New Year's Promise

Introduction: A New Year's Promise from Romans 8:32

0:01 This sermon was preached on Sunday evening, January 2nd, 1983, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:11 Now may I encourage you to turn with me in your Bibles to a very familiar portion of the Word of God, the eighth chapter of Paul's letter to the Roman Church, the Book of Romans, chapter 8,

0:28 and follow as I read beginning with verse 26. The Apostle has been asserting some of the most wonderful truths concerning our redemption in Christ. He has already affirmed that we are the sons of God, and if sons, then heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, and therefore present suffering, in a sense, can be laughed at, because it is a pledge of the future glory of our fully manifested sonship, that awaits us at the second coming of Christ. Meanwhile, with that great prospect before us, and yet conscious of present weakness, we have this wonderful word of encouragement beginning in verse 26. And in like manner the Spirit also helps our infirmity, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be heard. be uttered. And he that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that to them that love God,

1:49 all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to purpose. For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. and whom he foreordained, them he also called. and whom he called, them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he also glorified.

2:24 What then shall we we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 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? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea, rather that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or

3:17 persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, even as it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for slaughter, No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor strength, nor power, nor strength, nor rank. nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. In our meditation of the Word of God this morning, we examine together Psalm 90, and in particular verses 12 through 17, under the general title of a New Year's Prayer. And now this evening, I want to direct your attention primarily to just one verse in this section read in your hearing,

4:30 namely Romans 8 and verse 32, and we shall examine it under the general title of a New Year's Promise. So by the end of the day, I trust to have put in your hands a prayer peculiarly appropriate for us as the people of God, and even for you who are not the Lord's people as we stand on the threshold of this new year, and then to encourage you to plead that prayer, to put in your hands a promise from the living God by which you may plead the fulfillment of those prayers in the coming days. As we face all of the uncertainties, all of the unpredictables, all of the unknowns, of 1983, is there a Word of God which in any sense comes to us in the face of all of the unknowns, and all of the unpredictables, and all of the uncertainties that can act as it were like ballast in the hull of our lives as we face uncharted and what will be for some of us very stormy seas, as we face all of the demands that will be made upon us, in the will of God, demands upon us as individuals with respect to progress in grace,

5:57 demands upon us with respect to responsibilities as fathers, and husbands, and wives, and mothers, and single men and women, and boys and girls, responsibilities that will come to us in the will of God as a congregation, responsibilities that will demand fortitude, that will demand great resources of strength, and wisdom, and money as we stand before all of the uncertainties on the one hand, and all of the demands made upon us in the will of God on the other? Is there a Word from God that in any sense is a Word from the living God to encourage us in the face of all of these uncertainties and all of these demands that we will not be found shortchanged if we walk in loving, believing fellowship with our God? Well, I want to suggest that Romans 8.32 is just such a promise, a promise peculiarly suited for a new year. 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?

The Setting of the Glorious Promise: Certainty of Salvation

7:15 And in the time allotted to me tonight, and for you who are visiting with us, we seek to keep our ministry and the Word relatively brief on a communion evening so that we are not excessively weary when we come to the Lord's table, I want you to think with me through this text, first of all considering very briefly the setting of this glorious promise. The setting of this glorious promise. It obviously comes in the context of Paul's statement of the certainty of a full and complete salvation as the portion of the people of God. Back in verse 18, Paul could say that he judged that the sufferings of the present time were not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward. And on into the succeeding verses, he asserts his confidence that all of history is heading to that moment when there will be the full unfolding of the glory of the sons of God and the actual release of the physical creation from that bondage of corruption to which it was subjected as a result of man's sin. And this certainty comes perhaps to its pinnacle expression

8:39 in terms of the privileges of grace in verses 29 and 30, in which the apostle speaks in language that allows no doubt as to the ultimate salvation of all of those whom God has foreloved and foreordained to sonship. Whom he foreordained, he called. Whom he called, he justified. Whom he justified, he glorified.

9:08 And so the setting on the front end of this promise are these tremendous statements of the certainty of a full and a complete salvation as the portion of God's people. And then after this promise, there is again this height of burning eloquence that grows out of the crucible of the apostle's personal conviction that nothing shall separate the child of God from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus his Lord. And a summary statement then of this entire context in which the promise comes to us is found in the simple words of verse 31. What then shall we say to these things if God is for us who is against us? And those words, if God is for us, mean nothing less than that God is for us in the commitment of his own person and word to certify that every single believer will enjoy a completed salvation. To have God for us does not merely mean that he wishes us well.

