the weakness of our flesh, because
we need these introductions, I think, at least I do. As children,
I used to appreciate a preacher giving an illustration. God has
given an illustration of what I'm about to preach about, and
we're going to look at that. But I want to ask this question
before I do, because if we don't have this question in view, I
don't think we can appreciate what's being said here. in this
text of scripture. And here's the question, what
makes anything necessary? Have you ever thought about that?
We always think of cause and effect. When you're little, mom
said to, it's necessary, right? Dad told me to, that's why. What
are you doing here? Dad sent me out here to get this,
or he told me to do this. It became necessary for you,
didn't it? Why do you get up every morning and go to work?
Well, because I want to earn some money. But why do you need
money? I have to eat. Why do you need
to eat? Because I have to live. Why do you need to live? You
see, there's always something we can go back and ask the question,
what made that necessary? And that's something that romantic
novelists and others write about. We might read a romantic story
and a storyteller might say, there's no greater motivation
than love. For the love a man has, he'll spend his life for
his wife and his children. For the love of country, a soldier
will give his life. For the love of a child, a mother
will rush into a burning building. For love, a wife and a man of
a family will spend the labors of their life. So we understand
that love is a powerful motivator. For love, Adam turned against
his God and plunged his race under condemnation for the love
of his wife. Why? because love made those
things necessary for them. So we see there's something that
makes things necessary for us. Now, if you would turn with me
to Romans chapter four, I want to look at something here that's
complicated and necessary. In Romans chapter four, we find
An illustration, an example of this amazing truth that God spends
so much time in Scripture answering and explaining to us, something
we can't understand. We can begin to understand it,
it seems. By grace, we can understand it, but not fully. As it says in 1 Corinthians 13,
verse 12, we see as through a glass darkly. So when we look at this,
we're gonna be looking at this Although with eyes of faith,
there's still so much more that we can't see. But when we see
Him, then we'll know even as we're known. Look at Romans chapter
four and verse 25. This is the last verse in the
chapter. It's speaking of, if you look
at the verse before, it says in verse 24, but for us also
to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on Him, that raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead. Him is God the Father. Jesus
our Lord was raised up from the dead, raised to life again, which
means he obviously was dead. In verse 25, who the Lord Jesus
Christ was delivered for our offenses and was raised again
for our justification. What made this necessary? Why
was this? Why did this happen? Well, if you look at Ephesians
1, I'll read this verse to you. It says in Ephesians 1, verse
5, speaking of God the Father, he says, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, And
here's the answer. According to the good pleasure
of His will. So what made it necessary? Well,
it seemed good to God. It pleased Him. Now, we just
talked about these situations where a mother rushes into a
burning building because of the love for her child. What compelled
her? Her love. Something from within
her moved her to do that, even though it cost her, perhaps,
her life. Here, in Ephesians 1, it says
that according to the good pleasure of His will. And it goes on in verse 6, to
the praise of the glory of His grace. And then, going on further,
he says in verse nine, having made known to us the mystery
of his will according to his good pleasure, which he hath
purposed in himself. And verse 11, in whom also we
have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. So what makes it necessary? What
makes anything necessary? Ultimately, because it seemed
good to God. And if it seemed good to God,
then it came out of God's own nature, and character, and mind,
and heart. So when we look at what God purposes
and determines to do because it's necessary, it pleases Him,
what are we looking at? We're looking at God, you see. We're looking at pure God here
in Romans 4.25. Look at this again in Romans
4.25. Who was delivered for our offenses? Who delivered whom? God the Father delivered His
Son. If you look at, or maybe you
just, you know it so well, I can just read it to you. In Acts
2, verse 23, it says this. Who delivered His Son? Let me
read this to you. He says, Him, Christ, being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have
taken and by wicked hands have slain. Christ was delivered by
God the Father. It was His determinate counsel
that did it, His foreknowledge. Who was delivered? Christ. Who
delivered Him? God the Father. What did He deliver
Him to? He says He was delivered for
our offenses. Look at Romans 8, a couple of
pages over in Romans 8. He said in verse 29, for whom
he did foreknow, this is God the Father, there were those
in all of creation born to Adam that God the Father loved before. He foreknew them. To the others,
Jesus will say in the last day, I never knew you. But to these,
of these, God says, he foreknew them, he also did predestinate
them to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be
the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified,
and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we
then say to these things? This is what we have to say.
