Romans chapter eight. Lord willing, we'll continue on in the chapter. We've been going through seven and eight here. Romans chapter eight. Last week we looked at verses 29 and 30. To many people known as the golden chain of salvation

Remember we are following along the thought process that Paul is laying out for us by the Holy Spirit This life that we live as the child of grace In this constant state of warfare between the flesh and the spirit.

Whenever one is born from above and given spiritual knowledge and understanding by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, we come to know the inability of our fleshly man. We come to know the depravity, as we would call it. Our depravity, I really, I know that we hold to the little TULIP, you know, acronym which is real famous in theological circles. Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, Perseverance of the Saint, that acronym TULIP, and that first one being Total Depravity, and I believe that we are totally depraved, but I think a lot of times there's a lot of misunderstanding and things can be lost and using the term depravity, total depravity, in the fact that a lot of people immediately say then, you know, that we're that we're as corrupt as everybody, you know, the deepest corruption that there is.

And then they start wanting to compare. Well, I'm not as bad as Hitler. I'm not as bad as this guy or that guy or this guy, you know, whatever they want, whoever they want to prop up as the bad guy. But yet, whenever we talk about total depravity, whenever we talk about our inability, that's exactly what we're referring to, is a total inability for spiritual things. Our depravity is the fact that we have zero spiritual life. We have spiritual zero ability. and therefore we are dead in trespasses and sins.

And being that our nature is a nature of sin, everything that this flesh produces is sin, is sinful. That's why the Bible says, and I don't know how many times that we've quoted this over the last few weeks, but all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Not only did he say righteous and not unrighteous, but he did plural, all of our unrighteousnesses are as filthy rags. And so that means everything that this body of flesh produces that outwardly appears to be righteous is still not to the standard of holiness. It misses the mark.

So everything that we do, whether it's vile, evil, wicked, seducing, all the bad negative words. All those things that we do is truly sin. But every time that we try to put our hand to perfection, we sin as well, because we will always miss the mark. And that's what the word sin means, is to miss the mark. It was an old archer's term that whenever they would shoot the arrow to the bullseye, they wouldn't hit the target. They would miss the mark. The mark is the center, the bullseye, right? Well, the bullseye or the law is perfection, complete and total and unrelentless perfection. And we miss the mark every time. Every time we try to put our hand to that, we miss the mark.

Anytime man tries to inject himself into righteousness, it will always end up as unrighteousness in God's eyes. God will not accept that. The only thing that he accepts is true righteousness, and true righteousness is only in Jesus Christ. He performed all righteousness, He procured all righteousness, and we are the righteousness in Him and Him only. It's by imputation that we are righteous. It is not by impartation that we are righteous, okay? God is not imparting more and more righteousness working out of us, and we are becoming less and less sinful, and we've talked about that. And that's what I believe is the essence of what Paul is saying in Romans 7 and 8 here is because, again, the child of grace's desire is to be righteous, is to live outwardly the way that we feel inwardly, okay?

But yet we, in the flesh, cannot produce that. And that was Paul's frustration. And he began to see that whenever he had Christ revealed into him, and on that road to Damascus, seeing true righteousness and holiness face to face, he began to see, oh, wretched man that I am.

And the child of grace, I believe every child of grace, whenever they are born from above and God reveals himself in them, will have this same understanding. They will see themselves as wicked sinners who cannot keep the law of God, who cannot please God, who cannot do anything to produce any kind of righteousness that God accepts.

And therefore the spirit whose work comes within us and lives within us and works and moves within us, that spirit then brings us to that state that Paul came to at the end of chapter seven. I know that in my flesh dwells no good thing. And that with this flesh, I'm gonna serve the law of sin till the day I die. But with my mind, I'm gonna serve the law of God because my mind, my inward man, this new creation that's coming from above is born in true righteousness and holiness and it cannot sin and it is accepted by God.

And this old body that I live in, a flesh that is corrupt, God, because of the death of Christ, has adopted this body until the day of redemption. So God hasn't snuffed this body out until the day of redemption, whenever this body will be let down, and that new house that God has prepared for us to live in, that matches what we are inwardly, will now become one man. I will truly be a whole man.

And so Paul is saying, From the time we begin to feel this and experience this and until the day we die, there is a constant struggle and a turmoil in our body, in our mind, in our heart. And he's trying to tell the child of grace how to live at rest, how to know how to live this life of conflict. And he's telling us that our mindset needs to be changed. Our mindset is to not look upon the arm of the flesh, on the outward appearances, on the outward things, but to look on what God is doing inwardly, what God has done inwardly, and especially looking at what Christ has already done.

