Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals

Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, Inc: Welcome. The following message is a ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The Alliance is known for ministries such as the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, as well as nationally syndicated radio programs like The Bible Study Hour, Every Last Word, and Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. Our purpose is to promote a biblical understanding and worldview. Thank you for listening.

Earl Blackburn: Thank you, Brother Bob, for having me. Thank you for First Baptist Marydale for having me. I have been blessed. I have been strengthened. I have been encouraged and challenged. I believe that in many sense, though evil men will, as Paul says in the old King James, wax worse and worse, God's glory is going to shine brighter and brighter. We need to take comfort in that.

If you would, take your Bibles and turn with me tonight to one verse of scripture. We've already looked at it, but I want to read it again because I believe that we should be under the government and rule of God's word at all times. Calvin's great prayer when you read in his Institutes, he prayed that always we would be under the rule and government of God's holy word, delivered from our own notions, delivered from our own thinking, delivered from our own feelings. The greatest betrayer to us in our Christian life is our feelings. They will deceive us time after time after time. I am glad that the just shall live by faith and not by feelings.

I tell people at our church, I don't feel saved in the morning until I've had my first cup of coffee. I don't feel sanctified until I've had my second cup. I am thankful that salvation and sanctification are not determined by my feelings. Glory to the Lamb. Hebrews chapter 9, verse 12. This one verse that speaks volumes in the context in which it is written. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, he entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. May the Lord seal this truth to our hearts and give us minds and wills to bow under it. Let's pray.

Great God, our Father, we thank you for this conference. We thank you for your word that has been expounded. Thank you for each one that has attended. Though this has not been the largest of conferences, we've learned a long time ago that you're not easily impressed with numbers. We see that in the life of Gideon as 40,000 came against them and you whittled them down to 300. Little is much if you're in it, and you're able to take small things and cause them to blossom into great things.

Tonight, as we consider this, the work of your dear Son, the most precious thing in all the world to you, I pray that you will give us eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts to receive, and wills to obey. This we pray in the matchless name of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

We have looked thus far at these two main questions: why did Christ have to die on the cross? And then we looked at what did Christ do in dying on the cross? That is really the answer. Many times in present-day evangelism, our message is, Christ died for you. It is not just that Christ died. What did Christ do in dying? The gospel is very clear in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, how that Christ died for our what? Mistakes? Our shortcomings? No, he died for our sins. Sin is a transgression of God's holy law.

What Jesus did in dying is he covered the whole gamut regarding sin. He made this offering of himself to deal with sin. The wages of sin is death, and thus he paid the ultimate price, the price of death. Not only that, but he redeemed in the giving of himself. He purchased for himself. The word means to buy off the slave block. He bought a people. He died for a people to redeem a people.

Not only that, but he propitiated. He actually accomplished propitiation. He turned away, he deflected the wrath of God from us. He did so by absorbing it in himself. Three hours, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Here we see, though we do not see, but we understand from the scriptures that Christ is tasting the infinite wrath of the infinite God for a finite period of time. If Jesus did not bear wrath for us, then somebody's got to bear it. But he accomplished propitiation.

He reconciled. The first reconciliation was not man to God. He reconciled God unto himself in regards to these matters. God had to be reconciled. God is the one that is offended. God is the one against whom we have sinned. In his death, he reconciled God so that God might in turn reconcile sinners unto himself. So he accomplished this matter of reconciliation. We saw that he just didn't do things to make them possible, but he actually accomplished.

Now we come to this third question, and that's really all I'm going to have to deal with tonight with some practical and pastoral applications: for whom? For whom did Jesus die? For whom did he pay the sacrifice, reconcile, propitiate, redeem? That is the big question. We have already established that he accomplished something. So we need to ask, for whom did he accomplish it? Knowing that the other questions have been answered, was it for everyone without distinction, or was it for specific individuals? I want you to follow with me closely tonight if you would.

One of my champions in the faith, a Puritan, John Owen, was a great scholar. He was Vice Chancellor of Oxford University. He was chaplain to the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. In his excellent book, Volume 10 of his collected works, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. Death died when Jesus died. He killed death. That's why we can look at the grave and say, "O grave, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"

John Owen, in his excellent book, addresses this question this way. The Father imposed his wrath due unto and the Son underwent punishment for either: one, all the sins of all men; two, all the sins of some men; or three, some of the sins of all men. In which case it may be said, Owen continues, that if the last be true, that Christ died for some of the sins of all men, then men have some sins to answer for, and so none are saved.