If God be for us, who can be against us? And now listen to
this next verse very carefully. 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? What did he deliver him to? He
delivered him up to the curse. In Galatians 3, 13, you know
the verse. It says, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. God didn't spare his son. He
delivered him up. Back in Romans 4, 25. What moved God to do this? When
did it happen? Well, in time, it was at the
cross. But there was a time before the
cross when God delivered his son up. He says this in Revelation chapter
13, verse 8. You know that verse well. Those
whose names were not written in the book of life of the Lamb,
which was slain from the foundation of the world, or before the foundation
of the world, those whose names were not there worshiped the
beast. And in 1 Peter, in chapter one,
where he talks about the precious blood of Christ by which we are
redeemed, he says this, who verily the Lord Jesus Christ was foreordained
before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these
last times for you. God the Father determined before
to deliver up his son. Well, when was this? Before the
foundation of the world. Well, which creature then was
there to inspire God or counsel, give him counsel, or to influence
him? Well, there was none yet because
the foundations of the world weren't even laid. Well, if there
was no creature, then who was there? Who was there without
creation? God was there. Only God was there. The eternal God was there, because
there's none eternal but God. So He, God, found it in Himself. He found a reason in Himself. It pleased him in his determinate
counsel to deliver up his son and to deliver him to the curse
of his own law, to death. What moved him? Whatever God
is moved him. What is God? Wow, we see it in
this, don't we? Why would God deliver up his
son? Had his son done something to
deserve this? No, no. He says so. He says what it is right here
in Romans 4.25, who was delivered for our offenses. I don't know
if you've ever offended somebody before. Especially I have, I
do it all the time, it seems like. And sometimes I do it when
they may not even be aware of it. And I cringe to think what's
gonna happen when they find out what I've done. So foolish was
I. But here we openly offended God. We offended our creator. Our
own breath and life are in his hands. We offended him. If you're someone who is in a
place of authority, maybe a mother or father, and someone offends
you, you have a right, don't you? To be justly offended by
that. You're being insubordinate. You
need to stand down. And it goes on year after year,
arguing, pushing back, trying the boundaries. And there comes
a point where you say, okay, I'm gonna bring some consequences
here. You've offended my place, my
authority. But imagine now that you've been
offended like that. Let's say you're the father of
the prodigal son. Your son comes to you and says,
father, give me what's mine. I'll take my leave. You give
him your part. of your inheritance, he didn't
deserve any of it, you give it to him, he goes out and he wastes
it. On riotous living, harlots, spends it unwisely, completely
wastes it. He comes back. Now you're the
offended one. You have a right to hold him
accountable and it would be good for you to do so. He deserves
it. But you, in the place of the
offended one, you take the initiative. You yourself take the initiative
to make a reconciliation, to go out and recover the offender. And that offense that he made
in you, you find a way to resolve it. That's what he's saying here. God found it in himself. to lay
the full responsibility of our reconciliation on himself before
we were ever created. And what moved him to do this
was his own goodness. In his own love, eternal love,
and in his own grace, undeserved because we weren't there, and
because we would offend, God put himself in the place of the
reconciler, and he couldn't do it unless he upheld his nature,
his character as God. He is holy and just. He cannot
look upon sin. God wouldn't allow one aspect
of his character to be amplified and compromise the other part
of himself, could he? We do that. All right, I'm gonna
overlook this this time. You know, this happens all the
time in government. Justice just goes by the wayside
for promotion or whatever. God does not compromise. It says
in scripture, he is no respecter of persons. It doesn't matter
who you are. If you have offended God's justice,
justice will be served. God will see to it. Every one
of us will give an account before God. And what are we going to
answer? Well, here, God himself has revealed
the most difficult perplexity in all of scripture. How can
God be holy and just? And look back at the same chapter. In verse 5, look at this verse
carefully. This is God now. He is writing
these words out. His own spirit is breathing them
out. Revealing His own way, His truth. The way God sees things and does
things. This is the laws of His own mind
and heart. And this is the way things work.
