Freely Give us All Things – Rom. 8:32 (communion msg.)

Introduction to Communion and Church Planting

0:00 The following message was delivered on Sunday evening, January 2nd, 1994, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:12 Now it is evident to all of you, I am sure, from the table spread before us, that this is our monthly communion service. And before we pray and turn to the ministry of the word, because we do have some visitors among us, just a word of explanation regarding our understanding of how the table should be ordered and regulated is in order. We believe that this is the Lord's table instituted by him as an ordinance of his church, and therefore we expect all of the members of our assembly,

0:51 who are not under some form of corrective discipline that would preclude their coming to the table, only remain, but also participate in faith and in obedience as we gather to the table. But if you are visiting with us, and you are a member of an evangelical church, a church that requires of its members that they profess personal faith in Christ, and that they walk as disciples of Christ, to remain as members in good standing of that assembly, why we pray. Why we welcome you as part of the larger family of God to join us at the Lord's table,

1:34 and we would urge you during the brief interlude from the conclusion of the ministry of the word, until the brethren take their places here to make your way into the center banks of pews to facilitate the distribution of the elements. Now if you are among us as one who is not a Christian, or you believe you are a Christian, but you have not, committed yourself to the visible Church of Christ you are not a member of an evangelical church we most heartily welcome you to remain and to observe but we would encourage you not to partake of those emblems and of course if you are a

2:17 member of a church but under its corrective discipline and part of that discipline is the prohibition of your coming to the table we trust that you would honor that as we not only recognize the existence and the validity of other churches of Christ and therefore open the table to members of other churches but we do also desire to respect their discipline as well and tonight is the first night we've gathered to the Lord's table without the presence of about two dozen of our members and we feel their absence very keenly but they are

2:57 meeting tonight in Irvington in the church planting endeavor there and let us plead with God for the Lord's blessing upon them as in a few moments pastor Brevard will be standing to minister the Word of God in that place that the same spirit who delights to take the things of Christ and minister to us with power through the word may be present doing the same with our brethren there in Irvington let us seek God's face in prayer together or father we are indeed thankful that your ear is open to

3:38 the cry of the righteous and we thank you that you are present in all the assemblies of your Saints and we praise you that as we come to seek your face for your blessing upon our meditation in the Word of God in preparation for our coming to the table instituted by Christ that you are able to meet with our dear brethren there in Irvington as well and Oh how we plead our father especially for pastor Brevard is he will stand to open up the Word of God tonight be with his heart be with his mouth be with those who gather

4:21 under his ministry may it be evident that he is preaching with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven and that those who are receiving these words are receiving the word are receiving it as it is in truth your word and may it effectually work in their believing hearts and then our father we pray that grace will be given to us here that as we meditate upon this text of your word so rich and so overwhelming in the scope of its gracious statements of the largeness of your heart oh make us strong to grasp afresh some

Romans 8:32: A Field of Spiritual Diamonds

5:05 new measure of the height and the breadth and the length and the depth that we may know the love of christ that passes knowledge to the end that we may be filled unto all the fullness of you our god speak to us then and meet with us we plead through jesus christ our lord amen those of you who have any true acquaintance with the eighth chapter of the book of romans you will not find it poetic overstatement to hear me say that this eighth chapter of romans

5:49 is a veritable field of spiritual diamonds diamonds of exquisite beauty and also of immeasurable worth and one of the most precious of all of the diamonds in this veritable field of diamonds is verse 32 one commentator upon this chapter has expressed his own judgment that of all of the amazing statements in romans chapter 8 this perhaps breaks up higher than all of the others like some impressive mountain in a mountain

6:32 in range of promises and perspectives on God's commitment in grace to the certain salvation of all of his people. This verse to which I make reference, verse 32, 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, has been designated by some very succinctly as the guarantee of grace.

