Our pastor and Janet are at the
conference at Redeemer Grace Church in Indiana, where Fred
Evans is pastor this weekend. So today, and we had for Sunday
school, we also have for our morning worship service, we have
our brother and dear friend Luke Coffey with us. Luke, before
you come, there was a couple announcements I meant to make
earlier today. Our sister, Haley, was in an accident last week. Gary and Janie's daughter, Haley,
was in a boating accident last week. Had some pretty severe
injuries. Is she home today? Is that right?
Coming home from the hospital today. Going to have some rehab. So keep Haley and her family,
Gary and Janie, their family, everyone in your prayer, if you
will. Of course, remember our brother, Cecil, and others that
can't be here. It's a trying time when people
go through trials and we really can't say anything
other than what Isaac just sang. We can say, Lord, remember us,
right? So again, our brother Luke is here with us today. Thank
you for coming. We claim you as our own, always
will. So come preach what the Lord's put on your heart. I'm thankful you claim me because
I claim you. If you would, open your Bibles back
to Romans 8. Those announcements you just
made and is a huge reason why this message I'm going to preach
this morning, the title of it is, Look to the End. Look to
the End. Now, it's important we establish
who I'm speaking to. Not everyone should look to the
end. In verse 28 of Romans 8, who
this is about is in the middle of verse that says to them that
love God, to them that love God, those that love God should look
to the end. Unfortunately, I have to clarify
that this does not mean someone who says they love God. This
does not mean someone who thinks it's very important that others
think that they love God. This is not for someone who goes
through the motions to make sure everyone sees or that they believe
themselves that they love God. This is for those who truly love
God. And because of that, there's
a clarifier that follows that to them that love God, to them
who are called. The only people who love God
are those who have been called. The only way a person can love
God is if the Lord Jesus Christ, if they have been called. In
this chapter, the rest of these verses, we'll talk more about
that and we'll get more into that. But a person who was chosen
before time began, someone who is elected by God as a sheep
of the shepherd, that's who we're talking to this morning. That's
who should look to the end. Now, why should those people,
why should those that love God, why should they look to the end?
Well, to begin, because our lives are a mess. It just are. Our lives are a complete mess. Everything we do, everything
we say, everything we're a part of is just a mess. And the only
reason that there are times that we think they aren't a mess is
because we're so used to the mess that we don't recognize
it. I was talking to a couple guys
yesterday, and we were talking about something that we did,
and it struck me as funny because if I told you what we were talking
about, you're like, you would do that? But because we have
done things for so long, because I've lied so many times, that
lying doesn't bother me as much as it should. Because of the
way I think and the way I act, and because of the way we are,
we just get used to it. And a good example of that is
every generation thinks the next generation is just awful. But
if we honestly listen to the news, and we hear stories, and
they really don't register with us, we hear this happened, and
that happened, and that happened, and we're like, okay, and we
just turn to the next channel. If we backed up 20 or 30 years ago
and played that news broadcast, those people would be like, what?
I can't believe those things happen. And if you back it up
another 30 years, it's the same thing. We just progressively
get worse and everything we do just keeps pushing the envelope
a little farther until the things that used to happen, we don't
even think of them as bad anymore. We do so many things that we
just don't think of them as bad. And our lives are such a mess.
And we're also really good at blaming that mess. It's because
of where I work. It's because of the people I
have to be around. It's because of that person or
this person. Or forbid we think, oh, it's because of my parents.
It's because of my kids. It's because of my spouse. That's
why things are a mess. But do you know why our lives
are a mess? It's because of me. I'm the reason my life is a mess.
I mean, I totally deserve 100% of the blame. And if we want
to get more specific, it's because of my sin. It's because of who
I am. Now, I don't say that my life's
a mess because of my sin as a way to, like, make me further from
it. You know, I think people say that sometimes. It's, well,
I'm just a sinner. You know, I'm sorry I did that. I'm just
a sinner. Like, that's not an excuse. I mean, that's who we
are. We're awful and we cause those
problems. And the only reason that What I'm going to say is
true only to those that love God is for two specific reasons. Two things that the Lord has
done for those people that differentiate them and they can look to the
end. The first is the acknowledgement the Lord makes us aware and realize
that we're sinners. And I don't mean the word sinner
in the sense that people say, well, everybody's a sinner. I
mean that we actually get a glimpse of who we are in spirit, in nature,
that the Lord every once in a while gives us. He opens our eyes and
lets us see. And boy, it just makes it gives
me chills to think about those moments in my life where I've
done something, said something, and the Lord has shown me. Do
you realize who you are and what you would do if I was not restrained
by him? And that's a scary thing, a really scary thing. But the
Lord always shows His children who they are. And then secondly,
He shows us who He is. He shows us who He is in His
glory, in His holiness, in His righteousness. And if I thought
that it was scary to see who I am, once we get the perspective
of who He is, that is something that is just so frightening.
