substance the shadow is what is reflected off and takes the shape of the substance and if there was a veil around me

43:15 and all you could see was the shadow there upon the floor you'd know there was a real substantial flesh and blood and bone hand somewhere behind the veil that's the teaching of Hebrews there's a real sanctuary with a real priest and a real altar the others were shadows and Christ in the real sanctuary did what look at the language he entered into heaven now to appear before the face of God for us nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest enters into the holy place year by year with blood not his own else must he often have suffered

43:59 at the end of the ages he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself Hebrews 5 verse 9 says and being made perfect he became the author of eternal salvation oh hear me dear people this work of Christ in atonement is not only perfect and efficacious it is complete and it is eternal what's that say to us it says that in this age of ecumania when we are being told because Roman Catholics can go

44:42 and call that speaking in tongues because the Roman Catholics can engage in gibberish and because woolly headed Protestants can engage in gibberish and they are not the same Holy Ghost and they all say praise Jesus and raise their hands and sing Jesus is Lord we are therefore to believe they must be Christians hear me now at the

45:27 heart click theology is the blasphemy of the mass she doesn't have altars according to unretracted perpetuated Roman theology whether in English or in Latin the hocus pocus of the priest is supposed to turn that wafer and wine into the body and blood of my blessed Savior that he may be offered up

46:11 afresh to the world and that he may be called the second trained as an actor in his youth leading multitudes in the train of thinking the old harlot of Rome is a Christian virgin when Billy Graham calls him one of the greatest is complete and eternal.

46:56 And the doctrine of the Romish mass is blasphemy to the core.

47:04 But so is the doctrine of evangelical penance. And you know what that is? You lose your temper with your wife. And your heart is smitten.

47:17 And your conscience smarts. And instead of going wherever you are, you may not have even the opportunity to get into a place to pray. Instead of lifting up your heart to your great high priest who ministers in the sanctuary, carrying on, as it were, the constant efficacy of that atonement once for all made upon the cross, carrying the virtue of it in his own person into the very presence of God. Instead of lifting up your heart and saying, Lord Jesus, forgive me for being snotty with my wife, for being crotchety with my precious

47:59 and the one who has borne so much for me. Instead of lifting up the heart and saying, Lord Jesus, forgive me. Going to your wife and saying, Honey, my Savior's forgiven and washed me in His blood for the way I spoke to you. Will you forgive me?

48:16 You go on in evangelical penance and you feel, well, I've got to go around with a long face and a heavy heart for at least three hours. Or I'll be guilty of turning free grace into cheap grace. Christian friend, listen to me. The moment your conscience discovers sin, at that moment, a conscience pricked by the Holy Ghost should be a summons.

48:49 Go to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness and go immediately. That's what Luther meant when he said, sin boldly. He didn't mean go out and live like the devil. What he meant was, when you've sinned, don't indulge in a kind of evangelical penance as though your own personal hurt can add a gram of worth to the pangs of Jesus.

49:25 You'll harden your heart by staying away from Jesus. Not make it softer. There is nothing to keep the heart tender like short accounts with God reckoned up at the cross again and again and again. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and what?

49:57 I don't need righteousness when I sin. I need mercy. Oh no, my friend, you need righteous mercy. He's faithful and He's righteous to forgive and to cleanse aposarikios from all unrighteousness.

50:26 I think I punished my surety and my substitute. It would be less than righteous with God. He did not forgive me immediately upon my confession to Him. Oh, by this time if you're half awake, you ought to be shouting happy and having to constrain yourself to sit in your seat.

Characteristics of the Atonement: Constraining and Procuring

50:53 Blessed be God for a complete and an eternal atonement. And then the third characteristic is this. It is constraining and procuring. It's the only way I knew to match it up homiletically and what I meant by that is this.

51:12 It's the basis and pledge of the application of all other gifts of grace. That's the characteristic of the atonement. It is constraining and procuring. In other words, I say it reverently, the atonement constrains God to give us everything Jesus died that we might have.

51:39 And where do we learn that? Romans 8.32 He that dared not his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely, graciously give us what? All things.

