First Session: Friday, January 5, 2007
Title: Behold, My Servant
Text: Isaiah 53:10
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Owen's dilemma [see Appendix]
Five Gospels?!?! - Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Isaiah
Two triplets in verse 10:
1. (a) Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; (b) he hath put him to grief: (c) when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin,
2. (d) he shall see his seed, (e) he shall prolong his days, and (f) the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
1. The Reason for Messiah's Suffering - Isaiah 53:10a-c - The Person of the Servant
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin,...
compare Isaiah 7:14 and 9:6 -
7:14 - Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
9:6 - For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
compare also Isaiah 11:1 and 10 -
11:1 - And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
11:10 - And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.
Christ was both Rod and Root, human and divine
Brother Morris knows the right answer to the question:
"Do you want cornbread or biscuits?"
His answer: "Yes!"
compare Isaiah 42:1 - Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
"I fear that sometimes we are too familiar with the Gospel!"
2. The Result of Messiah's Suffering - Isaiah 53:10d-f - The Success of the Servant
...he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Our theology needs to include "Seedology"!
Second Session: Saturday, January 6, 2007
Title: God's Compelling Love
Text: John 6:44-45
[44] No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. [45] It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
"Gypsy Smith preached until a ripe old age. He came into the Life of God through the ministry of D.L. Moody, having grown up among a family of gypsies and was known for his joy-filled disposition. The Lord used him greatly as he preached between Europe and America and on one such junket, as he sailed across the Atlantic on his way to yet another speaking engagement, an admirer asked him, “How do you do it, Mr. Smith? How do you stay so fresh in the things of the Lord?”
His answer itself was fresh and insightful: “Because, dear friend, I’ve never lost the wonder of it all.” "
1. Amazing Wonder - An Impossible Act for Man
No man can come to me
no ability - there is a distinction between "can" and "may"!
2. Arresting Word - The Irresistible Activity of God
except the Father which hath sent me draw him
"draw" - compare other usages of this word - Peter drawing his sword from its scabbard, and dragging the net to shore
Ralph Erskine said that he was "saved against his will with his full consent"!
Pastor's Note: this statement of Erskine's is found in Spurgeon's sermons as follows -
"Erskine, in speaking of his own conversion, says he ran to Christ "with full consent against his will," "
"...as Ralph Erskine paradoxically puts it, the man is saved "with full consent against his will" "
John G. Reisinger - "Coming to Christ was the most willing thing I ever did in my life!"
Pastor's Note: Pastor Reisinger has also stated it this way -
"We insist that the most willingly thing any sinner ever did was to freely repent and believe the gospel."
3. Awakened Willingness - The Inevitable Action
and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
Third Session: Sunday, January 7, 2007
Title: The Missing Note
Text: Hebrews 3:12-14
[12] Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. [13] But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. [14] For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
1. A Grave Danger, or a Serious Peril - 3:12 and 3:13b - The Progress of Evil
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God....lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
The 3-fold focus of the warning:
1) evil heart of unbelief
2) hardened through the deceitfulness of sin
3) departing from the living God
2. A Godly Duty, or a Healthy Preventative - 3:13a - The Duration of the Duty
But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today
Until we are relieved of that duty!
3. A Great Demand, or a Sweet Promise - 3:14
For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end
"The faith that fizzles before the finish was fickle and flawed from the first!"
Appendix: Owen's "dilemma" -
"To which I may add this dilemma to our Universalists --
God imposed his wrath due unto, and Christ underwent the pains of hell for,
1. either all the sins of all men,
2. or all the sins of some men,
3. or some sins of all men.
If the LAST, some sins of all men, then have all men some sins to answer for, and so shall no man be saved; for if God entered into judgment with us, though it were with all mankind for one sin, no flesh should be justified in his sight: "If the LORD should mark iniquities, who should stand?" [Ps. cxxx.2] We might all go to cast all that we have "to the moles and to the bats, to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty." [Isa. ii. 20, 21]
If the SECOND, that is it which we affirm, that Christ in their stead and room suffered for all the sins of all the elect in the world.
If the FIRST, why then, are not all freed from the punishment of all their sins? You will say, "Because of their unbelief; they will not believe."
But this unbelief, is it a sin, or not?
If not, why should they be punished for it? If it be, then Christ underwent the punishment due to it, or not. If so, then why must that hinder them more than their other sins for which he died from partaking of the fruit of his death? If he did not, then did he not die for all their sins.
Let them choose which part they will."
[Source: Salus Electorum, Sanguis Jesu; or, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, by John Owen, in Vol. 10 of The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, n.d.; 1976 reprint of Johnstone & Hunter ed., 1850-1953, from 1642-1653 originals), pp. 173-174.]
Pastor's Note: This is the first of twenty-seven such dilemmas Owen poses to the objector in The Death of Death. Together they constitute what I term his "Cavalry of Questions". This onslaught of multiplied dilemmas has not been satisfactorily or convincingly responded to by any opponent to the doctrine of Particular Redemption (Substitutionary Atonement) to this day, in my humble opinion, either in whole or in part.