The Assertion: God Spared Not His Own Son

7:11 But I would like you to meditate with me for the next 25 minutes or so on this text in a rather more enlarged perspective, under the heading of the Father's giving of his Son the guarantee of his giving. The Father's giving all other needed gifts to his people. The Father's giving of his Son, the guarantee of his giving all other needed gifts to his people. And as we meditate upon the text, consider with me the two obvious and basic divisions of the text. We begin

7:55 first of all with the assertion, and then we come to the assertion. To the question, the assertion, he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. Here is an assertion of which God himself is the subject. Our text begins with the words, he that spared not. And the he obviously has referenced God himself. And

8:31 to God, not in a general sense, but God specifically as the Father. For the he is the one who spared not his own son, his unique son, his very own son. Very parallel to John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only.

9:01 Also with the assertion, he that suffered, and so this assertion has reference to something that God has done with respect to his Son. And what he has done is stated first of all

9:18 in the negative, and then in the positive. He that negatively spared not his own son,

9:28 but positively delivered him up for us all. To the question, this assertion, has something to do with God's son. Or to the question, why he spared not his own son, his unique son, Delivered him up for us all. Now what does it mean when the text asserts that he spared not his own son?

9:44 Well the apostle uses this word spared not just several chapters over in Romans chapter 11 and verse 21. Speaking of God's activity with respect to national Israel we read for if God spared not the natural branches neither will he spare thee. The sparing not of the natural branches in the context is that God brought upon national Israel the promised curses.

10:25 Of the covenant God had said that if they determined to go in a course of apostasy turning away from his person and his ways and his laws. That God would cast them out that God would scatter them among the nations and God fulfilled that curse. And in so doing the apostle uses the very same language. He spared them not.

10:58 That is he brought upon them in full measure the promised judgment. Similarly this word is used in Acts chapter 20 and will help us to feel something of the force of it. When Paul is charging the Ephesian elders with their responsibility to pay close attention to themselves and to all of the flock. He urges.

11:24 Them to do so against the backdrop of his certain knowledge of the dangers to which the flock of God would be exposed. And one of them is delineated in verse 29. I know Acts 20 29 that after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in among you not sparing the flock. Now the image should be clear to all of us.

11:54 When a pack of wolves descends upon a flock they have no regard for the life and the well-being of the sheep within that flock. As predatory animals they are concerned only to take home some of the sheep with which to feed the pride or whatever term is used with respect to a pack of wolves. And so they do not spare the flock.

12:24 They do not withhold any of their native vengeance any of their native ability to rip and to tear to slay and to drag off lambs and sheep of the flock. And our text tells us in this assertion that God the Father did not spare his only his unique.

12:54 Very own son and when the text tells us that God spared him not this is what it signifies. And here I read a paragraph from Octavius Winslow's moving devotional comments on this very text. Knowing what redemption required justice stern and inexorable demanding full satisfaction.

13:24 The law rigid and unbending demanding perfect obedience he withheld not the only sacrifice that could meet the case he spared not his own son he did not relax any of the requirement nor abate any of the suffering. Oh no the utmost payment was exacted. And the last.

13:54 Drop of the cup was drained had there been the relaxing of the laws stringency or the slightest curtailment of the laws penalty there had been no salvation for us and all this was the unveiling of his love to spare his people he spared not his own son.

The Assertion: God Delivered Him Up For Us All

14:23 There in this assertion is the negative that God spared not his own son but then there is the positive statement but delivered him up for us all and the word for deliver is the standard word translated betray in the New Testament. To betray somebody.

14:53 Someone is to hand him over to another and with reference to God's activity in conjunction with his own son and in particular with respect to his being handed over to those events and circumstances surrounding the cross. This word is found in several other context back in Romans chapter four and verse twenty five. Speaking of our Lord Jesus it is said who was and here is our word delivered up.

15:31 He was delivered up for our trespasses and was raised for our justification. It is found again twice in Ephesians chapter five Ephesians chapter five and verse two speaking of our Lord Jesus. The apostles.