He says, But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that
justifieth the ungodly. Now, what description of God
does this give us? Him that justifieth the ungodly. How? How in the world could he
do this? God who is holy and just. He
can't compromise. He can't look upon sin. He will
not. It has to be perfect to be accepted
with God. No compromise. No fixing of the
books. He openly makes known the truth. Everyone can inspect it. The
universe will look on and God will be true and just. And so when we look at verse
25, who was delivered for our offenses, we see here something
holy. I underscore that for us. We
are looking at purely God's work. Therefore, it has to be holy. We're looking at the very heartbeat,
the nature and character, the attributes, the mind and the
will and the counsel and the work and the glory of God. Why would God, out of all of
the eternal ages, decide when there's no other motivator to
deliver up his son for our offenses. This is holy, isn't it? This
is very, very holy. We don't need the words very,
very there, because only God is holy. But it makes us stand
still, and it causes our scalp and the hair on the back of our
neck to tingle, doesn't it? God would be moved out of his
own nature to make himself known. He had a desire to make himself
known, but not so much. When we think of that, we can't
help because of the infirmity of our flesh to think that there's
some, what's the word? Some self-centered view of things
because we're sinners. But if God doesn't have a self-centered
view of things, then we won't see his selfless humility, you
see. He has to make his glory known
because he's the only one who has such grace and mercy and
justice and truth. He delivered up his son. Before
the foundations of the world, he determined to deliver up his
son for our offenses to death. Who dies? Who dies but sinners? Are there any that die but sinners?
The Lord Jesus Christ was not passive in this. He himself,
look at 1 Peter 2. I want to read this to you. This
is a great mystery, isn't it? But it's revealed. It was a mystery
because we could not have imagined it had it not been revealed.
He says in verse 24, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. In
fact, let me go back in verse 22, 1 Peter chapter 2. Who did
no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. Who when he was
reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not. But he committed himself to him
that judges righteously. who his own self bear our sins
in his own body. This was the Lord Jesus Christ.
This was willing. This was voluntary. Why did the
Lord Jesus Christ have such a heart to give himself in this way,
to bear our sins? If you've seen me, you've seen
the Father. The heart and the mind and the
will and the work of the father and the son are the same. What
was in the heart of the father was in the heart of the son.
The father entrusts everything to his son because there's no
possibility that he won't do what's very best according to
God's will. How can we even put that into
words? I only do my father's will, because
that's all I want to do. Here, he bear our sins in his
own body, our sins in his body on the tree. This is what he
was delivered to. That we, notice, he did that,
he hadn't sinned, but our sins were charged to him. And he owned
them, they became his, voluntarily. And he confessed them as his.
Mine iniquities are gone over my head. in Psalm 40 verse 11,
but here he says that our sins, he bear our sins in his own body
on the tree that we, notice, he did something, he bore our
sins, and he bore them on the cross and died, that we, being
dead to sins, but we didn't die, he died. He didn't sin either,
but our sins were made his, and his death was credited to us.
Because when God the Father was pleased to adopt us and predestinate
us to the adoption of sons, He chose us in Christ. Which means
that He, from then on, from eternity, viewed us in Christ, joined Him. It became the foundation of the
imputation of our sins to our Savior, and the imputation of
His obedience and righteousness to us. His death was my death
if I'm in Him. His burial, I was put there.
