There she is. Thank you, Judy.
She sang our Father's favorite hymn. It is a joy to be here one more
time. And it's a surprise each year
as I look at the bulletin, the announcement says, 26th Annual
Conference. I've been coming up here before
this church was even here preaching. And it just seemed like a week
or two ago I turned 39. It doesn't seem possible. But
I guess that must have been the second time I turned 39. It's
a joy to be here always. I've enjoyed the preaching. I needed that. I've been pretty
close to home for the last few months. I had heart surgery back
in December. For six or eight weeks the doctor
wouldn't let me leave the house except to come back and see him.
Give him some more money. I had some ladies that came out
and checked on me twice a week to see how I was doing. And you
know that six or eight weeks, I just walked back and forth.
I walked from one end of the house to the other. They thought
I was doing good. I had five bypasses. And I wasn't doing
anything hard, but I was eating. And now this is the heaviest
I've ever been in my life, 232. My trousers are kind of tight,
and it's not very comfortable. My son, I hadn't seen him in
a long time, just very briefly since he got back from Iraq,
my oldest son. I was so looking forward to seeing
him here, and he was coming down through Virginia. He almost got
to Appalachia County, Virginia, Appalachia or something. Ran
into a big bear, and the bear ran into him, tore his truck
all to pieces. So he had to go back home. I'm going to try to talk to you
this morning about love. Divine love. This generation, and me included,
we sure don't know much about love. I hear people talking about,
I love you brother, I love you. They don't even know what it
is. Love, real love, is not just in words, but it's in deed and
in truth. Not just something you say, but
it has a commitment with it. Love is committed. I want to
talk to you about divine love, the love of God. I don't know
much about it. Paul said it's past finding out,
past tracing out. We're not going to know much
about it in this life, We know enough to turn our heads and
turn our hearts, keep us on the right track. But Romans chapter
8, if you will, read a few verses here. Verse 28, And we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the call according to his purpose. The Apostle Paul
actually did know that. That's why he could be content
in whatever state he was. He knowed all things. Be in prison
beaten, but in prison he was singing praises to the Lord. not just something we heard spoken
one time, we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are to call according to his purpose.
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate 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. Whom he justified, them he also
glorified. What shall we then say to these
things if God be for us? Who can be against us? 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? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. Yea, rather, that is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. Who shall separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus, from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long.
We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these
things we are more than conquerors to him that loved us. For I am
persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Look at verse
32. I was just looking at this as
a reference in another message one time. And it really struck
me what he's saying. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all. Spared not his own son. Good
parents try to spare their children from a lot of things. But God spared not his own son. He didn't spare him, but delivered
him up for an infinite number almost of rebels, a number that no man can number.
Spared him none. The Apostle Paul said in Ephesians
that the love of God passeth knowledge, and certainly it does. I think about back to Abraham
when God said, take now, he'd waited so long for that boy,
loved him so much. And God told him one day, said,
take now thy son, thine only son, the one you love so much,
and offer him up a sacrifice, for I show you three days' journey. Abraham took off. God said, now
I know one thing. I know who you love. Sacrifice your own son. But Abraham's
son was spared in the providence and grace of God. God spared
not his own son, but delivered him up Maurice Montgomery, Jack
Shank, delivered him up. Never spared him. Delivered him
up for us all. God's love is infinite and boundless
and measureless and past finding out. It's God-like, it's not
human-like. It's past human imagination. Not only past our understanding,
it's past human imagination. We can't even imagine. The infinite,
unchangeable, eternal love of our great God. And I tell you,
this is what He did. This is how we know it. He spared
not His Son. How do we know He loved us? He
spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. What a sacrifice! I've never heard anything like
it in my life before. I'm amazed, and I'm ashamed. that I can read a verse of scripture
like this and not be totally overwhelmed with humility and
praise and thanksgiving and wonder. And yet we sit and read this,
God spared not His Son for you, just go on about your business.
I don't know what kind of faith we have. I'm talking mainly about
me. God spared not His Son. My son, oldest son, has been
to Iraq twice through some dangerous times. And I wouldn't give him
for all the Arabs in that whole region. I'd spare him. I wouldn't deliver him for them.
