Nobody likes focusing on our flaws and weaknesses. It's much more enjoyable to talk about our talents and our successes. But today on Truth for Life, we'll learn why it's important to understand our own wretchedness before we can grasp God's grace. Alastair Begg is teaching from Romans chapter 8, but he begins with some Old Testament examples of the believer's power in God. Numbers thirteen: the story of the exploration of Canaan.
on the part of the spies that were sent up by Moses. The people go up and do the reconnaissance mission, and at verse 26, they come back and give their report. Nice place, nice idea. We don't think we ought to go. In the midst of that, you've got two characters.
One is called Caleb and the other is called Joshua. What's wrong with these characters? Then Caleb, verse 30, silenced the people before Moses, and he said, We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.
Now why did he say that? Because of Romans chapter 8, verse 31. But he didn't know Romans chapter 8, verse 31.
Well, he knew the principle, he just didn't know the verse because the verse didn't exist. But Caleb understood. If God said he has this place for the Israelites, then he has this place for the Israelites. Therefore, although these people are, as the majority group has reported, We should certainly go up. Because we can certainly possess it, because if God before us, Who can be against us?
See? He gets perspective. He's not saying they're not giants. He's not saying it's now fortified. He says, yes, it is.
They're simply saying One plus God is a majority. And that runs the whole way through the Old Testament. Let's go from Numbers into Joshua. We'll do just another one. Joshua chapter 11.
And you've got the same Kind of idea. We'll ignore Gideon and the walls of Jericho coming down and all the other ones that we love. And in uh In Joshua. And in chapter 11. I just turned to Judges.
That's the reason for the pause. Joshua chapter 11. You have to do this on your own because we don't have the time to do this. But Joshua 11 begins with the story of all these people, all the Hittites, Perizzites, Jebuzites, Hivites, da-da-da-da-da-da, da-da-da. When you read the Old Testament like that, and you're reading through the Bible, you say, what?
Why do these people why do we have to keep reading about all this? What is the purpose of This. It is to show the insurmountable challenge that faced the people of God. The writer is not just loading up his essay, as it were. He is bringing to bear upon the mind of the reader the fact that verse 5, all these kings joined forces.
Verse 4 they came out with all their troops, and a large number of horses and chariots, and a huge army, as numerous as the sand on the seashore. In other words, we've got a big problem here. A huge problem. You might say. Verse 6.
The LORD said to Joshua, Do not be afraid of them. Because by this time tomorrow, I will hand all of them over to Israel, slain. You are to hamstring their horses. and burn They're chariots.
Now this is just a passing gaze, so we needn't we needn't camp here, we can't camp here. But you will notice the juxtaposition between the sovereignty of God in the fulfillment of His purpose and the activity of man in the fulfillment of His purpose. I will hand them all over to Israel slain. It does not then say that Joshua told the people: okay, we're all going to have a siesta and lie down in the grass and wait for this to happen. No.
I will hand them over slain. and you will hamstring their horses. God accomplishing His sovereign purpose and using His people in the accomplishment of that. When you read the Old Testament and follow it through, You find that this comes again and again. The psalmist makes it clear.
in the Psalm that I just read from Psalm 144. In the kind of catechetical approach that is there in. The twenty-fourth Psalm. Which In the magical Psalms, when you sing the Psalms from verse 7 through to the end, as a boy, I used to love to hear the congregation sing, Ye gates lift up your heads on high. I don't know what it was about, but it sounded great.
Ye doors that last for A. A Y E forever. Be lifted up, that saw the King of glory enter me. And then it was sung antiphonally. One group sang, but who is he that is the king?
And the rest of the congregation sang, the king of glory, it is he. And then together they sang, the Lord of hosts, and strong in might, and great in victory. Oh, as a boy, I said, if this is the God that is on my sight, This is wonderful. This is the God who arms himself for battle. This is the God who secures victory.
When you read all of this in the Old Testament, don't go wrong. Because remember the Bible is a book about Jesus. And what the psalmist describes there was part of the songs that Jesus sang. Jesus sang. in church.