God remembered my sins no more because they were put away and
forgotten. And His resurrection was my justification,
you see. He bore our sins in His own body
on the tree. He had no part in the committing
of our sins, but He owned them. We had no part in his obedience,
but he owns us as having obeyed God in him. Can you understand that? This
is the most complicated thing in all of the scripture and all
of the universe, how God could be just and justify the ungodly. Notice he doesn't say in verse
five, God who justifies the ungodly as if he first makes us somehow
better And having arrived at some level of improvement, then
he goes on and says, okay, now you've reached that, you're just
now, not at all. He justifies the ungodly, period. This is an impossibility to reconcile,
except that God would do it. So back in verse 25, who was
delivered for our offenses, the offended God, we were the rebels,
we offended him. As Pastor Fortner used to say
so much of the time, we stuck our fist in God's face and he
removed our offense to his holy justice and his holy law because
he delivered up his son to bear our sins in his own body on the
tree that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness. And so he says in verse 25 again,
he was delivered for our offenses And he was raised again for our
justification. Men held their court and God
held his. And he found the Lord Jesus Christ
guilty, charging him with our sins guilty. He was counted among
the transgressors. That's why there was a thief
on either side. He was counted among the transgressors and he
bear the sins of many. That's why he was there, that's
why he died. No, no one ever died who was
not a sinner, but there's a flip to that too. No one ever lived
who wasn't righteous. Why does anyone live? Only the righteous live. And
so when God raised up Christ from the dead, what was he saying?
He's righteous. He is so righteous. Death could
not hold him. And the resurrection was the
pronouncement of God that he was righteous. Justified. It says in 1 Timothy 3.16, great
is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit. He was justified. God the Father
justified him when he raised him according to the spirit of
holiness. By the resurrection for the dead,
he was justified, declared to be the son of God with power. And this all happened because
God found it necessary. He found his own nature required
it. His own purpose of grace and
his justice. Look at Hebrews chapter two.
This sort of sums up that point. He says in Hebrews chapter two
in verse 10, for it became him, speaking of God the Father, it
became him. It seemed right to him. And what
seemed right to him compelled him to do what pleased him. I've heard, in fact, I could
give names and I would, except I don't want to try to seem better
than others, but there's a very, very famous modern day evangelical
preacher who says that God wants to do things that he doesn't
do. Is that possible? Is that possible? That God would really want, desire
something, and then not do it because, well, the preacher would
say, because, well, I can't really explain why, but because man
wouldn't cooperate. I want to read a couple of verses
of scripture to nail that down. In Isaiah chapter 14, listen
to these words. God makes these things clear,
abundantly clear. Isaiah 14, 24, the Lord of hosts
has sworn. Now when we swear, I was just
looking at something the other day, sign here, I swear so and
so, you know. But what good is that signature
better than my own character? No better. Here it says, the
Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, surely as I have thought, so
shall it come to pass. And as I have purposed, so shall
it stand. There's not one thought that
God thinks that doesn't happen. Acts 15, 18 says, known unto
God are all his works from the foundation of the world. What
happens at the end? We're gonna find out one of these
days, won't we? There'll be people in heaven,
and we'll look at that person. We'll say, you know why you're
here? Because God, before the foundation of the world, decided
you to be here. He put you here in his own eternal
counsel. And he knew that work before
the foundation of the world. In Ephesians 1.11, we just read
a minute ago, he says, he works all things after the counsel
of his own will. What is the guideline? What is
the necessaries that drive God? His own will, his own character,
his nature. And so what we see here in Romans
4.25 is that God did this, He delivered up Christ for our
offenses. He raised him again for our justification. He declared him to be righteous,
obedient in all things. Now look at Philippians with
me, if you would. Philippians chapter two. So it became him
for whom are all things, I didn't finish reading that in Hebrews
2.10, and by whom are all things to bring many sons to glory by
making the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Look
at Philippians chapter two. In verse six, speaking of the
Lord Jesus Christ, he says in verse five, let this mind be
in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form
of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. We sometimes
quote that, and we don't stop and pause and think about what
that means. It means that Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, did
not consider it to be robbery to be equal with God, because
He is God. John 13 verses 2 and 3 says, when Jesus knew that
the Father had put all things into his hand and that he was
come from God and that he was going to God, he arose from supper
and he laid aside his garments and he took a towel and he began
to wash the disciples' feet. from the position and full knowledge
of his place as God and mediator and the heir of all things. What
did he do? He laid aside everything. He
laid aside his garments. And he says here in Philippians
2, the next verse, he made himself of no reputation and he took
upon him the form of a servant. And he was made in the likeness
of men. And verse eight, and being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself. What a stoop. It's one thing to be made man. That's a stoop we can't fathom.