But God gave his son for somebody like me. Somebody that, here's the way
we stand, everything that God is by nature, I'm just the opposite. That's right. I am naturally
opposed to all of the goodness of God. And yet he spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all. This is what happened. God the Father, willingly, freely, in pure love,
gave his only begotten Son for his people, his elect. Spared him not, but delivered
him up to all that was involved in our redemption. And here's the other part of
it. and the Son of God, willingly and freely, in pure love, laid
down his own life, delivered himself into the hands of God,
justice of God, the will of God. 1 John chapter 3, just a moment.
1 John chapter 3. You don't have to turn there.
Verse 16, Hereby perceive we the love of God. Because He laid down His life
for us. Chapter 4 verse 10, Herein is love. Not that we love God,
that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation of
our sins, to satisfy God for our sins. Romans chapter 5, verses 6-11
kind of describes the kind of people he died for when we were
without strength, ungodly enemies of God. That's where we were.
That's what we were. Without strength to help ourselves,
without any desire for God to help us, He gave his Son. He spared him not, but delivered
him up to be the propitiation for our sins, to satisfy God
for our sins, to establish righteousness for us, because we had none. Well, the first thing to notice
here is, who are the us? Spared him not, but delivered
him up for us all. Who are the us all here? We're
the ones described here beginning in verse 28 as far as our context
is concerned. All things work together for
good to them that love God. To them who are the called according
to His purpose, that's the us all. To them who are, in verse
29, foreknown, foreloved, chosen, and loved of God in Christ, and
predestinated sonship. predestinated to be conformed
to the perfect image of Christ, predestinated to eternal glory
with Christ. That's the us all. That's who
He delivered His Son for. Delivered Him up and never spared
Him. Never spared Him. Then in verse
30, predestinated us to call those whom He called, whom He
justified, whom He glorified, What shall we say then to these
saviors? It's the ones whom God's for.
That's the us all. This us all, God's for him. You
know how I know? He spared not his son, but delivered
him up for him. He must be for him, John. Delivered
him up for us all. Us all. Amen. Verse 33, they're God's elect,
the ones that God declares to be just. Verse 34, those for whom Christ
lived and died and rose from the grave, and live for them
still. Verse 35 through 39, those who
are loved of God in Christ, the elect of God. Ephesians 1, 3. The Lord Jesus Christ is set
forth in the Scriptures as a federal head and a representative and
a substitute and the surety for us all. And all is required in being
a federal head and a substitute, representative, surety. All is
inquired in those Gospels. but delivered him up for us all. Delivered him up for us all. For these people, the Assaw,
as their representative, he lived and he died and he ever lives
for those people. For them, for us, for sinners,
he was delivered up by his Father and spared not. When he became
our federal head, backed in eternity, consented in covenant to be our
representative, our substitute, and our surety, took all these
obligations upon himself, gave himself God gave him. God spared him not. The Holy Father, this could go
on for a long time, but just make a few points here. I think
the chief point, what did God not spare him from? What did
God deliver him up to? Spared him not, but delivered
him up for us all. Well, his spirit did not, but
delivered him up to be made Lord in the angels, to be made in the likeness of
sinful flesh, to be made a man. The creator of all things became
a creature. The Lord of Glory became the
son of a poor woman, despised and rejected of men,
suffering the contradiction of sinners against himself all the
days of his life. God, the Creator of all things, Manifest
in the flesh. God delivered up His Son to that. That's just the beginning. That's
just the first step. But you might pause and say,
when you realize it, when you think about it, what it's really
saying is, what condescension, what infinite condescension,
infinite humiliation He endured. Almighty God became a man. walking
down here in dirty sandals, in the dust and sand, dwelling among
sinners who hated him, and finally, in the will of God, put him to
death. Secondly, the Father delivered
him up and spared him not. from being made sin for us. And we'll never understand this, how a thrice holy God, a sin-hating God, in the covenant of redemption
and salvation, God the Father made His Son to be that which
He hates above all things, that which He despises, that which
He can't understand, that which even God doesn't have words to
describe to us what sin means to Him. Wounds and bruises and
putrefying sores, that's one way to describe how we appear
in the eyes of God. And another way is maggots. And yet God spared not His Son,
but delivered Him up to become what we are by burying in His own body all
of our sins. All of our sin, all of our iniquities. were punished in his person. He bore them in his own body
on that awful tree. The Bible said the Lord laid
on him, his beloved son, the iniquity of us all. Gave him
for us. God did it to his son. Gave him
for us. made His Son to be that which
is so odious and despicable in His sight for us, for me. What amazing love and grace.
