I have a message for you this
morning that I hope will be of great interest to each of you. I know it will be of interest
to the people of God, and I pray that if it be the Lord's will
that He would bring any unbeliever who's among us or who might be
watching by way of the internet, that He would bring these unbelievers
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of your
soul. This is a very treasure chest
of jewels, scriptural, spiritual jewels that I have read to you.
But I'm going to focus on one verse of scripture, and that
is the 32nd verse of Romans 8. Our subject is, Christ was delivered
up. to die. Christ was delivered
up to die. Verse 32. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up in the stead
of us all. Who are the us? the many sons
of God, those who He has already set forth as those who were foreknown
by God, that is foreordained in love, unto salvation, those
who were predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ. those whom He has effectually
sent the gospel to and called them by His grace, those whom
He has justified, He has made them righteous in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and those whom He has glorified. You say, well, we're
not glorified yet. We are in the mind of God. All
of these things are everlasting issues that God sought to it
would be taken care of and that covenant of grace before the
world began. Now, as I look at this statement
of scripture, this to me is like heavenly logic. And here's what I mean, not earthly
logic and not carnal logic. Don't bring your carnal logic
to the Word of God, but interpret all things in light of heavenly
logic. And here's what the Apostle Paul
is saying. Since God has given us the greatest,
Since God has given us the best, since God has given to us His
only begotten Son, and this is heavenly logic, then He will
not withhold anything else that we might need. That's heavenly
logic. That's spiritual logic. The Lord
didn't spare his own son. And the story that comes to my
mind is, of course, Genesis, the 22nd chapter, when God told
Abraham to take his son Isaac, whom he loved with all of his
heart, up on a mountain that God would show him and offer
him there as a burnt offering to the Lord. And Abraham, he
did not spare his own son. And he laid him up on the altar,
and he was ready to execute Him in accordance with God's will. I can't imagine how he felt in
his heart. But the Scriptures reveal no
delay in Abraham's manner in his procedure. He is ready to
carry out the deed. He would not spare God his own
son. That promised seed. That son
born to Sarah. But God told him to stop. Stop. And God said to Abraham, in essence,
you'll spare your own son. And he said, there is over there
in the bushes an animal, a ram. He's caught in the thicket by
his horns. And you take that ram and you
offer him up, you kill it in the stead of Isaac. And so God did spare Abraham's
son. But God did not spare his own
son. but delivered Him up for us all. This is the only way the law
of God could be honored. This is the only way the justice
of God could ever be satisfied. This is the only way you and
I could have all of our sins fully remitted, that is forgiven. It's the only way that God, as
a just God, could therefore embrace us and say, you're justified,
you're righteous in my Son. He didn't spare His Son. He didn't
spare Him the humiliation of the incarnation. He did not spare
Him from being made lower than the angels. I can't even comprehend
that. He made the angels. He created
the angels, our Lord Jesus did. And yet those angels to whom
He ministered ever since their creation, keeping them living,
existing, active, they were His servants. He is made lower than
the angels. And they had to come and minister
to Him. God spared not his own son that humiliation of the incarnation. The scripture says, he who is
rich, he was made poor, that we, through his poverty, might
be rich. God did not spare him that poverty. He who owned all things and made
all things was born in a rustic stable and laid in a manger because
there was no room for him in the inn. God didn't spare him
that humiliation. God did not spare him the temptations
of the devil. The evil one tempted him 40 days
and 40 nights, and yet it wasn't the devil who led him out into
the wilderness, it was the Spirit of God Himself. God did not spare him those 40
days in which his holy soul was tempted by the evil one day and
night. God didn't spare him that. Because
you see, we have to face the temptations of the devil. Our
Lord Jesus must prove himself to be the perfect man and therefore
the only sacrifice that would satisfy God. God did not spare him the accusations,
the false accusations, all the mockery of the evil men. who called him names like, he's
a gluttonous man. He's a wine-bibber. And when
he did his miracles, they didn't deny the reality of the miracles. But they said, this man does
all of these miracles by the very power of Beelzebub. God did not spare him. God did
not spare him. Those accusations of slander
and mockery. And God did not spare him that
betrayal of a close companion. A man who broke bread with our
Lord. A man who took care of the purse. the offerings that were given
to our Lord and to his disciples to support them in their ministry. Judas, Judas, he took care of
those funds. And yet he sold our Savior out
for 30 pieces of silver. And our Lord Jesus, being a real
man, had wounded his heart. But God didn't spare him that.
