I am going, for the Lord willing,
for the next five weeks, to give what we gave in high school,
Vacation Bible School. And it's found in Romans chapter
eight, and it was such a blessing to me that I wanted to, I've
done this three years in a row, actually. This'll be the third
year, but this is what we covered in Vacation Bible School with
the high school kids. Romans chapter eight, verse 31. What shall we then say to these
things? If God before us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son
but deliver him up for us all? How shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It's 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 shall separate us from
the love of Christ. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
word, the promises of your word, the gospel of thy son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And Lord, we ask that we might
be enabled to enter in to this glorious passage, that you would
speak to each of us according to your will. And Lord, teach
us what it means to glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We pray for your blessing and presence in all things. We We
confess our sins, we ask for forgiveness and cleansing for
Christ's sake. Be with all your people wherever
they meet together. Lord, meet with us for Christ's sake. May
his name be exalted. Amen. Now in this passage of scripture,
that I just read, we're gonna look at it over the next five
weeks. Number one, there's nothing to
intimidate us. If God's for us, who can be against
us? Number two, there's absolutely
nothing that can prevent him from freely giving us all things. There's nothing we can do to
prevent that. Number three, nothing can be
laid to our charge. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? They can't be condemned and charged
and accused of anything. Number four, here's why we can't
be condemned. It's Christ that died. There's
no condemnation, no reason to fear condemnation. And number
five, there can be no separation from the love of Christ. Now
look in verse 31 once again. What shall we then say to these
things? Well, what things? 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. What do we got
to say about that? What should we say to that? What's
our response? 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. Now, what are
we going to say to that? 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? Now, if God is for me in his purpose. If God is for me and for knowledge,
for knowing me, for loving me is what the word means. I was
loved beforehand. I love that passage in Jeremiah
where he said to Jeremiah, before I formed thee in the belly, I
knew thee. And that is true of every single
child of God known eternally by the Lord Jesus Christ. if
he is for me in predestination. I love the word predestination.
I think it's, I heard somebody say, you're
all about predestination. Talking about our church, y'all
put a big emphasis on predestination. Well, we put an emphasis on Jesus
Christ and him crucified, and predestination is certainly a
part of that. Certainly a part of that. If he's for not for
us in calling and that's talking about being called by invincible
grace. This is a call that can't be
denied. It can't be resisted. It's all powerful. It's saving. If he is for us in justification. If I'm justified, that means
I have no sin. None. If he's for us in glorification,
already glorified, that's how sure this salvation is, already
glorified. If God be for me, who can be
against us? If God be for us, the God of
the Bible, who is all powerful, sovereign, that means his will's
always done. Don't miss that. His will is
always done. Everything that happens in our
experience happened because he decreed for it to take place. No accidents. I think it was
in the bulletin this morning, I put an article about permissive
will, question mark. If God permits something, that
means it took place before his will and he allows it to happen.
Never happened. God decrees everything in time. Everything. Now, if there's God
before us, who's in absolute control of all things, who can
be against us, there is nothing for which we can be intimidated. There's nothing to be afraid
of. If God be for us, if God be for us, if God be for me,
Who can be against me? What is there to be intimidated
by? Now, that being said, what is
the most oft-repeated command in the scripture? Fear not. 300 times, over 300 times. Fear not. Now, why would God
graciously give us this Command to fear, not because we're so
fearful. Because we're so fearful. Every one of us are fearful people. Might try to act tough on the
exterior, but we're fearful. We fear tomorrow. We fear what may take place.
We fear circumstances. We fear the future. We fear the past. What if my
sins are brought up? What if this bad thing causes
this bad thing to happen? We fear men. We're afraid of
what men think. We want to impress men. We want
men to be impressed with us. We fear. We fear. We're fearful people. And the Lord gives us this blessed
command to fear not. There's nothing to be intimidated
by, because if God is for you, that means he is fighting your
battles. Now, the things we fear have
something to do with the battles we're called upon to fight. And
if God is for us, all the battles I have, he is fighting for me. Let me show you a passage of
scripture in Exodus chapter 14. This is when God parted the Red
Seas. Now, who parted the Red Seas?
God did. And while they were marching
through that dry land, looking at a wall of water on either
They knew they were only doing this according to the power of
God. If God willed it, he could let the water come down and they'd
all be drowned. They knew this was all a supernatural work of
God, every aspect of it. And I'm sure that there was fear
as they walked through the Red Sea. Now, look in verse 23. And the Egyptians pursued. and went in after them to the
midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots and his
horsemen. This is what they feared, the Egyptians. And it came to
pass in the morning watch that the Lord looked under the host
of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and the cloud
and troubled the host of the Egyptians. and took off their
chariot wheels. Now here they are marching through
the Red Sea, and all of a sudden the wheels of their chariots
fall off. Can you imagine how scared they were? So that the
Egyptian, so they braved them heavily, so that the Egyptian
said, let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fighteth
for them. against the Egyptians. Now that is true in every circumstance. This is why I'm called upon to
have no fears. The Lord fights for me. Turn to Isaiah chapter 40. Verse 1, comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned. Not her warfare will be accomplished,
it is accomplished already. Not her iniquity will be pardoned. Her iniquity is pardoned already. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. Not only were her sins
forgiven, her sins are put away and she stands just before God.
