Romans chapter 8 and verse 28. And we know that all things work
together for good, to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called,
them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for 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 also
freely give us all things? Amen. May the Lord bless this
reading to us also. Justification by God. Redemption by Christ. And the gracious work of God
the Holy Spirit in quickening and comforting the elect of God
is the heart of the gospel message. It is the good news of God to
fallen sinners like you and me. And we are blessed indeed to
discover the mercy of God in the salvation of our souls. Paul tells the church at Rome,
chapter four, blessed are they whose sins are forgiven. and
whose, I'm sorry, let me say that again. Blessed are they
whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Blessed are they whose iniquities
are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to
whom the Lord will not impute sin. Happy people indeed. And it is this blessedness, this
happy condition, this joyful state that Paul is referring
to in these verses in our reading once again, these verses that
we've been dwelling on for the past few weeks. He has been cataloguing
the parts, the components of the covenant of grace by which
the elect of God are saved from their sin and prepared for glory. And as we have seen, the emphasis
throughout has been the activity and the initiative of God in
it all. It is God who foreknew. It is God who predestinated. It is God who justified. It is God who glorifies. And Paul says, what shall we
say to these things? This is the question that Paul
asks the believers at Rome. having set out God's plan, having
set out God's method, having set out the elements and components
of the covenant of grace for the salvation of his people,
and emphasising the great covenantal doctrines of everlasting love
and election and calling and justification and eternal glory,
Paul asks, What shall we say to these things? What shall we
say to these things? What can a man say upon discovering
that God loves him? What can a man say upon discovering
that God loves him and has loved him personally and particularly
from eternity? How might I respond upon learning
that God has distinguished me from amongst the sons of Adam, called and set me apart for himself,
chosen me from the fallen mass to be perfect like his precious
son? How might I respond in learning
that? How will we react to know that
God has made us righteous, cleansed our sin, and furthermore, will
never again impute sin to us? Though we sin every day, every
moment of our lives, in word, in thought, and in deed. But
never again will sin be imputed to us. And while we're thinking about
how we're going to reply to this, let us add this as well, that
the same divine being has promised to bring us to glory, to a mansion
especially prepared that we might dwell in his presence and enjoy
his goodness forever and ever and ever. What are we going to say to these
things? What shall we say to these things? If God reveals these matters
to us, if God convinces us in our hearts and in our minds that
they be true, while leaving thousands of others
in their delusion of self-righteousness, Are not such things beyond our
power of reason? Beyond our power of analysis
to comment upon? Except perhaps to say, thank
you, thank you. And perhaps to add, thy will
be done on earth as it is in heaven. I don't think Paul is
really looking for an answer from these believers at Rome
and I don't think he would expect an answer from us either. There are things revealed to
be accepted and believed that need not be explained. And sometimes
we are wise to be like David and confess Neither do I exercise
myself in great matters or in things too high for me. I think rather that Paul's purpose
in writing as he does is less to inquire and more to inspire. to inspire a sense of awe in
the minds of the people of God, to inspire wonder at the lengths
to which the Lord has gone to procure our holiness and ensure
our salvation. Paul's intention is to emphasise
the absolute certainty and security of the Church of God. His purpose is to arm and equip
and protect and reassure believers against the enemies of our souls. And Paul does this by insisting,
if God be for us, who can be against us? or we might phrase
it this way, seeing that God is for us, who can be against
us? Seeing God is for us by his love
for us, with a father's love. Seeing God is for us by choosing
us and electing grace. by calling us to holiness and
enabling our union with Christ and delivering our conformity
to Christ and with justifying righteousness
freely bestowed through the death of his Son. Seeing God is for
us in all these wonderful ways, What have you and I to fear in
this world? The faithful Apostle, the Apostle
Paul, is alert to the church's needs. He's alert to your need
and mine. And he is alert to the aims and
aspirations of our adversary. He tells us God is for us. It's a word of comfort and reassurance. And what a wonderful, comforting
message it is. The Father, the Father God, has