You read that passage, it says the fear of the Lord. The fear
of the Lord comes from seeing who He is and who we are. When
you see a holy God and you see yourself as a sinful creature,
what you realize is there's only one outcome. There's only one
thing that can happen. Whenever the day comes, I'm going
to die in my sins. That's the only outcome for a
sinner. In my sin, the wages of sin is death. That's the only
way this can end for me, is I'm going to die in my sins. And
because the Lord shows His children that, because He shows us who
we are and who He is, that allows us and makes us to just totally
fall in love and have a hope and assurance. The title on the
top of this page in my Bible says the ground and assurance
of a Christian's hope. This is what gives us hope. All
these things that the Lord has done for his sheep, for those
who love him. This is what he's done. And remember,
it's not because we loved him. It's because he first loved us.
He called us those he called before we were even born. And
in those things, the Lord gives us very simple instructions throughout
the scripture. The Lord gives us things. He
says things to us that should be so easy. He says things such
as, look, look unto me and be ye saved. All the ends of the
earth, for I am God and there is none else. I look, I'm looking
at you right now. I know I can look. But he says
do that. And then I see, come unto me,
all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
I came here this morning. I can do that too. And then he
says, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will
give it you. I can ask questions all the time.
But I don't find comfort in those things because for some reason,
I fail to look. For some reason, I forget to
ask. And for some reason, I don't
want to come. Because of who I am, I can't
do those things. So I find my comfort in this passage and so
many words and so many things that are said here. because it
shows us that He does those things. When He says come, it's because
He makes us come. When He says look, it's because
He turns our head or opens our eyes and makes us to look. When
He says ask, it's because He puts us in situations and makes
us ask Him. He does those things for us.
A couple weeks ago or a month or so ago, I was at the funeral
for Dee Parks. And as awkward as this is to
say, it was a rather joyous event. And I know that sounds weird,
but I heard three or four people come to me and say that and I
was thinking it. But that's because it was such a it was such a celebration
of what the Lord had done for him. I mean, it really was. And
it was great. But in sitting there, his son,
who was 16, stood up and said a few words. And when I was sitting
there listening to him, When they said his 16-year-old son
wants to come up, it made me flash back because I was 16,
27 or so years ago when my mom died. And I remember specifically
someone saying this verse, verse 28, saying, and we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are called. And I remember specifically thinking,
I am 100% sure there was never a moment in my life that I did
not think my mother loved God. Not a moment. And there was never
a moment in my life where I didn't think that she was called. I've
been taught how this all worked. I had heard that and there was
never a moment I didn't think she was called. Yet I did not
have this top of the... I didn't have hope in that. I
didn't have any peace in that. And that's why the verse was
said. Later on in life, I feel like that famous story with Henry
and Rolf, asking him to quote this verse, and he leaves off
that last phrase. And that's what it was to me. As a 16-year-old
kid, people were telling me, Luke, we know that all things
work together for good to them that love God to them who are
called. Well, it didn't mean anything to me at that point.
It was actually a little off-putting in a way. Because I struggled
with it. I didn't know why it happened.
I didn't understand anything. I went through so many phases
of that, of not understanding why it happened. Was it my fault?
What's going on with this? And I ultimately got to the place
where I remember thinking, I'm just going to stop thinking about
it. Which is foolish when you look back, but I thought, well,
if I can ignore it half the time, I don't have to deal with it
half the time. But at some point, whenever that was, just like
the last phrase of that verse when it was quoted on the second
part, according to his purpose. The moment that that part of
that verse came into play, the moment that I realized that the
Lord's purpose, because once I was shown who He was, it meant
something. unless you know who He is. And
I don't know who He is apart from the Lord showing me who
He is and opening my eyes to see it. But in that moment, then
you realize that all things literally work together for good to the
Chosen of the Lord Jesus Christ because it's His purpose. And
in all of those things, That's where we find our peace, because
when we try to reconcile things on our own, we're not smart enough. We're not wise enough. We're
not patient enough. We can't see the whole picture.
We don't understand it. I cannot wait until the moment
that one day we will be able to see his purpose, like see
the whole picture. And you talk about glory. to
see what He has done in every single moment of our lives, these
trials that we pray about, these sicknesses, these things we talk
about. One day we'll be able to look at all those things.
