[0:00] We will enable us words which we find in the epistle of Paul to the Romans. The epistle to the Romans, chapter 8, and we'll turn again to verse 32.
[0:19] He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
[0:45] The apostle Paul has been dealing in the earlier chapters of this great epistle with two major doctrines.
[0:59] He's been dealing with the doctrine of justification by faith alone. And as you know, the great reformer Martin Luther said, concerning the doctrine of justification by faith alone, that it was this doctrine which made either a standing or a falling church.
[1:26] And the church of Christ in Rome was clearly instructed in the great biblical doctrine of justification.
[1:42] And then in chapters 6 and 7, the apostle has gone on to deal with the doctrine of sanctification. And although there is a great distinction to be made between the doctrine of justification and the doctrine of sanctification, it's exceedingly interesting to me that there is in scripture such a close connection between the two doctrines.
[2:13] And I think the reason why you've got such a close connection between the doctrine of justification and the doctrine of sanctification, I think the reason is this.
[2:27] Justification deals with unimputed righteousness, whereas sanctification deals with unimparted righteousness.
[2:39] So you have that great connection between these two doctrines. And now, having dealt with these doctrines, the apostle is here going on to write this great chapter.
[2:55] And this chapter has been called a charter, a charter of the Christian faith. It's been called the Magna Carta of our Christian faith.
[3:07] And it begins with a great claim that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. After having said all he said about a war that's going on in the saints, a war that's going on in the life of grace, the apostle has this to say, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
[3:37] The apostle outworks this great, great statement in a charter of the Christian's freedom, the freedom of a Christian or a spiritual man.
[3:52] And we're told here in chapter 8 that to be spiritually minded is life and peace. To be carnally minded is death.
[4:03] And you have that great contrast between the carnal mind and the spiritual mind in this great chapter. And the hallmark of the spiritual mind is this, that we through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body.
[4:23] You see, the rule in the life of grace again and again is this, that sanctification leads to further sanctification, further crucifying of the flesh, further mortifying of the deeds of the flesh.
[4:43] And then he goes on to talk about the believer's hope and finally to speak about the perseverance of the saints. And that's the doctrine with which the apostle is dealing here.
[4:57] He's dealing with the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints of God. And he's giving several reasons why the saints are going to persevere.
[5:10] And this is one of the reasons that he gives. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
[5:26] So I'm going to deal with this whole area of our Christian life, the area of persevering in the Christian life. And to show you tonight how we have our hope of perseverance through the cross of Christ.
[5:45] And as we come to the verse, there is but a twofold breakdown of the verse. First of all, we have here a tremendous, a wonderful declaration.
[6:00] He who spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. And the Lord, the apostle is bringing us to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[6:16] You see what he's doing here. He's using a form of argumentation. He's arguing from the greater premise to the lesser premise.
[6:28] And the lesser premise is introduced to us in the form of a rhetorical question. He says, He spared not his own son, he delivered him up for us all.
[6:40] This tremendous declaration. And how shall he not then freely give us with him all things? That's the lesser.
[6:51] And he puts it in the form of a question. First of all then, we're going to look at this double declaration. He spared not his own son, but he delivered him up for us all.
[7:07] And first of all, we come to this, he who spared not his own son. My friends, when you come to the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ, there are several ways in which you're to look at the atoning work of Christ.
[7:27] Do you remember that great book by Hugh Martin, The Atonement? Now, Hugh Martin tells us that there are two ways in which you must always look at the atonement.
[7:42] You must always look at it, first of all, within the context of the covenant of grace. That's the first way in which you must always come to examine the atoning work of Christ.
[7:57] And secondly, you must look at the atoning work of Christ in relation to the act of justification. And Paul has done this in Romans 3, 24 and on to the end of chapter 5.
[8:16] And then you see, he says this statement, he spared not his own son. And I'm going to ask first who he was who was not spared.
