Good evening. If you would open
your Bibles back to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Last week, last Sunday, our pastor
preached a message from Romans 8 verse 31. And I was truly blessed by the
message and it stuck with me. And in preparing for tonight,
I kept looking for a message that I could preach. And everything
I read, I kept getting stuck back on that same passage and
stuck in a good way. But for many different reasons,
something that I've never even considered doing is preaching
a message from a text that my pastor just preached from. for
reasons such as I don't want to show that he's better than
me. I don't want it to appear that
I'm trying to be different or show that, God forbid, I can
do better than him. But in studying, I reached for
a book to look something up, and I grabbed the wrong book.
and pulled that book down, and it was all the articles that
Henry Mahan wrote in his bulletins back in the late 70s, early 80s.
And in grabbing the book, I opened it to a page, thinking the book
I was supposed to get, and the title of an article stuck out
to me. I read the article, then I read it again, and I read it
again, and I thought to myself, well, I think this is confirmation
that I need to preach from that passage again. So in a minute,
I'm gonna read it to you. But this morning after our pastor
preached, I went up to him and I said, I read an old Bulletin
article that I just thought fits with what you just said. And
I said, the title of it was Keep a Cow Yourself. And he kind of
like looked back at me, and I thought I'd said something wrong. Well,
he said, that's in the Bulletin. And I said, what? And he went
back and got it and showed it to me, that it's in our bulletin
today. So this book that I thought I mistakenly grabbed and opened
to a page I thought had no consequence was the article that I'm going
to read to you. And it's called Keep a Cow Yourself. And I'm
sure many of you have already read it, but I'll say it again.
Have you heard the story of the Irishman who was converted to
Christ and whose priest told him that he had better not read
the Bible because he was unlearned? The priest said, I will get the
milk of the word and bring it to you. To which the Irishman
replied, I will be much obliged or thankful to you, sir, if you
will bring me the milk of the word. But I intend to keep a
cow myself. That way I will be sure to get
the milk pure. That is what I want you to do.
Keep a cow yourself. Carry a Bible with you and see
whether the milk you're receiving from the pulpit is pure. You
can trust your body to physicians and your finances, your money,
to brokers and not suffer too great a loss if they are wrong.
But to trust your eternal soul to a preacher, and find out in
the end that His was another gospel is to lose eternally. Search the Scriptures daily whether
these things are so. My purpose this evening is to
simply reaffirm the message that was preached. I want to use the
Scripture to support the message. The title of my message tonight,
if we look in Romans 8 verse 31, It says, what shall we then
say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? The title of the message is,
Show Us God's For Us. In this verse, the expression
if, where it says, if God be for us, that if does not mean
that there's doubt. It's not a question. But instead,
it's a conclusion or an affirmation. What he is saying here is, since
we see by all these things that God is for us, who shall be against
us? Meaning all the things that have
been written before this verse. Since we see all these things,
we know that God is for us. Is it not evident that God is
for us from this chapter? In verse 15 it says, ye have
received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. In verse 26, likewise the spirit
also helpeth our infirmities. In verse 28, all things work
together for our good. In verse 29, we are predestinated
to be conformed to the image of His Son. Then it says, when
we were alienated from Him, He called us. It tells us when we
were sinners, He justified us. And from the trouble and afflictions
that we have, He's glorified us. And then in verse 31, it
says, what shall we then say to these things? Since God is
for us, who can be against us? And to reaffirm who is the us
here, look in verse 1 of chapter 8. There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Look at verse 17. And if children,
then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If so
be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. The us here are those that are
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we're gonna look at a few
of the many different stories that will show us God is for
us. Now it's enough that in this
one verse in the Bible it says God is for us. That's enough.
And my title being Show Us God's For Us is not a statement in
saying you need to prove something, but it's more of a way for us
to believe it, us to understand it, us to see examples of it.