The Lord has given us faith, and that faith is not given to us so that we might take this laundry list of things and go out and try to live for Jesus. He's given us faith so that we might rest in the fact that God has done everything for us that we need for salvation, and there's nothing that we need to put our hand to.

That doesn't mean that there's not gonna be works that God does in our heart, in our mind, and in our life. That doesn't mean that God isn't gonna work in us to will and to do His good pleasure, because He promised that He would, right?

Immediately, the things that people like to run to whenever you hear preaching like this is, oh, then you just think you can live like hell, and it doesn't matter. No, that's not what I'm saying at all. Oh, you believe that you don't have to do anything righteous, that you're not going to be living a holy life then. I didn't say that at all either. I'm just saying this. I, nor you, can control that. You don't have the thermostat. You don't have the gear shift. You're not in the driver's seat of that. You cannot become more holy by your activity. It is what it is, if you allow me that. And yes, to some degree, what I'm saying is whatever will be, will be. Because God has determined all things whatsoever will be. That's why we looked at, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. Remember, we talked about that last week. It is for whom he knew, not what he knew. God didn't foreknow your activity. He didn't foreknow your choosing him, your decision for him. He didn't foreknow your faith. in him, and he surely wasn't foreknowing your activity of obedience throughout the rest of your life towards it.

" That is not what God was foreknowing in this passage. It is for whom, the person, for whom Christ foreknew. For whom Christ foreknew, that means he foreloved. The person that Christ foreloved, he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of God. And if you remember from last week, It's a past tense, to be conformed. The to be there is supplied by our translators for flow of thought, but in the actual language, it's actually to, he also did predestinate conformed to the image already. And that speaks to that inward man. The inward man has already been predestinated, conformed to the image of God, And guess what? Our outer man, who is the spiritual man that we will inhabit whenever we die, that man is already conformed to the image of God.

But yet the inner man has not yet taken up that body, that tent yet. And so yet he still lacks to be conformed outwardly. We are conformed inwardly. So that's why I was saying last week, there is a conformed that is already now, And then there is a conform that will take place at the end. Inwardly, we are already conformed to the image of Christ Jesus because we are his spiritual seed. Outwardly, we are not yet conformed to that which we are inwardly. And that is what Paul was concerned with. Who shall deliver me from this body of death? Who's gonna conform me to the image that I desire to be? Well, who's gonna do that? Praise God

through our Lord Jesus Christ. through our Lord Jesus Christ, inwardly, I already am conformed to the image of God, past tense, but also praise Jesus that one of these days, this body of flesh is gonna go back to the dust, exactly what it is that cannot please God, but it will be raised incorruptible. And we looked at 1 Corinthians 15, and we saw that that which is born of the flesh is flesh, Everyone born after that first Adam is of the earth earthy and how we have bore the image of the earthy it said we shall bear the image of the Heavenly that means our outward appearance will also be like the outward appearance of our Lord Jesus So there is a future conformity to come but it's in the future It's at the end. It's at the end of this thing here, me. It's not gradually happening now.

See, that's what the reformed people like to tell us, that's what the Armenians like to tell us, is that we are progressively becoming more and more holy. We're progressively sinning less and less. And if you're not doing that, then there's probably something wrong with your salvation, right? I mean, don't take my word for it. That's Brother Larry. Him and his wife and family has experienced it their whole entire life, because that's what they grew up in. That's what they started in, is that religion. Same with myself. A religion of that, if you don't get right with Jesus, that mentality, that we have to let God do this or let God do that. We have to let God be Lord of our lives. Let God be God in us. Let God have control of our lives. All this stuff. And it's just still the whole entire thing is Christ is not enough. Christ can't do it or Christ didn't do it.

Whenever I'm preaching, let God do this or let God do that, that's assuming that God wants to do it, but won't do it unless you desire to do it. It comes down to the works of the flesh, the will of man. Or if it's in perfection, it comes down to, I have to apply myself to all the things and spiritual things And whenever I do that, then I begin to sanctify myself. And in sanctifying myself, I become less and less and less sinful and more and more and more holy. So whether it's preached through perfection or whether it's preached through letting God, it still comes down to human effort and human will. The human becomes the center point, becomes the hinge pin upon everything that salvation swings. Salvation is left to you. You must make the choice. You must make the effort. You must make the decision. You must give God control.