[8:33] And I've got this to say, he spared not God's own son. You know, friends, when you come to the atonement, you've got to look at it from the point of you of the Lord Jesus Christ and his part in the atonement.
[8:52] Of course you do. But I think it's possible for us to miss out on something of the glory of the atoning work of our Lord Jesus if we miss out on the Father's love that lies back of the atonement and on which the atonement is really based.
[9:14] He, the Father, spared not his own son. Now, what does the Bible mean when it calls Jesus God's own son?
[9:27] Well, I think it means this, that Jesus Christ, the son of God, is the same in substance, equal in power and glory with the Father.
[9:41] I believe that when Jesus is called the son of God, it's a signal to us as we read that great title of Jesus Christ, the son of God, we do so because he is none other than God himself.
[10:03] He's the same in substance, equal in power and glory with the Father. and otherwise he wouldn't be called the son of God, his own son.
[10:17] He wouldn't be called the son if he were not of the same nature as the Father. So, this Jesus who was not spared is Jehovah.
[10:32] He's Jehovah because he's the son of God. he came out from the Father eternally begotten by the Father.
[10:44] There are two ways in which we're to look at the Trinity. We're to look always on the Trinity as eternal and you're to look on Jesus, the second person of the Trinity.
[10:59] You're to look on him as eternally begotten and you're to look on the Holy Spirit as eternally proceeding from the Father. And it is from this angle I believe that the song of Ephesus is placed here on Jesus as the Son of God.
[11:21] And who was it then who was not spared? It was God's own Son. Now why does Paul speak of Jesus Christ as God's own Son?
[11:38] Because God has many sons. And you've been reading about that in this very chapter. As many as are sons of God, they are led by the Spirit of God.
[11:49] Verse 14, He has put the Spirit of the Son into their hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Verse 16, they have the witness of the Spirit in themselves, that they've been adopted, they're heirs of God, they're joined heirs with Christ.
[12:05] These people in the church, they're the sons of God. But they're not called God's own son. And you see this title that is given to Christ, God's own son, it separates him, it makes a difference between him and all the other sons that God has.
[12:30] because you see all the other sons are adopted. They're adopted into God's own family. But this son is his own son.
[12:45] This son is the eternally begotten son. This son is different because he's God's own. And the Bible gives us every reason to believe that being the eternally begotten son of God.
[13:03] Jesus Christ is beloved of the father in a unique and a special way because he is the father's delight and has been the father's delight from all eternity.
[13:22] And yet the wonder of our text is this, he spared not his own son. the delight of the father from all eternity and the wonder of the gospel is this, that God the father loved the church so much that he spared not that son of his.
[13:46] He gave him up to the cross of shame. He gave him up to the agonies of Calvary. He gave him up to all of that. He spared him not.
[14:00] That's the wonder, my friend, of the gospel of redeeming grace, that God spared not his own son.
[14:13] But who was it who spared not his own son? It was the father in his love. son. Now I want to mention two things about the relationship between the father and this son whom he spared not.
[14:33] First of all I would like to stress tonight the essential unity of the Godhead. And in sparing not his own son, there was no breach came in the essential unity of the Godhead.
[14:50] See, there are those who tell me that when Jesus went to the cross of shame, he emptied himself. And they use a good Greek word to justify their argument that he emptied himself.
[15:07] And they have this word, kenosis, and they get it on their brain, and they say that when Jesus went to the cross, he was emptying himself. And all these great, great theologians, particularly in the 19th century, and in Germany in particular, and some in Britain, got this thought into their head that when Jesus went to the cross, he divested himself of his glory to such an extent that he ceased to be God.
[15:39] Oh, what a travesty the kenotic theory is. What a travesty of real Christian doctrine this is. He didn't divest himself of his God head, my friend.
[15:54] He was God's own son on the cross, though God spared him not. Part of the wonder of Calvary's love, part of the wonder of the sacrifice of the cross of Calvary is this, that he remained what he was, when he became what he was not.
[16:17] He remained essentially what he already was. He was the second person of the Trinity, and he didn't cease to be the second person of the Trinity.