And now we're not looking at them in the sense that we don't
care about our past. We're not looking back at them
to see how it affected us. We will see those because that
will just make us glory in our Lord even more. That's what we'll
be doing. We'll be glorying in Him in those.
So I just want to go through these verses for a couple of
minutes. and remind us that we must look to the end. And we'll
see what's in the end for those that love God. Look at verse
29 here. For whom He did foreknow, who
the Lord Jesus Christ, who God Almighty foreknew before time
began, before anything that we could take credit for. He also
did predestinate. He predetermined for it to happen.
to be conformed to the image of His Son. What is the huge
difference in who we are and who the Lord Jesus Christ is?
Because we're sin and He's righteousness. He's holy. It says we will be
conformed to His image. We will be like Him. That He
might be the firstborn among many brethren. That's the first
thing that we can look to in the end. We will be like Him. Can you imagine a day where your
thoughts are not clouded by sin? Look to the day that we are like
Him. Look at verse 30. Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, them He also called, and whom He called,
them He justified. and whom He justified, them He
also glorified." These verses just give us this perfect list
of the Lord did this, and then He did this, and then He did
this, and then He did this, and then He did this. He did everything. Every part of this is Him. He
chose us before time began. He called us in time. He brought
us. He was the sacrifice for us.
He justified us. And whom He justified, them He
glorified. Now, how in the world can we
be gloried in? Because we're in Him. He is the
only one worth glorying. But when we're in the Lord Jesus
Christ, we get glorified because we're in Him. What I'm trying
to say is, don't look at what's going on right now. Don't focus
on the things that are in our way. Because what happens is
we just start looking around and we get distracted, we get
in trouble, we just get into a mess. And it's awful. We must
look at Him. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ
and what He's done for His people. Look at verse 31. What shall
we then say to these things? What are we going to say to this?
What are we going to say that He's done everything? If God
be for us, who can be against us? I always used to analyze
this as almost like a battle or an event where it was like
everybody stood on one side, but if the Lord was on my side,
I was okay. But that's not how this is. The
Lord Jesus Christ, no one can be against Him. No one can stand
against Him. We think of people who say things
and do things. They're not standing against
the Lord. The Lord cannot be stood against. In His holiness,
when they came to come in the garden to see Him, He just answered
who He was and they all just fell down. No one can challenge
Him. No one can do anything. And if
He is for us, who can be against us? Verse 32 says, He that spared
not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. He did not
spare his own son, but delivered him for us all. And remember
that us all goes back to these verses, those that love God,
to them who were called, all those that are called, all those
that he chose. Those are the ones that he delivered.
He delivers every single one that he chose, every one of them.
And because he did that, how shall he not with him also freely
give us all things? Sometimes I wonder if I'm the
only person who does this, but I just wonder why I don't have
this or why I don't have that or why this doesn't work out
for me. It says He gives us, He will freely give us all things. If we don't have it, it's because
we shouldn't have it. We don't need it. the famous
song of unanswered prayers. I mean, our Lord gives us exactly
what we need in His exact time, in the exact place, in the exact
way. And if we don't get it, it's not meant to be. We won't
have it. We won't have anything that He
does not predetermine that we have. Look in verse 33. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Who is going to
say anything? Who will claim anything against
us? Who can charge us? Well, if I'm
being honest, I'm pretty sure you could charge me with anything. And I mean anything. You could
think of the worst thing that you could possibly think. What's
the worst crime you could ever imagine? I'm pretty sure I have
committed it, at least in my mind. And so it says here, who
could charge us? Well, why in the world could
we not be charged? because it says it is God that
justifies. He has paid for every single
one of our sins, every particular one, everything we've ever done
and all that we're going to do, all of our sin, He paid the debt. He bore our sins. And so it is
right when it says God justifies us. We can't be charged. That's
an amazing thought. Can you imagine the moment that
a criminal is standing in court and the moment they're dreading,
when I say look to the end, what are they all dreading? The end.