But Paul is saying to the child of grace, you are awakened to the fact that you cannot. That's the sign. Whenever you see someone broken over their sin, let's not remember whenever I first come to pastor here. There was a gentleman who was attending church here. He wasn't a member of the church or anything. For personal reasons, he never could become a member, but still was a very faithful attender. And this man was a precious, precious man. And man, he knew the scriptures. Man, he knew the scriptures. And this brother, the whole time he came, he struggled with believing that he was saved. And he just, the reason why is because he realized, you know, the Bible says that, you know, that you will know them by their love. And he says, I know that I don't love God perfectly. I don't love people perfectly, but yet this man exhibited extreme love for God and extreme love for people. I mean, whenever I looked at this brother, I was like, man, I am such a horrible person when I looked at myself and compared myself to this man. I mean, his mind was always on others. His mind was always on God, always thinking about spiritual things and bringing out stuff that, and I just, and we had, me and Lord, we had conversations all the time. We'd come back and this brother would, just all the time, just, I just have no, and he would come and say, how can you know?

At that time, of course, You know, I was just coming out of the Southern Baptist. I hadn't been in sovereign grace circles very long. I still was, the Lord was teaching me and growing me. And I still had a lot of foolish thoughts and, and arrogant ego trips, you know? And I was like, well, brother, you know, once you're saved, you're always saved. And, you know, if you're believing this, you got to know you're saved and all this kind of stuff, trying to give him outward assurance by things that he was doing. And then as the time went by and the Lord was beginning to teach me more, I now have come to believe and understand exactly what the man was going for. The man could have no rest in his outward works, no matter how much he was doing. And listen, brother, he was doing way more than I do and way more than most people I know do. I mean, he was avid about, man, he sat down here at Discount Liquors and Smokes here on Main Street almost every day. handing out tracts, the gospel of John and tracts and things like that, to everyone going in and out of the liquor store and visiting with them, not ever judging them or throwing shade on them or anything, but just offering himself, giving people money to help them with food and all the kind of, listen, he was doing all kinds of things.

But at the end of the day, none of those things satisfied him that it was making him acceptable before God. And now I understand that. I couldn't grasp it at the time, but now I can grasp and understand at least an inkling of what he was going through. And the fact that now I realize that everything I put my hand to, no matter how right it seems, no matter how good it looks, no matter how well-meant it is, it is not enough to make me acceptable before God.

And there comes those nights Just like Paul was going through, you know, I would know to do good, but I don't do it. And when I try to do it, everything I do is bad. And so these thoughts are within me. Who shall? Who's going to condemn me? How am I going to get out of this? Who's going to save me from this?

Well, brethren, that's why Paul is writing this, because his struggles are our struggles. And so God, whenever he said whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed. This is, to me, is the turning point in this argument where Paul is letting us know, listen, brethren, inwardly, you're already there. Outwardly, you're not yet what you will be. But there is hope at the end. That's why God give us this body of death is so that we might not live in outward expectation that we can do it. but that we might live on inward hope of what Christ has already provided for us and what awaits for us in completion at the end.

See, if God give us hope for outward works, then we have something not to hope for at some point, right? You understand what I mean by that? I brought that out whenever we talked about those verses. Back whenever he said, for the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope. And whenever he said that, for we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for it? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it? That's why I'm saying during that message, that if God comes to live within us, to start whittling away the sin in our lives and start making us righteous outwardly so that the deeds that we do outwardly become the visible signs of what we are.

If it's the outward things that begin to show righteousness, then as we progress along, there is no more need for hope because we're seeing evidence of it outwardly. And that's why Paul said, if we have it outwardly, there's no reason to hope for it because hope is seen. It's evidenced already. But he said, if it's not seen, then we patiently wait for it to appear. We wait for it to happen. And he says, it's never happening on the outside though. So what are we patiently waiting for? We're patiently waiting for death. We're patiently waiting for this outward man to go away, to die, the child of grace.

That's why, especially in elder brothers and sisters, as life goes on, as we're getting closer to that time, the mindset begins to be looking on that time Why? Because the road that we've walked more and more and more, we see more and more how often and how bad we are before God. And our hope continues to intensify. We're almost there. We're almost there. I'm almost there. I'm almost reaching the point where I will put off this body of death.

That's why you begin to hear. I don't know if you've noticed, I've noticed Brother Larry's talk here lately, last few months, has been about thinking about things future. Thinking about taking care of him going and taking care of his family, but what's ahead? The mind begins to hope in what's to come. Why? Because there's no hope here. There's no hope in our flesh.

