God's Unwavering Love: Assurance Through Christ's Sacrifice

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 now we are engaged in at the moment in analyzing and studying and considering together the this last section or subsection in this great 8th chapter of this epistle it starts at this 31 and as as the explaining last Friday night but the Apostle does from here to the end of the chapter is to put up four kind of challenges for the great doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints which he's been expounding in this is 28 29 and 30 indeed he's been expounding it right through the chapter but particularly in those three verses and what he does of course is to put up these challenges in order that he may answer them deal with them demolish them and thereby undergird we emphasized proved still further he is the great contention and establish his argument now last Friday night we consider the first of these challenges the one that he puts in verse 31 what shall we then say to these things yes the first challenge if God be for us who can be against us the challenges who can be against us if God is for us in other words he puts up this question as to whether there is any possibility of any power ever appearing or arising which could take us out of God's hands or to use the language of the 10th chapter of John's Gospel he tries to envisage the possibility of any power capable of out of the hands of God and so leaving us in a state of final perdition refers of course only to those who are God's children those who love God those who are the called according to his purpose those whom he has already glorified well we consider that and we saw how the Apostle is able to argue in terms of the whole being and nature and character of God that the thing is an absurdity it is impossible if God be false there is nothing there is no one who can ever be against us so we come this evening to the second challenge that he puts up and the second challenge I described last Friday night as being this is there any danger of God's love to us Lesly or waning or indeed ceasing altogether yes is the most important question of God our whole position is dependent upon the love of God we've got nothing at all apart from this so it's a very serious question this is it conceivable is it possible that there may be variations in the love of God all that a day may come when he'll not love us as much as he loves us now because if there is the possibility then our whole position is again in jeopardy and we are left in a state of complete uncertainty nothing is more important than that we should know and know beyond any doubt or peradventure that it is impossible for the love of God toward us ever to change at all still less to disappear now then but that is the thing that the Apostle deals with here as I've reminded you he never takes anything for granted he always supplies us with proofs with demonstration and that's what he does in this particular verse now this was that we're looking at is not only a master BR in and of itself it is at the same time one of the greatest statements of the doctrine of the atonement that you can find anywhere in the whole of scripture and it is in addition one of the most comforting and reassuring statements that is to be found in the whole realm and range of the Word of God someone has said this that the number of them ket ik expressions are crowded together in this symptom and how true it is a number of emphatic expressions that incidentally send inhibit a number of them hectic expressions are crowded together in this sentence yes we can go beyond that a number of the most wonderful and the most crucial Christian doctrines are crowded together in the space in the confines of just this one verse but now I say that this verse is an argument the whole form of it suggests that of course and the question at the end he got spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things now let's try and look at it like this let's serve for a moment look at the argument in general I mean by that the the nature of the character of the argument or if you prefer it to mere mechanics of the argument because you'll find that that is something which is full of interest what is the object of the argument let's start with that let's be sure about this the object of the argument is to prove and to demonstrate that God love to us can never possibly fail or even lesson in any extent at all that's what we set out to prove what is Method well you notice the method is that of arguing from a greater to a lesser the Apostles or the fund of this method of argumentation and it's always a very good one he's done exactly the same thing already in Chapter five in verses 9 and 10 there he puts it like this perhaps I better read verse 8 as well but God he says commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us much more than being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him Khalif when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son how much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life I put it in the form of a question which is what it really is but here in the authorized it actually reads much more being reconciled we shall be saved in of by his life now it's exactly the same argument and it's exactly the same type of argument he starts with the greater and then reduces from death the lesser in other words what he's saying is this if God has already done for us the greatest thing that even God himself could possibly do how can he conceivably fail what or refuse to do anything for us that is smaller than that that's the argument if God has already done the greatest thing of all well then it's quite inconceivable that he should fail to continue his work in us until he has brought us to that final goal of ultimate perfection and glorification that's his argument that's the sort of character the nature of the argument now this can out in a very interesting way in the actual worlds that the Apostle uses it's very interesting to notice that this authorized version the same applies to the revised version the standard revised version this new English Bible they all failed to pay any attention to a word that the Apostle actually used a little word that is there in the original but which is a most important one and comes right at the beginning of the verse the statement it's a particle and it's an intensive particle which the apostle puts in in order to magnify the deed so there ought to be a word added to this translation which isn't here and the word that should be at it is the word surely surely he that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not also with him freely