All these stories that we'll look at present a life or death
situation for one or more of the us. Just like we are in the
same place in our sin, we're in a life or death situation. But as we look at these, we'll
also find a few of the evidences that confirm to us that He is
for us. All right, let's turn over to
Exodus chapter 11. Exodus 11. Exodus 11, verse 1. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterwards he will let you go
hence. When he shall let you go, he
shall surely thrust you out hence altogether. Go down to verse
4. And Moses said, Thus saith the Lord, About midnight will
I go out into the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt shall die. from the firstborn of Pharaoh
that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the
maidservant that is behind the mill, and all the firstborn of
beasts. And there shall be a great cry
throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it,
nor shall be like it any more. But against any of the children
of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue against man or beast,
that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between
the Egyptians and Israel. So what's the difference between
the Egyptians and Israel? Look in chapter 12 verse 3. Speak ye unto all the congregation
of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall
take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their
fathers, a lamb for a house. And if the household be too little
for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house
take it according to the number of the souls. Every man according
to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb
shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. Ye shall take
it out from the sheep or from the goats, and ye shall keep
it up until the fourteenth day of the same month. And the whole
assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the
evening. And they shall take of the blood
and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door posts
of the house wherein they shall eat. Verse 11, And thus shall
ye eat it, with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and
your staff in your hand, and ye shall eat it in haste. It
is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land
of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt, both man and beast. And against all the gods of Egypt
I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. And the blood
shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are. And
when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And the plague
shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of
Egypt." The difference between the Egyptians and Israel is the
blood. Don't forget the us and those
are those that are in the blood of Christ. The phrase here could
be changed from God for us to God for Christ. The difference
between the Egyptians and Israel was established before the blood
was applied. The difference was set up in
the previous chapter before any of the Israelites even knew what
they had to do or what they were told to do. God chose a people
to put in Christ before the foundation of the world. And Christ provided
the blood sacrifice needed for redemption. Turn with me to John
chapter 3. I'll read to you a couple verses
from Numbers chapter 21. And they journeyed from Mount
Hor by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom.
And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the
way. And the people spake against
God and against Moses, Wherefore have you brought us up out of
Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither
is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light bread. And
the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit
the people, and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people
came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against
the Lord and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that he take
away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people."
And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and
set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass, that every one
that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses
made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came
to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld
the serpent of brass, he lived. The people had sinned against
God, like we have, and death came for them like it will for
us. But the Lord provided a remedy. That serpent on the pole was
the thing that saved those people, but it was representative of
the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. And if God is for us,
he will make us look to him. There's no other remedy, and
there's no place to look, but He must make us to look to Him. Now here in John 3, verse 14,
when the Lord uses this example to Nicodemus, And as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have eternal life. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son
into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through
Him might be saved. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners, and God provided a Redeemer for us. Okay, turn
over to 2 Kings. 2 Kings 6. 2 Kings 6. In verse
15. And when the servant of the man
of God, this is Elisha's servant, was risen early and gone forth,
behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto Elisha,
Alas, my master, how shall we do? Elisha and his servant were
in a house, and the servant woke up early and walked outside and
saw that there was an army encompassing the city, and he was scared.