The Holy Spirit convinces us of sin, not convinces us of each sin that we've done, He does do that, but He convinces us of sin, who we are. He convinces us that we are sinners before God and that there is no hope in this outward man. We're not here to show Jesus to everybody, although kindness, and love and gentleness and meekness and things of faith will be seen when God works it in us. But I can't control that. I can't decide today, I'm gonna live for Jesus today and be an example for him. So I'm gonna yield myself to you, Lord. I'm gonna give myself and let you be Lord of my life today. I can't do that. If I rest in the Lord, I rest in the promise that he will do that. But guess what? Whenever he doesn't do that, and you see Mike all day, that's also by God's sovereign purpose. God has a purpose in that as well. He had a purpose in Paul feeling the evilness of his heart.

You know that song that we sing? I ask the Lord that I might grow in grace and love and every, I can't think of the words now. that more of his salvation know and seek more earnestly his face? But what was it, what was the hymn writer say? He says, but it's been in a way that I've not desired. How did he do it? He crushed me. He made me feel the evil, hidden evils of my heart. And whenever I lifted up my eyes to cry out to them, you know, are you going to pursue your worm to death? He says, it is in this way I reply for prayer, for faith and grace. Whenever we pray that the Lord give us grace and faith and to grow us in the knowledge of Him, you know what He does? A lot of times He chastens us by grinding us down, showing us deeper and deeper the iniquity that we are full of.

Why? To make us sinners? No, to show us as what we already are, to reveal to us. But in doing so, what does that do to the child of grace that's born again? It causes the man within to quit looking without for answers and look to God as already accomplishing something for him. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of the Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. And so Paul says, listen, All things are working together for the good of them who love the Lord, to them who are the called.

All this sufferings, verse 18, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Those sufferings that we are going through in this war of the flesh and the spirit, listen, all these things are working together for the good of them who are the called. And those who are the called, listen, here's the promise. Those whom he loved before the foundation of the world and put into Christ Jesus, who are the called, them are the ones he also glorified. Past tense. Listen, there is no losing anybody in this, brethren. That's why it's called the golden chain of salvation. Because if the first link in place, the last link is going to be in place and all the links in between are going to stay linked together as well. Nothing is going to change. There's no interjection in here. There is no losing one.

Those whom God loved before the foundation of the world, despite this timely time of Adamic sinful life, the ones he loved before will still be the ones he loves at the end, despite this dip down into this cursed world. They're still the loved. And those who are the loved are the ones who will be glorified.

Because God in Romans chapter nine has chose some, look with me if you would, Romans chapter nine, hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor? What if God willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long sufferings, the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, look, which he had afore, before the foundation of the world, prepared unto glory.

That means God prepared us before the foundation of the world as a people, he prepared us unto glory. That's saying exactly what Paul is saying here in 29 and 30, that God has predestinated us out of his foreknowing us, his forelove for us. God has predestinated us and that glorification is the end result. See, that brethren is eternal salvation. That has taken place in the heavenlies. That has taken place before time was entered in. That has taken place before Adam sinned, before you were born, before you confessed Jesus Christ, before the Holy Spirit ever awakened your soul, and before the Holy Spirit ever brought you to realization that you've been saved, brought you to faith in Christ, brought you to trust and rest in Him,

Listen, there was a time that I believed that I was awakened to God, the spiritual things, that I was trusting on Christ Jesus alone, but yet I still did not have full and complete rest until God revealed that I have been crucified in Christ. You know what that means? I'm dead to the law. Whenever you say I've been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, you know what you're saying? I am dead to the law, but nevertheless I live. But the life that I now live, I don't live by what's done in this flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, not faith in.

Brethren, if your Bible that you're reading says faith in the Son of God, you better swap your Bible, get one from the correct Greek manuscripts, because it's not faith in, it's faith of. I live by the faith of Christ, the faith of Jesus Christ. See, Paul wasn't saying that The life that I now live, I live by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, brethren, listen, whenever we are saved and the Holy Spirit comes in us, he gives us faith and we put that faith in Jesus Christ, on Jesus Christ, for what Jesus Christ have done. But that's not what Paul was saying in Galatians 2.20, when he said, I live by the faith of Jesus Christ. He said, no, the life that I now live, I live by the faith of Jesus. Well, I can't control that. Jesus, for one, already accomplished all faithfulness for me. That's already a done deal. And then anything inwardly that I show faith in him for, that, brethren, is also governed by, given by, exercised by, measured out and measured by God alone. So I can't tell Larry, Larry just be more faithful. Larry had some strenuous things happen these last few weeks. Some pastors would have told Larry, well, Larry, you just got to keep the faith, brother. You need to trust God more. If you'll trust God more, he'll get you through all these trials. He'll deliver you from that. Have more faith. as if that's something you can turn on and turn off whenever you want, right?

