THE LORD JESUS AS THE DELIVERER
J. Spinks
1 Thessalonians 1: 9, 10; Galatians 1: 1–5; Romans 7: 22–25; 8: 1, 2
I wish to say a little as to the Lord as the Deliverer. It is one of the many glories of Christ, and bears directly on the need of man. This poor world needs a Deliverer. Men are helpless in the face of the violence and corruption which is abounding on every hand, and they are crying out for something to be done about it. Sometimes the question is asked, Why does God not intervene? The blessed truth of the glad tidings is that God has intervened. He has intervened in the person of Christ, the mighty Deliverer, and His delivering power can be known by every needy sinner who comes to Him in repentance. Soon, of course, He will come in actuality, scripture tells us that the Deliverer will come out of Zion. That refers to the deliverance of the persecuted remnant of Israel but it will extend to the liberation of the whole of this groaning creation. What a
thing it is to think of the mighty Deliverer coming out of Zion to deal with every vestige of lawlessness and free this poor world from the effects of sin under which it is groaning. Have you ever felt that in your spirit? Have you ever groaned inwardly as you read another headline in the newspaper that brought home to you the awful effects of sin? It is right that we should, a believer should feel these things more than anyone. Thank God He has His Man in reserve and He will bring Him in in His own time.
This afternoon we were speaking about the completion of things. Scripture tells us that God is going to head up all things in the Christ, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth (see Ephesians 1: 10); then everything will be in order. We also learn in scripture about the heading up of lawlessness. God is not going to allow man to get his own way for ever. He has put limits on the lawlessness of man. A time will come when a man will assert himself in the place of God. He will sit down in the temple of God and say that he is God. Think of a mere puny man assuming to be God! That is the extent to which lawlessness will go, and God will allow it to go to that length. At that time the Lord Jesus will intervene personally and meet that man, called in scripture the man of sin and the lawless one, “whom the Lord Jesus shall consume with the breath of his mouth, and shall annul by the appearing of his coming”, 2 Thessalonians 2: 8. Think of the blessed Man who is great enough to do that, the Lord Jesus Christ; all power has been given Him in heaven and upon earth. The glory of the gospel is that that power is now available for all who come to Him.
So I read here of “Jesus, our deliverer from the coming wrath”. The serious side of the gospel is that the wrath of God will have to be faced by those who reject it. We read of vengeance coming upon those who do not obey the glad tidings of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a very real matter. The sin and lawlessness that have
come in cannot go unanswered; God would not be righteous if He allowed it. We are all sinners and we all have to give account to God. You remember when the children of Israel were in Egypt, the time came when God pronounced judgment on all the firstborn. When the destroying angel passed through the land that night, the only persons who escaped were those who had the blood on the doorposts and the lintel of the house. God said, “when I see the blood, I will pass over you”, Exodus 12: 13.
Where did that blood come from? It came from the lamb. That lamb was to be in the house four days, during which time the household would no doubt become very attached to it, but the time came when it had to be slain, so that the destroyer would not enter into that house. It reminds us of the time when the holy Lamb of God shed His precious blood, so that guilty sinners should not come into judgment. That is Jesus, our Deliverer from the coming wrath.
Do you know Him as such, dear young ones? Have you put your faith in the precious blood of Christ? It is the only blood that is effectual before God, the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
These Thessalonians had been idolaters, but they listened to the gospel. Paul was only in Thessalonica for a very short time, but during that time the word of God entered into their hearts and they “turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God”. We may say that they availed themselves of the precious blood of Christ. What a comfort it is, when we look around us and look within, to rest in the knowledge that God has taken account of that precious blood. Who can estimate its value in the sight of God? Think of the feelings of God, as He waited all those years, testing man, giving him every opportunity to meet His righteous requirements, only to expose the total inability of man to answer to Him. Think of God waiting, waiting for the incoming of Jesus, the Man of His choice. How precious He is! We were reading recently about David. When he was brought in the word was, “Arise, anoint him; for this is he”, 1 Samuel 16: 12. That is what God is saying today about Christ, This is He, there is no other. There were many in the Old Testament who were righteous before God. They all came into the great line of faith and God got a certain pleasure from their lives, but there is only one Man today of whom it could be said, Arise, anoint Him, for this is He. Well, have you anointed Christ in your heart? Is there a place in your heart for Jesus? There is no place for Him in this world. The recorded verdict of the world was—away with Him, we will not have this Man to reign over us. Let every one of us come into line with God’s thoughts as to Christ and accord Him the supreme place in our hearts and in our lives.
So they “turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to await his Son from the heavens, whom he raised from among the dead”. Not only has redemption been effected by His precious blood, but God has shown His pleasure in raising Him from among the dead.