Jesus sang the Psalms. Jesus sang. You are the one who arms me for battle. You are the one who secures my fingers for victory. And when he hung upon the cross, His fingers had been secured for victory.
When he rose triumphant from death, He was the victorious warrior king. Lift up the gates, open up the doors, the king's coming in. Who is this king? He's the Lord mighty in battle. What a shame that contemporary Christianity, it's really in my lifetime, has turned Jesus into some kind of milquetoast character.
The pressure of political correctness has prevented us from saying, Jesus is a warrior king. Jesus is a mighty triumphant one. No, we have a Jesus who's sort of, you know, if you meet him, he's probably trying to bring your carriage, your trolley back to a giant eagle, you know.
So, oh, let me help you with that. He's a sort of nice Jesus, a tender Jesus. He's, in the words of Dale Ralph Davis, he's a Jesus who comes to us reeking of hand cream. In other words, he's a sort of effeminate Jesus. The people look at him and say, look at this guy.
Or did you did you think for a moment that he worked in a carpenter's workshop? That he hammered and chiseled and worked his way. And someone says, Could I have some of the hand cream, please? No, he's not that. He's a victorious warrior king.
But we're afraid to sing onward Christian soldiers marching as to war with the cross of Jesus going on before. If we don't know it's a war here, come with me to Delhi. I will show you the war. All hell is let loose against the believers there, and in Nepal, and in Afghanistan. And there is no reason for these young men to give up their lives and their home for a Jesus that uses hand cream.
But they may give their lives up for a Christ who is a warrior king. And that is the one who is. For us. He is the one who has taken on the evil one and defeated him. He is the one who has taken on death and triumphed over it.
He is the one who has taken on sin in all of its ugliness and borne it in himself. If God is for us. Who can be against us? He's not saying there's nobody against us. He's saying that ultimately everything that is against us Pills.
Before the significance of the fact That God is on our side.
Now, back to Paul and out of the Old Testament, he is wonderful in his logic. He says, Let me prove it to you. If God be for us, who can be against us? Let me give you the evidence, he says, of God's grace to us. First of all, He did not spare his own son.
His own son is the same phrase as he used in verse three of the chapter. It is the Pauline equivalent of The Johannine only begotten Son. Paul is distinguishing between Those who are sons by adoption. of whom we read in verse fifteen. And this eternal and incomparable Christ.
If God is for us, who can be against us? He Who did not spare his own son. In other words, When Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, Lord, remove this cup from me, the Father said, No. He didn't spare his own son. And Jesus drank the cup of suffering And the cup of pain And the cup of bitterness.
In order that we might drink the cup. of blessing.
So that when we gather around the Lord's table, Christ has drunk that bitter cup. In order that we might take this cup. as a cup of blessing. He advances his argument. He who did not spare his own son?
But gave him up for us all, gave him up for us all. We love to sing the hymn, don't we? How Deep the Father's love for us? how vast beyond all measure? that he should give his only son To make A wretch?
His treasure?
Now, of course, that's where some of you have got off the trolley bus, isn't it? Because you don't like that. And if you know any wretches, You know it surely isn't you. And so you've concluded. That whatever he's doing for wretches.
Seems like a nice idea. But it's entirely irrelevant. In your case, See The work of God. is to show us our wretchedness.
So that we might then understand the wonder of somebody dying in the place. of a wretch. Oh, someone might die for a good man. might be prepared to die for a good man. But here is the wonder.
That even when we were sinners Christ died for us. That's what Paul is driving home here. He gave him up for us all.
Now to think for even a moment Of Jesus as an unwilling participant in the plan of the Father is nothing less than heresy. And I mention that because some of you are up to date with current theological trends.
Some of you read journals and you pay attention to things and you're aware of the fact that there is a whole re-emphasis of the notion that somehow or another the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement is a bad and a dark and an unbiblical concept. And the idea is that it is a horrendous thing to think that somehow or another the father would punish his son.
Well, of course, it is a great misunderstanding of the role of the Son in being given up for us all. John Stott has done a great service to the Church in all of his teaching and writing. And in his book, The Cross of Christ, he gets to this in just a wonderfully purple passage. And I'll read it for you, and you can go find it for yourself when you choose to buy the book. This is what he says.
