Romans 8. I want to read the
32nd verse of Romans chapter 8. 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? Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in the name of thy son. And we ask in his name that you
would meet with us. That you would speak to our hearts
from your word. We ask that your gospel will
be preached in the power of your spirit. And that you would make
the dead to hear your voice. May we be found in Christ. Would
you forgive us of our sins? And would you give us grace to
lay hold upon my son? In his name we pray, amen. I remember one time I heard. Brother Henry Mahan make this
statement about Romans Chapter 8. He said Romans Chapter 8 to
the New Testament. is what Isaiah 53 is to the Old
Testament. That great chapter on the substitutionary
work of Christ. And I have thought about that
and I thought that is a very accurate representation, I believe,
of the importance of Romans chapter eight. Now this verse that I
just read tells us that there is nothing we can do Let me repeat
that. There's nothing we can do to
prevent God from being for us if he is for us. There's nothing we can do to
prevent God being for us if he is for us. Let's read these verses
together now, verses 31 and 32. What should we say then 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? What could
possibly prevent him? How shall he not? With him also
freely give us all things. Now this is speaking of the eternal
security of everybody for whom Christ died. This is speaking
of the eternal security of everyone who's included in verse 31, there's
nothing that can prevent God from freely giving us all things. There's nothing I can do to prevent
him from continually being for me. First, it says in verse 32, he
that spared not his own son. You know, the scripture says
he spared not the angels. They didn't keep their first
estate. When they fell, there was no mercy for them. He didn't
spare them. And what about where it says
that in the days of Noah, he spared not the old world, Peter
said. Now, don't miss this. The Lord destroyed the entire
world with a flood and didn't spare anyone except eight souls
in the ark. And that's what the scripture
says. This is not my take on things. This is what the Bible
actually says. He spared not the old world. Only eight souls were saved. Now, he didn't spare him. And
here this passage of scripture says, and this is so amazing,
he spared not his own son. He didn't spare the angels that
fell. He didn't spare the old world. And here it says he spared
not his own son. Now, why? Why? Well let me begin by saying
this, God is no respecter of persons. When sin was found in his own
son, he spared him not. Now how many times, if you have
kids, have you just not wanting to deal with the consequences
of maybe what they've done? Turn your head. Act like it didn't
happen. You've done that. I've done that. God never has done that. He spared not his own son. Why did he not spare his own
son? Because this was his eternal
and is his eternal purpose of grace. Christ is called the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. God purposed. And I like beginning here really.
God purposed the death of his son. It was his purpose. As a matter of fact, the reason
he created the world, the reason he created the universe, was
for this to take place. The death of his son on the cross. You see, The significance of
this is that God manifests to us who he is. Every attribute is displayed
of who God is in the cross of Jesus Christ. That's how glorious
the cross is. He did this out of love. He did this, first of all, out
of love to his son. You say, well, how could that
be? It was through the cross. He was preparing a perfect bride
for his son. Out of love to his people. God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Herein
is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us. He spared not his own son. Why did he not spare his son?
And I want to say this as carefully as I can. I hope as reverently
as I can. He didn't spare his son because
he's guilty. That's why 2 Corinthians 5.21
says, for he hath made him to be sin. For us who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He spared not
his own son. I hope we're all just amazed
by that. He spared not his own son. Next it says, he that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all. Now, the question that comes
to my mind right off the bat is, who is meant by us all. You can't really fairly look
at this if you don't consider who is meant by us all because
if he means all men without exception, all men without exception will
be saved. That's a necessary fact because
it says He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up
for us all, how shall he not freely give us all things? If
that's talking about all men, without exception, they will
be freely given all things, according to that text. Isn't that so?
You can see that on the very surface of this text. So what
does he mean when he says, he that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all? This is talking about all of
God's elect. All that God loves. All that he loved before the
foundation of the world. Everybody for whom Christ died. That's the all. Now somebody
says, why make an issue of this? Of course the Bible does. That's
a good enough reason, isn't it? The Lord said, I lay down my
life for the sheep. Not everybody's a sheep. And
the Lord said, I lay down my life for the sheep. Other sheep I have, which are
not of this fold, them also I must bring. And there shall be one
fold and one shepherd. I never will forget a message,
and I brought this up, I know, a hundred times in the last 40
years, was a message Henry Mahan brought over on American Avenue
Baptist Church. And he entitled that message,
Four Questions for Thoughtful People. Now, if you haven't heard
these, listen to them. Four Questions for Thoughtful
People. He took Judas and Peter as his example. Peter was saved. Judas wasn't. Not too many people
disagree with that. Christ called him the son of
perdition, the son of destruction. He's the one who betrayed Christ.
Judas was the son of perdition. Peter was saved. So we have one
person who's saved and one person who is not saved. Okay. If God willed, The salvation
of Judas and the salvation of Peter. If he willed the salvation
of them both. What's the will of God have to
do with salvation? Nothing. If one was lost and
the other was saved, it wasn't God's will. It was found in what
Peter did that Judas did not do. Peter made the difference,
not God. If God loves Judas and Peter
the same, what does the love of God have to do with salvation?