If the second be true, that he died for all the sins of some men, then Christ in their stead suffered for all the sins of all the elect in all the world. This is the truth. But if the first be the case, that Christ died for all the sins of all men, why are not all men free from the punishment due unto their sins? Why are all men not saved?

You ask that question and people will come back and they'll say, because of unbelief. Christ died for everybody. Christ died and took away the sins of everybody. Then why are they damned? Why do they die? Why is there everlasting punishment reserved for them? And they say, and I've had it said to me a hundred times, unbelief.

To which Owen replies: I ask, is this unbelief a sin or is it not? If it be, then Christ suffered the punishment due unto it or he did not. If he did, why must that hinder them more than any other sins for which he died? If he did not, he did not die for all their sins. Let me illustrate it if I may to you tonight.

A couple of years ago I was in Jackson, Mississippi. There's a movement among the Southern Baptist Convention called the Founders Movement. They have a Deep South Founders Conference in Jackson in January of every year. They always have a pre-conference debate. This year Dr. James White, some of you may know of him, may have heard of him, great guy, dear brother, I count it an honor to call him my friend. He was going to debate a doctor of theology at the Wesleyan Methodist Seminary there in Jackson.

The debate gets started, goes back and forth. As the debate goes on, the Wesleyan Methodist guy stated that the only reason people go to hell is because of unbelief. He says Jesus died for all the sins of all the people, and the only reason that people go to hell is because of unbelief. He was stating his thesis, Dr. White stated his thesis, so on and so forth. Then came the question and answer time.

Someone asked the Wesleyan Methodist theologian if unbelief was not a sin. The Wesleyan Methodist said, "Well, yes." The questioner then asked, "Is not unbelief a sin for which Christ had already paid the debt for this sin and died for it, or did Christ just die for some of our sins?" The Wesleyan Methodist guy then saw his own conundrum. He folded his hands and said, "I think I need to think about that."

The questioner that said that said he had one last follow-up question. He said to this, out of great respect, and it was a warm debate, I appreciated this Wesleyan Methodist brother. I believe he's a true brother. I believe he loved Christ. I believe he was a little muddled in his theology, but I believe he loved Christ. The questioner then said, "If Christ has already died for all the sins of all the people, including unbelief, why do people go to hell?" The Wesleyan Methodist theologian paused again for several seconds and then replied, "I don't know the answer to your question. I need to think about that more before I give you an answer. Next question, please."

You see his own conundrum. Either Jesus died for all the sins of all men, or he died for all the sins of some men, or he died for some of the sins of all men. When you say that unbelief is the only sin that keeps people out of hell, then you're saying that Christ's death was not sufficient. It was not powerful. Jesus just built a bridge halfway across the canyon, and now you've got to meet him with this other half of the bridge that we call faith. My friends, this is not what the scripture teaches.

If Christ died only to make it possible for people to be saved instead of actually dying to save people, then the death of Christ becomes powerless, imperfect, insufficient, and it's not enough to save people. God did something in the death of Christ. If Christ died for the sins of all people, then why then are all people not saved? Why are they punished and sent into everlasting destruction for their sins?

Listen to Revelation 21:8 carefully: but the fearful or the cowardly and unbelieving and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. The standard and presumed answer that is usually given to if Christ died for their sins, why do they go to hell, it's always the same. Unbelief, unbelief, unbelief.

Either Christ died for that unbelief or he didn't. I want to report today, I believe that he died for all the sins of some people. He died even for my unbelief. When I was still a child of wrath, just as everyone else, the only thing that held back the hand of God in his consuming me was the fact that Christ had fully atoned for my unbelief. That was why it was urged upon me that I need to believe upon him and receive him and, to use the old Puritan expression, sue God for mercy.

We want people to accept Jesus. What does that mean? You need to turn from your sins. You need to embrace him. You need to sue him. He has the power to cast out. "All that the Father gives me shall come unto me, and the one who comes unto me, I shall, I will by no means cast out." He has power to receive, he has power to save, and he has power to cast out. More than being interested in people accepting Christ, we need to tell people that they need to follow and come to Christ so that he will accept them. That, my friends, is biblical evangelism.

