Who is He That Condemneth?

Introduction: The Gold Mine of Romans 8:32

0:00 Gold Mine of Biblical Truth On this week's broadcast, we will be looking together at just one nugget from that gold mine. It is found in verse 32, which reads, 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? If you have your Bible, please open now to Romans chapter 8, as we consider another crucial aspect of God's word to our nation.

0:37 Romans 8 and verse 32. He who did not spare his own son.

The Uniqueness of the Person Sacrificed: God's Own Son

0:46 And I want you to notice with me, first of all, the uniqueness of the person sacrificed. The uniqueness of the person sacrificed. He who did not spare. His own son.

1:04 And without doing any violence to the language, and in a very real sense, opening up the very thrust of the language we could translate it, he who his very own son did not spare. And the emphasis falls upon the uniqueness of the person sacrificed in his identity as God, as God's own son.

1:36 Christ is called in the great gospel text familiar to all of us, John 3.16, the only begotten Son of God. And that is a title that is used exclusively of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has many sons by adoption, has only one son, who is the only son of God.

2:03 Who is called his only begotten, or described in this text as his very own son. And it is in that sense of that completely unique relationship between the Father and the Son in sharing the very essence of the Godhead, in the inter-Trinitarian relationship that Jesus makes claims to God being his Father, in a unique way. We have one such instance in John chapter 5 and verse 18.

2:42 John chapter 5 and verse 18. Perhaps I should read verse 17. But he answered them, My Father is working until now, and I myself am working. For this cause, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because, he not only was breaking the Sabbath, that is, breaking the Sabbath in their eyes, he was not breaking the fourth commandment.

3:11 He was breaking their unbiblical regulations about the fourth commandment. And so they were seeking the more to kill him, because he not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God his own Father, making himself equal, with God. And so our Lord deliberately spoke in such a way as to make it evident that he was self-consciously aware of his identity as God's only Son, so that God was his own Father. And so when the Apostle would open up this great guarantee of God's grace to his people, he begins by underscoring that, the complete uniqueness of the person sacrificed, that person being none other than God's very own Son. The Apostle then describes the extremity of the sacrifice made. And he does so in this language. He who did not spare his own Son, that's the negative description, but delivered him up for us all.

The Extremity of the Sacrifice Made: Not Spared, but Delivered Up

4:39 That's the positive. And in that negative and positive description, we have set before us the extremity of the sacrifice made. Now let's unpack those for a few moments. First of all it is said, he did not spare his own Son.

5:01 To spare someone or something, is to hold on to a certain identity, to hold on to a certain identity, back some measure of deserved punishment. Our text says in describing the extremity of the sacrifice made that God did not spare his own son. In other words, there was no alleviation, there was no withholding of all the wrath and punishment due to one who would stand in the place of sinners in order to render satisfaction to the law of God. Now why was there no sparing? Why did the father not spare his own son? Was it that there was any lack of love that would seek a way of healing? No. It was his very own son whom he spared not. Why? For the simple reason that anything

6:13 that was spared in terms of the full weight of the fury of divine wrath against the sins of his people would meet his people in the day of judgment. And God is so committed to us. Back to verse 31. If God is for us, God is so committed to effecting a salvation which will stand not only the test of time, but the scrutiny of that last day that he spares not his own, his very own son. Then you have the positive description of the extremity of his sacrifice. In this language, but delivered him up for us all. Spared him not, but delivered him up.

7:21 Now to what did the father deliver him? When you deliver up something, you usually deliver it up to someone or to some other thing. Well, to what did the father deliver up his son when he spared him not? Well, he delivered him up.

7:40 Now, essentially and primarily and certainly the scriptures are clear on this point to nothing less than the curse and the wrath of his own holy being. He delivered him up to the curse of a broken law. And this is clearly set forth in such passages as Galatians 3 and verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.

8:12 Having been made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Whatever the curse of the law will be for guilty sinners, it became for Jesus Christ. What is the curse of the law for us? It is to stand under the canopy of divine wrath.

8:41 It is to stand under the indictment. And should the soul that sinneth, it shall die. It is to stand under the divinely given exposition of what that death is in terms of being banished from the presence of God into the place described as outer darkness. The everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

9:03 It is to stand in that place where those terrible words will be heard. Depart from me ye cursed. That's what the curse of the law is. is for impenitent, uncleansed, unjustified sinners.

