Series: Psalms
Title: God Alone Saves from Death
Text: Ps 68:20
Date: August 30,2020
Place:SGBC,NJ
Before we begin I have a request. In a classroom every student must use the
same book by the same publisher. If each
uses a book by a different publisher then each have different words and they cannot
follow along. So if you do not have a King
James Bible please use one in the pew so we are all using the same book with the
same words.
“Do you
want God to get all the glory in your salvation?” Imagine if someone agreed to pay you to do
some great work. You did all the work in
the hot sun and finished it. But as you
are about to be paid someone walked up and said, “I helped, so I get part of
the pay.” We would not be too happy.
“Salvation
is of the Lord.” God says he does all the
work in salvation. Therefore, God says, “I
will not share my glory with another.” Do
we want God to get ALL the glory? Well,
our text this morning says that God gets all the glory!
Psalm
68: 20: He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto GOD
the Lord belong the issues from death.
God alone saves. If I am saved then I am saved from death. And God alone saved me from death. So God alone gets the glory.
We all must face the death of these bodies—God has set
our appointment—but our death is far worse than only physical death.
Divisions: For sake of clarity I divided our deaths into 4—
1) Judicial, Legal death—we come into the
world legally dead under God’s judgment—how is a sinner saved from legal death?—unto
God the Lord belong the issues from legal death.
2) Spiritual death: we are born spiritually dead, the nature we are
born with is dead spiritually—unto God the Lord belong the issues from spiritual
death.
3) Physical death—at God’s appointed hour we shall all die physically—unto God the Lord
belong the issues from physical death.
4) The second death—in the day of judgment if we meet God in our sins then
we shall be sentenced to what scripture calls “the second death”—unto God the
Lord belongs the issues from the second death.
Proposition: Sin has caused every sinner to face these four deaths—but
the good news—unto God the Lord belong the issues from death—God came in
human flesh in the person of his Son, Christ Jesus, and delivered his children from
death.
Hebrews 2: 14: Forasmuch then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the
same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is, the devil; 15: And deliver them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage. 16 For verily he took not on him the nature
of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. 17: Wherefore in
all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people.
LEGAL DEATH
Unto God the LORD belongs the issues from legal
death. How did we all become legally, judicially dead, condemned, under the
curse and condemnation of the law? It
was by the works of another. By one man’s
sin, named Adam. God’s people are made righteous
and holy by the works of another, Christ the last Adam. God made Adam the head of his family—of his wife and all his offspring—that
includes all of us. Adam was head of the
whole human race. It pictures Christ who
is Head of all his spiritual family, God’s elect.
As head, God says what Adam did we did. In a
perfect world, without any sin, with only one commandment, Adam disobeyed God. Being head of his bride and all his children,
we all became guilty by that one man’s sin.
Romans 5: 12: Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed
upon all men, for that ALL have sinned:…17…by one man’s
offence death reigned by one…18:…by the offense of one judgment came upon
all men to condemnation [all who Adam represented]…19:
For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners,…
Be sure to get this: Adam did not give us the chance to become
guilty. Adam made us guilty sinners. We all come
into the world legally dead: guilty of breaking the law of God by the
works of our federal head. God
is holy. Therefore, God will by no means
clear the guilty. God says we ALL must die under the justice of God; the wages of sin is death.
The good news is “He
that is our God is the God of
salvation; and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death.”
Romans 5: 14…[Adam] is the figure of [Christ] that
was to come.
God made Adam head and father of all who would be born
of Adam, as a picture of Christ who God made head and father of all who shall be born-again of Christ. Before
the world was made God chose a people and gave them to Christ. Christ entered the everlasting covenant of
redemption with the Father to redeem them from the curse of the law. It means Christ took full responsibility to satisfy
justice for his bride and all his children to make us righteous by his obedience
Ephesians 1: 3: Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ: 4 According as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love:…7: In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of his grace
Be sure to get this. Christ did not fail on the cross. He finished the work. The successful Redeemer did not give us a
chance to be righteous. He made all who
he represented righteous by his obedience.
Christ was made sin for his particular people. He satisfied justice and brought in
righteousness for his particular people.
Our Savior saved his family from judicial legal death.