52:00 And in the context, the all things is not perfect health, Cadillacs in place of fords, ten room houses in place of five room bungalows. Look at the context. The all things are the things that sinners need, to get from a state of sinful bondage, guilt and condemnation to everlasting glory. They need to be called, justified, sanctified and glorified and the death of Jesus is the pledge.

52:35 They'll get the whole shootin' match.

52:40 It is the atonement that is constraining and procuring. One illustration, Galatians 3. Christ has redeemed us. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law.

52:53 Being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now listen, why did he do it? In order that a clause of purpose, in order that upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus.

53:16 The blessing of Abraham doesn't come in natural blood, bloodlines, a la pedo-baptist theology. The blessing of Abraham comes in Christ Jesus. And what is the blessing of Abraham? Here it is.

53:34 That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. In other words, Christ's curse bearing is the pledge of our reception of the Spirit upon faith. There is the gift of the Spirit in regenerating grace that is unto faith. And then there is the gift of the Spirit of adoption to faith.

54:02 And it all comes on the basis of the work of Jesus. As Hugh Martin and as I believe Thornwell also has perceptibly underscored, it is our surety in heaven whose intercession secures the sovereign work of the Spirit in regenerating grace. And it is the gift of the Spirit in regenerating grace. And it is the gift of the Spirit in regenerating grace.

54:20 And it is the gift of the Spirit in regeneration. May I use pictorial language and imagery, I hope, without bordering on sacrilege. God sees one of his elect sinners in time, born a child of wrath by nature, even as the rest. I hope you have no sympathy for the horrendous doctrine of eternal justification.

54:43 No basis in Scripture. He sees one of his elect children, a child of wrath by nature, like Saul of Tarsus. Like Saul of Tarsus. And God says, it's time to get that sinner.

54:55 Time's up. Sinner is now going to be saved. And the Lord Jesus in the presence of the Father, by the virtue of his own presence, constantly bearing witness to the suffering and dying upon the cross, he by his intercession secures from the Father the Spirit's work to knock a man down from his pride, cause him to grumble in the dust of self-abhorrence, opens his blinded eyes to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus. And when that sinner regenerated by the Spirit given in answer to the intercession of Jesus,

55:39 repents and believes, he is immediately granted the gift of the Spirit of adoption, enabling him to say, Abba, Father. Galatians 4, 1 to 6. Galatians 4, 1 to 6. That's the horrible heresy of the charismatic teaching and all second work of grace theology.

55:59 It makes your gift of the Spirit the fruit of your meeting X number of conditions.

56:08 Conditions to receive the gift of the Spirit were met by my surety and my substitute, Jesus Christ, in his vicarious curse bearing. Do you see it? It's there in the text. Pain for all to see.

56:25 Thank God for an atonement that is perfect and efficacious, complete and eternal and constraining and procuring. Now do you see why I've not discussed and only alluded to the question of whether or not the atonement is definite, indefinite, limited or unlimited? Do you see how once you grasp the atonement, in its biblical setting,

56:59 the atonement in its essence, the atonement in its characteristics, and the atonement in its accomplishments, it's no longer that atonement if it only potentially provided something for nobody in particular. Do you see it? Do you see it? My preacher friend, don't debate limited atonement.

57:27 You see it with a man, a woman, a boy or girl who's never stopped to contemplate whether there is an election of grace, whether there is a covenanted headship in Christ, whether there is a royal priesthood in Christ, who has never studied the meaning of the words propitiation, reconciliation, redemption and sacrifice. Don't waste your breath feeding ignorance. Lovingly pat the man or woman, woman on the back and say, go take your Bible and study the great words of God's salvation

58:06 in Christ. I've never argued limited atonement for five minutes in my whole life. And I hope I can say that if I live out my three score in ten. A few more conferences like this and preaching like this, I doubt I will. It'll kill me before I see my 60th birthday. But

58:28 seriously, do you see it? I can't read your faces. Am I am I talking to myself? Do you see the glory of it? Amen. Do you see the glory of such an atonement? And if it doesn't

Implications for Universal Summons to Repentance and Faith

58:44 actually reconcile, if it doesn't actually propitiate, if it does not actually cover sin, if it does not actually perform these things, then we've got to rip these words from our bodies. So help us to love the atonement and the atoner as they are set before us in the Bible. Now, this is my last time. Do I have your consent to take ten minutes to bring three brief lines of application? Paul said to Philemon, without thy mind, I would do nothing, brother.