10:28 It does not mean that he has merely cast his vote for our salvation and all things being equal, things will turn out all right. In the context, to have God for us is nothing but the commitment of the triune God that literally embraces eternity with respect to doing us good. He loves us in Christ before the foundation of the world whom he foreknew, that is, whom he marked out and loved beforehand. Such ones, all of them, without exception, he shall infallibly glorify.

11:08 What shall we say then to these things? If God is for us, and in the context, for us means nothing less than the commitment of the triune God which spans eternity, a commitment to secure to us a full and a complete salvation. Now you see, if you have no intelligent, believing perception of what the theologians call the monergism of biblical salvation, and that simply means a monorail is a train that operates on one rail, well, monergism means that God alone is actively at work in our salvation. He does not suspend his working while waiting for something to come from us. He is committed to saving us from beginning to end. And if we understand something of the biblical teaching of divine monergism, that it is God who saves, that it is God alone who saves, then we will appreciate the setting of this promise if God is for us.

The Proper Recipients of the Glorious Promise: God's Elect

12:26 Who then can be against us? Well, so much for the setting of this glorious promise. Now, just a word about the proper recipients of this glorious promise. Notice the language of our text.

12:42 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 the great question is this. Who are the us of verse 32?

13:04 Who are the proper recipients of this glorious promise? Well, if we read backwards, we see the us are there in verse 31. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

13:22 But we still haven't answered the question when we say the us of verse 32 is the same us of verse 31. Can we identify the us's of verses 31 and 32? Well, we certainly can identify them if we go back into verses 29 and 30. For whom he foreknew, not what he foreknew.

13:45 Those of you who may have come out of a background in which you were told, well, election and foreordination is simply this. God sees that certain people will do a certain thing, namely believe, and seeing that they would believe when the gospel was presented, he ratified their choice and chose them. Well, notice it doesn't say what he foreknew, but whom he foreknew. Foreknowledge has as its object not events but people in this context.

14:14 Whom he foreknew, that is, those whom he loved beforehand, those he also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren, whom he foreordained, whom he also called. Whom he called, he also justified. Whom he justified, he also glorified. If God is for us, deliver him up for us all.

14:44 You see who the us are? The us are the foreordained, the foreloved of God. The us are those predestinated to sonship. The us are those whom he justifies, whom he calls, and whom he will infallibly call and glorify.

15:04 And if we read on in the context, the us are none other than those described in verse 33 as the chosen of God. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? So as surely as we will not appreciate the promise, if we do not have some understanding and believing response to the biblical doctrine of monergism, that is, that God alone saves, so we will have no proper appreciation of this promise if we do not have some understanding of divine particularism. That it is God who is committed to the salvation of a specific people. They are called his elect, those whom he foreknew, those whom he predestined to conformity to his Son, those whom he justified and whom he will infallibly glorify. These and these alone are the proper recipients of this promise. And so it is exclusive, but thank God it is vastly inclusive, for it includes all whom he foreknew and all whom he justifies, all whom he has called effectually by his grace, so that this promise

16:32 is not limited to mature saints. It is not limited to the very knowledgeable of the saints. It is not in any way hedged up by any other conditions than that we be the called of God. And if we have been brought to see ourselves as sinners, and we have taken our stance under the wrath and anger of a righteous and holy God, and if we have seen by the gospel that that God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, and if we have come in penitent faith, and if we have embraced the Lord Jesus as our Savior and our Lord, we may be but a few days old in our faith, and yet this promise is for us. And for some of you who may have walked with him for 30 or 40 or even 50 years, the promise is as fresh to you as though God were handing it over to you in your spiritual infancy. And so the proper recipients of this glorious promise is to be understood or are to be understood as the people of God only, but the people of God in their entirety. So much then for the setting of the promise, the proper recipients of the promise

The Substance of the Promise: What God Did Not Do

17:59 now consider with me the substance of the promise. The substance of the promise is found in three lines of thought that are here in the text. First of all, a negative statement, what God did not do. Then a positive statement, what God did do.

18:16 And then thirdly, what we are to conclude from what he did not and what he did do. That's in the passage. Look at it. What God did not do.

18:27 He that spared not his own Son. What did God not do? Well, God did not spare his only unique, only begotten, his well-beloved Son. And the language he spared not points in the direction of the whole matter of the substitutionary death which our Lord underwent on behalf of sinners.