And another thing under this point is He punished His Son
for our sin. Punished His Son for our sin.
Poured out His infinite wrath That was against us for our sins. Our sin was taken off us and
laid on Him. And He punished His Son for our
sin. And He never spared Him. He poured
out His wrath upon Him in all of its unrelieved intensity. He suffered all that we deserved,
all the elect of God. Spared him not, but delivered
him up for us all. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief, and
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He spared him not, dear, He never said, this is my beloved
thought, I'll hold back a little bit. He spared him not. Justice
is at stake. Sin must be punished and paid
for. And it was in our representative,
our substitute, our surety. And as such, God spared him not,
but delivered him up for us all. What amazing love and grace. He bore our sin. beyond human comprehension. God
spared him none, but poured out upon him the fullness of his
infinite wrath against sin. The holy God demands payment
for sin. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. One way or other, it shall die. And there's no way God can clear
the guilty. All of the firstborn that night
down in Egypt, or just before they left, all of the firstborn
in Egypt died that night. Some personally, and some in
a substitute, represented by the blood on the doorpost, but
they died. And we've got to die. And the
Apostle Paul said, I died. He said, I threw the law. I didn't
try to get around the law, threw the law. I'm dead to the law. I might live under God. Paul,
what in the world are you talking about? He said, I'm crucified
with Christ. That's how I died. Nevertheless,
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. The life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me, crucified with Christ. Romans chapter 6, a big portion
of it dedicated to that one proposition. You're dead to sin in Christ. Reckon it so,
and live like it. That's what it says. Understand
it. Reckon it so. Live like it. You're free men, not slaves. In free love and grace, God gave
His Son, His beloved Son, to be the propitiation for our sins,
to satisfy God for us. How can I ever be accepted of
God? Only in Him. Because He only
satisfied God. It's on the way. It's on the way. Look at Romans
3 just a moment. Turn back just a little bit.
Romans chapter 3. Verse 23. For all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. We know that. if God's turned
on the light. But this just kind of jumps out.
Sometimes it doesn't even look like it fits there, because there's
no continuity. Here we are all sinners being
justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be the propitiation. God has set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness in
setting us guilty birds free. You know how a thrice holy God
can be righteous, holy, and just, honor and uphold the law, magnify
the law, and set a bunch of lawbreakers free? In Christ Jesus. He represented us. He satisfied
God for us. All that we owed God, He paid
it. He paid it. All that we did deserve
to suffer at the hand of divine justice, He suffered it. And God is just in setting us
free because sin has been paid for. Let me show you something
back in Hebrews just a moment. This is one of my favorite places. Hebrews 10. I can't preach many sermons without
referring to this someplace, because that's what it's all
about. Verse 11, every priest, those
Old Testament priests, they stand every day ministering and offering
oftentimes the same sacrifices which never did take away one
sin. But then you have a change here.
But this man, this priest, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, he sat down, he had done, he finished. All
these priests down through the centuries Offering all of these
sacrifices, never took away one sin. But this priest, this man,
offered one sacrifice for sin forever, and it's done. He sat
down, finished. It's done. Look at it. Sat down at the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. Here it is, for by one offering. He hath perfected
forever. Can't get much better than that,
can you? He has perfected forever the elect of God. What's the result of that? Well,
the Holy Ghost is also a witness to us, for after that He had
said before, this is the covenant I make with them after those
days, saith the Lord. I put my laws into their hearts
and their minds while I write them. And their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. Do you know why? Because they
are no more. They were taken off us and put
on our representative, our substitute. God poured out his judgment upon
him until the fire burned itself out, consuming all of our sins. They
were all gone. They were purged. They were put
away. Never to be remembered against us again. Well, back when I was a teenager,
concerned about life and death and heaven and hell, if I can
read the Scriptures now with such joy, all that I was worried
about is already taken care of. From the moment the Lord Jesus,
in God's eternal covenant, consented to be my representative, God
ceased to look to me any more to satisfy himself. He didn't
look to me and to him, him and me. He looked to him for me. What a salvation. What a salvation. What amazing love and grace!