give us all things surely all if you like you can put in the word indeed famous American the Marion the 80 Robertson he would translate it like this who as much as if has done for us its intensive is heading to it let me say that even dr. Moffat has got this fight he puts in charm but it's quite right Jai and Darby had also seen it he puts in the word yay in order to bring in emphasis yay he was done whispers how shall he not also with him freely give us all things now it is interesting that the word is actually there I'm not supplying it but it is there in the original and yet somehow or another so many of these translations seem to have missed it and the whole object and purpose of the word this little particle is to intensify to magnify the thing the God who's done that for us surely that's Leslie Leslie effect that exactly what the apostle was saying the form in which you find it in this new translation not only doesn't put in the word but it misses the argument it seems to me completely doesn't the only devout the intensive particle but even the very form in which they put it and split it up into different sentences loses the full point and intensity of the argument as the apostle is implying it here but there it is now that's his method surely the goddess then that can't refuse to do this or anything else that is so obviously smaller than lesser or the other way of putting it is the God who's already done that surely he can't stop with anything smaller than that which is designed to lead us to the ultimate goal for which he did that that's the argument that's the form of the argument now another thing therefore which we must pay attention to and note is this notice the way in which the apostle gives us this assurance everybody wants every believer wants this assurance we want to know for certain that God's love toward us can never vary and can never fail now what's interesting is this that the Apostle doesn't merely say oh you needn't worry about that you know because God is love that's how it's done today that's how people tend to do it now that doesn't know the Apostle doesn't he doesn't give us the assurance only on the basis of the fact that God is love that is true but the Apostle knows us so well he knows that we're liable to have our thoughts and the devil is ready to suggest things to us which would question and query and when things happen to us which we don't like we begin to say does God love us after all and you see if it's merely left as a general statement you very soon lose your assurance that isn't the way he does it he does it like this the Apostle bases this on tax on certain things which God has done he bases his argument on the fact of the Lord Jesus Christ he pieces it on the fact of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross on Calvary Zillow she doesn't leave it merely as a general statement about God being loved and because God loves me everything's going to be alright no no the apostle comes down to particularities to facts here's this person there he is dying upon a cross you're looking at an event at the fact which belongs to the realm of history but he doesn't stop at there he bases the assurance not only on the facts but also on the meaning and the significance of the facts all if you prefer it in other language he bases it upon doctrines because a doctrine after all is nothing but some explanation of the meaning and the significance of facts and events you can look at a fact and an event but if you don't understand its meaning and its purpose it's not going to help you now doctrine is that which explains the object of the meaning of the purpose of the heck's so the Apostle here in addition to giving us the facts gives us the great doctrines concerning God's plan the person of Christ and the meaning of Christ's death upon the cross now those are the great doctrines the cardinal central doctrines of the Christians Christians faith now what I'm emphasizing at the moment as I'm showing you the nature of the argument and how important is is that the Apostles argument is based directly upon that saks plus mean facts plus the doctrines that explains that that explained the facts now this is always the method of this apostle indeed it's the method of the Bible every one from beginning to end and I'm emphasizing it just to show you that it's essentially different from what is so popular at the present time now there's a popular teaching on the continent of Europe today it's the most popular teaching in the theological colleges in Germany and the most of the parts of the continent of Europe it's a teaching which says that facts don't matter at all and that actually you can't be sure of most of the facts with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ but this teaching sells the founder of it of the men called Bultman and I'm simply calling attention to it because it is so popular on the continent it's seeping into this country and there are many people in their ignorance think it sounds rather wonderful that it doesn't matter whether these effects or not as long as you hold onto these great truths I'm trying to show you that what the Apostle does is the exact opposite of it he bases everything upon the facts this teaching says that the facts don't matter at all now I'm calling attention to this because we are coming up to the period of Good Friday and Easter Sunday and you'll find this very popular teaching doesn't matter whether Christ literally rose in the body after all the fact is that there's a kind of influence of Christ still that's the thing they say that matters doesn't matter whether it really happened literally physically or not no that's the complete denial of the Apostles matter his arguments are always based solidly and then time upon facts and then what's stronger this is what greater security it gives us that's one of the things with which I would contrast the Apostles teaching but there's another and the other unfortunately is much more common in this country than the first one it's quite as bad as the first one in some ways it's this that doctrine doesn't matter at all this unfortunately has been far too common teaching even in evangelical circles they said we are not theologians we are just simply evangelical people we are not bothered about theology people is the waste such a lot of time and divide from one another I'm a simple man sir and I've heard people saying this I've met a man saying I'm only an evangelist I don't understand doctrine I'm just a simple Avengers I just offer Christ to people I don't understand as if that was something very wonderful to say here we find that the comfort and the assurance that the Apostle