19:04 When judges mete out punishment less than the law deserves, they are said to spare the criminal. The criminal has violated a law. That law brings with it a certain level of punishment. And if the judge meets out less punishment than the law demands and the crime deserves, he is said to have spared the criminal.

19:35 And that's precisely the significance of that language in this text. And with respect to his dealings with his own Son, God did not spare his own Son. Everything that the broken law demanded in the way of forsakenness, in the way of punishment, the infliction of wrath and terror upon the soul of the Lord Jesus, God the Father did not spare him. There was not one stroke which our sins demanded that God withheld.

20:19 There was not one gram in the manifold weight of the pressure of divine anger that was due to the Son that was drawn off the scales when he died on our behalf. God did not spare his only Son, his well-beloved Son, the one who would be the most likely to be spared. He spared him not. That's what he did not do.

The Substance of the Promise: What God Did Do

20:54 But now notice what he did. The text says, He delivered him up for us all. He delivered him up for us all. Delivered him up to what?

21:10 To whom? And here we must turn to the rest of the testimony of Scripture and the answer is clear. To deliver him up for us all is to do nothing less than that which is described in such passages as 2 Corinthians 5.21.

21:29 He hath made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. Galatians 3.13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. For it is written, Curse is everyone that hangs on a tree.

21:51 Or to go back further into the very language of Isaiah 53. It pleased the Lord to bruise him when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. What did God do? He delivered him up for us all.

22:09 Delivered him up to what? He delivered him up to nothing less than the damnation and abandonment which your sin and my sin deserved. The Scriptures make it clear that he was delivered up into the hands of wicked men and that is true. There is a sense in which he was delivered up to the devil.

22:32 He says this is your hour and the power of darkness. And there are clear intimations in such passages as Colossians 2.15 and others that in the mystery of those agonizing hours upon the cross our Lord was exposed to the hideous activity of the powers of darkness in a unique way. And I would not even begin to propose what's involved in that.

23:00 And when our text says that God delivered him up for us all, surely all of these things are involved. Delivered up to the hands of wicked men. Delivered up to the powers of darkness. But supremely, he was delivered up to nothing less than his Father, his Father's own wrath unmixed with mercy.

23:27 He spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all. Now think for a moment. How was he brought to that posture? According to his own testimony it was in the path of voluntary loving obedience to the will of his Father.

23:49 You remember in John 10 he said, No one takes my life from me. I lay it down of myself. And he went on further to say, Therefore, John 10, 17, doth my Father love me because I lay down my life. Each successive step of obedience in the earthly life of our Lord, follow closely now, intensified the Father's love for him as the theanthropic person, as the suffering servant of Jehovah.

24:27 On the threshold of his public ministry he could say, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. I beheld him from his mother's womb through all of the stages of normal development, in all of the social relationships of the home and neighbors and friends, in all of the cultivation of his mind and spirit, growing in wisdom, stature, in favor with God and man, coming through all of the trauma of pre-adolescence and adolescence and into young manhood and into mature manhood. And the Father can say as the Lord stands in the waters of Jordan, This is my beloved Son. I am pleased with him.

25:11 Everything about him brings me pleasure. He has been my obedient Son. Later on as he approaches the cross, the Father speaks from heaven again and speaks of his well-pleasedness with his Son, throwing, as it were, over every aspect of his official public ministry all of his healing, all of his ministry to the downtrodden, the oppressed and the castoffs of society, all of his self-giving as well as all of his scathing denunciation of empty religion. And of empty religionists, all of his unmasking of the hypocrisy of the official leaders of his day. Over all of that, the Father says, This is my Son in whom I am well pleased. Each successive act of obedience drew forth from the Father's heart an intensification of filial love. And if that's true, then when our Lord's obedience according to Philippians 2 was brought to its highest test and to its highest expression there at the cross, he was never more loved than at the point that he was abandoned.

26:35 Now look at the text in that light. He that spared not his own Son, the Father did not withhold one gram of the weight of judgment due to the sins of those whom he represented and in whose room instead he hung upon the cross. But rather he delivered him up for us all. Gave him over to the full weight of the abandonment of the dereliction of the damnation that was deserved at the point when his Father's heart never loved him with greater love.

27:12 He cast damnation upon him and shrouded the very heavens in darkness until wrung from the felt abandonment of his soul was the cry, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And though it would be irreverent to seek to penetrate mysteries for which Scripture gives us no answer, one reads in Scripture the felt agony of the incarnate God, the Son. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And we can hear in those words something of the anguish and the pain of God the Son. One can only imagine the anguish and the pain of God the Father when he spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all. Now what are we to conclude from this activity of God? Paul asked the rhetorical question that constitutes the heart of this New Year's promise.