59:23 Without your mind, I don't want to preach just to bless my own soul. Now listen carefully then as I just trace out the headings. This time will not permit amplification, but I think this will help many of you to see the practicality of all of this. And that brings me to my final category, the implications of the atonement. First of all, the implications in relationship to the universal summons to

59:54 repentance and faith. The implications of this doctrine of the atonement for the universal summons to repentance and faith. In Luke chapter twenty-two, chapter twenty-two, chapter twenty-two, chapter twenty-two, chapter twenty-four, forty-five to forty-seven, Jesus said, thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer, to be raised from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached, now listen carefully, in his name among all the nations. That is, repentance and faith are to be preached on the basis of the revelation of God's saving mercy in Jesus Christ.

60:36 Now, how is the saving mercy of God in Jesus Christ revealed in the Bible? It's revealed I've attempted to preach that God, in love for a great multitude of sinners, sent his Son, who is God and man, to be substitutionary curse-bearer, to make a redemption, a sacrifice, a reconciliation, a propitiation, one that is perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, And people say, if I believe in such an atonement, how can I preach to sinners?

61:21 My friend, if you don't believe in such an atonement, what have you got to preach to sinners? Let a sinner feel his chansom that will set him free.

61:37 Let a sinner feel the mountain of his sins. He needs an atonement that removes it. Let a sinner see the thunderbolts of God's wrath. He wants an atonement that's turned it away.

61:54 And that's what we preach in the gospel. We preach an almighty Savior who has made an atonement that is efficacious and final, complete and eternal. And having preached Christ and His atonement, we then in the name of God tell sinners, there is mercy wide enough for any sinner who will flee to Jesus Christ. Christ, God commands all men everywhere to repent.

62:29 God commands us to believe in the name of His Son. And we do not preach to men, Christ died for you and you and you and you and you. We preach the grand realities of His death and what it has accomplished for sinners. And we say to sinners, it's all yours in Him.

62:51 And the only way to be in Him. Is by a penitent faith, and by a believing penitence. Get into Christ, and it's yours. Christ, and the wrath of God is upon you.

63:08 Isn't that Bible? He that believeth on the Son hath life. He that believes not the Son of God, the wrath of God abides upon him. Oh dear people, this atonement forms the base.

63:26 Of real gospel preaching. May we never be bullied into embarrassment. And the greatest polemic against the idea that a definite atonement cripples evangelism. Is for us to be flaming passionate earnest evangelists.

63:45 And shut up the lie before it ever gets out of men's mouth. Let anybody try to tell you, Oh you spent your week's vacation and so many bucks to go to a rave. Reformed Baptist conference. Don't you know that reformed people are dull and lifeless and heady and pedantic.

64:07 And they have no joy and they have no life. Let them try to tell you that. May God make us such a people in burning evangelism. Then it has some very strong implications in relationship to a saving response to the gospel.

Implications for a Saving Response to the Gospel: Christ's Priestly Work

64:27 Not only does it have great implications. In the summons to all men to repent and believe. But with reference to a saving response to the gospel. Now hear me closely.

64:40 The Bible says sinners are saved. Our sinners are saved when they receive a whole Christ. As many as received him. John 1.12

64:51 Believe on or upon. And many places you don't have the preposition epi. But I or N believe into or in the Lord Jesus. And no one believes more firmly than I.

65:08 That you can't receive a part of Christ and become a Christian. He's prophet, priest and king. And a whole Christ brings a whole salvation. Refuse him and you'll experience a whole damnation.

65:22 But now listen to me. The Bible also teaches. That though he's received as prophet. As prophet to teach us.

65:30 And as king to rule us. The major spotlight floods upon him. In his priestly activity. And in the true exercise of saving faith.

65:45 While the mind is brought subject to the word of Christ. And the will is brought subject to the crown of Christ. It is preeminently the trust going out. To the blood.