gives us is based directly upon doctrine and if you want a real assurance of your salvation well the further you are dressed upon Christian doctrines the greater your assurance will be X plus doctrine to crop either is wrong we need the facts we need the doctrines that explain the facts and here in this one verse as I say the great apostle provides us with birth there is nothing more foolish or self-defeating than to say that you're not interested in doctrine that's the higher world the being ready to listen to the latest teaching that comes along that may sound very wonderful you'll hear people saying services now preaching the trus wonderful this is preaching the cross now he's changed I remember hearing people saying that about a certain popular preacher he hadn't changed at all what matters is not that a man is talking about the cross what matters is what's he saying about the cross there are all sorts of people put up crosses but the question is what do they believe about it what's their doctrine of the death of Christ now the Apostles whole argument depends upon the mean and understanding of what was happening what was happening when our Lord died up the cross now I'm emphasizing all this idea for this reason that the whole argument is presented by the Apostle depends upon our grasping the facts and the explanation of the facts the way to combat dance and the way to resist the devil and to rejoice in hope of the glory of God is to be able to work out this sort of argument that the Apostle works out here based solid upon events that have taken place in the realm of history and and understanding of their meaning very well I've spent all the time of the mechanics of the argument because I find so constantly that it's people who don't trouble to do this who are always in trouble the kind of people who go to a service or will come to a minister just to get a word of comfort if you only understand the doctrine you'll be able to work out this argument for yourself and this is the assurance that you can take these things and draw your deductions work out the argument even as the apostle does it here before our eyes very well what is the argument this comes this is our second great matter the argument itself the first part of the argument is this is to remind us of what God has already done for us it is to remind us I say again of the Schacht of the trust on Calvary's Hill and the realization of what was happening there now each of the terms that he uses here is full of meaning and full of significance and with ever mistaken one by one and give them their full belly the first thing the Apostle tells us is this that what was happening on the cross on Calvary's Hill was the action of he that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all he this is a reference to God and this is the basis of the Apostles world argument now I think I can prove this to you quite easily you see his argument is this if God has already done that first he cannot refuse to do anything less for us now everybody is clear about the second half how shall he not with him also freely give us all things it's quite clear isn't it in the second half that it's God who is giving it is the action of God very well it is essential to the Apostles argument therefore that the first part is also the action of God otherwise he hasn't of his parent if parallel is the god is done this can't refuse to do that it's the same one who is acting in both parts of the statement why do I emphasize that well for this reason I'm preparing you for Good Friday this is what is being taught popularly and commonly about what happened on the cross on Calvary's Hill that it was surly and then tires in the action of men also treachery great shame remember of men asking me the question why do you call it Good Friday he said I'd have thought it was the worst Friday that could ever be bad Friday but you call it Good Friday I said why did you say that but he said there's nothing to be said for it look at those cruel men those ignorant men those men who couldn't recognise him couldn't understand him didn't see it significance and their jealousy and their envy and their Nellie's and their spite so you see they tell us all about these characters round the cross and their teaching is that the crosses entirely the action of men isn't that common teaching of causative but it's the exact opposite of what the Apostle says then there are others who say that it isn't so much the action of men as the action of the devil and the principalities and powers phone angels and all these powers that are governed and controlled by the devil they say it was the devil using the men but the action is ultimately of course the action of the devil who set out at the very beginning to try to destroy the Son of God he tried through King Herod to kill him when he was a babe the moment he was born and he followed him he tempted him tried to trap him and at long last he manipulated these people in such a way that he encompassed and brought about his death that's another very common way in which it's but either entirely the action of men explained in natural terms or else men being used by the malignity and the enmity of the devil and the evil powers and then you see they go under put it like this you say well then if that is what happened on the cross on Calvary's Hill what's its meaning oh they say its meaning is this that God is saying to us indeed he saying to all men though you did that even that to my son I still forgive you now this is the common teaching of the meaning of the death of Christ upon the cross the message of the Cross they say is just that that God is saying to me and there you killed my own son I will forgive you for it and that that is it's great message so that God doesn't do anything on Calvary God is entirely passive it's men acting and God passively is looking on and he's saying to us though you've done even that I still ready to forgive you you must have heard that many times you'll hear it a great deal in these next few weeks I do trust I shall make it plain and clear tonight that it's entirely a problem utterly false missus the whole glory of the cross and there's a blank contradiction of the teaching of this verse my dear friends you can't afford to be hazy in your ideas as to the meaning of the death of the cross I've heard evangelical people accepting that false teaching and thinking is wonderful it isn't either them calling me an evangelical who taught just that and no more that isn't evangelical that misses the whole glory of the evangelical teaching about the cross what is it that well it's as I said it is the proclamation that it is God who acts on Calvary