PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD

John Spinks

Genesis 22: 1-14; John 8: 1-11; Romans 12: 1, 2

In reading these scriptures I wish to touch on the thought of sacrifice. The gospel goes out on the basis of the sacrificial work of the Lord Jesus. This section in Genesis 22 is typically the Father and the Son. It can be viewed as a believer being tested, but I wish to look upon it from the aspect of God Himself and what He has provided for man’s blessing and the cost that it has been, the cost to the Father and the cost to the Son. This is the first place in which love is spoken of in scripture, the love of the father for the son, “thine only son”. Think of the Father’s feelings when He sent the Son as Saviour of the world. Think of His delight in that blessed Man, going through this scene, every movement, every step, every action in keeping with the will of God. For the first time in the history of mankind there was a Man who fully honoured God. The hymn says:

Where man God’s rights withheld,

Thine offering excelled,

What odours choice He smelled,

So rich in thee.

How wonderful it is to think of that! One Man, a real Man, but no mere Man, a Man who came from glory’s heights to take on a human condition to glorify God and to offer Himself as a spotless victim so that you and I could be set free from the bonds of sin and come into a knowledge of God as a Saviour God and into a relationship with Him. That is the great end in the glad tidings, God would have man come into a relationship with Himself, freed from the terrible effects of sin. I do not suppose any of us here would deny that sin has caused havoc in the world. The whole scene is marked by sorrow and sadness. Everywhere you look, especially what we see in the papers, the testimony universally to the terrible conditions that sin has wrought in the world, persons who are suffering grievously from the effects of sin. Men sometimes say, why does God not do something about it? Well, God has done something about it. That is the truth of the glad tidings, He has intervened in the person of our Lord Jesus, the Person of His only Son.

It says in verse 4, “On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar”. God had anticipated the scene. He was never taken aback by it, He saw it from afar. The death of Christ was not just something that God had to resort to, He had it in His mind from before the foundation of the world. It speaks about the blood of Christ, foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world (see 1 Peter 2:20), so God had the remedy before the need arose, He had His own Son. Think of the glory of it, think of God as trying man in every circumstance, man in innocence, then under law; every situation that God put man into only brought out the terrible condition of man’s heart away from God, unable to do anything but sin and move further away from a Saviour God. It says, “Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering, and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and the knife”. What does that mean? These are instruments of judgment. Man went away from God, and the only way that that could be met was by judgment. But who could bear the judgment? Would it be you or me? We would be eternally banished from the presence of God, but there was One glorious Man who could bear the judgment and that is the One on whom God placed everything. It says, “Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering, and laid it on Isaac his son”, I think the wood of the burnt-offering would be the precious humanity of Christ, who carried everything through to completion. Then he piled the wood, bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood. All this reminds us of the death of Christ, the great transaction that took place in Calvary, the altar was there. Who could be a sacrifice, who could meet the righteous requirements of a holy God? Only the holy Person of the Lord Jesus. So he “piled the wood; and he bound Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand, and took the knife to slaughter his son”. Then there was an intervention from heaven. Just at the point where Isaac would have been killed it says, “And the Angel of Jehovah called to him from the heavens, and said, Abraham, Abraham!” At the cross of Christ there was no intervention from heaven. The voice that was heard was the cry from the lips of the Saviour, “My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me?”, Matt 27: 46. Think of that, think of the One who had gone through this scene in holy communion with God, every moment of His life, every step had been pleasing to the Father. He could say, “I knew that thou always hearest me” (John 11: 42), but God did not answer Him at that time. “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, and there was no answer to that cry. The answer came in resurrection but the sword of judgment fell on the holy head of Jesus with no mitigation. God placed everything on Him, He met the whole sin question, everything that came in through man, sin and death. “By one man sin entered into the world and by sin death” (Rom 5: 12), these two things. They were met by Christ and He met them to God’s glory. How wonderful it is. Nothing remains now but blessing as we sang in the hymn:

The river of His grace …

Is flowing o’er the barren place

Where Jesus died.

I love to think of this hour of the glad tidings when the river of God’s grace is still flowing towards men in this terrible evil scene, bringing grace. The grace of a Saviour God has appeared; it appeared in Christ and is continued now and the Spirit is appealing. Those who preach the glad tidings are making an appeal on God’s behalf. The apostle Paul says, “We are ambassadors therefore for Christ, God as it were beseeching by us …, Be reconciled to God”, 2 Sam. 5:20. It is not that we can effect reconciliation, that work has been done, but we can be reconciled to God. We can take the benefits and the blessing that has been effected through the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and God’s righteousness is available, that what God finds in Christ can be put to our account. Think of being clothed in the righteousness of God. What God finds in that Man who is on His right hand is placed upon a believer so that God views him as being in Christ; never to stand before Him to bear the consequences of His wayward path. How wonderful it is, the glad tidings of a Saviour God is appealing in Christ.

So it says here, “I know that thou fearest God, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold, behind was a ram caught in the thicket by its horns” – another type of the Lord Jesus who was held by the will of God. He came to do His will, “Lo, I come, in the roll of the book that is written of me to do, O God, thy will”, Heb 10: 9. That will involved that He had to go the whole way, He was obedient unto death and that the death of the cross. God’s will involved what had to be secured in a sacrificial basis because things had come in and the only way that God could righteously meet them was in the death of His Son. So we are reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Think of the feelings of God, He who spared not His own Son. That little word “His own”, speaks volumes. Think of One who had come here into manhood and God claimed Him, “thine only son whom thou lovest” – think of the feelings of the holy God. He was prepared to go to such lengths to provide a righteous basis for you to come into blessing.