That is what we call the gospel. Now, the Lord fights for us. Now, who is it that's fighting
us? I tell you, the number one battle
I'm fighting with is me. Do you believe that? Your number one enemy is you. Take the devil out of the equation. And he's in the equation, there's
no question about that. Your adversary, the devil, walketh
about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. But take
him out of the equation, I'm the problem. Turn to Romans 7. Verse 21. I find then a law, that's a powerful
word. I find then a law that when I
would do good, evil is present with me all the time. There is never a time when this
is not so. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man. Now he's talking about God's
holy law. Let's just confine it to the
Ten Commandments. I love the Ten Commandments.
Now it's the inward man, the new man, that was not there before. That's talking about the new
birth. The inner man is the new man that you didn't have before
the Lord saved you. You have him now. And that new
man delights in the law of God after the inner man. I don't
look at the law as an enemy. I've kept it in Christ and I
delight in every command. They're beautiful. They're glorious.
They're perfect But verse 23, I see another law
in my members, what's that next word? Warring Warring Warring against the law of my
mind I and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in
my members. I think it's amazing that so
many people have argued that Paul was talking about his experience
before he was saved. No, he never experienced this
until he was saved. That's when the battle with sin
begins, really, when the Lord teaches you who you are. That's
when it begins. He says in verse 24, Oh, wretched
man that I am, who should deliver me from this, from the body of
this death. He's talking about his old man. Uh, the picture is being in prison and having a
dead body chained to your body. That was part of the punishment.
And that's what Paul is referring to when he talks about the body
of this death. He's talking about his old man,
his sinful man. But he says, I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord, theirs who delivers me, so that with
the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the
law of sin. Now, turn with me to 2 Corinthians
10. Now, Paul talked about warring. Well, look at the weapon or the
weapons that are provided for every believer in 2 Corinthians
10. Verse 3, for though we walk in
the flesh, we do not war after the flesh,
for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal They're not fleshly,
they're not of human invention, but mighty through God to the
pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and
that's reasonings. The reasonings that come against
the gospel and every high thing that exalts itself against the
knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought
to the obedience of Christ. And don't miss that. Don't miss
that. It doesn't say every thought
is brought. To obedience to Christ, because
you got plenty of sinful thoughts, don't you? I got plenty of sinful
thoughts. But every thought here's the weapon of our warfare. Every
thought is to be brought into subjection to the obedience of
Christ. The obedience of Christ. The obedience of Christ is my
righteousness before God and any thought contrary to that
is a wrong thought. Now that's the weapon of our
warfare. Bringing every thought to the
obedience of Jesus Christ. Now here are the battles that
I am far too weak to win if the Lord doesn't fight my battles
for me. Now the first is the battle with
sin. That's very real, isn't it? The
battle with sin. Now somebody may ask, well, what
is sin? That's a good question, really.
What is sin? Well, let me give you the scriptural
answers. to what sin is. I remember one time when I was
young, yeah, I was a young man, but I was watching MTV and they
had a person interviewing different people. What do you think sin
is? And they all gave their different answers, you know, something
they didn't do. Some other people did. And I thought, boy, everybody
can come up with a good definition, you know, but they're not scriptural
definitions. What does the Bible say sin is? Well, first, 1 John 3, 4 says
sin is the transgression of the law. It's breaking God's law. Proverbs 24, 9 says the thought
of foolishness is sin. Romans 14, 23 says whatsoever
is not of faith, whatever is not derived from faith is sin. James tells us in James 4 17
to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not. To him, it
is sin. Proverbs 21 4, I think in some
respects is the clincher. The plowing of the wicked is
sin. Wicked man goes out and plows
the ground, perhaps to Have crops to feed the poor. And you know
what it is? Sin. That's what the Bible says.
The plowing. The most wholesome activity we
can think of, really. The plowing of the wicked is
sin. All have sin, Romans 3, 22, and
come short of the glory of God. To come short of the glory of
God is sin. Now, to him that knoweth to do
good, I already said that one. Here's what I learned when I
learned what sin is. First John 1. The other scripture that I didn't
give with regard to sin, to have respect of persons, is to commit
sin. to give somebody preferential
treatment because of some way it can advantage you. And so
you treat them with one standard and somebody else with another
standard. That's it. That's it. And look what 1 John
1 says. Verse 8. If we say that we have no sin. Present tense. And the word sin
is a noun. It's not talking about an action
at this point. It's not talking about the commission
of a particular sin. It's talking about a sinful nature. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. Somebody
that makes a statement like that, they've lost all credibility.