[16:29] And there is essential unity in the God head. Yet the wonder of the love of God the Father in sending his son to the cross is this, he spared him not.
[16:44] So there was an essential unity of Godhead between them. Wonder of wonders, my friend, that God the Father should send God the son and should spare not God the son.
[17:01] And then something else. There is a mutual love between God the father and God the son. God the son. My dear people, don't you allow for one moment anyone to tell you that Christ was divested of the love of his son.
[17:21] Don't you allow that. And I fear lest into our free church doctrine there is this, this teaching beginning to creep in that God's love was taken from the son in the ministry that he performed in saving wretched sinners like you and I.
[17:45] My friend, there's a sense in which you can say, if ever God loved him, he loved him when he spared him not. If ever God loved him, he loved him then.
[17:59] Don't you allow any of our teachers and any of our preachers to take from you this great, great doctrine of the mutual love between the persons of the trinity.
[18:12] Don't allow yourself to be robbed of that great, great thought that God loved him. And yet the wonder of it is this, God spared him not.
[18:30] It's a paradox. God loved the son and he was the beloved son of God in whom God was well pleased. He was the one in whom the father delighted, the father in whom he delighted.
[18:46] And yet the father spared him not. He spared him not. He spared not his own son.
[18:59] And then I've got another question to ask, for whom was he not spared? For whom was the son not spared?
[19:15] Why? Why did this paradox come to be in the experience of the son of God? Why should this paradox be in the Godhead?
[19:27] that the God who loved the son spared not the son? Now I'll tell you why. Because of God's eternal decree of election.
[19:41] That's why. Because of God's love that rested in the eternal decree. That's why he spared not his son.
[19:53] As Hugh Martin tells us in his great book on the atonement, you've got to go back to see the atoning work of Christ within the framework of the covenant of grace.
[20:08] And if you're asking what is it that lies behind the death of Christ, I tell you what lies behind the death of Christ. It's the atoned, it's the loving, the loving covenant of grace that was made between God the Father and God the Son in respect of a non-ending number of God's elect, an unknown number of God's elect, for of all eternity.
[20:44] But for whom was he not spared? Well, first of all, let me say this, a people who were infinitely insignificant as to their rank.
[20:58] What were they? Worms of the dust, that's what the Bible calls them, those that were saved. And not only were the worms of the dust insignificant in their rank, but these insignificant worms of the dust had dared to raise the hill of rebellion against God.
[21:20] They had sinned against God. And it is for them that he spared not his own son, a people who had rebelled against the God of heaven.
[21:34] Imagine that. Worms, insignificant specks of dust, dust. And they thought that they could raise the hill of rebellion against God and say to the God before whom we stand, we will not have this man to reign over us.
[21:55] What do you think you are if you are a rebel against God tonight, my friend? What do you think you are? What do I think I am? If I take such a step as to sin against the God who made me, and yet for these insignificant worthless ranks, Christ was not spared.
[22:23] Oh, the love of God, my friend. Can you not stop for a moment and wonder at the extent of the love of God that he would love me as sinner condemned unclean?
[22:37] not only were these people insignificant, but something else that you can say about them, they were death deserving transgressors, death deserving transgressors who had transgressed the holy unbending law of God, everyone for whom Christ died, for whom he was not spared.
[23:07] They deserved the death that he died. And that's the wonder of the death that he died. It was in their room and in their place, in their stead he went to the cross of Calvary.
[23:22] It was in their stead that he was not spared of God the Father. You see, they were enemies who God knew hated him.
[23:37] And that was true of every one of us for whom Jesus died. We were enemies by wicked works. We were guilty of the cross, guilty of the death of the Son of God.
[23:51] That's what we were. And yet the wonder of God's love is this for people like us. He spared not his own Son.
[24:07] What lay behind this sparing knot of his own Son? Well, first of all, I think I can say this, that in order that God and man be reconciled, there had to be a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice.
