Now I am perfectly aware of the argument frequently urged, that the Lord Jesus Christ is certain to save all those for whom He shed His blood, and I am quite prepared to acknowledge that, humanly speaking, there is great apparent reason in it. But I do not believe that it is according to Scripture; and after all we must rely in all such matters on the statements of God’s word, and not on our own conclusions. I would refer you, then, to two passages which certainly seem to be conclusive on that point. The one is 1 Cor. viii. 11, ‘Through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?’ The other is 2 Pet. ii. 1, where, predicting the dangers of the latter days, the Apostle says, ‘There shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.’ The first of these texts seems certainly to teach very clearly that those for whom Christ died may perish, and the other that people for whom the Lord had given the redemption price of His own most precious blood may still deny Him, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. We must not therefore be guided in such a matter by our own conclusions. The whole plan from first to last is divine. The eternal purpose is divine; the Saviour is divine; the salvation is divine; the atonement is divine, and the revelation of the great purpose must likewise be divine. We must not attempt, therefore, to cut our system square by the rule of our own opinion, but must take God’s Scripture just as it stands, and receive God’s salvation just as He has revealed it in His Word. What, then, has He revealed? That is the question. Has He taught us that the Lord Jesus Christ shed His most precious blood for the elect alone or for all? Blessed be God! the testimony of Scripture appears as plain as the sun in heaven that the atonement was made for all, and that in consequence of that atonement the door is thrown open to every sinner upon earth. I have no time now to attempt to bring before you the multitude of passages which abound in Scripture in proof of this position. I must be content to draw your attention to only three, the first relating to the fact itself, the second to the love that led to it, and the third to the offer made in consequence of it.