The Substance of the Promise: The Conclusion from God's Actions

28:26 He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely, that is, give to us as an expression of grace is bound up in the word that Paul uses, the verb that is used, how shall he not with him freely, that is, in the context of unmerited favor, give as the donation of grace all things? Do you see what he's doing? If you don't know a little logic, at least informally, there are many parts of your Bible you'll never understand. And the apostle is arguing from the greater to the lesser.

29:08 Now you kids do this all the time. It doesn't bother you to go and ask Mommy and Daddy to get you some shoelaces when they break and your shoes are flopping off your feet. You're not reluctant to ask Mommy and Daddy for some new shoelaces. Why?

29:21 Why they're providing food for you day after day and a roof over your head and clothes on your back and you say, well, if Mommy and Daddy loved me enough to feed my tummy and clothe my back and tuck me in bed and kiss me and provide for me, surely Mommy and Daddy would never deny me a little thing like shoestrings. You see, you know some logic and you didn't know that you knew some. You reason from the greater to the lesser. If Mommy and Daddy meet all those needs.

29:46 Now you don't walk up to Mommy and Daddy any day of the week and say, hey Mom, hey Dad, you know, I think I'd like a playhouse out in the back that's about the size of our living room. No. And I'd like to have it made with beautiful oak wood and carpeted floors. You don't go asking for things like that.

30:03 Because you know, Mommy and Daddy don't have that kind of money. So you see, you don't ask for that. But surely you ask for shoestrings. Because you see, Mommy and Daddy providing the greater, it never enters your mind they wouldn't provide the lesser.

30:16 And that's precisely what the apostle is saying here. He that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all. What was the greatest obstacle? What was the greatest obstacle in our salvation?

30:29 It was the satisfaction of divine justice. It was the great obstacle bound up in the question how can God be just and still justify sinners? And the only resolution of that question is found in this language. God must spare not his son.

30:42 He must deliver him up for us all. He must undergo the pangs, the pangs, the agony of the immorality of his son. He must deliver him up for us all. He must undergo the pangs, the pangs, the agony of the immorality of his son.

30:59 The consolation of his own son. He must give up his well beloved to be treated not just like an ordinary criminal but like an outcast to be spat upon, to hang naked, to be jeered and mocked. Death at the hands of cruel people and then to pour upon him his own frightening, fiery wrath and judgment until the father rings the cry from the son of his, the heart of his own son. Why hast thou forsaken me?

31:37 Now if God has so moved to overcome the greatest obstacle in our salvation, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Now to what does the all things refer immediately and explicitly? Well in the context it obviously refers to all things necessary to accomplish the end for which he died and that is to bring many sons to glory. Jesus died to bring many sons to glory.

32:14 He died that he might be the firstborn and think of it he calls us his brethren that he might be the firstborn the chief among many brethren. Now that's what he died for. Now if he died for that you see he will surely secure everything to realize the end for which he died. So the immediate and the explicit fulfillment of this promise is in terms of God's commitment to do everything necessary and to grant everything necessary to bring us home to glory safe at last.

32:53 May I suggest that that does not exhaust the promise. There is a more remote and implicit element of promise and it is this. And it's suggested even in the context that follows. All the demands made upon us as individuals all of the trials and testings that come to us individually and to the church corporately everything essential to fulfill the divine purpose was in a sense secured and purchased in the death of Jesus.

Application: Pleading the Promise at the Lord's Table and Facing the New Year

33:29 And if God has brought the greatest donation in the gift of his Son how shall He not with Him freely give us all things. And as we stand on the threshold of this new year how we need to lay hold of a promise like this and what a blessed place to do it. In a matter of a few minutes we will take in our hands the broken bread. We will take in our hands the symbols of the body and blood of Jesus.

34:07 The body impaled upon that cross. The blood poured forth for our salvation. But dear child of God listen when you hold that bread and hold that cup you are not only going to look upon the emblems the symbols of the body and blood of Jesus but also of everything necessary for your salvation. And you are holding the pledges and tokens of God that whatever is necessary for you to do the will of God to the glory of God is a purchased commodity be it wisdom strength fortitude whatever it is. And as we stand upon the threshold of our salvation we are going to be able to see the glory of God in our lives. And we are going to be able to see the glory of God in our lives. And we are going to be able to

35:37 see the glory of God in our lives. And we are going to be able to see the glory of God in our lives. And we are going to be able to see the glory of God in our lives. And we are going to be able to see the glory of God in our lives.

