255 – WHY CHRIST HAD TO DIEDECEMBER 16, 1962
HENRY F KULP
Romans 8: 26 - 32 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called 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: and 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?
Out of this glorious 8th chapter, we have talked about the doctrine of glorification, we will be glorified with the uncreated glory of Christ. We shall be manifested, revealed as the sons of God, and then, we know by the foreknowledge of God that we will one day be predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son—we shall be like Jesus Christ.
1/ Now, we found out last week that predestination is founded upon the foreknowledge of God—the fact that God knows everything. He knows what is going to happen before it happens. But the foreknowledge of God does not determine our actions. What it does determine is what is going to happen to those who are saved—they will be like the Lord Jesus Christ.
2/ Now, let us go back to Romans 8: 26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
We have skipped over this to this point, because I think you will better understand what I want to tell you about it at this time. Notice the Spirit hearest our infirmities—He knows how infirm you are, how infirm I am, and He does not trust us. I want you to notice that— He does not trust us. Whatever weakness there is in your Christian life, God makes a provision for it. God is not going to let our infirmities interfere with His plans for us.
3/ Now, the second part of that verse says, we do not know how to pray. Did you ever stop to think that if the Lord gave you only what you prayed for, you wouldn’t have very much. Just stop and think about this for a moment—say tomorrow morning, Monday morning, when you start out, you don’t know what you are going to need through the day, because you do not have foreknowledge—you don’t know what you are going to bump into. Why, if you had to pray for everything you were going to need, and get it before the day is done—that is do it in the morning before it happens, you would, first of all, have to spend many hours in prayer, and then you wouldn’t know how to pray because you don’t know what you are going to bump into during the day. So God makes provision for us in this aspect.
4/ Now, let’s think about that from the aspect of the Holy Spirit. We don’t know what we should pray for as we ought, and God doesn’t depend upon our praying. God has given us the Holy Spirit to pray for us. Remember He is a person, remember He is God, and He has foreknowledge, He knows everything we are going to need. He knows all of our needs throughout Monday, and so he makes intercession to the Father for the strength and working out everything that happens to us. No wonder God can say that all things work together for good to them who love God?
5/ How do I know that I am eternally saved? Not just that I have eternal life, but God in His foreknowledge has said that everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, will one day be conformed to the image of His Son, and to guarantee the working of this, He has the Holy Spirit, who indwells us, praying for us, interceding for us. We hear much about the intercessory work of Jesus Christ, but very little about the intercessory work of the Holy Spirit. Yet this work of the Holy Spirit is very important. It enables God to say that all things work together for good to them who love God—it is the work of the Holy Spirit in interceding that will guarantee that one day we will be like the Lord Jesus Christ.
6/ YOU SEE, THE HOLY SPIRIT AND GOD THE FATHER ARE WORKING TOGETHER IN OUR LIVES. THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE GUARANTEE THAT WE WILL BE MADE LIKE UNTO JESUS CHRIST.
Now, remember that God leaves you after you are saved in the midst of the world where Satan is god, where Satan is a roaring lion, going about seeking whom he may devour. It is a world of darkness, it is a world that hates God, it is a world that can’t stand Jesus Christ. And do you realize you couldn’t live five minutes in this world without God’s provision, without the Holy Spirit interceding for you, dwelling in your body and praying for you. I love the thought that the Holy Spirit is for us.
7/ As I read and contemplate all this, I am thrilled and exalted in Jesus Christ, and my mind always go back to just one portion of Scripture. We have given it before, but we want to share it with you again.
Ecclesiasticus 3: 14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever.
God does nothing for just time. When God saves a soul, He saves a soul forever. God doesn’t save a soul and keep him six months and then let him fall and be lost. God doesn’t work that way. God does things forever, and He has given us the Holy Spirit to indwell our bodies and to pray for us, to make sure that one day we’ll be made like the Lord Jesus Christ.
8/ Now, let us go back to Romans 8: 29 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.
Here where it says, for whom He did foreknow, He did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son—for what reason? Now notice this—that He might be the first-born among many brethren. Notice the word, first-born. This is a born race, and the Lord Jesus Christ was born, so the Lord’s people are a born race—a super-race—that will be like the
Lord Jesus Christ. But now the question we must consider, and it is very important here— what does it mean that He might be the first-born among many brethren?
9/ Acts 13: 33 God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.
Now notice, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee, This day—what day is that? It is the resurrection day, for it speaks of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, for when Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, He became the first born of God. He had died, and He rose to a new life. And every one of the members of the body of Christ—the super-race, who are to be conformed to the image of His Son are raised from the dead every one of them. In this sense, Christ was born as we were born – How? By resurrection.We are born into the family of God by resurrection. Go back in this same book.
Romans 6: 3, 4 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
We have been baptized, now notice, into the death of Jesus Christ, and like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. As Christ has raised from the dead, so are we, and we are part of this first-born group. It is all by resurrection.
10/ Romans 8: 31 What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
In other words, what is there to be afraid of? Nothing, Because all this is working together for our good.
Let us turn to Jeremiah 20: 11 But the Lord is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
This is another Scripture that always comes to mind when I think of Romans 8: 31. But the Lord is with me as a mighty, terrible one. There are some translations of the Bible that read this way—the Lord is with me as a mighty giant -- who is afraid?