The moment at the end of the trial where the judge determines
if they're innocent or guilty. If you're guilty, that end, you
are scared to death. Now, how come we want to look
to the end? Well, because we're innocent,
because we've been justified. What the Lord has done for us,
we don't fear the end because we have a sacrifice. We have
someone who stands in our stead. We have someone who takes our
place. Look at verse 34. 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? Who is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died. I got
ahead of myself on that one. The Lord Jesus Christ made intercession
for us. He interceded for us. He took
our place. He went before us and did what
we couldn't do. He did it all. Verse 35 says,
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? So we see all
these things that He's done. All of this that the Lord keeps
doing, He keeps addressing these things that we question. None
of these should be in any doubt when it says that the Lord chose
us and called us and we're saved in the Scriptures. That's all
it really needs to say. Because it's done. But all of
these words are to keep reminding us and showing us. Because we
are foolish enough to ask the question, can I be separated
from Him? If it says here that I'm in Him,
I'm with Him, can I be separated from Him? Verse 35, who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Who could possibly do
that? Shall tribulation separate us?
What about distress? What about persecution or famine
or nakedness or peril or sword or anything else? Can anything
do it? No. And it's not these things distress.
These are our problems, our tribulation, our distress, our persecution,
our famine, our nakedness, all these things. These are our problems.
But they can't separate us because we're not the one who made the
joining. We're not the one who combined the two things. He's
the one who took us. So we can't be taken from him.
All people who think that they made a decision or they chose
Christ. Anything I do can be torn asunder
in just moments. I can't hold on to anything,
but he's the one who chose us. He's the one who took us and
nothing can be taken from him. Look at verse 36. As it is written,
for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted
as sheep for the slaughter. Now this verse really starts
to show us The reason we look to the end is because in this
flesh and in our sin, we can't protect ourselves. We're very
feeble. We're very frail. We're going
to struggle. We just are going to struggle
because of who we are. It says, it describes us here that for
thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as
sheep for the slaughter. A sheep in among itself is just
living its days out, fattening itself up, being led to eat grass
so that it can be led to the slaughter. And that's who we
are. Our paths, our lives, they all
serve a purpose. In verse 28, we see all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
called according to His purpose. His purpose works for the good
together of His sheep. Everything together. That word
together means everything together works for his good. It doesn't
say every single thing that happens to you is good for you. It says
all things together work for good. For a couple examples of
this. Sicknesses. We battle sicknesses
all the time. What about the woman with the
issue of blood? She spent all her money. She went to every
place and every person she could possibly go to to heal herself
and she couldn't. Because she could not heal herself
in all her means possible, she was forced to go to the Lord.
And she went to Him and went to His feet, and when she came
there, she was healed. Would she have traded all the
days before then for the one moment that she was healed? Would
she have traded all the sickness in her life and said, if you
could take my sickness back so I didn't have to endure this.
No, she would not have because she came to the Lord in that.
What about the lunatic who spent his whole life just crazed in
the cave? No one could chain him. No one
could do anything. He was literally called a lunatic
his whole life. No one gave him a name. They
just called him a lunatic. And the Lord went to him and gave
him peace and right mind. And he could not stop. And he
was told, don't tell anybody about this. And he couldn't shut
his mouth about the Lord. He would not have traded all
the days of his life and all his problems for what the end
was. What about our difficult lives?
What about Joseph? He said in the end, you meant
it for evil, but God meant it for good. What about the woman
at the well? Her life was so bad that she
would not go get water at the right time because she was scared
of seeing someone. If she'd see anyone, they were
going to ridicule, mock her, all of that. So her life was
so bad that she was forced because of what happened in her entire
life to go to the well at a certain moment to meet the Lord. Would
she have traded that life and have a better life so that she
would have gone to the well at a different time? What about
blind Bartimaeus sitting beside the road for his whole life?
Just totally dependent on other people. I mean, what kind of
life did he live just sitting there begging his whole life?
Couldn't see you doing anything. He was totally dependent. Yet
all of that led him to the moment where the Savior came by and
he was just in his heart and his mind. He had to call out.
What about the thief on the cross? His life was led to his death.
He was being put to death, which led him to be next to the Lord.
What about individual trials that we go through? And what
about that woman caught in the act of adultery? I don't know
if I could think of a worse individual moment at trial as that woman.
Being set up like that. You know those Pharisees did
not give her any dignity in that moment. And being brought before
all of these people, the people in your village, and in front
of the Lord to be said, this woman needs to be killed. And
you to sit there in all that moment. But all of that happened. All of those events. Would she
have traded all that to then in that moment be shown who He
is, who the Lord is. We must look to the end because
what He's done for us. We don't focus on the things
of our lives, the trials, the tribulations, the sicknesses,
the troubles, all those things, because everything works together
for good. Now, what is that good? That
good is salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. All things work
together for good. It doesn't matter anything that
happens from the day we're born to the day we die. If we are
found in the Lord Jesus Christ in that day, that's all that
matters. That's what I'm saying when I
say look to the end, look to him. Look at verse 37. Remember,
verse 36 says we're counted as sheep for the slaughter. Verse
37. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through Him that loved us. I love that
it calls us sheep who are just going to the slaughter, just
innocent sheep or not innocent, but just sheep that are just
don't have a clue what's going on, just going to their death.