They're liars. They're liars. Don't listen to
anything they say. If you say it about yourself,
you're a liar. That's what scripture says. Verse 10. If we say that
we have not sinned. Now there the word is a verb. If we say we have not sinned
with regard while I'm bringing this Bible study. If in the presentation
of this Bible study, you say, I've not sinned. I'm a liar. Because everything
I do, if I did it, everything I do is sin. Now, somebody says,
isn't that kind of extreme? Well, what about the law? What about God's holy law? Have
you ever kept one commandment one time? Well, if you haven't,
you know what that means? All you do is sin. That's the
testimony of the law. The law is the strength of sin. This is a battle that I cannot
win. And listen to me, when we're
talking about this, this is what we're not saying, oh, it's salvaged
by grace, therefore we're indifferent about our sin. We're okay with
sin. No, we're not. No, we're not. We're called upon
to not sin. Ever. Under any circumstance. Sin's never OK. But how do you
do with the battle of sin? Well, the only way I can win
this battle is if Christ wins it for me. My sin can't even
be against him because Christ put it away. He was manifested
to take away our sins and in him is no sin. If I'm in him,
I have no sin. My sins can't be against me. Christ defeated them. Christ
put them away. What about the law of God? God's holy law. Can God's law
be against me? No. Because I've kept the law
in Christ. When Jesus Christ kept the law,
did it as the representative of all of God's elect. He said
in Matthew chapter 3 verse 15 to John the Baptist, thus it
becometh us, not simply John the Baptist but all the elect.
I was in that group considered us, thus it becometh us to fulfill
All righteousness to keep God's law perfectly. And all the law
can do to me is say, there's no fault in him. He's perfectly
righteous in my sight. The law can't be against me.
Law's for me. God's holy law is for me. It
can't be against me. Well, what about Satan? If God
be for us, who can be against us? What about Satan? He's real. I don't know that I've ever had
any personal encounters with him, and I don't want to. I know
some people have. Job did, didn't he? Peter did. I don't want to have any personal
encounters with this mighty fallen angel. He's called your adversary
the devil. goes about as a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour. This is a very real enemy that
I'm no match for and you're no match for. You know, anytime,
I've seen people who want to start studying demons. Don't
do that. You don't want to know. You don't
want to know. Stay away from that. That being said, Satan himself
is nothing more than God's pawn doing God's will, God's devil
on God's chain. How that's demonstrated with
Job. Have you considered my servant
Job? He brings him up to the devil. Have you considered my
servant Job? And the devil was used by God. to teach Job even more the gospel. Everything that happened. What
about Peter? The Lord warned him, Peter, Satan
has asked permission to have you that he may sift you as wheat.
Could the devil sift you as wheat? Easily. easily, but I pray for
you. And the devil was used by Jesus
Christ to bless Peter. He needed to fall. I think it's
so interesting that of all the disciples, is it I? He said,
it's them. It's them, not me. Who's the
one who denied Christ? Peter did. But the Lord used
Satan for this purpose. Let me show you a Turn to, gosh,
I'm running out of time. Turn to 2 Samuel 24. 2 Samuel 24. This will nail this
down. The Lord blesses it. Verse one, and again, the anger
of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And he moved David against them
to say, go number the children of Israel." Now turn to 1 Chronicles 21. First Chronicles 21, verse 1, and Satan stood up against
Israel and provoked David to number Israel. Now, isn't that
interesting? In the first verse it says the
Lord did it. And what did he do? He moved
Satan to do his bidding, and it was all according to his purpose. Now, put those scriptures in
your mind. That lets us know how the Lord
uses Satan. Never forget that. I mean, I
don't have anything to do with him, but he's God's devil on
God's chain doing God's will all the time. Now, we're living
in a world that has no love for God. How can this world be against
us? You know, I think of the scripture,
all that's of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes, the pride of life, the lust of the flesh, the cravings
of sinful fallen flesh, the desire, the pleasure of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes, Being concerned about what men see rather than
what God sees. Being concerned about what men
think rather than what God thinks. The pride of life, original sin.
The original sin, the pride of life. How can I stand up before the
world? The Lord said, be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. And this is the victory that
overcomes the world, even our faith. The world itself cannot
defeat the believer. You see, if God be for us, who
can be against this? And the last enemy, death. Death. Death is my graduation day. Death is the best day of my life. Because when the believer dies,
He's perfectly conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Now, I
realize that there's aspects of death that are scary. Scary
for me. Somebody says, I have no fear
of death. I'm glad, I do. I do. So does everybody else.
You're lying. But the fact of the matter is,
Christ went before me in death, and my salvation is guaranteed
because of what he did. And death, where is thy victory?
You don't have one. If God be for us, who can be
against us? And I hope Tonight, when I lay
my pillow on my head, this thought will be in my heart. If God before
me, who can be against me?