No, what's the best thing we can do? Just encourage and trust, trust in the Lord. See, the child of grace is given to know, I can't. Paul was given, I can't, but God can and has done. and has accomplished. Matter of fact, he is so accomplished that it was all taken care of in the heavenlies before anything actually even happens or happened. That's how secure it is.

So see, Paul is not assuring us with the earthly things, with the fleshly things, with the physical things. He's assuring us of salvation by the unseen things above. He's assuring us by the things of what God has said and what God has accomplished. It's by Him, by grace you are saved.

And so now, if we'll look here in verse 31, what does Paul say? What shall we then say to these things? What shall we say to the fact that God has justified us by the blood of Jesus Christ, and we stand guiltless before the throne of God, and that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God? What can we say to the fact that in me dwells no good thing, and I never will produce one iota of righteousness in this lifetime? What can I say to the fact that God has promised me and revealed unto us the fact that our salvation didn't have anything to do with these outward things that I did? It had everything to do with God's choice, with God's work, and with God's culmination of all things. It has to do with what God has done.

What shall we say to these things? Well, Paul says this, well, if we're the called, if we are the foreknown, if God be for us, who can be against us? Now, what did he mean by that? And I know a lot of people want to use that as some battle cry to get out here. You know, America is God's country. We are his nation. Therefore if anyone's against us or that may say that about Israel Israel's God's people. No one's gonna be able to feed them because they're God's people Is that what he's saying here if God is for us who can be against us

Now, what's he doing? He's still talking about legal terms remember this started in the legality of salvation and It started talking about justification. That's a legal term, brethren. This is in the court of legalness here. We're in the judge room. God is judging us. He either judges us in who we are or he judges us in Christ. You are either in Christ or you're not. If you're in Christ, all judgment is on Christ. If you're not in Christ, all judgment will come upon you. We were saved from the wrath to come because we were put in Christ before the foundation of the world. Therefore, there was never, any, ever, ever, any chance of wrath to come upon us. We never was under God's wrath because we were put in Christ. This outward man is deserving of wrath. The law condemns this outward man as a sinner and should have the wrath of God poured out upon him. And the wrath of God surely would have come upon us if Christ had not elected us and chosen us to be holy and without blame before him in love, before the foundation of the world. So this outward man has condemnation against him, but the condemnation that comes against him can't lay anything to his charge because we've been adopted of God, because this outward man houses the children of God.

Who shall lay anything, or excuse me, what shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? This term or this phrase or question that Paul was asking is a legal term. Who can bring anything to our church? Who can come against us? I can't come against myself. Nobody else in this world can come and come against me. Satan can't come against me. The law surely can't come against me. And guess what? God himself cannot come against me.

That's why I like that hymn that we sung this morning. God cannot lay the charge against Christ and then punish Christ and then come back and punish me for the same thing he punished Christ. That's why I keep saying, and I've preached for years now, and I'm sure you brethren agree with me, If anybody is in hell for whom Christ died, that person is in hell and God is an unjust God for sending them to hell. Because Jesus paid the price for sin for every man. And if that every man means every man, man, woman, and child that's ever existed, then every man has had their sin forgiven. They have been reconciled to God.

We've been reconciled by the blood of Jesus Christ. That's what was the effect of Christ's death. Reconciliation, forgiveness, justification. That's the result of the death, not the result of a choice or a decision. It was the result of the death. And if the result of the death is those things, and you say Jesus died for everybody, then everybody is forgiven, reconciled, and justified before a holy God. And if they are justified, we learned here that those who are justified will be glorified.

All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, that's belief. And all those who come to me, I will in no wise cast out, but raise them up at the last day. Glorification is the end result of those who are foreknown. Glorification is the end result of those who are loved of God, who are chosen in Christ Jesus. That is the end result. For everyone. Who has been chosen out of the same lump to be redeemed.

And so brethren, what can we say to these things? If God be for us, nobody can be against us. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. Now again, people like to cherry pick this verse out and make it a universal thing. But again, who is the us in context? The same us that's in 31, but it's also the brethren who are in 29, the whom of 29, the called in 28, the saints in verse 27, chapter eight at the very beginning, those who are in Christ Jesus.