designed and decreed the blessings of grace for us. The Son took flesh and died on
the cross for us. The Spirit goes forth to convince,
to convict, to convert for us. And if God is for us, which he
certainly is by dint of our great salvation, we may rest secure
in the confidence that this truth brings. So I've got three practical ways
in which God is for us. Three ways in which we can see
God is for us and that these are daily blessings and an ever-present
help for the church, for believers like you and like me in time
of need. And here is the first one. He
keeps us faithful. This is a practical way in which
we see that God is for us. He keeps us faithful. Now I trust that we remember,
it is not our faith that saves us. That's fine as far as it goes,
but unfortunately it leaves a lot unsaid. It is not our faith that
justifies us or even initiates the blessings of grace. So many
people are taught today that if they will believe, then that's
the key to unlocking the treasure house of God's blessings. But
that's back to front, that's the wrong way around. It's not
our faith that initiates the blessings of grace. The faith
we possess is itself a gift of God. We do not get faith when
we believe. Faith is God's gift, enabling
us to believe. It comes first. And actually,
Paul explicitly tells us, he tells the Galatians and thereby
tells us, it is Christ's own faith that we receive as a gift
from God and Christ's faith that justifies all believers. Christ himself is both the author
and finisher or we might say completer, perfecter of our faith. Faith is a gift. It is a precious
gift And yet we often find it hard
to keep. So that the Lord keeps us faithful. He first bequeaths faith to us,
then he maintains faith for us, and he causes it to grow in us. Sometimes our faith struggles
under the pressures of this world. and seems very weak and yet it
is never completely quenched and it never fails. Romans chapter
11 verse 29 says, For the gifts and calling of God are without
repentance. Once God has given faith to those
whom he has loved, to those whom he has called, to those whom
he has sanctified and predestinated and justified and glorified. Once he has given faith to believe
these things, then he never repents, he never takes it back, he never
withdraws that faith from us. Though it become weak, though
it become pressed and pressured, it will never be removed. Now
all of that is because God is for us. In a world of pitfalls,
in a world of temptation, the Lord preserves his people from
evil. He guards, He protects us from
those who would do us harm. He orders trial and trouble and
hardship to afflict us only insofar as it works for our good. This has been Paul's argument
right from the start. All things work together for
our good, even the evil things of this world. Furthermore, the
Lord strengthens our faith against the corruptions from within our
own heart and the lust of the flesh. That's what we were talking
about a little earlier with the young people. All believers are
in a battle. It is a battle in which we shall
be victorious, yet we shall be taught through it our own weaknesses
and our dependence upon the Lord and we will be taught to trust
the Lord. through all the hardships and trials of life, to wait on
his timing, to learn patience, to rest in his promises, to appreciate
his grace. Some of us are sick now. The Lord is for us, so our sickness
is for our good. Some of us are being tested,
Our patience is being stretched but the Lord is for us and these
trials, the trials that we face are like angels. They serve and
prosper us in the end. Christ supports his people under
affliction and temptation by carrying on the work of grace
in us despite all the opposition made against it. And our faith might be stretched
but it will not break. It may be dim, but it will not
be extinguished. It may seem weak, but it will
be preserved because God is for us and all things work together
for our good. Here's the second thing that
the Lord does for his people. He feeds our souls. He keeps
us faithful and he feeds our souls. Since the Lord Jesus Christ
came into our lives, since he changed us and converted us and
brought us to experience the new birth, since he quickened
our souls, he has been growing our experience of his grace. Now sometimes we don't see that
growth. Sometimes it seems to be so imperceptible
that we don't see it happening. I'm not saying that he has been
making us more holy or that he has been progressively sanctifying
us. but he has been nurturing, he
has been feeding, he has been developing, he has been enlarging
our knowledge of himself. And he does this by giving us
an appetite for spiritual things. The Lord Jesus Christ causes
us to hunger and thirst after righteousness. He gives us a taste of righteousness
and he gives us a hunger for more. He has been teaching us
to hate our sin and to discover our sin and to discover our weakness. and he has given us a love for
Christ and a love for the Gospel of Christ. He teaches us to cherish
fellowship and love the brethren. We learn about prayer, we learn
about worship, we learn the value of ministry and of preaching.