When God raised Christ from the dead by His glory it was selective resurrection. God raised Him by His power and placed Him at the highest point in the universe. I trust that every one here has a living link with the Man in glory. How fine it is to be among those who have turned away from the things that pertain to this world to await the return of Christ. How simple the life of a believer ought to be!
I read in Galatians because it shows another aspect of the Lord’s delivering power. It says,
“our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, so that he should deliver us out of the present evil world, according to the will of our God and Father”. There are many who have known what it is to put their trust in the precious blood of Jesus but have never been delivered out of the present evil world. The gospel is a full one, it is not a partial gospel. It is not just something that secures our eternal blessing, wonderful as that is, but God has present blessing, present salvation in mind “according to the will of our God and Father”. It is not the will of God
that a believer should be secured for eternity and left in the world. He has something far greater in mind. To refer again to Exodus, the children of Israel were not out of danger until they had escaped from Egypt, the ‘house of bondage’, and that is true at the present time, for full salvation we need deliverance from the world. It is not to say, of course, that we need to go and live in monasteries and the like, that is not God’s idea. When God pronounces judgment on this world He opens up another world to faith; that is the world that has Christ as its centre, and you will never get free from this present evil world until the light of that world dawns on your soul. That is what God presents in the glad tidings, that Christ is head and centre of another world, and He desires that every one of us should become attached to Him there.
So although the Israelites had escaped judgment they were still in the presence of their enemies, and that bears on our experience as believers. We may know the blessedness of forgiveness of sins, but there are still enemies to be faced, and these enemies are very real.
They were very real to the children of Israel and it came to the point where they appeared to be hemmed in and helpless before them. In fact, that is what Pharaoh said, “the wilderness has hemmed them in”, Exodus 14: 3. Sometimes young believers feel that way. You may say, Well, where can I go? I am in the world and surrounded by things that I find attractive. What can I do about it? Pharaoh is a type of the god and prince of this world and he knows how to present to us the things that we relate to naturally. The great truth of the glad tidings is that God has made a way through in the death of Christ. When Moses stretched forth his hand and the waters of the Red Sea parted, it was God asserting His mighty power on behalf of the people. Whenever they went over, the enemy had no more power over them; the waters returned and their enemies were annihilated by the power of God. That is what happened in the death of Christ; Satan’s power was broken for ever. It has to
be laid hold of by faith that no matter how much the power of the enemy seems to overwhelm your soul. God has met it in the death of Christ; He has provided a way through.
It speaks in Peter’s epistle of having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (see 2 Peter 1: 4). Would you not like to escape it? When you see the awful corruption that prevails, would you not like to escape it? Well, the gospel provides a way through. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed Man who died for our sins, has power to deliver us from this present evil world. He does it by attaching our hearts to Himself where He is. That is a world where there is no corruption, no violence or lust. All you will find in that world is peace and joy and blessing. We are only a few here, but there are myriads of lovers of Christ who have proved the verity of what I am saying, that in following Christ into the sphere where He is, we get freed from the degrading influences of this world. I present it so that it might become attractive to every one of us. There is no one more attractive than Jesus! Would you not like to follow Him? He went out by way of death. He was reviled and rejected by men. He was received up in glory. Thank God faith can lay hold of that.
But He went out of this world in ignominy. We have to be prepared for the reproach of that.
It says of Moses, “choosing rather to suffer affliction along with the people of God than to have the temporary pleasure of sin”, Hebrews 11: 25. What a fine choice he made, because that is the way of deliverance. It is the only way that has a future in it. This world has no future; scripture tells us that it is already judged. The only way that has a future is the way of following Christ, coming among those who have come to a proper judgment of this world and made the right choice. I trust that every one here has made that choice, to know what it is to be delivered from this present evil world, and find their life related to the world where Christ is supreme. One of the great
features of that world is that Christ is not only the centre but also the source of life. We read about the life that is in Christ Jesus, that is the life that is imparted to the believer, a most wonderful thing. Well, these are things that have to be proved. We get free from our burden of sin, then we find we have no longer a need for the paltry things of this world because we have something far better. We commit ourselves to the testimony of our Lord Jesus rather than give ourselves to the temporary pleasure of sin. The young man in Luke 15 discovered how temporary the pleasures of sin are. They do not last long, and they leave you more dissatisfied and unhappy than you were before; that is the effect that sin has. You prove the difference when you become attached to Christ and taste something of what scripture speaks of as “that world, and the resurrection”, Luke 20: 35.