Who are the ones who God sent his son and delivered his son up for? Us all. Who's the us all? The elect of God. Brethren, it's all over the Bible. If you take the Bible in its context, and that's another reason why it's good to go through these things verse by verse like we've been doing, it's because you see the continuity of the context. You see the development of the argument that Paul has been making. Paul has been making there is no such thing as progressive sanctification because there is no such thing in righteousness in the flesh. There can't be a progression in righteousness in the flesh when there is no righteousness in the flesh at all, ever. That's why I begin this whole entire study out saying, I believe that this is proof that the Bible teaches there's no such thing as progressive sanctification. It's the opposite. We wax worse and worse in this fleshly man, but the new man is renewed daily.

And Paul is saying here, listen, Jesus was given for us all. And if God went to the lengths that he went to to send his own son to be the procurement, to be the satisfaction of his justice, do you think that anything that this flesh does is going to make a difference to change that? Do you think that if God went to the extremes of sending his son and pouring out the full wrath of his justice upon his son, do you think anybody is gonna be able to lay a charge against him? That he's gonna go back and say, well, I poured out wrath on him for that sin, but now I'm gonna pour out wrath on you for this sin. No, Jesus took it all. And in God's estimation, that was satisfaction of his justice. That means there is no more guilt. There is nothing left to pay. Whenever something has been justified, that means there's nothing left to pay. If there's nothing left to pay, I don't feel like I'm owed.

Every now and then we buy and sell things around here, right? My kids do that, my girls, they sold their bed set the other day to get them some single beds. They've had bunk beds their whole life, okay? They sold their bunk bed. A guy came over here, bought, this is what we charge for that bed. This is how much we're asking for it. The guy came, got the bed, and in exchange, give them the money for that. He give them what he owed them for that bed. Whenever he walked away, None of my girls were in here sitting saying you know what that man. He really should give us another $50 I'm gonna call him and ask him for another 50 bucks because he owes me that No, you know what they came and said whoo Thanks done bed sold money in my pocket They were satisfied they were satisfied with the trans transaction and their bed for his money, his money was enough to satisfy them for the bed that they give him.

The salvation that God give us, he's satisfied with the blood of Jesus as the payment for us getting that salvation, although we have the debt of sin upon us that should have got the wrath. Jesus' blood was enough that God said, you know what? Done. And he doesn't go back to heaven and sit on the throne and say, you know what? That really wasn't enough. I tell you what, go ahead and start living this holy life. And I know it's not going to be perfect, but try your best to live as holy as you can and just yield yourself and let me be God in you and you'll quit sinning. And if you'll do that, then I'll be pleased with you. And I'll let you in and say, well done, my good and faithful servant. That's not what God said.

You know what the Bible says? That he, whenever he once for all laid down his life for sin and brought in eternal redemption for his people. The Bible says that he sat down at the right hand of God. Because he was satisfied.

What shall we say to these things if God before 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? Pay close attention to that. With him, also freely give us all things. If God gave everything for us to be saved, then how will he not give us everything that that salvation bought? Right? But notice a few of these words. How shall he not with him? freely give us all things. Now there's two ways we can look at that, those two words with him. 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?

We can look at that with him and say, well, that's talking about us being in him. That us being in him, we have been given all things. That's what Ephesians chapter one says. that because we are in Him, we have been blessed with all spiritual blessings, right? And I surely think that that has meaning here. In Christ Jesus, we have all the things that God has given us. Matter of fact, Paul started it out. There's therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. The condemnation comes because we're in Him. Condemnation is gone, is taken away, expiated because we're in him. So it surely means that, but brethren, it can also mean it can come by his hand, with him. How shall he not with him as the instrument freely give us all things?

How are we given all things freely? Well, all the legality of things, all the legality of things, the justification, the sanctification, all these legal things, Christ did in his blood, right? So by the instrument of Christ, God satisfied all legality for us. But what about experientially? By Christ also. God has experientially brought salvation to us. Because with Christ, remember Jesus said that if I go away, I will come again unto you. I will send you the comforter, my spirit. I go away, I come back to you. Jesus comes back to us as the spirit of God, as the comforter. And what does the comforter do? The comforter comes in and he causes us to rest in Christ Jesus. The comforter comes in and he convinces us of sin. And to some people, that's a bad thing, but no, that's a good thing. Whenever we're convinced of sin, the inner man then begins to rest in Christ. The Holy Spirit comes in and comforts us by teaching us the Word of God, by giving us and revealing to us our King, our Lord, our Savior, our surety, our hope, our salvation. He comes in our faith. He comes and reveals these things to us.

And so Christ is the instrument. Let me put it in more biblical terms. Christ is the mediator of the new covenant. Christ is the mediator of God's salvation. He is the mediator between God and man. He is bringing those things that are of God and from God to man. And he's also bringing all the things that are required of man. And he's coming back and he's the mediator of that for God.