When we talk of the Father's plan, and the Son's sacrifice. We should not think of the father laying on the son an ordeal he was unwilling to bear. nor of the Son extracting from the Father a salvation he was unwilling to bestow. It is true that the Father gave the Son. It is equally true that the Son gave himself We mustn't speak of God punishing Jesus.
or of Jesus persuading the Father? We must never make Christ the object of God's punishment. or God the object of Christ's persuasion. For the Father and Son are subjects. Not objects.
taking the initiative together. to save sinners. That's why I say to you all the time that it's helpful just to keep in mind that what God the Father planned. Christ the Son procured And what Christ as Son procured, the Holy Spirit applies to the lives of those who trust in Him. And that is at the heart of Paul's Letter to Rome.
Well, we'll go one step further and then we will stop. What then shall we say in response to all that I've just written? First of all, if God is for us, who can be against us? After all, he didn't spare his own son, but he gave him up for us all. Here's another question: he says: How will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Now the logic is is unassailable. If God has given us The greatest and the best in Jesus. He will not withhold all of the blessings of grace. that will complete his work in the lives of his children. He's not going to give to us his very best in the Lord Jesus and then withhold all that is necessary for us.
That's why sometimes when we sing the hymn, Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine, we then sing, oh, what a foretaste of glory divine. Because in Christ we have everything. People who come around and tell you, well, you get started in Jesus, but we can add all these things. And if you come to us and listen to us, we can help you there. Tell them just to go and fly a kite.
Tell them That God has not given up His Son for us. And then would deprive us of all These other things. Also, don't go wrong with the phrase all things. And start silly stuff about naming and claiming the things that you want. You know, he gives us all things.
And if it says he gives us all things, then that must mean he gives us all things.
So I would like. A large house in the Bahamas, and I would like this, and I would like because it's all things. That's just silliness, isn't it? John Murray helps us when he gives us this wonderful sentence. All things is an obvious example.
of an expression In universal terms, used in a restrictive sense. An expression in universal terms. Used in a restrictive sense. In other words, What Paul is talking about. Is the benefits and the blessings of grace.
that are part and parcel. of the great package that God gives to us. In Jesus. There's nothing missing from the box. If you are in Christ.
You have all you need. You have all you need. That's why the hymn writer again gets it when he says, Thou, O Christ, art all I want, more than all in thee I find. You're all I want. I got everything I need.
Christmas Day. will be upon us soon. Filled with all kinds of opportunities and many, many memories.
Some of my most disappointing Christmas days. And there weren't many.
Well, those occasions When In pulling back the wrapping paper. I discovered that I had received One of the gifts for which I was desperately hoping. Often A car That had a measure of mobility to it. At least potentially so. Because the dark shadow fell over the proceedings.
when I noticed a small print at the bottom of the box. And you remember what it said. Batteries not included. It was like a curse. Everything is closed.
At least for twenty-four hours. And here I've got this fantastic thing. But I can't do a thing with it. Because it's absent the necess the necessary components To enjoy it. Every so often I meet people, and that's what they think Christianity is.
Somewhere or another they got started. But there's no batteries included with it. You just got to go out and try and find batteries. You've got to try and do it yourself. You've got to try and keep going yourself.
You just got to struggle on and finally make it. Listen, in Jesus, you get the whole package. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Set free. From the law of sin and death.
Set free to righteousness. Not set free to sinlessness.
Well, I don't know if I'm going to be able to make it to the end. Yes you will. Why? Because the work that His goodness began. The arm of his strength will complete.
His promise is yes and amen. And it never was forfeited yet. I hope this is helpful to you. To quote Calvin in conclusion. All that Christ has done for us.
is of no value to us.
So long as we remain outside. of Christ. These are the benefits and blessings. of those who are in Christ Jesus. Question.
Does that phrase? Describe And include you. And if not, Would you not lay hold upon the promise of God? Even today, And in these dying moments, And say, Lord Jesus Christ. I actually believe this.
Help me. with the bits I find Hard to believe. And God will honor. the promises of His Word. Listening to Truth for Life, that is Alistair Begg with a message titled, If God Be For Us.
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