What is being violated here is the law of double jeopardy. Have you ever heard that? Double jeopardy is one of the oldest legal concepts in Western civilization. In 355, the Athenian statesman Demosthenes said, "The law forbids the same man to be tried twice on the same issue." That's why when O.J. Simpson was declared not guilty, though I lived out there at that time, though I had law enforcement people in our church, detectives and everything, they had all the evidence they lost the case because the lawyers argued it poorly.

They didn't seek any other murderer. They knew who the murderer was, but he had been declared not guilty and there was nothing more they could do. This is what the law—he could not be charged for the same crime twice. The Romans codified this principle in the Digest of Justinian in AD 533. The principle survived through the Middle Ages. Because of Greco-Roman legal traditions, canon law, and the teachings of the early church writers, the law still stands today.

It's this: that if payment for a crime has been, punishment for a crime has been meted out, that person cannot be charged for the crime again. If Jesus died for all the sins of all men, they cannot be punished for the sin of unbelief. Are you following what I'm saying? If he died for all the sins of all people, then on the last day, they cannot be punished for the sin of unbelief. The crime has already been paid for.

Augustus Toplady, any of you know what hymn he wrote? "Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee." We need to sing that more in our churches, by the way. He also wrote another hymn, "Whence This Fear and Unbelief," and he deals with this whole matter of double jeopardy. He says: From whence this fear and unbelief? Hath not the Father put to grief His spotless Son for me? And will the righteous Judge of men condemn me for the load of sin which Lord was charged to thee?

Complete atonement Jesus has made, and to the utmost he has paid whate'er God's people owed. Nor can God's wrath on me take place when sheltered by his righteousness and covered by his blood. This next stanza deals with this so perfectly: If thou my discharge has procured and freely in my stead endured the whole of wrath divine, payment God cannot twice demand, first at my bleeding Surety's hand and then again at mine.

If Jesus died even for my sin of unbelief, my friend, I can never be charged with it again. Praise his holy name. If he has full atonement made, then who, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect, Paul says. Well, it's God that justifies us. What is this rhetorical argument here? If God justifies us, he's surely not going to condemn us.

Toplady ends it this way: Return my soul unto your rest, the sorrows of your High Priest has brought you liberty. Trust in his efficacious blood, nor fear your banishment from God, since Jesus has died for you. Payment God will not twice demand, first at my bleeding Surety's hand and then again at mine. My friends, Jesus didn't just die for all the sins of all the people. He died for all the sins of some people. To say that people go to hell because of unbelief, did not Jesus die for that?

Who then did Christ die for? For whom did he die? Very simply put, my friends, very simply put, Christ died and took away the sins of the world of unbelievers that the Father gave unto him in unconditional election before the foundation of the world. They are called his people. They're called my sheep. They're called the church. They're called the many.

It's interesting. I wish some of our English—I'm not professing myself to be haughty or proud here—but so many times our English translations leave out certain definite articles. There are definite articles that need to be brought into our translation. For instance, the verse that I quoted the other day last Sunday morning in the worship: Christ said, I came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give my life a ransom. Most of your translations have "many," but you check your Greek text. There's the definite article before many: the many.

At the Lord's Supper: this is my blood of the new covenant which was shed. You look at your translation, it says "many," but you look at the Greek text. It has the definite article before it: this is my blood of the new covenant which was shed for the many. The many. Matthew 1:21: and she shall bring forth a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. John 6:37: all that the Father gives me. When did he give them to him? Before the foundation of the world. All that the Father gives me shall come to me.

That's why, and I'm going to touch on this in a minute, you brothers, don't you grow weary in that preaching out there in the street. God has a people. They shall come. They will come. They can do nothing else but come because Jesus has purchased them and you will see souls saved. John 10:26: but you do not believe, Jesus said, because you're not of my sheep as I said unto you. John 10:29: my Father which gave them to me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

John 17:2: as you Father have given him Jesus power over all flesh. That's a great comfort, isn't it? That's part of the Great Commission: all authority is given unto me in heaven and earth. We go in the authority in the name of Jesus. Here in John 17 he says, as you Father have given me power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. John 17:9: I pray not for them, or I pray for them, I do not pray for the world, but for them which you have given me for they are yours.

Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved what? The church and gave himself for it. For this is my blood of the new covenant. I could go on and on and on. Notice the definite articles through this. I'm going to skip over a great quote by Spurgeon. You've been here, you're too tired. It'll be here for you. He ends up, as he expounds the great doctrine of definite atonement, he says, "You are welcome to your atonement, you may keep it. We will never renounce ours for the sake of it."

I'm not going to deal with the objections. There are objections. If you're a thinking Christian, you probably have objections even now, but that's okay. All of the objections will fall under one of two categories. They will deal with those verses that are the world passages. I'd love to take you through them. It'd take me a couple of sermons to go through them, but I don't have time.

The objections fall under one category: those that are the world passages, as in God so loved the world. You need to understand it is the word "whosoever" is not there in John 3:16. It's "all the believing ones" in him should not perish. It's not just all, it's all the believing ones. Panteion. The other objection falls under the category of those passages that deal with all. All. Again, I just don't have time to unfold all those for you. You can learn them on your own.

Let me just turn now—you're tired, you're weary. I know I remember I had a professor who used to say, "Guys, watch your preaching. Remember the head and the heart can't take in more than the seat can endure." You've been enduring quite a bit. So let me just close with some implications, pastoral and practical, regarding definite atonement.

First of all, I want to submit to you that definite atonement is a gentle shepherd to keep you and me both humble. One of the great problems that we have is pride. We can be proud of place, we can be proud of race, we can be proud of face, but the most wicked pride of all is the pride of grace. Why was I made to hear your voice and enter while there's room, while thousands made a wretched choice and rather starve than come?

Why are you a Christian today? Is it because you were such a good person? Is it because you had so many privileges and advantages? Is it because you're such a great Bible scholar? I can tell you why. Because in the darkest night of your sin, God did not leave you alone. He gave himself no rest until he disturbed your rest and caused you to begin to seek after the one and only one who could save you, even the Lord Jesus Christ.

Isaac Watts continues that great hymn: 'Twas the same grace that spread the feast, that sweetly drew me in, else I had still refused to take and perish in my sin. Don't you ever be proud. You need to fall on your face. I love what the New Hampshire Confession says about election: election humbles us into the dust. You are nothing special in and of yourself.

If you're a Christian today, you cannot boast, "I chose the Lord, I did this, I did that." You have to say, "O Lord, if you had not come after me, I would have never come after you." If you love him today, if there's any degree of love in your heart to Christ today, it is because he first loved you. My heart owns none above thee for thy rich grace I thirst. This knowing if I love thee, thou must, thou must have loved me first.

If God had left me alone, if he had left you alone, you'd still be in your darkness, you'd still be in your sin, you'd still be confused in your mind. You would still have no meaning to life, no raison d'etre for living. But now you're here and you're glorying in a sure Redeemer. Election, definite atonement does not puff us up, it humbles us in the dust.

Secondly, if definite atonement is not true, then God has failed and keeps on failing. Now I want you to listen to a quote word for word. I'm not making it up. It was published in The Defender magazine in Springfield, Missouri. It is the official magazine of the Bible Baptist Fellowship. This quote was written by Dr. Noel Smith and he says this, quote: "The Triune God has done, is doing, always will do all that Triune God can do to save every man, woman, and child on this earth. What is hell? It is an infinite negation. It is an infinite chaos. And it is more than that, I tell you, and I say it with profoundest reverence, hell is a ghastly monument to the failure of the Triune God to save the multitudes who are there."

Did you hear what he just said? That hell is a ghastly monument to the failure of the Triune God to save people who are there. "I say it reverently," he continues, "I say it with every nerve in my body: sinners go to hell because God Almighty himself cannot save them. He did all he could do. He failed." End quote.

If God failed or if God continues to fail, I can tell you my friend, you and I have no hope. We have no hope whatsoever. We will be defeated in our Christian life. Man, we might as well just throw our Bibles out and eat, drink, and be merry, tomorrow we're going to die. Our efforts to evangelize and carry the gospel to the ends of the earth will end in miserable failure if it's dependent upon us.