Man can't be perfect. Man cannot obey. Man cannot please God. Man cannot do anything righteousness. Our mediator mediated that righteousness on our behalf. So who can lay anything against us? Who can lay anything to our charge? Who can come against us? Nobody. Why? Because he who is perfect mediated perfection to God on our behalf.

Brother, nobody can. That's why Paul says in the next verse, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justify it. Nobody can lay any charge against us because God already justified us in Christ. We're being justified. We have stood justified before God from the foundation of the world. Therefore, nobody can lay any charge to us.

I can't come to Larry and say, Larry, because you don't understand this doctrine the way I see it, I don't think that you're a brother in Christ and I don't believe that you're an elect child of God. I can't lay any charge to Larry if he's truly an elect child of God. You know what I can do? Brother, I don't believe that you're understanding those scriptures correctly, but I pray the Lord give you revelation and I pray that I'm not deceived.

In long suffering and gentleness, We pray that God would peradventure, grant them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. Not like Facebook Wars shows us, nitpick every little doctrine and every little bit of nuance that anybody might have different than us, and therefore deem them non-elect.

Is there doctrine? Absolutely. Shouldn't we stand on doctrine? Absolutely, brother. I'm not saying that, but I'm saying this. We need to give a little leeway for the Holy Spirit to be the teacher. We need to trust that God's the one doing the teaching, and that man just can't automatically flip a switch and know everything. It's the Spirit that teaches us.

I can't lay a charge against God's elect. Oh, you know what? You're doing all this, and I don't really see that to be something that you should be doing. Oh, really? Okay, well, see, there's a lot of people that want to charge God's elect, but nobody can lay a charge.

But brethren, I think this originally and specifically is the law cannot bring anything to the charge of God's elect. There is a nothing in the old covenant law that can be brought up and charged God's elect with. And there surely can't be nothing of the new covenant law to charge because the new covenant law commands are being fulfilled by Christ himself in us.

Love for God, love for brethren and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. Those are things that I cannot produce, that I cannot regulate and control. Those are the works of God that he has ordained that I should walk in them. And he's the one who wills and to do in me.

Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's leg? Brother, I tell you what I don't know about you, but this is great news to me. And whenever I read this, you know what? It doesn't make me want to just go out and sin all the more. When I read that, that doesn't say, well, hot dang, let's go out and live it up.

No. You know what that does? that wants to make me crawl up in a ball on my face down on the carpet in my bedroom with the door closed where no one can see. And it makes me want to cry out to God. Why me? Why did you love me? Why have you chosen me? I am no different than anybody else. And my sin is as wicked and is unrighteous.

No, it makes me want to stop before God and praise him that salvation does not hinge upon anything that I do. And that's why I look back at all of what I used to preach and believe has done. That's why I continue to look at everything that friends and family that continue in these works based salvation, preach and teach. I consider it done and I can't hold hands with it.

I love them to the core of my heart, I love them. But it is not biblical. It is not glorifying to Christ. Matter of fact, it is a degradation of all that Christ has done. It's blasphemy.

Look at verse 34. Who is he that condemneth? Who is he that condemneth? Well, the law is the one who was given to condemn, right? But think about it. Who is the law giver? God's the law giver. So in essence, if the law condemns me, it condemns me because God has set forth a law and God knew from the foundation of the world that no one can keep this law. Matter of fact, that's why he give it to us, Romans 5 20. He give us the law so that sin might abound. He give us the law so that it might reveal our sinfulness.

Who is he that condemneth? Well, it's God. But specifically it's Christ because all judgment has been given into his hands. God has manifested himself into the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the mediator between God and man, has been placed and given all judgment.

Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. What's Paul saying here? Listen, who's the one that condemns? It's God. Well, guess what? If God is the one who condemns, He condemns by the law, and Christ is at the right hand of God interceding for us.

What's He interceding? What's the intercession that He's interceding? The blood has taken away the condemnation of the law. The law has been dead to us, or is dead to us. No one can condemn us with the law, including God himself, because Christ is the one who died. That's why I say there can't be anybody in hell that Christ died for because Christ is sitting at the right hand of God Interceding for everyone that he died for saying that the law can't condemn

The only thing that can condemn a man is the law of God and God being the judge with that law is the one who lays down Guilty and he has already said not guilty because Christ has died for you So that man in hell is condemned to the law because there was nobody who stood in his place as the propitiation for that sin. Christ cannot be the mediator for every man's sin and then some go to hell.