Where we read in Romans it refers to the great matter of being delivered from the workings of sin in the flesh. It is a very deep exercise but there is great blessing in coming to the Lord as Deliverer in relation to that. I am sure that every one here who has come into the Christian pathway knows something of what this exercise is, the awfulness of what you find in yourself. When you come to know the Lord as Saviour initially, you have a sense of joy and blessing, and a great sense of relief that the burden of your sins has been removed. The blessing is very real, but soon you find things in yourself that cause you distress, the lust of the flesh and the propensity to sin. As the writer of this epistle says, “I find then the law upon me who will to practise what is right, that with me evil is there” (Romans 7: 21). It is an awful thing to discover evil in yourself. Then it says, “I delight in the law of God according to the inward man—but I see another law in my members, warring in opposition to the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which exists in my members”. Think of that, a believer who has known the liberating power of the gospel being brought again into captivity by
this awful principle of sin which exists in his members. We read in Luke’s gospel about a woman who for eighteen years was bent together and wholly unable to lift up her head (see Luke 13: 11). That is the effect of the working of sin in the flesh; the enemy gets a certain advantage through it, and he will keep you tied up and bound. Bound for eighteen years, think of that, a woman so affected by this terrible principle of sin that she was bent together all that time and unable to lift up her head. You know, she would not be able to see Jesus if she could not lift up her head.
Then it goes on to say, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of this body of death?”. Who of us has not cried that from the depth of our soul? There is no need to cry it any longer, because the answer comes with this great outburst—“I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord”. You are not now engaged with your own wretchedness, you are engaged with Christ, the great Deliverer. “So then I myself with the mind serve God’s law; but with the flesh sin’s law”. That is you begin to see the real me, the ‘I myself’; the other is an intruder, it has no longer any claim upon you. It goes on to say, “There is then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death”. What a deliverance that is! What an answer to the law of sin and death, the lust and pride that exists in each one of us as belonging to the fallen condition of man! “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”, involves the presence and power of the Spirit of God. It means we have another source of power; another source of satisfaction. We have Christ on high, our great Deliverer who intercedes for us as our great High Priest, and the Holy Spirit here as a source of comfort, resource and power.
I feel the need of each one of us arriving at full salvation. It is God’s desire that we should and He has made full provision from His side. I would appeal to you
dear young ones to make room for the Holy Spirit. It is only in His power that we can be here for the pleasure and will of God. It is a very real thing in Christian experience, after sometimes many years of soul distress, to have an inward consciousness of the reality of these things. The Spirit of God has taken His abode in us in order to make us superior to all that is down here, and all that we find in ourselves. I trust that every one of us will come to know Christ in these aspects; as the Deliverer from the coming wrath, then as the Deliverer from the present evil world, and as the Deliverer from all the inward turmoil and distress that Satan would use in the flesh to bind us and prevent us from enjoying Christianity in the way that God intends us to enjoy it. May we all increasingly know the joy of full salvation as having a living link with Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, for His name’s sake.
Preaching at Dundee, 10 July 1994
EXTRACTS
J.D.
Would you say a word on the law of the Spirit of life? (Romans 8: 2).
JT The Spirit of life is the Holy Spirit; the “law” is clearly the principle governing it as over against “the law of sin and death”. “Law” is used here in the sense in which it is employed to express principles governing the universe. It is accepted by the mind and worked out experimentally. Paul says of it that it had set him free. So the law of the Spirit of life will certainly become operative in the believer as he gives it scope. It helps us to note that the truth immediately culminating in Romans 8 is extremely experimental; and it is also helpful to note, as already remarked, that the effect of the law of the Spirit of life is reached in an experimental way, as stated by the apostle of himself.
J. Taylor (Vol. 55, p.52)
Anything that contributes to the practical establishment between saints of divine bonds is worth a great deal to secure. The apostle linked up the Roman saints with himself in these truly assembly exercises. It was important, in view of universal assembly conditions, that all feelings of estrangement and distance between Jewish and Gentile brethren should be removed. And in principle this applies to every divergence and disagreement between saints.
Natural influences and personal feelings come in and cause estrangements. They can only be got rid of by the grace of God being bestowed on both parties; He must work on both sides of the breach. Very often sufferings and distresses are permitted—like the poverty at Jerusalem—to prepare the way for differences to be removed, and for the saints to be more closely knit together. We have to endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace, but this can only be done “with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love”, Ephesians 4: 2, 3. The fact is that often we get occupied with what we regard as wrong things done by others, and get into strong feelings about it, when perhaps the Lord has permitted the circumstances just as a test of the state of our own spirits. And if we begin by being faithful with ourselves, we should have to admit that our own spirits were wrong. God always comes in for a self-judged person, and it is on the line of self-judgment that breaches are healed.
C. A. Coates (‘Outline of Romans’, p.238)
It may be said that there are many defects in the saints! But what are we working for? A natural man could point out defects—a spiritual man feels under obligation to serve in love that they may be removed. That is the spirit of grace, and it is to pervade the company of those who are “one body in Christ”. Divine encouragement would come in on that line.
C. A. Coates (‘Outline of Romans’, p.227)
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