Thirdly, I just want to say and say this quickly, definite atonement is a sweet oil of assurance to our souls. How can we be sure that we will one day not fall? Because Christ purchased us and the Father will not let us go. Fifthly, if definite atonement is true, then you and I can have real confidence in the gospel. And all this thrust this week has been not only the truth, but to carry the truth out into the regions beyond.

What is our confidence? You see, we send our young men to seminary, we teach them homiletics, we teach them all sorts of things to prepare them for the ministry. If we're not careful as pastors, we can become self-sufficient in the ministry. But we need to remember that our dependence ultimately is not in ourselves. Our dependence is upon the power of the gospel.

Our dependence is not upon the free will of man. I do urge men, I do entreat people, I do in one sense beg: why will you die? For 25 years I prayed for my father to become a Christian and every Saturday night I would call him when I was pastoring in Los Angeles and he lived in North Carolina. Every Saturday night I would call him. And my last words to him after I told him I love you, Papa, my last words were, "Meet me in heaven, Papa. Don't die outside of Christ." And I prayed for him for 25 years and I saw him one day come to faith, repentance and faith in Christ, and the last two and a half years of his life were glorious together.

But you see, my dependence was not upon his free will. My dependence was not on my ability to persuade him. Let it be carefully noted that it is not free will of man that is the power of God unto salvation. It is not the skill of the one who proclaims. It is not the skill of the orator. But it is the power of God, the gospel, that is the power unto salvation.

It is not the crafty designed program to lead people to Jesus that is the power of God unto salvation. It is the gospel. And I want to remind you, the gospel has not lost its ancient power. And it will never, ever lose its ancient power. I've had the wonderful privilege of going to London to the tomb of one of my great three great men in my life that I would love to have sat under, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, there at the Norwood Cemetery. There is his tomb and one side of it is the stanza from "There is a Fountain Filled with Blood" where it says: E'er since by faith I saw the stream thy flowing wounds supply, redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die.

And you go around to the other side and here is this verse: Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood shall never lose its power, till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more. Hallelujah to the Lamb. Brethren, the gospel has not lost its ancient power. Why? Because Jesus secured by his death on the cross the salvation of an innumerable host that continues to make the gospel powerful.

That's why we carry the gospel to the ends of the earth and entreat poor perishing sinners to come and welcome to Jesus Christ and we expect to see many saved. Never forget this. I've had people say, "But Pastor, I don't know what to say." I said, "You can start off by just telling them, you know, I was a great sinner and Jesus saved me from my great sins." You don't have to be eloquent. You don't have to be an orator.

Do you know the gospel? Do you know Christ who is the center of the gospel? I know this one little girl in our church. She was so shy and she learned this verse. And I wish I'd written it down, I can't remember. But when she'd get in the midst of unbelievers and they'd start persecuting her because of her faith, she'd just quote that verse over: "Oh, for the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. I was lost, he came to seek me, and he saved me." That's about all she could say. That's all she needed to say, wasn't it?

The word of God taken by the Spirit of God can pierce and penetrate the hardest of hearts. And it's because Christ did not fail on the cross. He did everything that the Father appointed him to do. He accomplished it. He was successful. And there will not be one soul at the marriage supper of the Lamb missing. Everyone that was appointed shall be there. There will be no empty mansions in glory.

Fifthly, definite atonement stirs us to service and obedience to Christ and that's been addressed well here. I can tell you, my friends, if you find serving Christ to be a burden, may I just share something with you? I'm in the Deep South. A lot of racism, a lot of racial prejudice is there. When the church asked me or when the pulpit search committee asked me to come to that church, they had a series of interviews and one of them was on the phone.

The very first one I said to the pulpit search committee, I said, "Now I want you to know something. I was born and raised in the South and you are deeper South than where I was born and raised, but I know that racism is still there. And you just need to know up front that if it is God's pleasure for me to come to this church and you call me to this church and I believe it to be the will of God and I come to this church, you need to know that I am going to invite anyone and everyone to this church that wants to come. I don't care if they're green or purple."

"If they want to hear the word of God and they want to hear of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, they will be welcome to come into this church. And if they repent of their sins and trust Christ as their Lord and Savior, I will baptize them and bring them into the membership of this church." And I thought that would put them off and instead, my doctor, he spoke up and he said, "Hallelujah, Pastor. You're the man we're looking for. We're here in this inner city setting and we want somebody to come in here."