And God didn't spare him a trusted disciple, a true believer. He
didn't spare him from the feeling of hurt when one of the inner
three, Peter, denied that he even knew him and cursed his
name. Oh, how that wounded the heart
of the man, Christ Jesus. But God didn't spare him that.
He said, people say evil things about me. People say false things
about me. Well, they said more evil things
and more horrible things about the Savior than they'll ever
say about you. Because there may be an element
of truth in what they say about you and what they say about me,
because we're imperfect people. But there was no element of truth
in what they said about our darling Savior, the perfect man, Christ
Jesus. And God did not spare him the
agony of Gethsemane. where He wept, as it were, great
drops of blood. And we hear His soul crying out,
My Father, if it be Thy will, let this cup pass from Me. Nevertheless,
not My will, but Thine be done. And God did not spare him the
awful agony and torture of being crucified. It was in that day, crucifixion
was in that day considered the most, to be the most horrendous
and the most painful method of execution anywhere. And God did not spare his son
the agonies of the cross of Calvary. And even before that, the agony
of being crowned with thorns, the agony of men who supposedly
were the religious leaders of the day, who blindfolded him
and then slapped him. Didn't hold anything back. They
slapped his holy face. Said, now if you're a prophet,
tell us who did it. And then they cleared their throats. God did not spare him the shameful
spitting of his enemies in his face. And they pulled out his
beard. And then they nailed him to a
cross. And then they sat there and they
watched Him. What kind of sick, sick pleasure
they got from beholding this man who was the great miracle
worker. What pleasure they got in watching
Him suffer that shameful death on the cross because it was a
death by which he would satisfy God but a death of a man stripped
of all of his clothing. God did not spare him the nakedness
before the eyes of men and women and children. God did not spare
him that shame. And God did not spare him the
rod of justice that he felt in his soul. And this was the very
soul of his sufferings. When God Himself exacted from
our Savior, our substitute, the full measure of satisfaction
to His justice, because our sins had been imputed to Him, God
didn't spare him anything. all of the wrath of God, that
all of the people of God would have had to endure for all of
eternity, that was poured into His holy soul. And as it were, God the Father
pulled His sword of justice out of its sheath. And He took that
sword of justice and He plunged it right into the heart of the
Son of God. And justice said, that's enough. The sword was pulled out, put
back in its sheath, and that's the reason the people of God
will never know anything about being condemned for our sins. Our Lord Jesus suffered, bled,
and died in our stead. He felt it in His Holy Soul. God didn't spare him anything. Didn't spare him anything. And I'll tell you this, God spared
not his son in that he actually forsook his son. I can't explain
that. Psalm 22 says, He who spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all. Delivered Him up to the hands
of men. Delivered Him up to the hands
of justice. Delivered Him up to the hands
of death. Delivered Him up to the grave.
He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.
How shall He not with Him freely? give us all things. Can you not
rejoice in that? And if you cannot rejoice in
that, oh my dear friend, there is something wrong with you. You see, this is all, our salvation
is fully dependent upon God. The faithfulness of God. Brandon
spoke this past Wednesday night. I am the Lord, I change not. That's our confidence. He doesn't
change. That's why sons of Jacob are
not consumed. That's the only reason. The only
reason. Three brief questions I'll ask
you in this message. Number one, who was delivered?