And it says that in that, in us, in this life, we are more
than conquerors. We are the victors because of
Him that loved us, because of what the Lord Jesus Christ did
and us being in Him. We are conquerors. We are victors. Eternal life. the Lord Jesus
Christ. Verse 38. For I am 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 Christ Jesus, our Lord. And
one more time, just one more time, they got to tell us for
those of us that just waver constantly, for those of us who couldn't
make it from verse 35 and 36 to verse 38 and 39, we couldn't
quite make it that 10 seconds it took us to get between those
two verses to where we thought again to ourselves, could something
separate us from him? After just being told all the
way we were, it's one more time. It's not death nor life. There's
nothing other than those. It's not angels, nor principalities,
nor powers. It's not things present or things
to come. It's not height or depth or any other creature. There
is nothing that is able to separate us from the love of God, which
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are loved in the Lord Jesus
Christ, in his righteousness, his holiness, his perfection.
We're loved in him. Now, in closing, I want to give
an illustration and then just say a thing or two. So our lives
that I've described as a mess and we've seen as a sheep to
the slaughter. I want to relate it to if someone had never been
on a roller coaster before. And the first time you were ever
going to get on a roller coaster, they took you to the roller coaster
and they sat you in a chair and they blindfolded you. So you
couldn't see the roller coaster, you didn't know anything about
it, you've never been on one before. Now, as in life, there are going to
be plenty of people who have told you about it. There are
going to be people who told you it was great, people who told
you it was awful, people who told you that you'll want to
do it over and over again. There'll be people who have told
you so many things about it, but in that moment you have no
idea what's coming. You really don't understand what's
coming next. And that harness comes down and
you're secured in that roller coaster and you take off. You
don't know if you're going up, you're going down. You don't
know how fast you're going to go, you don't know anything.
You don't know if it's going to be the height, The depth,
you don't know if you're going to spin. You're not sure if you're
going to be tossed upside down. You have no idea what's coming.
And just like our lives, when you're getting to the top, you
think it's never going to end. You're always going to be on
top, only to always be followed by going right back down. And
when we're going down, we think there's never a moment we're
going to stop going down until we go right back up. And we don't
know when the turns and ups and downs, we don't know anything
about it. We're just not sure. We have no idea what's coming
next. We just don't know anything about
it. And it goes back to the two things that we must know about
our life. With this roller coaster, we
must understand two things to get through it. First is that
we realize that we can't do anything about it. We can't get out. We can't slow it down. We can't
stop it. We can't keep it from going up, keep it from going
down. We can't do anything. We have no control over it. Just
like in life, we have no control over it. From what's happening
the moment you start to the moment it ends. And the second thing
we must understand is that even though we don't realize it and
don't think about it, there was a creator of the roller coaster.
There was someone who designed every single part of it. Someone
who designed where you were going to start, where you were going
to end, how fast you were going to go, how high you were going
to go, when you were going to twist, when you were going to spin,
all of that stuff. All of it was predetermined before you
ever got on the roller coaster, how it was going to go in every
way, shape, and form. And we must understand that we
look to the end, not focusing on the things of our life that
happen on every day on a daily basis and the things we go through,
because we must understand that we don't have any power over
it. We're helpless. We can't stop sinning. We're
the problem. And the second thing we have
to understand is that our God is in control of all things. He created us. He, before time
began, determined exactly what we were going to be doing and
in exactly every moment. And the key to that is He determined
how and through what means, through our Lord Jesus Christ and His
sacrifice, that where we would end. Everything was done. We don't have to worry about
the things of this world because our end is already determined.
Everything is finished because of what our Lord did on the cross.
We know that those that He called, those that He chose, those that
love Him, those that He predestinated, those that He justified, all
of those things, all of that. If that's us, we know where the
end is. We know that it says, Nothing
can separate us from the love of God which is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We will be with Him for all our
days. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow us all the days of our life because of the end. Just
look to Him. The end is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look to Him. Thank you, Luke. I appreciate
your study and your travel and your time. I appreciate the fact
that the Lord blessed you and blessed us in hearing of him. We appreciate you. Come back
and see us soon. Bring the rest of your family,
Tracy and the kids with you. We look forward to seeing you again.