They had stayed at the post. They were down to just a few people because there was a lot of white flight that had left, and these people said, "We're staying here because if we leave, who will give this community the gospel? Who will show them the compassion of Christ? Who will tell them of the mercy of God?" Man, my heart was already getting warmed up, you know, by that.

Well, we've got black folk, we've got brown folk, we've got red folk, we've got yellow folk in our church. That's the way it should be. That's just a microcosm of heaven, right? Not going to be a place for whites and blacks and yellows and browns and reds and whatever.

A few months ago, about a year ago now, received this call from a black funeral home and they asked me, "Would you come over and preach a funeral?" I said, "Sure. Man, I'll preach anywhere. I mean, I will preach anywhere. You don't restrict my message, I'll preach anywhere." And I went over there and preached and I said to those black folk, I said, "I want you to come to the church where I pastor."

And when I say this to the blacks, they don't like to be called African Americans down there. I'm not opposed to using the term African American, but they prefer by their own choice to be called blacks. And I said, "I want you to come to the church where I pastor because I want to tell you of Christ, I want to tell you of the gospel." Well, the widow of this man came to our church. She's 73 years old. Her parents were slaves and died without being able to read or write.

And she, this lady, the widow, is just barely able to read herself. She can just barely. You read her signature and it's almost like hen scratching. And she started coming and we just saw the word of God working and changing her and she came to faith in Christ. She said, "Oh, Brother Earl," as only those Southern blacks can talk. I love them. I said, "Let me live among them, let me die with them. I love them."

"Oh, Brother Earl," she said, "I love the Lord's Day. I wish every day was the Lord's Day." That woman came to faith in Christ, 73 years old. Now I said, "Now Miss Ruby, we're going to have to baptize you." She said, "I want to be a part of this church." I said, "We got to baptize you, Miss Ruby." She said, "Now what's that?" She has no church background. She said, "What's that?"

I said, "Miss Ruby," and we took time to explain to her biblical baptism. I said, "We're going to have to take you in the water. It's your confession of Christ, it's your testimony, it's your confession of faith. We're going to have to take you into the water and in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, take you under." She said, "All the way under?" I said, "All the way under, Miss Ruby."

So the day comes and we have several to baptize. Miss Ruby comes in and I said, "Now Miss Ruby," I'd said to her before, "You want me to put my hand here on your throat or cup your nose and mouth and take you under?" She said, "Oh, cup my nose and mouth and take me under." And so I cup her nose and mouth and I start to take her under, and I noticed some little legs and little feet coming up under that baptismal robe and they're fluttering up here. Her head is not wanting to go under the water.

And I knew at least in my own conscience before God, I needed to fully immerse her. I just plunged her under and she come up and she was spewing water. And as she's walking up the stairs out of the baptistery, I hear her say, "I'm going to get you, Brother Earl. I'm going to get you." I started laughing in the baptistery. One of our elders was leading the service. I'm laughing. I looked over here at the deacon that was assisting me. He's holding his side, leaning up against the wall laughing so loud.

And I'm thinking, "Oh man, here's the whole congregation looking at me laughing at a serious and joyful and solemn time as this." And I thought I owed them an explanation. I said, "I just need you to know that our newest member has threatened your pastor. She thought I was trying to drown her." And you could hear back over there in the dressing room, "You was, Brother Earl, you was!"

I say that to say, dear one, this lady wants to—she said, "What can I do to serve my Lord Jesus?" I said to her before she was baptized, she said, "Oh, Brother Earl, I gotta go under the water?" I said, "Yes." I said, "Just remember, Christ went to the cross for you. Is it too hard? He went to the cross and did all." She said, "No, I'm ready." And when we see what Christ did for us and his securing our salvation, service to him is not a burden, is it? It's a great blessing.

Well, seventh, definite atonement gives us a boldness in our engagement with the world in confidence in God. The Christian believes that believes in a definite redemption believes that God is able to accomplish his purposes. He believes that God through men, though he believes that though men fight and rebel and resist God in the day of God's power, his people shall be made willing.

And this keeps us going. I'll never forget, I was at the Southern Baptist Convention several four years ago, and I was tired. They have a convention center where all the displays are set. I was tired of all the rigamarole going so I sneaked in behind these, this little row here heading down to Seminary Alley, wanted to get over to see my friends at Southern.