he he's the actor he's the one who's going to give us all these other things yes and I know that because of what he he has already done it was glad he was acting on Calvary he did it through men through the instrumentality of men that the action is the action of God now I want to demonstrate this because if we don't believe this we are missing the whole point of the Apostles argument that is why I read that great fifty-third chapter of Isaiah prophesy to you at the beginning because he puts it several times over here's the Prophet being given a preview under the divine inspiration of the Spirit he sees it all and he goes on repeating it look at it for instance as it's there in verse four surely hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we did esteem him stricken smitten of God smitten of God and afflicted he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him with His stripes we are healed look at verse 6 and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all it's God the Lord the father was acting and putting him on him the iniquity of us all and he goes on repeating it yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he hath put him to grief and so on and so far now there it is you see clearly taught us in the prophetic form view the prophetic preparation of this great thing which happened but listen to it in the New Testament I can give you could give you more from the Old Testament but there's of course the physical and crucial passage but listen to our Lord saying it himself addressing Pontius Pilate Pilate says you know I've got power to release you more power to keep you bound our Lord turns to him in John 1911 and says thou puttest have no power at all except against me except it were given thee from above that's a plain statement the Pilate to this effect you're not doing as much as you think you are doing you don't understand indeed what you are doing you'd have no power at all against me except it were given thee from above then listen to the Apostle Peter expounding it in his way in his sermon on the day of Pentecost at Jerusalem as recorded in the second chapter of Acts let me begin to read at verse 22 Eamon of Israel hear these words Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did die in the midst of you as ye yourselves also know then listen to this in verse 23 him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God you have taken and by wicked him and crucified and slain yes but he was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God yes the inspired of us were filled with the spirit explaining to these people at Jerusalem that no it was their hands that had done it it was God's purpose that was being carried out the pre determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God then you remember the egg prayer that we are given in Ex for the prayer of this persecuted early church now they are threatened Peter and John have been threatened by the authorities that if they gone preaching or teaching in the name of this Jesus they not only be arrested again but probably put to death and the whole church exterminated so the church meets together this is how they pray they say the kings of the earth stood up on the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ x 426 for our truth against my Holy Child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done their addressing God and what they say in their prayer is that Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles and the people were simply carrying out what thy hand and thy counsel determined beforehand to be done exactly the same thing stated again now this is most important obviously and then you've got a very explicit statement about it in that famous statement of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:21 for he he God had made him Christ to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him you see he's expanding earth God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself that's he's expanding and that's the ultimate exposition for he have made him God has made his son to be sin for us who knew no sin himself that we might be made the righteousness of God in him most important you've got exactly the same idea rarely in Colossians 2 where you read this about the cross again verse 13 and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh and he quickened together with him having forgiven you all trespasses blotting out the handwriting of Ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his cross and having spoiled principalities and powers he made a show of them openly triumphing over them in it Christ wasn't altogether pass him on the cross God was not passive what is it well they're doing something there that is putting these principalities and powers to an open shame and the Apostle Peter teaches exactly the same doctrine listen to him in the first epistle in chapter 2 and verse 6 wherefore also it is contained in the scripture behold I lay in Zion the chief Cornerstone elect precious and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded and the whole context is the context of men rejecting him the stone which the builders disallowed the same is made the head of the corner disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious it's all a disposition upon the death of the cross and the resurrection and what is it it's God doing it God as the prophet had foreseen says I'm going to lay in Zion a chief Cornerstone annexed and precious and either believeth in him shall not be confounded that's a reference to the work of the trust and you see in each case it is God Himself who is doing this so the teaching is this that what was happening on the cross was something that God had planned and prepared and foreordained before the foundation of the world the cross isn't an accident the cross isn't the result of the Malee's and the jealousy and the envy and the blindness and the folly of men predetermine a counsel and foreknowledge of God God blended and it's God who's acting on the cross he that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all if God is doing it all it's essential to this argument it's God acting it's covered God has done is my guarantee of what God is going to do if you say that God was doing nothing but looking on passively and saying well even though you've done that yet I forgive you there's no argument here at all the Apostles got no argument how important it is that we should pay attention to the details as they're given to us in the scripture the cross on Calvary's Hill was determined upon and foreordained before the foundation of the world let us allow Peter to have the final word about this in the first