We don't just get saved and get left. The Lord is developing
and growing us and causing us to experience an ever blossoming
and ever opening appreciation of his truth. And every part
of this is God's work in us, deepening our spiritual understanding. And all this is not to say that
we don't sin. On the contrary, we find sin
seems to rise to meet the challenge of our growth in grace so that
the battle is never over. Nevertheless, Christ in us feeds
our soul. He draws us to himself and he
deepens our trust and our dependence on him. It's a feature of the
years of our knowledge of Christ. For many of us, the physical
weakness of our ageing bodies and the frailty we feel in our
minds is merely the most recent manifestation of this ongoing
struggle of a spiritual life lived in a fallen world. And yet we learn over the years
that God's timings are perfect and our tears and our fears are
manageable because he sustains our faith and he feeds our souls. He does all this because God
is for us and is working all things together for our good. So the Lord sustains our faith,
he feeds our souls, and then thirdly, and finally, he comforts
our spirits. When our assurance is challenged,
when our faith is attacked, when eternal fears and doubts arise
Again, the Lord draws near and he whispers words of grace and
peace. When we feel that we are not
worthy of his mercy, he shows us the worthiness of Christ to
remind us where our acceptance with God is to be found. not in our works of righteousness
which we have done, but because of his mercy we are what we are. When we are convicted of sin,
he returns us to the Saviour and to the power and value of
the shed blood of Christ on the cross. When Satan tempts us to
despair, when he tries to steal the blessings of our fellowship
with Christ, God returns us to the testimony of Scripture. to God and his promises, to God
who cannot lie, to God who has loved us and called us and predestinated
us and justified us and whose will accomplishes our glory according
to his sovereign good pleasure. Because God is for us, we learn
that our safety and security eternally is wholly in him. notwithstanding the power of
our enemy. We learn with the church at Philippi
that he which hath begun a good work in us will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ. And under such views of divine
mercy, we become confident of this very thing. because God is for us. Because God is for us, he is
determined to fulfil all that he has promised. He sent his
Son to obtain salvation for us, he has sent his Spirit to apply
salvation to us, and he brings us by his power to a full enjoyment
of it. Therefore, says the Apostle,
Because God is for us, let us come boldly unto the throne of
grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need. Hebrews 4, verse 16. The end of this matter and the
consequence of God being for us is self-evident. If God be for us, who can be
against us? In truth, no one can be against
us. The Father is for us. If he is
for us, he cannot be against us. The Son is for us and cannot
be against us. The Spirit is for us and cannot
be against us. The angels in heaven are not
against us. They minister to us, they guard
us, they rejoice in our well-being. The law of God and the justice
of God is not against us, nor anymore. It is fulfilled and
satisfied according to the sacrifice of our great representative and
substitute. If God before us Who can be against
us? Satan is against us. The world
is against us. Death is the last enemy and it
is against us. And yet, They are defeated enemies. They oppose us under authority
and they can touch no more than they are permitted to touch. Like Shadrach and Meshach and
Abednego in the fiery furnace of Babylon, the church stands
secure amid the fiery darts of the evil one. Despite all their rage and all
their fury, our greatest enemies can only serve our good and strengthen
our hand. The doctrine of free sovereign
grace, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, is what Paul has
been advocating for our comfort all along. And despite all the
gainsayers that we might encounter in the false religion of our
day that try to undermine sovereign grace and try to place the emphasis
back upon the will of man and the general provisions of salvation
for everyone, despite all the gainsayers that we encounter
in the false religion of our day, Nothing meaningful can be
said against this truth. That doesn't stop ignorant and
foolish men trying, but the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ is the
epitome of wisdom and the embodiment of truth. It is a faithful, a
true and faithful saying worthy of all acceptation. Jesus Christ
came into the world to save sinners. It is certain and undeniable. The legions of hell tremble at
its authority and false teachers buckle under its weight. Such
is the power of the Gospel to effect God's will that the Lord's
own people are saved by it, despite our own shortage of faith to
believe it. This message reveals the love
of God. It reveals his electing choice,
his effectual call, his justifying mercy, his unchanging will to
bless the church for the sake and glory of his Son, Jesus Christ. What shall we say to these things? We say, thank you. We say, praise
the Lord. We say, worthy is the lamb that
was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength
and honour and glory and blessing. Amen. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us today.