So he came in and asked Elisha, Master, how shall we do? Verse
16, Elisha answered, Fear not, for they that be with us are
more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord,
I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened
the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain
was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." We can learn a lot of things
from this short illustration. One we can see here is that God
is for us even if we can't see it. It's irrelevant that this
servant couldn't see the army of God. The army of God was still
there. We also can learn that in our
times of trouble, he will often give us a glimpse that we are
okay, that he is there for us. One of the greatest gifts that
God can give for us on this earth is a glimpse of His glory, His
providence, and His hand that's always upon us. All right, turn
to 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles chapter 32. It's a glorious thought to think of
all the times we're in trouble, that if the Lord would just simply
pull the veil back just for a moment, how we would go to the exact
opposite end of the spectrum. Instead of us being so worried,
so fretful, so scared, we wouldn't just feel better, we would feel
confident, we would feel hope, we would feel peace, we would
have no worries. All right, in 2 Chronicles chapter 32, Verse 1, After these things,
and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib king of Assyria came
and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fenced cities, and
thought to win them for himself. Look at verse 7, King Hezekiah
said, Be strong and courageous. Be not afraid nor dismayed for
the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with
him. For there be more with us than with him. With him is an
arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and
to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves
upon the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah. The king of Assyria
had been wreaking havoc through the entire region. He was just
wiping out cities and people any way he wanted. He had a huge
army and many chariots, and there was nothing that anyone had been
able to do to even slow him down. And he showed up with this great
number, this great army, and King Hezekiah was wise enough
to say, ìBe strong and courageous. Be not afraid nor dismayed. nor
for all the multitude that's with him, for there be more with
us than with him." The numbers they give on how many men were
with each of these two groups are not even close. The king
of Judah did not have an army that could defend a city or anything
against the king of Assyria. But as he said, With Him is an
arm of flesh. His army is of the flesh. But
with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.
Go down to verse 16. And His servants spake yet more
against the Lord God. This is the king of Assyria.
He had servants that came and blasphemed against God. Verse
17, ìHe wrote also letters to rail on the Lord God of Israel
and to speak against Him, saying, ìAs the gods of the nations of
other lands have not delivered their people out of mine hand,
so shall not the God of Hezekiah deliver his people out of my
hand.î Look at verse 20, ìAnd for this cause Hezekiah the king
and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz prayed and cried to heaven.î Since God is for us, many will
attempt to be against us. Sometimes the situation seems
impossible. Sometimes there appears to be
no way out. Just remember, as Hezekiah and
Isaiah did here, the remedy is to cry out to heaven. There is
never a need to dwell on those that are against us. It doesn't
matter who it is, it doesn't matter why they are, and it doesn't
matter how many there are. If God be for us, no one can
ever stand against us. But don't forget to do what Hezekiah
did. Our text doesn't say, if God
be for us, we can handle everything ourselves. Turn to Isaiah 37,
where the conclusion of this story is written. Isaiah 37 and verse 33. Remember, Hezekiah and Isaiah
specifically prayed to the Lord for guidance. They asked, what
shall they do to be delivered? And in verse 33 we hear the answer
of the Lord. Isaiah 37-33, Therefore thus
saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not
come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before
it with shields, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he
came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this
city, saith the Lord. For I will defend this city,
to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp
of the Assyrians a hundred and four score and five thousand.
And when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were
all dead corpses." The Lord answered the prayer
of Isaiah and the king Hezekiah. And when they all went to sleep,
The angel of the Lord wiped out 185,000 men and sent them right
back to where they came. And the king who blasphemed against
the Lord God, when he got home, he was killed by his own children.
If God be for us, who can be against us? Turn to Daniel chapter
3. Daniel chapter 3, right after
Ezekiel, Daniel chapter 3, look at verse 1. Nebuchadnezzar, the king, made
an image of gold whose height was threescore cubits and the
breadth thereof six cubits. He set it in the plain of Dura
in the province of Babylon. Turn over to verse 4. Then a
herald cried aloud to you it is commanded, O people, nations,
and languages, at what time you hear the sound of the cornet,
flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music,
you fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar
the king has set up. and whoso falleth not down and
worship it, shall the same hour be cast in the midst of the fiery
furnace. Look at verse 8. Wherefore at
that time certain Chaldeans came near and accused the Jews. Verse 12. There are certain Jews
whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, have not regarded
thee. They serve not thy gods, nor
worship the golden image which thou hast set up. Verse 14, Nebuchadnezzar
spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego? Did not ye serve my gods, nor
worship the golden image which I have set up? Now, if ye be
ready, that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute,
harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music,
ye fall down and worship the image which I have made well. But if ye worship not, ye shall
be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning, fiery furnace.