15:53 Says that he loved us and gave himself up for us and offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell it is used again in verse twenty five husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for it. But when our text tells.

16:23 Us in this assertion that God did not spare him but delivered him up for us all to what was he delivered again as Winslow said who delivered up Jesus to die not Judas for money not pilot for fear not the Jews for envy but the father.

16:54 For love him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God Peter said you by wicked hands have crucified and slain in this great transaction we lose sight of his betrayers and his accusers and his murderers and we see only the father traveling in the greatness of his love to his family. And.

17:24 To what was he delivered to the hands of wicked men God's darling to the power of the dogs in the language of Psalm twenty two delivered to poverty and want to contempt and infamy to grief and sorrow to unparalleled suffering and to a most ignominious death it pleased the Lord to bruise him he had put him to grief. And for whom.

17:54 Was he thus delivered up for us all for the church purchased with his own blood for all in that church he has an equal love and for all he paid an equal price professor Murray and commenting on this same phrase delivered him up for us all rights with even more sobering and I think more penetrating insight.

18:24 It is only as the ordeal of Gethsemane and Calvary is viewed in the perspective of damnation vicariously born damnation executed with the sanctions of unrelenting justice and damnation endured when the host of darkness were released to reap the utmost of their vengeance. And so it is. That we shall be able to apprehend the wonder and tastes the sweet this of that love. That passes knowledge.

19:04 Love economy to be explored. But he currently. In exhaust. In this assertion.

19:16 That he. Spare not his own son. But delivered him up for his or us all. Is to be.

19:26 compressed all of the realities that surround the mystery of the shrouded heavens, the mystery of the cry of dereliction, the mystery of damnation vicariously bore, the mystery of our Lord as the ever beloved of the Father, yet charged with the sins of his people, made a curse for us, made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in

20:05 him. The assertion of our text affirms that God the Father spared not his own son, withheld nothing of that which was due to him, given the position in which he volunteered. He voluntarily assumed our place before the bar of inflexible eternal justice, and in that posture, God withheld nothing of what was due to him as our surety, substitute, and

The Question: How Shall He Not Also Freely Give Us All Things?

20:42 representative, but rather, having spared him not, having spared him not, delivered him up for us all. He gave him up to the taunting and to undescribable influences from the powers of hell, for he said, this is your hour and the power of darkness. How shall he not also with him freely give us all things? Now the heart of the question is this. If God has shown his love, his good

21:27 will, his love for us, then how can he not also with him freely give us all things? Now the heart of the question is this. If God has shown his love, his good will, his determination to save us by sparing not his own son, but delivering him up for us all, on what grounds and for what reason would such a God who has done what he has already done ever withhold any lesser thing which is essential to our ultimate salvation? If he has given the greatest gift and accomplished the greatest work with respect to our salvation,

22:09 and if he did that, not withholding, but giving himself, giving his son up for us, how shall he not with him, having given him, is there anything of any greater worth that remains for God to give? Anything. Anything else he can give is an item of lesser worth, and having given the greatest, it is unthinkable that he would withhold any lesser gift. And that's the logic, that's the rationale of the question that follows upon the assertion

22:50 and the apostle wants us to think, if the God who is our God and our Father spared not his son. But delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him whom he has already given to us, and given to die the cursed death of the cross, how shall he not also with him freely, that is, give as an act, an expression of grace, it's the verb charizomai, it means not merely to give as a gift or as a donation, but to give graciously and freely. How shall he not with him freely give us all things?

23:34 Now in the context, the all things does not mean he will give to us everything upon which our remaining carnality might fasten its fancy, but in the context it has to do with giving us everything necessary to bring us to the enjoyment of the ultimate purpose of his saving mercy and grace. And what is that ultimate purpose? He has been speaking about it in the previous passages. He has said in verse 29, for whom God foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

24:19 God is determined to save us with a salvation that when it is complete, it will find us as those who will reflect. The family likeness of Jesus. We will have perfected spirits and glorified bodies. We shall be glorified human beings.