36:20 And we are going to be able to see the glory of God in our lives. And we are of that second phase is essential to the saving purposes of God through this congregation. Every last nickel needed to raise that building was provided at the cross. We draw ultimately out of our bank accounts, but out of the cross of Christ and the infinite riches of God in Christ Jesus. Whether it's courage, whether it's wisdom, whether it be any grace or gift essential to doing the will of God, God has given the greatest. Dare we be reluctant in asking for any lesser gift. So as we come to the Lord's table, may we as we hold the bread and hold the cup look upon those emblems in the light of this text tonight. He spared

37:38 not his son delivered him up for us all. And the monument of that fact is I have bread in my hands. I have a cup in my hands. This bread, this cup would not be in my hands. Did he not institute this supper? Did he not say on the night in which he was betrayed, take, eat, take of the cup, drink ye all of it. But he said eat and drink. And then he went to the cross and fulfilled that which these things symbolize.

38:09 God did not spare him. God did deliver him up. If he has done that, shall he not with him as a principle and manifestation of grace give all things, all things necessary for my ultimate salvation. That's immediate and explicit in the text.

38:30 But surely more remote and implicit but nonetheless certain. All things necessary that I and we together may do the will of God to the glory of our great Redeemer. You see, people often pity us poor Christians. They think we're a little weak between the ears, a little myopic in our perspective, narrow-minded in our ethics. But oh my unsafe friend, I wouldn't trade places for you. For all the proverbial tea in China. For a thousand worlds. What do you have to face the new year?

39:08 Some wishful thinking, that's all.

39:11 Here, hope things go well. What have you got to buttress those words? Besides some ephemeral, wispy wishes that have no substance. No, dear unsafe friend, don't pity us poor half-daft Christians with our myopic vision of things.

39:31 No, don't pity us. You're to be pitied. We face all the uncertainties of the coming year. All of the demands that will be made upon us with nothing less than this.

39:42 This indisputable revelation of the largeness of the heart of God. It's etched for us in characters of blood upon Golgotha. And we can say, oh God, if you spared not your son. I don't know how I can face this trial.

40:00 I don't know how I can ride through this difficulty. I don't know how I can overcome this obstacle. But oh God, here is your action in history. You spared not your son.

40:12 You delivered him up. You gave the greatest gift. You performed the highest act, Lord. In your beloved son, I plead the promise that you'll give all things necessary to do your will, to please you, and to serve you.

40:29 Bring on a million bank accounts. I wouldn't exchange them for this. Bring on a thousand reassurances of all the politicians and the bigwigs of the earth. They are nothing before the commitment of the eternal triune God, as beautifully distilled in such a promise as this. Oh, may God strengthen our faith as the people of God. And if you're not one of us, there's nothing that says you can't be. Say, but I don't know if I'm one of the elect. Believe on the Lord Jesus and you'll know that you are.

41:07 Say, I don't know if I was foreknown and foreloved. Ah, you do know you're in a place tonight where somebody's telling you you're a sinner. And your only hope is Jesus. And you must repent and believe.

41:20 And you'll come to discover you were foreknown and foreloved and chosen the same way any of us did. You've got to come by facing your sin and facing the Savior and repenting and believing and in the embrace of penitent faith and the knowledge of sins forgiven in the Lord Jesus. Then you will know that you were foreknown, marked out and loved before the Lord Jesus. Oh, flee to the Savior and face this New Year in His fellowship and under the canopy of His grace.

41:55 Let us pray. Our Father, what can we say in your presence when merely seeking to contemplate for a few moments what it meant for you to spare not your Son but to deliver him up for us all. Oh, forgive our unbecoming sin. that having given the greatest gift, we've so often doubted when coming and asking for the least of gifts.

42:38 We see our unbelief in its ugliness before the cross. Cleanse us, cleanse us of the sin of unbelief, the sin of unfounded doubt, and make us a people who again and again magnify your grace by pleading the largeness of your heart and the certainty of your promises as revealed in the gift of your beloved Son. We pray now as we come to this table of remembrance that faith will be strengthened, Christ will become more precious, and that we may be fortified in a very marked way to thank God for the grace of your love. We face this new year in the fellowship of Christ crucified. Hear us and answer us, we plead in his worthy name. Amen.