If he loved Judas and Judas winds up in hell and Peter is in heaven,
the love of God didn't make the difference. It's what Peter did
that Judas did not do. Third question for thoughtful
people. If Jesus Christ paid the sin
debt of Judas and Peter, if he died for all men without exception,
what does the blood of Jesus Christ have to do with salvation?
The answer is nothing. It's what Peter did that Judas
did not do. And if God the Holy Spirit seeks
the salvation of both of these men the same, what does the Holy
Spirit have to do with salvation? Nothing. So we see the importance
of this thing. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all. That's talking about God's elect.
Those given to Christ before time began. He that spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all. Delivered him up to die. Delivered
him up to suffer his wrath. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not? What could
possibly prevent him from freely? Don't miss that word freely.
What could possibly prevent him from freely giving us all things? What could prevent him? The argument
is from the greater to the lesser. If he's given you his son, if
he delivered up his son for you, what could possibly prevent him
from freely, don't miss that word freely, that means without
a cause in you, freely giving us, graciously giving us all
things. Now here's the illustration I
thought of. And I know people could take this illustration
and abuse it. And that's your fault, not mine,
if you do. That's your fault. I would not
hold back the truthfulness of something because somebody might
twist it. Men will always do that. If you want to hang yourself,
God will give you the rope to hang yourself. So I still want
to use this illustration because this is what means, explains
this to me. The day of the Passover, it was
going to happen at midnight. What if that very day, that very
day, one of the children of Israel, he was bad. He was wicked. Maybe that very day he committed
a murder. Stab somebody. Somebody says,
could a believer do something like that? Well, David did. David
did, didn't he? He committed murder. And I'm
not excusing that kind of conduct, obviously, but let's say it did
happen. What if that individual was in a house with the blood
over the door that night? Would God say, I can't let that go by? He didn't
let it go by. That sin was paid for by the
blood. And anybody in a house with the
blood over the door was saved. That's so, isn't it? That's so. Anybody. Somebody says, well,
somebody will use that as an excuse for seeing a believer
won't. A believer won't. If somebody uses that for an
excuse for sin, well, you've been given the rope to hang yourself.
A believer would not use that as an excuse for sin, but that
doesn't take away from the truthfulness of it. If you're in the house
with the blood over the door, what can prevent him from freely,
and I love that word freely, freely giving us, graciously
giving us all things, all things necessary for our salvation.
Ephesians 1 verse 3 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with ALL, ALL spiritual blessings. In heavenly places in Christ
Jesus means I have every one of them and there's nothing I
can do to prevent him from freely giving me all things because
he spared not his own son. Now, let's think about. Look
back at our text, he that spared not his own son. But delivered
him up to death, to the cross. For us all. How shall he not? What could possibly prevent him
from freely giving us all things? Now that's all things for my
salvation. Now for me to be saved, I'm gonna
have to be able to stand before God having never sinned. That's all God can accept. I'm
gonna have to stand before God without any guilt at all. He freely gives me that. It's
called justification. The righteousness of Jesus Christ
is given to me, and that's my history. Whatever you read in
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, that's true of every believer.
His righteousness is their righteousness. I'm justified. For me to be accepted
before God, something's gonna have to be done about my sin.
He did it. He was delivered up for us all. My sin was paid for. What's gonna
prevent him from freely giving us all things? Now here's another
thing. To be saved, I'm gonna have to be given a new heart. Amen. My heart's no good. I have to be given a new heart. One that was not there before. It's only with this new heart,
God-given heart that I believe. It's only with this new heart
that I repent It's only with this new heart that I love. It's
only with this new heart that I persevere. This is the pure
heart spoken of in the Beatitudes. Blessed are the pure in heart
for they shall see God. Only the pure in heart shall
see God. The natural man can't see him
now. A new heart also will I give
you. I need a new heart. I need God the Holy Spirit to
do work in me equally with God the Father electing me and Christ
dying for me. I need this to be saved. Well, he that spared
not his own son, how shall he not also with him freely give
us all things? You know, me and you are like,
this would illustrate our case. We're like somebody on death
row, scheduled to be executed in 24 hours. And we also have
a heart disease, where if we don't get a heart transplant,
a new heart in 24 hours, we'll die. I mean, we got a double
death. The law condemns me. I'm to die
the next day. And if I don't get a new heart,
I'm going to die the next day. Now, what good would it do me
if the law gave me a death row pardon? I'm pardoned. Yet, I don't get a heart transplant. I'll die anyway, won't I? What
good would it do me to get a new heart if the law still condemned
me. I have to have both. I have to
have a new heart, a new heart will I give you, and I have to
have a perfect standing before God's holy law. What is gonna
prevent him from freely giving us all those things? You see, he spared not his own
son. Nothing else needs to be said.
He spared not his own son. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he could love me, a sinner
condemned, unclean. For me, it was in the garden.
He prayed, not my will, but thine. He had no tears for his own griefs,
but sweat drops of blood for mine. When with the ransomed
in glory his face I at last shall see, it will be my joy through
the ages to sing of his love for me. He spared not his own
son. How shall he not also with him
freely give us all things?