epistle again in the first chapter where he puts it like this verse 18 for as much as he know that he were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your father's but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and spot who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world that was manifest in these last times for him who by him who do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory it's God who smote him it's God who raised him up the actor is God he that spared not his own son oh how they robbed us of the glory of the trust and our children's by failing to see exactly what happened there I don't worry with the reason why they do this the reason they do it of course is this that not believing the Scriptures but substituting for the teaching of the Scriptures their ideas of God they don't believe in the love of God they don't believe that God punishes sin they say that's impossible God is only love to them there's no justice there's no righteousness there's very little holiness there's no ruff at all so they ask that's impossible they've got to explain it in some other way and they miss its whole glory the simple answer is that what was happening there is the action of the Almighty God the Father let me take you just one further step tonight his own son who is this was dying this is again absolutely vital to the argument is he just a good men is he just a great religious teacher is he just some pure so like Socrates this is what we're always being told he is one of them one of the mountains Socrates and others truth forever on the scaffold wrong forever on the throne they put it into these categories a god men dying for his principles but men before his time people couldn't follow him couldn't receive it and so on is he just a good man is he just a great man is he just a godly man we've got the answer to that here is he just a son of God in general as we are being told that all men are sons of God the universal father of God the universal brotherhood of man you need justice a son in that sense many say that he I was reading only recently I had read it before it brought it back to me somebody asked one of these skeptical writers who pass under the name of Christian do you or do you not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ he said of course I do I believe in the divinity of all men is that what we are being told yeah let me go one step further earlier on in this chapter the Apostle has been telling us that we are the sons of God as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God for you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but he have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God we are sons of God is that all we're being told about him no no he that spared not his own son this is unique there separates him from everybody else even from those of us who are Christians and who have become the children of God it's in a special sense he is the only begotten of the Father his own son not created not adopted into the family of God as we are who are Christian he was always in it he's always been the son of God he's the eternal son of God he's in the bosom of the Father in the beginning was the word the Word was with God in the Word was God always has been from all eternity this is my son the beloved God never said that about anybody except about this one here is one who's God's own son he's a partaker of God's own nature he's the brightness of his glory and the Presi major his person and that is true of no one except of this person this is the person who said I am the father are one nobody ever dare to say that except this person he was charged with saying that he said that God is his own father he did and it's true and it's only true of him we are sons by adoption he is son by eternal generation the eternal son of God ever always in the bosom of the Father you see the importance of paying attention to every word he that spared not his own son you see how it comes into the argument it isn't a man he's sparing not sparing it isn't an adopted son that he's not sparing it's his own son the whole glorious doctrine of the Incarnation is in those two words his own son so here you see you've got the whole doctrine of the Incarnation that God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law when the fullness of the times had come and the apostles argument loses most of its currency and its final power to convince us and this we rarely hear it is that he's not sparing them it is none other than his only become beloved son the one was one with him share all of his divine eternal nature with the Holy Ghost whom he loved with all the intensity of the GAVI that's the one whom the father didn't spare but rather delivered up for us all on the cross on Calvary's Hill we've got to leave it for tonight my dear friends every single word here is are the inestimable importance charged with all the glorious doctrine of the Christian faith is there anything more terrible than the way in which men detract from it evacuated go on using the language as it were but take the meaning out of it evacuate the glory out of it that is that anything worse said then that foolish people should say I can't be bothered about this doctrine all I know is I've got my experience my dear friend get hold of every word here and don't yield anything not a single letter of any word every part of it counts if you want to see the glory if you want to know anything about the love of God and if you want to have an unshakable assurance hold on to every detail every word every letter and see its glorious content in the mind and in the eternal purpose of God well God willing we'll go on to complete this argument this statement next Friday night let us pray O Lord our God we come to be and we feel O God that we know not what to say we but bow before thee O Lord lost in wonder love and praise O God open our understandings more and more give us a thirst for this blessed knowledge and a true understanding of it o God forgive us if we have at any time being guilty of detracting from the glory of thy love and of what thou has gone in and through thy dear only begotten beloved son I know son Lord elpizo to see these things that our whole being shall go out in praise Thanksgiving in worship and another wish and now may the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the love of God and the Fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit abide and continue with us now this night throughout the remainder of this our short and certain earthly life and pilgrimage and until we shall see the Lamb that once was slain and hath redeemed us in all his glory amen [00:00:13]