[24:37] There must be satisfaction made. There must be a satisfaction of the claims of divine justice in respect of God the Father, because God the Father stands in relation to these transgressors, these death-deserving transgressors, he stands in the rank of a judge before them.
[25:08] He's there as the sinner's judge, my friend, and he's there tonight as your judge, and as the judge he has every right to make demands.
[25:23] But do you know, my friend, the wonder of this judge? He gives what he himself demands. The judge becomes the benefactor.
[25:38] The judge gives the son. He gives the sacrifice. He gives the one who will satisfy his own justice.
[25:49] and what does this do to the atoning work of Christ? Well, I'll tell you one thing it does. It saves us from ever calling God unjust because he gives what he himself demands and therefore let him demand what he will.
[26:15] He gives it in the person of his own dear son. He spared not his own son. Oh, the wonder of the grace of God in the gospel.
[26:27] He spared him not. He brought him forth as the lamb of God. Behold, says John, the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.
[26:42] Now, you know that the whole of the sacrificial system of the Old Testament was based on animal sacrifice. And the lamb, particularly at the time of Passover, the lamb that was slain had to be a lamb without blemish.
[27:02] And this son that God spared not is totally without blemish. There's no sin in the Son of God. He wears a coat that is seamless.
[27:17] And so the character of the Son of God is totally seamless. There's no sin in the Son of God that you can find.
[27:29] A lesser sacrifice wouldn't do and more is not required than this. Oh, my friend, the one that of God's provision in the Gospel.
[27:42] Less wouldn't do and more is not needed. But God gave his own son and he spared not his own son and he gave him as a lamb for an offering.
[27:59] Behold, said Isaac, the wood and the fire, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? My son, said Abraham, God will provide himself a lamb.
[28:11] And God provided this lamb, he spared not his own son. And then there is something else that I could say about this son of his.
[28:28] The son of God came to be born of a woman made under the law that he might redeem them that are under the law and give them the adoption of sons.
[28:41] And my friend, this had to be in the experience of the son of God who was spared not. Part of his being spared not was that he was born of a woman, that he came to be conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Ghost and that he was born of a yet without sin.
[29:08] the wonder of wonders that God's son came to be born of a woman. Born of a woman and then made under the law so that all the demands of God's law were upon Christ and as the law looked on Christ in himself the law found nothing in him nothing whatsoever but yet my friend for you he bore your sins if you're a believer in him today he bore your sins and the law had to exact the uttermost farthing from him because he was the sin bearer he spared not his own son but then notice he delivered him up for us all it's almost as though the text is going a step further now he delivered him up for us all to what did he deliver him he delivered him to death why death because nothing less would save those for whom
[30:20] Christ was was the purity nothing less than the death of God's own son would do he had to be delivered to death death but was any death enough for Christ to die was it enough that he would die in a soft bed on a soft downy pillow no no only the death of the cross why because the death of the cross was an accursed death and you see the only death that would do for the surety of God's people for whom he was dying was that he should die an accursed death now among the Jews the death by crucifixion wasn't known but yet it was common to hang a dead body on a tree and
[31:23] I was to say in the pentateuch regarding a dead body that would be hung on a tree and this is what it said cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree my friend when you compact the excruciating agony of death by crucifixion with Christ hanging on a tree you see something of what was meant by him sparing not his own son but delivering him up for us all and you say oh yes I know there was excruciating agony in the cross there was something more than any excruciating bodily agony in the cross there was this drinking the cup that the father gave them to the very bitterest dregs of the cup and the bitter dregs of the cup that the father gave the son to drink on
[32:32] Calvary they were bitter dregs that were full of the curse that he bore for the sins of his people my friend what more could God do for you than that he should spare not his own son but deliver him up for us all for us all for all those who like these Roman Christians put their trust in Christ he died for them and tonight I can guarantee you my friend if you will put your trust in the Christ of Calvary if he sent his son to die on the cross is there anything too much for this