24:40 We will never be deity. We will never be lifted into sharing in Godhead. No, creatures we are, creatures we shall die and go to our graves and to judgment. And as creatures we shall be glorified.

24:56 But creatures who in their glorified. State will reflect the very likeness of the Lord Jesus. And with respect to God's purpose, it is so certain, verse 30, that whom God foretained to this glorious end, them he also called, whom he called, he justified, whom he justified, he glorified. What should we say then to these things?

25:21 If almighty God is committed that this shall be so, who can be again? And as the pledge that surely everything necessary to bring us to that glorious state shall be given, he says, he that spared not his own son in pursuit of that predestined foreordained purpose to conform us to the image of his son, the greatest obstacle within the Godhead was how to procure. A righteous forgiveness, how to procure a just pardon.

26:05 And it is that that demanded the sparing not of his son, but the delivering up of his son for us all. And if God has made in space time history, this commitment of the greatest demand with respect to our salvation. How shall he not? With the.

26:29 Gift of his son, freely give us all things necessary to bring us safely home at last into his presence, that the Lord Jesus may in the presence of his redeemed one say, here I am, father, I am those whom thou hast given. Now, by way of application, then, as we come to the table, do you see something of why faith must learn to reason from what God has done in the past to what I can expect him to do in the future?

Application: God's Guarantee for All Believers' Needs

27:13 As we stand on the threshold of a new year, what will we as the people of God face if we are to persevere in grace, in the way of faith and holiness, for it is only in that way that people are brought. To ultimate glorification, it is certain that all of the saints shall persevere, but it is also necessary for he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved, for we will need the maintenance of a good conscience. And how can we maintain a good conscience without the ongoing pardon and cleansing of

27:54 all of our sins, no matter how secret they may be to the inner chambers of heart and of the heart? No matter how shameful they might be in a tragic fall that would be seen by all, whatever pardon is needed? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us the all things of every pardon, of every sin, according to his promise? If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just.

28:31 To forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

28:39 Rabbi Duncan, you'll hear about him, whatever biography I'm reading will come out in my preaching, generally speaking, and it apparently was a common social nicety when men of that day would meet in that part of Scotland where he labored, and they would say, is there any news today? What they meant by that is, if you heard anything with respect. To international or national news of any importance, they didn't have primetime television, didn't have the same plethora of news media, etc. And on one occasion when someone asked that question of Rabbi Duncan, he shocked them by answering, yes, there is good news, good news today.

29:24 The blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses from all sin. And dear people of God, we need to think that way. He spared not his own son. But delivered him up for us all.

29:37 How shall he not with him freely give us all things? We need not grovel for an hour, let alone a day or a week, under the weight of unconfessed, unclean sin. Is it grace that we need for trials that come upon us in the will of God? Trials that rip and tear at our fragile emotions?

30:00 Trials that tug at the weakest point of our inner life? Is it grace to bear up under lengthy physical and emotional trauma? Then he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all the grace that is needed? For he is the God who said, my grace is sufficient for you.

30:27 If the lack of that grace would wind us or land us in a posture of utter dejection, in unbelief, toying with turning ourselves out of the way, then surely the grace needed to press on in persevering hope and faith is grace that God stands willing to give. We may come to forks in the road of our lives where wisdom is needed in matters of guidance. Here is the promise that we need to plead before God. Lord, the greatest obstacle to my getting to heaven was not, this decision of guidance.

31:07 It was how you could, as a holy and just God, do anything other than damn me. But Lord, you overcame that greatest obstacle. You spared not your son. You delivered him up for me.