But he became a servant and he humbled himself and he became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And God looked
upon his death. Did the law require that? Well, in type it did, but there's
nothing in the Ten Commandments that a man has to give his life
for another, is there? I might be misreading it, but
isn't it true that when the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself, when
he was holy and harmless and undefiled, And he gave himself
when nothing required it, but the will of God, that eternal
will, and that love that compelled him to love his father and love
his people that God had given in trust to him to bring many
sons to glory. And he obligated himself entirely. He alone took full responsibility
to save them. And God laid our sins upon him. He took our debts. He became
the ransom price paid to compensate God's justice so that God could
be just and the justifier. And this was an obedience that
super fulfilled the law. I don't know how else to say
it. It was a righteousness so complete
that God called it an everlasting righteousness. In fact, he calls
it the righteousness of God. He humbled himself. He became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And you know
what happened when God saw that righteousness? After he went
through the process of dying and being buried and our sins
as a scapegoat being put away and God remembers them no more,
having received full compensation, an atonement was made, already
made. When he had by himself purged
our sins, we were cleansed. Then God raised him from the
dead and declared him to be righteous. He became obedient to death.
And this was in God's heart from eternity. And it was in Christ's
heart to do this. But he didn't do it just for
himself. In fact, he didn't do it for
himself. He laid down his life for the
sheep. Back to Romans 8.32, he says,
He who spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all.
He delivered him up for our offenses. It was substitution. That word
that I think John used last night that summarized the whole gospel,
isn't it? The surety stood before the judge
in answer for his little brother that he had committed to his
father to bring back again. And he answered with himself,
and he said, let the lad go up free to his father again with
his brethren, but take me instead of the lad. That's what the Lord
Jesus Christ did. He himself bore our sins in his
own body on the tree that we, being dead to sins, should live
unto righteousness. We were raised We were declared
just because he didn't act alone. As by one man's disobedience
many became sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be
made righteous. Romans 5.19. One man's sin plunged
all of his race under the guilt of sin and brought the condemnation
of it and the death of that condemnation. One man's righteousness brought
justification on all for whom he stood, and life because of
justification, the justification of life. And until God makes
us know it, until the Spirit of God reveals the heart of God
in shining the light of the gospel into our hearts, we won't know
it. But when He does, He raises us from the dead. Why? Because
we were justified. We were raised in Christ. And
having been raised by the Spirit of God, He gives us faith. so
that our faith is not the cause of our justification. It's the
view of it. It's the convincing of it. It's
the entering into the peace of it and the joy of it. And we
see God purely and wholly in himself doing this because this
is who God is. When you've seen me, you've seen
the Father, he says. God has in these last days spoken
to us in his Son, hasn't he? All God has to say, He said in
His Son. And He didn't just say it in
His person, in just His character, but He worked it out. He gave
us a living fulfillment, not just an illustration. This is
love played out. This is eternal purpose and delight
of God to show mercy. He had to make his justice so
high that even the death of his son would be required to satisfy
it. He didn't have to make it that
high. That's how high it is. but he brought such satisfaction
to it that God justifies us. God's justice. He stands in the
court. He's received full payment, a
full righteousness, satisfaction to the nth degree, a fulfillment
of righteousness. Jesus said, I did not come to
destroy the law and the prophets. I came to fulfill it. Amazing, isn't it? Amazing grace. Amazing grace. We often think,
and it's probably inbred in our nature to think right along these
lines that we're justified because of what we do. We see the whole
matter of salvation as a transaction. If I believe God, God's gonna
justify me. And we think of it that way.