And who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king,
O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this
matter. If it be so, our God whom we
serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and
he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be
it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor
worship the golden image which thou hast set up. Then was Nebuchadnezzar
full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Therefore he spake and commanded
that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it
was wont to be heated. And he commanded the most mighty
men that were in his army to bind them and to cast them into
the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in
their coats, their hosen and their hats, and their other garments,
and were cast into the midst of the burning, fiery furnace.
Therefore, because the king's commandment was urgent, and the
furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that
took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down, bound into the midst
of the burning, fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king
was astonished, and rose up in haste and spake, and said unto
his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst
of the fire? They answered and said unto the
king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see
four men loose walking in the midst of the fire, and they have
no hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. If God is for us, He will give
us faith like He gave to these men. Many people claim to have
faith, and many people do have faith. But true faith is the
gift of God, and the only way to identify it is by the object
of the faith. If God is for us, He will give
us faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. When we see God is for us, The
men that put Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fire, they
died. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
were put in the fire. And when they came out after
this, other men were tossed into the fire and it consumed them
as well. Our God is for us and protects us from the wrath of
all men. Our God is for us. No man can
be against us. Now let me give you one story
before we go to our last scripture. Many of you know this story,
but it applies very well here. When the missionary Walter Groover
was in Mexico, he hadn't been there very long. And what he
would do, what he would get in his pickup truck, and he would
drive to villages, and he had a speaker and a microphone, and
he would park the truck in a city square or any place that he could,
and he would preach the gospel to anyone who would listen. Well,
he went to this certain village, and he preached the gospel. And
he had many people who were very receptive of it, people that
came to him and said, I want to know more. Can you please
come back? And he said, of course I will. As he was ready to leave
that village, a man, a powerful man in the village, one of the
leaders, came up to him and said, if you come back, I will kill
you. Well, Walter left. I'm sure the
rest of the week until that next week came when he had told those
people he was going back was very difficult. But as he tells
it, he promised he would go preach the gospel. And if he didn't
have faith that the Lord would protect him, then he shouldn't
be preaching. So he went back the next week
and he preached. And even more people came and
even more people heard what he had to say. And even more people
seemed to fall in love with the gospel. Well, at some point later
on, which I'm sure the whole time he was there, there had
to have been a little part of him in the back of his mind that
was wondering where that man was. But he found out later that
when he left the first time, that man was up in a tree and
fell out of the tree and died. If God be for us, nobody can
stand against us. The Lord will not let any man
stand in the way of the preaching of His gospel. Now for our last
one, turn to Luke chapter 23. For the last passage we'll look
at, though there are many more, to show us that God is for us.
Luke 23 and verse 33. And when they were come to the
place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him and
the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left.
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do. And they parted his raiment and
cast lots. And the people stood beholding,
and the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved
others, let him save himself, if he be Christ the chosen of
God. And the soldiers also mocked
him, coming to him and offering him vinegar, and saying, If thou
be the king of the Jews, save thyself. This passage is the place where
we find the best example, the most necessary example, and the
most important example of God being for us. The best example
because He was on the cross to bear our sins, the sins of His
people. And the people there all around
mocked Him saying, let Him save Himself if He be Christ, the
chosen of God, Did our Lord have the power to save Himself? Of
course He did. But His love for His children,
but in His love for His children, He chose us over Himself. He didn't save Himself, but instead,
He saved us. Look at Romans 8, back in our
text, in verse 32. Verse 31 first, but, 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? Not only is it the best example,
it's the most necessary example. It's that because we had to have
a mediator. We cannot stand before the wrath
and the judgment of God. Our only hope is that the Lord
Jesus Christ maketh intercession for us, that He would bear our
sin and put on us His righteousness. Look at verse 33 in our text.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is
God that justifieth. 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?" And this is the most important example because of what's at
stake. This is life or death. heaven
or hell, eternal rest or misery. Thankfully, the love of God for
us provided a willing and an able sacrifice to make us more
than conquerors in Him." Look at Romans 8 verse 35. Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
or sword? As it is written, For thy sake
we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the
slaughter. Now watch this. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. 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." If
God be for us, who can be against us?