In John 8 we have the Lord Himself, moving through this scene. He comes into the temple and this woman is brought to Him and they say to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been taken in the very act, committing adultery”. These men had no moral power to bring an accusation against the woman because they were in the same position as she was. They were sinners judging sinners and the answer is very beautiful, “But Jesus, having stooped down, wrote with his finger on the ground”. We touched that this morning, the precious stoop of the Saviour. He came into manhood, that was the first stoop. “He thought it not an object of rapine to be on equality with God, he emptied himself taking a bondman’s form”. Then He stooped into death. But let us think for a moment as to the manhood of Christ, that first stoop. When the Lord Jesus came into manhood the eye of God was upon Him. These men going out was the result of the first stoop of Christ, because when Christ appeared on the scene, every other man was put out of court, and there was only one Man without sin before God. These men went out one by one – that was the first stoop, that put them out; the second stoop retained the woman – the second stoop involved His death. How wonderful that is! The Lord Himself could have gone straight to glory as having glorified God on the earth, every other man is put out of court, but He had more in mind, He had you and me in mind. The woman represents humanity and God determined that you and I should come into blessing. We are retained in His presence. So they “went out one by one … Jesus was left alone and the woman standing there. And Jesus, lifting himself up and seeing no one but the woman, said to her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Has no one condemned thee? And she said, No one, sir. And Jesus said to her, Neither do I condemn thee: Go, and sin no more”. We touched on that a little this afternoon, God was in Christ, not imputing trespasses, but reconciling the world to Himself. That had in view and anticipated His death. Everything the Lord did in His life anticipated His death because He had another world in view, a world where He is the Sun and Centre, and the woman represents humanity that becomes a beneficiary of the grace of God. “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more”. That is the present position. The Lord is not looking upon you to condemn you. He has done sufficient to bring you into His presence eternally, to have a living vital link with Him. That work is the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus. He did not shrink from it, He went the whole way, even to the death of the cross. We have spoken about the sacrifice that the Father made, the sacrifice that the Lord made.

I want to touch here in Romans – what is the answer to be? Romans brings out the glory of the present dispensation. One man has been set aside and another Man has been introduced, a new Head for man, that is Christ; that is Romans 5, there is a new Head for man. “By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death” (Rom 5: 12), that is Adam, that is our first parent as after the flesh. What did he bring in, nothing but a progeny marked by sin, a fallen race. But here Christ is introduced as a new Head for man and God would put you in touch with Him, the Lord Himself would appeal to you to come into touch with Him, the precious Saviour. A new head means that we can come into all the benefits and blessings that are brought to us in that Man who so delighted His heart. He is not now in earth, He is not now walking this scene. He is in glory, but the benefits of His death are available and the benefits of His risen life are available. Not only can we be saved by His death, but we may be saved in the power of His life. That is a wonderful thing, a risen glorious Man and He can impart His own life. He could not have done that when on earth; that was unique, that stood by itself. In the days of His flesh the humanity of Christ was unique. It says, “who shall declare his generation?”, Acts. 8: 22. No one could do it. He stood alone in the annals of history, unique, sinless humanity, but now living in heaven He can impart the Holy Spirit, He can impart His risen life and you can walk and be saved in the power of His life. So it says, “I beseech you therefore brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice”. The compassions of God were seen in the death of Christ, God having regard for the condition of His creature, but He is now looking for an answer, “to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service”. What is in man in the flesh is not acceptable to God. That is the way that Cain took. Cain took a way of his own devising and ignored the sin-offering that was lying at the door. Abel came by way of the sin-offering and presented a sacrifice that was acceptable to God (see Genesis 4). That is the way that we can come into God’s presence, “to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service”. God is looking for an answer. Paul says, “What shall we say then?”, Rom 9: 14. The gospel has been presented very feebly, but what is going to be the answer? If our bodies are going to be acceptable to God they must be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has come as a result of the death of Christ and is a very great blessing. The death of Christ was necessary for the gift of the Spirit and that is available in the glad tidings. The love of God is seen in all its fulness and the Holy Spirit would shed it abroad in our hearts. How full the gospel is! God would supply you with everything that makes you suitable for His presence. Eternally He will have men in His presence made suitable, and God will have delight in it, He will fill His house with persons who have been secured by the precious blood of Christ, persons who can praise and answer to Him and respond to Him in a suitable way, but that is available to you now, “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service”. Then it goes on to say, “be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”. This brings us into alignment with the precious humanity of Christ. He did it in a unique way and He knew what lay before Him, the will of God involved and He had to go by way of sacrifice and death – we do not know what the will of God involves for us. It sometimes can be difficult, but nevertheless God will help us in it – “be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”. What a wonderful thing it is to come to, that whatever the will of God is it is acceptable to us, because we are vessels of mercy prepared for glory. That is the hope of the believer. In the short time that is left we can prove these things, God will lead us and bring us into an area of blessing. The assembly of God is comprised of those who love Christ and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. It is a circle of affection, a circle of those who have been secured by the death of Christ. The will of God would bring us into that and we can be here for His pleasure. Let us accept that if God has come to us in a sacrificial way, we must answer in a sacrificial way. Our bodies are not our own. It says, “ye are not your own? For ye have been bought with a price: glorify now then God in your body”, 1 Cor 6: 19,20. It is a most wonderful thing that a person who has been under the domination of sin can be secured for God’s pleasure and glorify God in their body. May it be so, may everyone of us make committals tonight as coming under the reign of grace to answer to God’s overtures in the glad tidings. May the Lord bless the word, For His Name’s sake.

Birmingham

15 September 2002