31:22 Now, Lord, surely with the gift of your son and the overcoming of the greatest obstacle to my salvation, giving the needed wisdom that I may make a decision that will glorify you, is pennies compared to all the treasures that you have hidden in your son. How shall he not with him freely give us all things, whether it's pardon, grace for trial, wisdom and guidance in decisions, patience in the midst of difficulties, comfort in the midst of sorrow, courage in the midst of danger, every single thing needed to bring me safely,

32:05 whatever part of my earthly pilgrimage is a segment of persevering faith and grace. My dear child of God, it was purchased.

32:18 It was purchased. And how shall he not with him freely give us all things? So as we come to the table tonight and we take the bread and the cup, the emblems of the truth of this assertion, he spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. Had he not done that, there would be no Lord's table, except it were the product of some fanatical mind instituting a thing that the Bible would call will worship.

32:57 There's a table here tonight because the son of God said, this do in remembrance of me. This bread stands for, for and represents my body, which is for you. This cup represents my blood, which is shed for you. And dear children of God, as we take the emblems, let's not only take them in the fresh faith and confidence that Christ has died for us.

33:27 He has given himself up in death and shed his blood. But let us take that bread as a token and pledge that he, who spared not his own son, will with him freely give us all things. And on this first communion of this new year, may there be fresh actings of faith that God, having given the greatest gift, will withhold no lesser gift. As someone has quaintly said, if you knew the man that owned the hope diamond, that diamond that I believe, is 17 carats in weight,

34:12 polished to exquisite perfection. And if he were beneficent and benevolent and kind and gracious enough to give you that diamond freely, would you have any reservation in thinking he'd be reluctant to give you a bag in which to carry it? God has given the diamond of his own heart. He spared not his own son.

34:37 Amen. And we must then, in the confidence of faith, whatever we face in the coming year, recognize the wonderful implications of that text. 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, all things in the context of the passage,

35:07 everything essential, that I may make that next step in the path of persevering grace that is leading ultimately to my glorification. God has committed himself that I shall have it to the end that his own purpose may be realized and his own grace magnified in bringing all of his own safely home at last into his presence. If you're here and you're not, you're not a Christian. You see, don't pity us, Christians.

Application: A Call to Unbelievers and Concluding Exhortation

35:46 You think we have no fun. You think our world is so narrow and our interests so constricted. Oh, my friend, I say it lovingly, not condescendingly, I pity you in your pathetic poverty.

36:01 You have no pledge from the God that any need of yours will be met. In fact, all you have from the God of heaven is the threat that his judgment may fall on you. And crush you into hell within the next day. He that believeth not the wrath of God abideth upon you.

36:25 My friend, there is in Christ a plenitude of grace and mercy for every sinner who comes. And I would plead with you on this first Lord's Day of the new year, don't enter it as an impoverished sinner under the wrath of God with no confidence that you'll not live. Wake up in hell before the next morning. Turn from your sin and your pride and your self-sufficiency and throw yourself upon the mercy of God in Christ and then you will find yourself within the orbit of the marvelous provisions of this text.

37:06 And you will say, he spared him not but delivered him up for me. And having given him with him, God is committed freely to give him to you. Give me all things necessary that I may please him as I make my way in the company of his people to the celestial city. May the Lord enable us to lay this simple text to heart.

37:34 A text that as I said to the brethren, I can only preach around it in a half an hour were I to attempt to preach on it for ten hours, I'd still be only preaching around it. It will take eternity. Only to exegete all that God has said in this text freely give us all things. Let us pray.

38:04 Our Father, we thank you for the richness and the freeness of your grace and kindness to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, we plead that you would so minister your truth to the hearts of your people that our faith will be strengthened. That we will face all of the unknowns of the coming year in the confidence that having spared not your Son, there is nothing we will face. There is no demand that will be made upon us that we might be kept in the way that leads to life.

38:45 But that that provision is secure to us in Christ. Oh, strengthen our faith as we come to the table. Oh, increase our capacity to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory in the anticipation that if you are for us, who is against us? Hear us and continue with us, we plead in Jesus' name.

39:15 Amen.