[34:21] God if he delivered up the son of a sloth to the cross of Calvary is there anything too much for him and I think I'm hearing someone here saying oh look at all the gospel I've heard if only I would come to know the Lord if only I would taste for myself the blessing of God my friend is it too much to taste the blessing of God and to know the blessing of God and to know the blessing of assurance and to know that your sins are forgiven if God sent his son to the cross is it too much to expect him to give you assurance no no there's nothing too much if he went so far that he gave his son and delivered him to the cursed death of the cross there's nothing too much now
[35:21] I'm going to ask this question in two or three different ways to show you just what this question means he spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things does this question mean is it not possible probable or possible that God will supply all your needs no that's not what the question means is it not probable that God will supply all your needs no no that's not what it means is it not certain that God will give me all the grace that I need that's not what it means what this question means is this God cannot but give all things to his people since Christ died God cannot but give all things to his people it's impossible for
[36:27] God to do anything less than give all things to his people you see he's argued the greatest from the greatest standpoint he sent his son to the cross he delivered him up to the death of Calvary he did that and you're here tonight and you're saying oh it's too much that the light should shine into my heart it's too much that I should know the blessing of sin forgiven after Christ sent his son to the cross is anything too much for God my friend is it to whom does he give this blessing listen to the text again he that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also give us all things with him do you know one way in which you can be assured of the blessings of almighty
[37:35] God is this that by faith you should receive Christ that's her one way that you can know the blessing of God in your own life is that you should receive him with him he gives all the blessings freely do you know this my friend whatever providential blessings you receive from God without Christ you have no eternal blessing none whatsoever all the blessings are nothing to you if you don't have Christ for your soul you can have been brought up in a Christian home you can have the Bible morning and night at your hearse side you can bend your knee you can go through all the formalism in the world you can do it all but if you don't have Christ don't look for these blessings it's only with him that
[38:38] God gives the blessings do do you do you do you know there are some people in this gathering tonight and I'm sure you hear and you're trying your best to live the good life and you're saying I can be good without Christ I don't need this Christ of the gospel I can live a good life without him can you my friend don't expect eternal blessings in your life without Christ in your life don't it's only with the Christ of the cross that you'll be able to smile in eternity it's only with the Christ in the cross that you'll be able to glory in eternity it's only with the Christ of the cross in your heart that you'll be able to know a certainty and a security for all eternity only with him yes how shall he not with him oh my friend before we go one step forward from here tonight make sure that you've got him whatever else you've got in life get
[39:52] Christ seek Christ because without him you'll be miserable for time and you'll be miserable for eternity and you'll be miserable forever but with Christ you'll be safe and secure for all eternity with him but what are these blessings now all things that are given freely well first of all let me say this with Christ God gives all the covenant blessings listen to the verses that just came before this whom he did for know them he did predestinate whom he called them he justified whom he justified them he glorified and he will withhold no covenant blessing from those who have them not one no he'll withhold no covenant blessing he'll withhold no gospel promise from those who have him he spared not his own son he delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him give us all the promises that's why the people of
[41:13] God can say tonight that all the promises of God in him are ye and in him are amen in Christ Jesus the promises are used in Christ and finally not only are the covenant blessings and the gospel promises but all the grace that is treasured up in Christ is used tonight with him and without him there's no grace now my friend I feel tonight that I have to speak to someone here I feel there's someone in this gathering tonight and really you're seeking for peace with God and seeking for Christ for your soul how are you going to get him well all the blessings and all the promises and all the grace that is in
[42:17] Christ are made over to men and women through the one that was spared not but delivered up to the curse of Calvary still will you not look to Golgotha tonight will you not look to the place of the skull where Jesus Christ yielded his life a ransom for many or will you not find that there is life do you remember John Bunyan in the pilgrim's progress when he came to the cross he had a cry and the cry of John Bunyan was this life life eternal life and all he
[43:23] H was each he saved and he and only he they become good for people didn't know them and he said