Number two, why was he delivered? And number three, who delivered
him? Who was delivered up to die? Why was he delivered up
to die? And who delivered him up to die? Who was delivered? Christ was. This is his official title, Christ. Jesus is his name. Jehovah who
saves. Christ, that's his title. He's the Messiah. He's the anointed
one. In the Old Testament, there were
three offices for which men had to be anointed. Prophet, priest,
and king. Our Lord Jesus was the anointing
prophet. He said the spirit of God is
upon me because he's anointed me to preach the gospel. He's
the anointed prophet of God. He's the anointed priest of God. Anointed by the Spirit of God
to offer the sacrifice to put away the sins of His people.
He's anointed as the King of kings. He's gone back to glory
and He's seated at the right hand of the Father. He reigns
over all things, over all the works of the hands of our God.
Christ governs everything. He's prophet, priest, and king. The ancient Hebrews were instructed
by the Old Testament prophets as to who Messiah was, who he
would be, what he would do. He would be God, and he would
be man, and he would save his people from their sins. And so
one of the prophets wrote, for unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given. In referring to him as a child,
that refers to his entrance into this world, in his humanity,
in that body that God prepared for him. In referring to him
as the son, that speaks of his eternal existence. his deity
and his Godhead. But through the years, through
the years, the Jews, their ideas of Messiah deteriorated until
finally when our Lord Jesus actually entered into this world. Their
idea of Messiah was one who would raise up an army and deliver
Israel from bondage to Rome, and lead them back to the glory
days of King David and King Solomon, when Israel would be the greatest
nation in the world, led by Messiah. They forgot about the message
of the prophets, that our Lord must first suffer, and then enter
into His glory. They were wrong about the kingdom
that he came to establish. It wasn't a physical kingdom.
It was a spiritual kingdom of salvation. And yet the prophets,
though their message was set aside by the majority of the
Jews, they had foretold Messiah would be both God and man, exalted
and yet abased. Master, and yet a servant. A priest, and yet the sacrifice
offered by the priest. He would be a prince, yet he
would be a subject. He would be a victor over death,
hell, and the grave. He would be rich and he would
be poor. He would be all-glorious, yet
a man of grief, a man of sorrows. The Bible identifies him in John
chapter 1 as being the eternal God clothed in human flesh. In the beginning was the Word,
that's his pre... existence. He lived before creation. That's obvious because it says
in John 1 3, all things were made by him and without him was
not anything made that was made. His pre-existence. He's the divine
one. This is a foundational truth
of the gospel. His deity. If he was only a good
man, if he was only a religious man, if he was only a man who
sought to do good for other men, if that's all he was, then he
wasn't the Messiah. He had to be the God man, God
in human flesh. And so we read in 1 Timothy chapter
three, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. The Bible identifies him as being
the eternal God. That's his preexistence. And this was of course what the
Jews hated. He said to them on one occasion
in John chapter eight, when he was talking to the Pharisees,
he said, before Abraham was, I am. I am. And that struck a nerve within,
because they were all very familiar with the story in Exodus chapter
three, where Moses approached a bush that burned, but it wasn't
consumed, and a boy spoke to him out of the bush, and Moses
finally said, well, who are you? And the boy said, I am that I
am. Now you go tell my people who
I am. I am that I am. I'm Jehovah.
I'm the ever-existent God. And our Lord Jesus said to those
people in John chapter 8, before Abraham was, I am. They were ready to kill him because
they despised that about him, that he claimed to be divine. In John chapter 5, when he healed
a man who had been lame 38 years and healed him on the Sabbath
day, He then said to the Jews who
quarreled with him over what he had done, and when he had
done it, he said, my father worketh hitherto and I work. And then they picked up stones
to stone him because they knew when he said, my father worketh
hitherto and I work, he was saying, I'm God. He had to be both God and man.
God and man in one person? His pre-existence in the beginning
was the Word. His co-existence with God is
set forth there in John 1 as well. And the Word was with God. He co-existed with the Father
and with the Spirit from all eternity. And His self-existence But John
then says, and the Word was God. There's His pre-existence, His
co-existence, and His self-existence. He's God. Who is that baby in
the manger? Born of a virgin. Who is that?