66:01 And to the cross of Christ. And my dear preacher friends. In our reaction against easy believism. Let's never forget it.

66:10 This is no novelty of mine. John Owen has a most perceptive section. On this very point. Hugh Martin has a beautiful section.

66:19 In which he shows. That the prophetic and kingly office. Take their reference points from the priestly. He's a prophet to teach us.

66:29 The necessity and nature of his priestly work. He's a king to enforce. And bring to pass. The virtue of his priestly work.

66:40 And if we get that biblical perspective straight. Our people won't be vulnerable to theonomy. The emphasis in the religious motif of theonomy. Is the crown of Christ.

66:53 And there is a growing movement. In evangelical and reformed circles today. That not only has. A misplaced emphasis on the crown of Christ.

67:03 But upon the prophetic ministry of Christ. And we're being told by certain young upstarts. Who've never earned their own spurs. As theologians.

67:13 Never owned their own credibility. As pastors and evangelists. Who are telling us. That the church must have.

67:23 Essentially a prophetic ministry. Speaking with prophetic edge. To the evils of our day. Now there's an element of truth.

67:31 But never forget. The cutting edge of the church. In its message. Is Jesus Christ.

67:38 And him. As crucified. And the saving response to the gospel. Described in the bible.

67:46 Is that of a penitent. Laden with the consciousness of his sins. Embracing the Lord Jesus. As the appointed sin bearer.

67:57 Yes. His will coming subject to his crown. His mind. Coming subject to his word.

68:04 But his heart. Being bound. To his cross. And that leads me finally.

Implications for the Climate of Christian Experience: The Cross's Centrality

68:12 To the implications of the doctrine of the atonement. For the whole climate of our Christian experience. Let me state it this way. The climate of New Testament Christianity.

68:26 Is not only. Christological. For you theologians. I call it.

68:35 A wholesome. Christological. Trinitarian theism. Now you who aren't theologians.

68:43 Don't trouble yourself with that. But we've got preachers. And I want them to get hold of that. The climate of New Testament Christianity.

68:50 Is not a Jesus only cultism. But it is. A Christological. Trinitarian theism.

68:59 But the emphasis falls. Upon the centrality of Christ. Listen to Paul. God forbid that I should glory save in the crown of our Lord Jesus Christ.

69:11 By which he will eventually subjugate the nations. And I'll sit with him and reign over all these homos and queers and perverts. And line them up against the wall. And shoot them in my theonomic paradise.

69:24 It's a perversion. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen. By which this world is crucified unto me.

69:41 Even in its best times. After periods of revival. It is still a world slated for judgment. And I'm crucified to it.

69:50 And it is to me. And I look for a new heavens and a new earth. Wherein dwells righteousness. That will come at the second advent.

69:59 That's Biblical Christianity. When Paul treats and Peter treats the problems of the church. There is not one dime. There is not one dimension or category of Christian life problem.

70:13 That is not taken back to the cross. People are fussing with one another. How do you settle a church fuss? You know what Paul did?

70:21 He planted the cross right in the middle of it. He says is Christ. Is Paul crucified for you? Cephas crucified for you?

70:29 Who was crucified? The best thing for a church fuss is a baptism of a fresh vision. Of Christ crucified. You got people shacking up with people they shouldn't.

70:41 Consorting with temple harlots. What does Paul do? He plants the cross right in the middle of immorality. What know you not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost.

70:52 Which you have of God and you are not your own. You were bought with a price. He said begin to view your genitalia as the purchased property of Jesus. And you won't join it to a harlot.

71:10 Young person. Plant the cross between you and that young man in the seat of that car on your next date. And tell him. John.

71:23 These breasts. Were purchased on the cross. Don't you touch them. Jesus purchased them.

71:31 To be the delight of my husband in the bonds of marriage. And the means of nourishing my children in the privilege of motherhood. Keep your dirty hands off them. Have you got the guts to say that girl.

71:48 You claim to be a Christian. Jesus purchased those breasts. Don't you let any man fondle them. Until your husband fondles them.