9:19 And it is nothing less that Christ bore for us. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become not something like the curse or something analogous to or parallel with, but having become a curse for us. So the extremity of the sacrifice made is described in that language. He delivered him up for us.

9:50 That is, the Father caused to break upon the head of his own beloved Son the full weight and fury of his own wrath, unmixed with mercy. He spared not, but delivered him up. So the text sets before us not only the uniqueness of the person sacrificed, but something of the extremity of the sacrifice offered. What love must the Father have to those whom he purposes to save, that with all the motions of his love to his own Son, may I say it reverently, pulling him to recoil, to recoil, to recoil, to recoil, from bringing upon him the full fury of his wrath. He does not spare his well-beloved Son.

The Particularity of the Provisions of the Sacrifice: 'For Us All'

10:53 Then we must hasten on to note in the text not only the uniqueness of the person sacrificed, the extremity of the sacrifice made, but notice the objects or the particularity of the provisions of the sacrifice. The text says he spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all. This activity of God in sparing not and delivering up his own dear Son had a specific body of people in mind. There is a particularity to the provisions of the sacrifice. And in the context, those for whom, the sacrifice was made or described in the words for us all. Now, whenever you have an indefinite pronoun, you must ask what are its antecedents or what is its antecedent? Who are the us in verse 32?

12:07 Well, they're obviously the same us's as in verse 31. If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all. The us of verse 32 is obviously the us's of verse 31.

12:28 Well, who are the us's of verse 31? Well, they're the people described in verses 28 through 30. We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those. Here they are described in terms of their deepest religious experience.

12:47 They love God. Then they are described in terms of how they came to that experience. They are the called according to divine purpose. They are described as the ones whom he foreknew, the ones who were predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, the ones whom he has called, the ones whom he has justified, the ones whom he has in principle and with certainty shall glorify.

13:16 What should we say? Then to these things, if God is for us, the us of verse 31 is no broader than those described in verses 28 to 30. But thank God it is as wide as both extremities of verses 28 to 30 and none are excluded. The us, you see, are those who are called according to purpose, who manifest their calling by love to the one who has called them.

13:50 They are being conformed to the image of his Son. Here is the particularity of the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And, oh dear child of God, that's not just a point of theology to be debated. Remember, this is placed in the context of answering the question, if God is for us, who is against us?

14:15 And what is the greatest expression? The expression that he is for me. When I can say in the language of Galatians 2.20, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

14:32 You see, if the death of Christ makes a provision that is indiscriminately applied and indiscriminately intended for all men, those who ultimately come to faith and those who do not, what consolation can I draw from the fact that he died? If that death can be so frustrated as to find those for whom he died the death ending up in hell, how do I know but what I'll end up there even though he died for me? When I can say, through nothing of my own doings, greatly suppressed by remaining sin, often bled of its vigor through my own carelessness and the pressure of the world, yet, I do love the God of the Bible. I do love him. And I acknowledge that that exotic plant of love to God doesn't grow in Adamic soil, unaided and untouched and unblessed from heaven. Lord, I love you because I was called and I was called according to purpose.

15:44 And you see, you reason from that faint, that very low, that glimmering, that oft-obscured measure of love to your identity as a child of God, back to the divine purpose, and now it's all rooted in this particular provision that secures the redemption of all those for whom it was made. And so the weakest saint, the most fainting, faltering, fearful, timid, child of God, has a tremendous buttress to his confidence when he can say, if the Son of God loved me, and the Son of God died for me, then God is for me! For me to do what? To bring a timid, weak, faltering, Mr. Fearful, all the way through, across the river and into the celestial sea.

The Guarantee of Grace: Argument from Greater to Lesser

16:47 And it's a sense of humility, which brings us now finally to the guarantee of grace that is based upon that sacrifice. Look at it. And here's where you've got to be a logician. The Bible uses logic in this passage.

17:07 He that did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not also with him This is an argument from the greater to the lesser. Now follow the line of his argument. When God set his heart on our salvation, what was the most difficult obstacle?

17:36 When God was committed to saving rebel, guilty, vile, hell-deserving sinners, what was the greatest obstacle in that salvation? Was it the exertion of his power to open their blinded eyes, to give them spiritual sight as to the great realities of his salvation? No. Effectual calling is an exercise of his own almighty creative power.

18:02 He spoke worlds into being.