That's God. No wonder Simeon said, mine eyes
have seen thy salvation. He looked in the face of God
incarnate. And no wonder that God is satisfied
with his sacrifice. Nobody could die but a man. Nobody
could satisfy but God. Behold the God-man. He suffered,
he bled, he died. God was satisfied. God was satisfied. How do you know? Empty tomb. How do you know? His ascension
back to glory. How do you know? He's seated
at the right hand of the majesty on high. God is satisfied and
I say to all of you, by the witness of the Holy Spirit, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. and I hang the
weight of my eternal soul on this God-man, Christ Jesus. Do you? All the weight of my soul. Don't
you trust your prayers, your Bible reading, your study, your
preaching, your writing? No. No. All those things are done by
frail, fickle, sinful man. I hang my hopes on the God-man
who will never fail. Never fail. Who was delivered up to die?
The God-man. Number two, why was he delivered
up to die? He was delivered up to die to
save his people. And Isaiah 42, if you have time,
read Isaiah 42, 1 through 4. It talks about, he shall not
fail. You know God's not gonna fail. It's the craziest thing that
man has ever, craziest lie that's ever been spoken by any man,
that God tries to do something and can't do it. Or that God
endeavors to do something and he fails. When the Bible says
in Isaiah 42 and verse 4, He shall not fail. And if your God, if your Savior
is a failure at any point, you got the wrong God and you got
the wrong Savior. Christ can't fail. Why was He delivered up to die? Let's hear Him say. He'll tell
us why He came into the world. He said, the Son of Man is come. He's come to seek and to save
that which was lost. That's why He came. That's why
He came. He said, I came not to destroy
the law or the prophets, but to fulfill the law. That's why
He came. He said, the Son of Man came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give His life
a ransom for many. That's why He died, to give His
life a ransom. The law of God held us for ransom. The justice of God said, I'm
not going to let them go to the price that is owed is paid to
me. What is the price? Their death
or the death of a suitable substitute? There was only one in all of
God's universe who could be the suitable substitute. And our
Lord Jesus stepped forward. He appeared for us just like
He appeared before those who came to arrest Him in the garden.
He said, if you seek Me, let these go their way. And justice
dealt with Him. And mercy robes us in his righteousness. And mercy kisses us on the cheek. And mercy says, you're freely
forgiven of all things. You're saved. Why did he die? He said, here's
his words. I'm the good shepherd. The good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. I die so my sheep will live.
You know why you're not going to die? I'm talking about dying
forever. I'm talking about perishing.
The only reason you will not die forever is because your shepherd
died in your stead. If we can ever get a hold of
that, or maybe I should put it this way, if that truth ever
gets a hold of us and squeezes our hearts and burns it into
us, oh, how we'll rejoice in Christ Jesus. And then lastly, who delivered
him up to die? And the answer is the Father. The Father. He spoke in John
chapter 4. His disciples had gone to get
him some lunch. He hadn't eaten in a long time.
They got him some lunch and brought it back to him and he said, that's
okay. Thank you for thinking of me,
but I don't need the food. And they said, well, did somebody
else get him lunch? He said, my meat. is to do the work of the Father
and to finish that work. He said, that's what gives me
joy. That's what delights me. He said, that's my meat. That's
what pleases me. And to finish His work. And you know, His last two words
upon the cross of Calvary were, number one, it is finished. And
therefore he said, the last one, into thy hands, Father, into
thy hands, I commend my spirit. I commend my spirit to you because
I finished the work you gave me to do, the work of salvation. And God raised him from the dead.
He was delivered up to die. Oh, may God the Spirit drive
this glorious truth of substitution, these truths of substitution
and satisfaction into our hearts. And then we'll find rest for
our souls. And we'll stop our fretting,
at least for a little while. at least for a little while.
You know, I want us to sing just one stanza of our last song,
and that is 489 Glory to His Name.