71:58 On your marriage bed on your wedding night. Young man. Don't you go. By which to fulfill the God given capacities for sexual pleasure in a wife.

72:23 For the husband hath not power over his wife. Nor power over his body but the wife. He plants the cross dead center. In the issue of sexual immorality.

72:38 And you go through the New Testament. Slaves are getting kicked around and abused. What did Paul do? Organize a Christian movement to throw over slavery.

72:48 No. He said slaves go to the cross. View your savior spat upon. You'll cast and bruise.

72:57 And be like. Their husbands strutting around. They got one word in their vocabulary. Submit, submit, submit, submit, submit, submit, submit.

73:09 What does Paul do to them? He says husbands. Take your one word vocabulary and go to the cross. And there see Jesus giving up himself for his bride.

73:25 Not snapping his fingers. Telling his bride to do this and this and this and this. For him. He loved the church.

73:33 Gave himself up for it. That he might nourish it. That he might cherish it. That he might cleanse it.

73:42 Purify it. Present it. What do you know of that kind of love husband? Do you live to serve your wife in love?

73:52 Go to the cross. You women. Ever trouble submitting? Go to the cross.

74:01 You go through the New Testament. And you'll find there is every category of human problem in the Christian life. Is ultimately resolved at the cross. And you know what happens when you live in a church.

74:14 Where at least to some degree this perspective. Is created by the pulpit. And affirmed in the life of the people. Oh what a fragrance of Jesus is present.

74:29 That's why the Psalmist could say the saints. In whom is all my delight. And oh to get around people. To whom the cross is fragrant.

74:41 What are you laughing at girl? Something funny. God have mercy. To laugh.

75:05 Forgive me if you had a legitimate reason to laugh. I hope I've not prematurely judged you young woman. But if you didn't may God shame you. I'll not look in your direction to embarrass you.

75:17 You know who you are. May God shame you and break your heart. If you ought to be weeping. Instead you're laughing.

75:29 Oh dear people. That's at least an overview of the atonement. That hasn't exhausted it. That's only touched the ice.

75:39 Tip of the iceberg. And you know who's going to fully expound it for us? Jesus. In the world to come.

75:49 I better stop. Because when I get thinking about eternity. And an infinite Christ of infinite worth. With an infinitely glorious atonement.

75:59 Forever expanding my mind and heart. To take in. He can go on for eternity. Because he's infinite.

76:05 Expanding me as finite. And there will be no exhausting. To the glory and the wonder. Of Christ.

76:13 Is that the heaven you long to go to? Is it the heaven you long to go to? If not. Flee to Jesus.

Concluding Prayer and Exhortation

76:26 And ask him to fit you. To go there with him. Let us pray. Heavenly Father.

76:43 What can we say. When we are privileged. To look into the mysteries. Of your word.

76:52 We thank you for these blessed. Hours together. Thank you Lord for the attentiveness. Of this gathering of your people.

77:00 Boys and girls. Sitting at the end of a long day. Making a conscious effort to. Pay attention and learn.

77:09 Oh Lord. By your spirit. Make Christ precious to them. That all the tints.

77:17 And glitter. Of this foul. Sensuous generation. Will somehow be.

77:23 Torn away. May they see the ugliness. Of sin. And the beauty of Christ.

77:30 Oh God. Ravish the hearts. Of these dear young men and women. Lord give to some young man.

77:37 A sight of Jesus. That will cause that man. With heart of fire. And tongue of holy anointing.

77:45 To preach Christ. Blessed as none of us. Have ever preached him. Raise up mothers.

77:53 And godly women. And workmen and neighbors. And people in every rank. And file of life.

78:01 Who will live in the fragrance. Of Christ crucified. Lord seal your word. To our hearts.

78:10 Have dealings with sinners. Who are trifling with their souls. Trifling with the blood of the cross. Laughing in the face of holy.

78:18 And sacred realities. Oh God in Jesus name. Have mercy. Have mercy.

78:26 Have mercy. Hear our cry. Oh descend upon us. Come down.

78:36 Oh breath of God. And do that work. For which many of us have longed and prayed. That Christ.

78:45 May see of the travail. Of his soul. And be satisfied.