When did God justify Abraham? Well, we know in Genesis 15,
six, he declared him to be righteous because he says he believed God
and God counted it to him for righteousness. So we know he
was at least then, but what about before? Remember in Hebrews chapter
11, it says that by faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out
into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance,
obeyed and he went out. Why did he leave the land of
idolatry? Why did he leave his father's
house? Because God came to him and God spoke to him and God
promised him. And a promise doesn't depend
on conditions we meet. A promise depends on the one
who promised. And so when Abraham heard God speak his promise,
you know what happened? Faith came by hearing and hearing
by the word of God Did the promise depend on the faith that he gave
to him? No, the faith that was given
to him was part of the promise. And so the justification of the
believer comes because of God's assessment of his own son's obedience
and not because of the assessment of our faith. Is your faith ever
perfect? Don't you pray with the disciples, Lord, increase
our faith? And don't we also cry with the
Father, I believe, help thou mine unbelief? We would be dishonest
to say anything else, wouldn't we? In fact, it's grace that
teaches us to come to God for grace to believe. And yet we
come in believing. And so we are admitting it. But
God says in Galatians 3 verse 8, So the promise to Abraham
was concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way all
nations could be blessed in him. when they believed Christ as
he did. The promise God gave to Abraham was made before Abraham
believed. And the promise attended with
it, the qualification given to Abraham to enable him to believe
God. And in so believing, God says,
that one is righteous. Not because of his faith, his
own act or subjective act of faith, but because of the one
he believed. He's aligned now with God's view
of things. It says in Romans 4 that when
Abraham was now dead, he couldn't bear children. His wife couldn't
bear children. His body was dead. In verse 19, Romans 4, in being
not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead. When we come into the presence
of God, when God has given us faith, grace, to come to Him,
how do we come? Well, think about how you come
to your dad after you've just done exactly what he told you
not to do. You come, I wonder what dad's gonna think. Will
he think, he's my son, yes, he totaled the car, but, and he
did it while he was drunk, but he is my son. And so we go through
these thought processes, or maybe we think, I know what I'll say,
dad, I'll never do it again, I'll never do it again, I'll
never do it again, right? And so we're thinking what our
father would think of us when we're coming to him and we're
considering what he considers. How does he see things? Well,
God had made this promise to Abraham and Abraham's body was
now dead. The promise was about the Lord
Jesus Christ coming and bearing the curse for his people and
giving them his spirit in order that they might live and believe
on Christ. As we read in Galatians 3, 13, 14. But Abraham's body
was dead. He did not consider his own body
now dead. What is that teaching us? As
believers, we do not consider our own selves. We come into
God's presence considering only one thing. Whatever God thinks. And what does he think? He thinks
of his son. He raised his son from the dead
because he was righteous. And God has promised that he
imputes to us the righteousness of his son. He has made him to
be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. The Lord, our righteousness.
Of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification and redemption. And so Abraham
considered only one thing, God's promise. He considered Christ. Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And what was the object of his
faith? God who justifies the ungodly, God who raises the dead,
God who delivered his son for our offenses, and God who raised
him up again for our justification. The believer doesn't disbelieve
in God, I believe in God. I call him by all sorts of names.
Or he doesn't believe in God just as the creator, though we
do believe God is the creator. But we believe in God who justifies
the ungodly because he delivered up his son for our offenses and
raised him again for our justification. Because God, in his wisdom, found
his own son, the only one that could be found, to stand for
us and do all for us. And God will look upon him forever
and see us in him. So we come to God in the full
confidence that it's not what he thinks of me, it's what he
thinks of Christ that matters, isn't it?