Because that mediation, he ever liveth to enter seed for us. Rather, whenever you start looking at salvation and the way it's preached in the world and compare it to the Bible, you'll find why we are so sticklers about what we say here and what we believe, about sovereign grace, about election, about predestination. It's all over the Bible.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Well, if Christ loved us whenever we were the worst of sinners, Now that Christ's blood has been shed for us, you believe God's gonna go back on his love for us? He'd give up all that he had. He gave himself for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril soar? Now, brethren, I've always looked at that as who shall separate us from God loving us? Well, we know the Bible completely and totally says that there is no way that that could ever happen because God's love is an everlasting love.

But brethren, I think we could also look at that verse and turn it around on us. Who shall separate us from the love of God? Who can keep us from loving God? Well, to the true child of grace, guess what? God's love is shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Spirit. We don't control it. He controls it. I can't keep from loving God. Why? Because the Holy Spirit sheds that love abroad in my heart.

And guess what? When tribulation comes on us, what do we do? We continue to love God. What happens when distress comes upon us? We keep loving God. What happens when persecution comes upon us? We keep loving God. Whenever famine or nakedness or peril or sword Who can separate us from the love of God? The love of God, His love towards us and our love towards Him.

Whenever all of us are going through these things, these sufferings of this life, who can separate us from His love? That's not God separating Himself from us. Because you've gone through temptation. Remember Job. Job went through all those troubles and trials and temptations and all the things he went through. And it wasn't because God didn't love him. It wasn't because God was mad at him. It wasn't because anything that Job had done to get that put on him. No, God chose to do that to reveal himself in Job. He revealed himself in Job. He revealed himself to Job. Job saw who he was. He saw who God was. And he did that through trials, through temptation, through distress, through persecution, through famine, through all these things, through my own sinfulness and wickedness and arrogance and ego and religiosity.

Guess what God does? He brings that into combination. He crushes it. And he shows us our nakedness before him.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Why? Because God's love is shed abroad in us and God's love towards us was in the man Christ Jesus by giving him, giving his own life on our behalf. Therefore, that life that was given was evidence that God's love for us is everlasting because it was an eternal salvation, eternal redemption. He ever lives to intercede, that means God is never gonna not look at that.

As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep of slaughter. Nay, in all these things, temptations, tribulations, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, the sufferings of this present time, if you would. Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loves. us. For I'm persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in, which is in, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

See, brethren, he started Romans 8 for those who are in Christ Jesus. He ends Roman 8 for those who are in Christ Jesus. He starts Romans 8 with the glad tidings that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. He ends chapter 8 with glad tidings that there is nothing that can be laid to your charge. Therefore, there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. And everything between 8 1 and 8 39, is telling you why. It's telling you the reason. It's telling you that God has purpose in His eternal decree to bring us through this path. That God in His eternal decree has caused us to be subject to this vanity in hope that he has caused you to experience your grief and your pain and your sufferings and all the tribulations of your life because of this outward man so that that inward man might continue to hope in Christ Jesus, on Christ Jesus, and on the day that we are put down and this body of death goes away.

Oh, what rejoicing that will be when my Jesus I shall see when I look upon his face, the one who saved me by his grace, and forever I shall be with the one who died for me. What a day, what a glorious day that will be.

All right, anybody got any things you'd like to say or comments or questions? Corrections or reviews? Hallelujah. Amen, hallelujah.

All right, anybody got anything? Brother, you think you want to add anything?

All right, it's back. Father, we come to you now and we thank you once again for Christ Jesus. We thank you for the hope that is found in the gospel, and the gospel is about the person and the work of Jesus Christ alone. Father, we don't claim to be smarter than anybody else, and we don't claim to be more holy than anybody else, or righteous, or more deserving than anybody else. But only by grace we are what we are. The only thing that has made us to differ is your glorious grace and mercy, and your sovereign will and choice.

that among the armies of the heavens, among the inhabitants of the earth, none can stay your hand or say to you, why doest thou? But Father, we just pray that you would help us to submit each and every day to the truth that's found in this gospel.

Because we know that in our flesh, that is this old man, there is a rabid hatred towards this gospel. and towards this kind of God. But Father, we just pray that you would keep us in the faith, that you would continue to reveal Christ more and more to us, and that you might lead us, guide us, direct us, keep us in the faith, once delivered to the saints.

May you bless and minister to the hearts and minds of all these brethren. Father, may all those who are listening and watching, Father, may they find encouragement, may they find comfort, May they find joy and peace through these things that the gospel speaks of.

It's because of your son that we pray these things. Amen.