18:06 No, you see, the greatest obstacle was to conceive a way in which he could still be just and justify ungodly sinners. And the wisdom that contrived an answer to that problem demanded no less than the enfleshment of one of the persons of the Godhead, that there should be one who could touch us in his humanity and yet bring to his salvation all the power and the virtue of God in his deity. And the God-man then would have to so represent and take the place of sinners that the Father would actually treat him as they deserve to be treated. You see, the force of the argument, if Christ has died, there is nothing the Father will withhold from me in terms of the ultimate purpose of that salvation. And when the text says, how shall he not with him freely give us all things? The all things does not mean when you get an itch for a new house, he'll give it to you because Christ died.

19:20 No, he died to deliver you from covetousness and make you content with the house you've got. That's the all things he'll give you. And when you see a fellow member in Trinity Church being able to buy a house and you can't, instead of sitting around and stewing in your envy and jealousy or trying to plead this verse, you'll plead it this way, Lord, you sent your Son to die. Give me all things.

19:44 Give me the spirit of contentment. Yea, Lord, give me something more. Give me the ability to go into my brother or sister's house and rejoice that you gave them a house and didn't give me a house. We can plead the all things.

19:58 What? Grace to persevere. But you say, Pastor, you don't understand. I have this area of weakness and this temptation and this lust, this problem with indwelling sin, that it just seems at times like it's going to submerge me and swallow me up.

20:15 Oh, how you need to go to God with this text and say, Lord, you did not spare your Son. You've said if you gave the greatest gift and overcame the greatest obstacle, you will with him. You will freely give all things. Oh, God, for the sake of your Son, because your Son died, because you opened your heart to me in the revelation of your love in Christ upon the cross, I plead for grace, conquer, grace to persevere, grace to press on in spite of this aspect of remaining sin, in spite of this element of remaining corruption.

20:58 Some of you say, but oh, Pastor Martin, you don't know. You don't know the circumstances in which I live. No, I may not. But the God who gave this promise does.

21:07 He knows all about them. And he has said, my grace is sufficient for thee. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. These are his words of promise.

21:19 This is the great guarantee of grace, that having given the greatest gift and overcome the greatest difficulty, God is committed with his Son to give us all things. But I'm conscious that in a group this size, there are no doubt more than one or two who know nothing of love to God. Verse 28 speaks of those who are envisioned in this text as those who love God, those who love him not for anything in themselves, but because he first loved. And he said to them, you don't have that love to God.

Application for Unbelievers: Flee to Christ

22:02 And you know why? Love is the fruit of faith.

22:05 And you've never turned from your sin and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. You have never stood as it were before that cross where the Father spared not his Son, but delivered him up on behalf of sinners. And standing there, taking the measure of your own sinfulness. You've never taken the posture of a publican who's seeing in the agony, seeing in the terrors of the damned experienced by the Lord upon the cross.

22:37 You have not seen the ugliness of your own sin, the wickedness, the vileness of your own native pollution, and the pattern of your life. Oh, I bid you, my friend, take your measure by the cross. There, see God's estimation of human sin. See God's estimation of human uncleanness and guilt and undone-ness.

22:58 And you say, pastor you told us from that text and it seemed plain to me that that provision was not made for all men indiscriminately it was made for a specific group of people yes it was my friend there's not a verse in the bible that says you aren't one of them not a verse in the bible that says you can't be one of them because god does not call us in the gospel to somehow unveil and discover our election in christ he calls us to flee to christ as guilty sinners and believe on christ and believing in him we will then be able to read back from our faith in him and our love to him his eternal and undying love to us and his electing grace towards us and so if you are without christ this morning oh my friend i plead with you in the name of the lord jesus run to him run to the one who died for sinners and plead that what he did for sinners will be made effectual in your own heart and that brings

Conclusion and Next Week's Preview

24:21 us to the conclusion of this week's broadcast you've been listening to a message from the eighth chapter of the book of romans entitled he that spared not his own son next week we will be looking together at another verse from this same chapter a verse which reads who shall lay anything to the charge of god's elect it is god that justifieth who is he that condemneth it is christ jesus that died yea rather that was raised from the dead who is at the right hand of god who also maketh intercession for us if you have been plagued with a sin of sin and sin of sin and sin of sin and sin of sin and sin of sin and sin of sin and sin of sin of sin and sin of sin and sin of sin and sin of sin of sin and sin of sin and sin of sin and sin of sin and sin of sin and sin of sin and sin of sin of sin and sin of sin i urge you to tune in to next week's broadcast the principles i will be opening up from god's word will help you to discover the peace and freedom of a conscience cleansed by jesus christ