Romans 5: 17: For if by
one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance
of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus
Christ.) 18 Therefore as by the offence
of one, judgment came upon all men [who Adam represented] to
condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came
upon all men [who Christ represented] unto justification of life. 19: For as by
one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. 20: Moreover the law entered, that the offence might
abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: 21: That as sin
hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
So to Christ belonged the issues from legal death
and he saved his people from legal death.
SPIRITUAL DEATH
Unto God the LORD belongs the issues from spiritual
death. Adam’s nature was corrupted by sin. Therefore we were conceived in sin in our
mother’s womb. We are born spiritually dead
in trespasses and in sins unable, unwilling to hear and believe this glorious good
news.
1 Corinthians
2: 14: But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for
they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned.
Each time a sinner hears the word of God preached and
does not believe on Christ, he proves he is a natural man who thinks the things
of the Spirit of God are foolishness. It
why Christ told Nicodemus,
John 3:3…Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God.
What did we have to do with our first birth? Nothing.
We have nothing to do with the new birth. God gets all the glory. The good news—"unto God the Lord belong
the issues from this spiritual death.” Since
Christ purged the sins of his people, since he accomplished eternal redemption
for us, since he justified us, Christ shall and must see to it that each
one he purchased with his blood be born-again of the Spirit of God and given
faith to rest in Christ—satisfied justice demands it.
If you were to go to death row
and take the place of a particular inmate and die then having satisfied justice
for them their cell must be opened so they go free. The law demands it. It would be double jeopardy, not justice, if he
be executed when one already died in his place.
Having satisfied justice for his
people, God raise Christ and gave him the glory to open the prison—
Isaiah 49: 9: That thou mayest say to the
prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves.
How then are we born again and freed from the prison
of our sin-nature to believe on Christ? Our
first birth was of corruptible seed of Adam with a corrupt nature. We must be born again of incorruptible seed
of Christ and given a new nature. Christ
the Word through the gospel of God is the incorruptible seed by which we must
be born again.
1 Corinthians
1: 21: It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe
1 Peter
1: 23 Being born again, not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and
abideth for ever….25: …And this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you.
Our being here today was no accident. We come under the preaching of the gospel by
God’s hand on purpose. God predestinated
the very hour when he shall bring each of Christ’s redeemed under this gospel.
Ephesians
1:5: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Galatians 4: 4: But
when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman,
made under the law, 5: To redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. 6: And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth
the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7: Wherefore thou
art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through
Christ.
John 1: 12: But as many as
received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name: 13: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Ephesians
2: 1: And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;…8: For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not
of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
God gives us life, a new spirit, a new will, faith
and repentance—making us willing to cease trusting our works and cast all our
care on Christ giving him all the praise and glory for drawing us by
grace. Unto God belong the issues from
spiritual death.
PHYSICAL DEATH
Unto God the LORD belongs the issues from physical
death. God saves us from “deaths often”
as Paul said. But he has set the date when
we shall die physically. Still, each one
who God has made alive legally in righteousness and made alive spiritually in
holiness shall not die when our bodies die physically.
John 6:47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth
on me hath everlasting life.
Joh 6:50:
This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and
not die….54: Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life;
and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 11: 26:
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
Believer, we have no reason to fear death or the
grave
2 Corinthians 5: 8: We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be
absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
One day our Lord Jesus return and raise our vile body
fashioned like unto his glorious body
1 Corinthians 15: 51:
Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be
changed, 52: In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for
the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we
shall be changed. 53: For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this
mortal must put on immortality. 54: So when this corruptible shall have
put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall
be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in
victory. 55: O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy
victory? 56: The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is
the law. 57: But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Unto God our Lord belong the
issues from physical death and the grave.
THE SECOND DEATH
Unto God the LORD belongs the issues from the second
death. If any meet God at judgment day without
Christ, the second death is the death that comes from God’s judgment; the death
called hell, the living death of torment that lasts for all eternity.
But Christ died the second death on the cross for
his people—our judgment is settled—we cannot die the second death. Rising when Christ arose and regenerated by
the Spirit of God we had part in the first resurrection—so God promises
Revelation
20: 6: Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such
the second death hath no power,…
Believer’s baptism is an ordinance
Christ gave to symbolize all that we have seen here today. Being buried under water we profess that our
old man of sin died in Christ and was buried in the grave. Arising out of the water we profess that we
arose in Christ to newness of life—everlasting life. This new believer is professing publicly to
all “He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord
belong the issues from death.” To God
be all the glory!
Amen!