Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleGod Alone Saves From Death
Bible TextPsalm 68:20
Synopsis 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. Listen
Date30-Aug-2020
Series Psalms 2011
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: God Alone Saves From Death (32 kbps)
Audio CD Quality Listen: God Alone Saves From Death (128 kbps)
Length 40 min.
 
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!