The Son purged our sins. He perfected us forever. He obeyed God for us. That's
all. He suffered death and hell for
us all. Those who love God, those who
are called according to His purpose, those who are the predestinated
and foreknown, and those who are called, justified, glorified. What amazing salvation. Now here's a question. You know, I had a dear friend
one time. He died recently. Named Dr. Magruder down in Louisville.
We talked to each other sometimes. One day I called him. How are
you doing, Brother Mack? He said, You know, I think I'm
beginning to believe. Sometimes I feel I can't make
it. I'm beginning to believe. Beginning to believe. I do believe, but Lord, help
my unbelief. Look what the rest of this verse
says. He that spared not his own son, but delivered up his
own son for us all, how shall he not also with his son, freely
give us all things. That means all you need. All
you need. Do we ever grumble? I don't know why. He makes all
things work together for our good. He's going to freely give
us all we need. Can we trust His wisdom? We don't
very well. We like to judge His providence
by our wisdom. That doesn't work too good. Trust
in the Lord with all your heart, and never lean to your own understanding. That's what the wise man said.
How shall he not also with Him freely give us all things? Not
all that we may want, but all that we need. All is for our
good, and all is for His glory. He give us hope. We're in good
hands. And you know what He says to
each and every one of us that are in Christ? You cast all of
your cares upon Me. You're sitting on the throne,
and He says to us, cast all your cares upon Me, because I care
for you. Everything that concerns us,
concerns our Father. Brothers, trust Him. I was thinking about what Brother
Jack said last night. On the way home, I heard about
my son running over a bear. I said, that's good. That's good. In the purpose of God, it is. And to say otherwise is to say
I'm smarter than God. Because my son trusts the Lord,
loves the Lord. All things work together for
good. Our two old preachers had a wreck one time. One of them's
hurt pretty bad. The other went over to him. He
laid there bleeding. He said, How you doing, brother?
He said, We'll be thankful one way. We'll be thankful. It's the Lord. It's the Lord. Let Him do what seems to Him
good. The love of God, dear souls, is in the Lord Jesus Christ and
nowhere else. If you would experience the love
of God, you have to get to Christ. And Brother Tim brought it out
briefly in his message the other night. Those who get to Christ,
they really want to come. The kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence, and the violent take it before. Mr. Spurgeon preaching
on that text, he said, if that sounded like a bunch of troops
storming a wall, he said, you got it just right. That's what
it means. Storming the gates of heaven.
God's people want to be saved. They seek the Lord. And they
are saved. Make your decision. Hogwash. I remember Larry Brown one time
laying in the hospital. about to undergo back surgery,
and they're making preparations, and he had a not too thoughtful
of an uncle standing out in the door. They made us get out while
they were doing something. And he told me, all he ought
to do then would be cripple the rest of his life. And then later,
I had back surgery. As you have a ruptured disc,
it's not an option. You've got to have relief. This
thing of salvation with the elect of God is not an option. That's
what Bunyan fled outside the city of destruction, wife and
family and friends trying to talk him out of running. He put
his fingers in his ears and fled! He said, Life! Life! Eternal
life! Gotta have it! Gotta be spared
from this city of destruction! Might be somebody here this morning,
I don't know. You say, boy, I wish I could
be one of those us all. I sure do. One of those for whom
God spared not His own Son. One of those for whom God makes
everything work together for their good and His glory, their
spiritual good. Well, you can. You may. If you bow to Him and believe
Him. You are one of them. Bow to Him and believe Him. The elect of God are identified
by receiving the Word of God. They that are of God hear God's
Word. They receive it. They're receiving and believing
and trusting people. And our Lord says, Believe and
live. Look and live. Look to the Lord Jesus. The Bible
says, He that believeth, he hath life. There is a Savior. for sinners. Are you a sinner? And this Savior
is an adequate, sufficient, suitable, satisfying Savior. I say bow to Him, trust Him,
go to Him in faith, wrap your arms around Him, hold to Because
you get a hold of Him, you've got salvation. May God bless
these words to every heart.