Actually, I believe that is the closest to the meaning. The picture in the original language is that a little boy who has been bullied by larger boys in the neighborhood, and he is afraid. He is afraid to go out and play on the sidewalk, afraid to go out and play ball, because these bullies always pick on him, they hurt him and they hit him and make fun of him and mock him. But one day his father comes to him and says, son, let’s go down and watch a ball game. And so the father and the boy walk down the street, and the boy’s hand is in the father’s hand. Is the boy afraid now? Not at all, is he afraid of the neighborhood bullies? No, they are still there—they see him, but they don’t hit him, they don’t mock him. No, and at this point he is not afraid, because his father is with him and his father can protect him. That is the story here. If God be for us, God has predestinated us, that we
should be like the Lord Jesus. He has even provided the Holy Spirit to pray for us, why should we be afraid? We shouldn’t because the Giant is with us.
11/ Romans 8: 32 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?
Now notice, 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?
Please notice how that is worded. It doesn’t say, He shall—but what it does say, and this is precious to those who know Christ—how can He help -- how is it possible if God has done this for us, that He could withhold anything from us? If God has not withheld His Son, there is nothing else that He will withhold from us. Why did Christ Jesus die? That God might give us everything. This is the basis of all that has gone on before. The doctrine of glorification, the doctrine of manifestation, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit praying for us, it is because Christ was offered up by God the Father, and the Father did not withhold His Son from us.
12/ Now, the word, delivered, means handed Him over. God the Father, handed Him over. But what is the meaning of this? There are enemies clamoring for our condemnation, our sin, all the powers of hell, all the powers of darkness are against us. We are truly sinners, and these evil powers have the right to bring us into condemnation. We deserve hell.
Notice Ephesians 6: 12 We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, authorities, the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
We wrestle against them now, but in days gone by when we were under the condemnation of sin, we were sinners, these powers had control over us and we were held in bondage over His Son for us. He delivered Him up for us. What did He say—to these powers—here is My Son, vent all your rage upon Him. Make Him the object of your hate and your wrath. All the powers of hell and Satan could never have touched the Son of God, but God gave Him up, God delivered Him up.
13/ Let me give you an illustration that may make this clearer to your mind. The transaction of God delivering up His Son for us.
You remember Genesis 19: 1 And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;
There came two angels to Sodom in the evening, as Lot sat in the gate of Sodom, and Lot came up to meet them. He didn’t realize that they were angels, and so he said, I pray you, come into your servants house and tarry all night, wash your feet, you shall rise up early and be on your way. And they said, no, we shall abide in the street all night. But he insisted on them greatly, and they turned into his house. He made them a feast, he had unlevened bread there, and they did eat. Before they went to bed that night, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom ringed about the house, both old and young, and they called to Lot and said unto him, where are the men which came to thee in the night, bring them out to us that we might know them.
They wanted to use them for an evil, wicked, filthy, foul act. They wanted to misuse these men, and Lot went unto the door unto them, and shut the door after him. Then he said I don’t want you men to misuse these two men. Behold I have two daughters which have not known men, let me I pray you, bring them out unto you and do unto them as is good in your eyes, only do nothing to these two men. This was a wicked thought of Lot, but Lot was willing to spoil his two daughters to save these men who were guests in his house. There it was, evil, it was wicked. But that is exactly what God the Father did for us. All the power of evil, Satan, wanted to vent upon us his wrath and their wrath because we are sinners and we deserve it. But God said, not so, you take my Son, I’ll deliver Him over to your hands that these folks might be made free, might have everything from me.
14/ Now, you can remember if God was willing to do this for us, deliver up His Son who did not deserve this treatment, how can He help but freely give us all things. He can’t help but do it.
15/ Now, let us stop at this point and think about some of the things we pray for. You say, if the Lord can’t help but give us good things, why doesn’t He always give me what I pray for? Sometimes you do pray for things and you don’t get them, and perhaps at that point, you doubt the goodness of God. You think, He is not willing to give to me.
I had a man who was sick, and He said, If God wanted to, He could take this sickness from me, and He hasn’t done it. And He doubted the goodness of God. But it is God’s nature to give. If there is something good for us, God can’t help but give it to us. It is just His nature. The Bible says that God is love. It is His very nature. He just loves to give, and He can’t help but give, so when God withholds, it is not that He doesn’t want to give, it is because it isn’t good for us.
16/ Romans 8: 33 Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect it is God that justifieth.
First of all, God is the Judge. God is on the bench. We are before God. No one can condemn apart from him. Others may judge, but only God has the right to judge. When others judge you, it doesn’t really matter, it is a matter of whether God has judged you. But notice, God the Judge has justified, He has pronounced the sinner just, and so we have a marvelous, wonderful fact brought home to us here.
God controls all that comes into the believer’s life...it passes through His hands first.
We do not have to live with a spirit of fear. Perfect love casteth out fear.
Refuse to live in a spirit of fear...it is not from God. It is why Christ had to die...to remove the spirit of fear.
AMEN
Ref: 12/16/1962 / 255 - WHY CHRSIT HAD TO DIE / 10/18/2021
No comments:
Post a Comment