And I'm thinking I'm here by myself and I look up and here comes Dr. Page Patterson, President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. There's no way that we can avoid meeting one another. He comes up, "Hello, sir." I said, "Hello to you, sir." We shook hands. He said, "I'm Page Patterson." I said, "Yes, sir, I know." I said, "My name is Earl Blackburn." He said, "Where do you pastor?" I said, "Heritage Baptist Church, Shreveport." He said, "Haven't been over Shreveport much." He said, "Heritage Baptist."

I said, "Dr. Patterson, let me say something. I appreciate the things that you've said. I've appreciated how that you've carried yourself and I greatly respect you, but just so that you won't get confused, I'm one of those evangelizing Calvinists." And he goes, "What?" I said, "I'm one of those evangelizing Calvinists." Now, he's not a Calvinist. He said, "Oh, really?" I said, "Yes, sir, Dr. Patterson." I said, "We go door to door to door to door through our community and the whole area seeking to declare the gospel."

And I said, "We may, we may knock on 50 doors and every one of them are slammed in our face. But it will be the 51st or the 52nd or the 53rd or the 89th or the 94th, but one of those doors when we leave, we're going to hear the bleating of a little lamb going, 'Baa, baa.'" We know we're going to see people saved.

And we need to have the confidence that definite redemption, definite atonement has accomplished a purpose. We can go forth and engage the world boldly. It is this that keeps you bold in confidence in the face of people who are persecuting, criticizing, and ridiculing. It's because you know that Jesus Christ's mission was successful that you declare to people: believe, believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. It is because you believe that Christ's mission was successful that you can tell others that if they will confess with their mouths the Lord Jesus and believe in their hearts that God has raised him from the dead, they shall be saved. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all who call upon him.

Then I'll bypass, I want to close with this. Last of all, definite atonement inflames the heart of a Christian to worship and praise God. It doesn't produce a coldness, a chill. It doesn't hinder evangelism and world missions. I mean, William Carey is a picture-perfect example of that, is he not? A Particular Baptist who held definitely in definite atonement and goes and labors.

But if you know that your redemption is all of God and you did not have any part in it, that you cannot pat yourself on the back and say, "Well, he died to remove the penalty of my sin, but at least I had enough common sense to choose Jesus." I said, "I didn't have enough common sense to choose Jesus. I didn't want anything to do with Jesus. I tried to run from him, I tried to run away from everyone that was a Christian."

And when the Lord saved me, I called up this lady, I could not—my father would go over there to her and her husband's house and the moment we got in the door they were talking about Christ, they were talking about the Bible, and as quick as I could, I'd get out. I didn't want to hear that stuff. The Lord saved me, I called her and I said—I called over there to their house and Mrs. Ring answered the phone. I said, "Mrs. Ring, the Lord Jesus has saved me." She said, "I knew he was. We've been praying for you for three years." And I heard her go, "Hallelujah. Hallelujah."

Brethren, definite atonement should fire your heart to worship him. Listen to the multitudes in heaven in Revelation 5:9: you are worthy, O Lord, to receive honor and glory and dominion and power, for you have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every kindred, out of every tribe, out of every tongue, out of every nation. Notice they didn't sing, "Worthy is the Lamb that made redemption possible by his blood so we could accept it." Or "Worthy is the Lamb who did his part so we could do our part." Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.

Well, much more could be said. I pray that you'll leave this place strengthened and boldened, more determined to go out, but also being very doxological. What do I mean by that? If the worship and the praise of God is not upon your heart, you've not rightly known the Lord. When you know him, there's a doxology that comes out of your heart.

And as Paul ends that great pericope of Romans 9, 10, and 11, in which he deals with the theodicy of the way God deals with men, he says it like this: Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he may be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things, to whom be glory forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. Amen.

Our Father, dismiss us with your blessing, your peace, your grace. Empower us with your Holy Spirit that we might be bold in this world of darkness, in this perverse generation. May we not be ashamed of him who was not ashamed to identify himself with us. Grant grace and blessing to each of us as we turn to our respective spheres of labor and service unto you. And this I ask in the mighty name of Jesus our Lord. Amen.

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