All right, go with me now, if
you would, to Romans chapter eight. Romans eight, our text tonight
will be verses 30 and 31. And I saw something in verse
31 that I personally have never considered in this way. And it made this verse really
come alive to me. And I'm excited to tell it to
you. So I hope the Lord will bless it. I hope he'll make it
clear. Let's begin by reading verse 31, Romans 8, verse 31. It says, what shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? If God be for us, THEN WHO CAN BE AGAINST US? IF AS MOSES TOLD THE PEOPLE,
THIS IS WHAT HE SAID, HE SAID, STAND STILL AND SEE THE SALVATION
OF THE LORD. THE LORD SHALL FIGHT FOR YOU
AND YOU SHALL HOLD YOUR PEACE. IF THE BATTLE IS THE LORD'S,
IF IT IS THE LORD'S, And if he's fighting for us, then who is going to defeat him?
If he's fighting, I love how whenever he revealed himself
to, um, I believe it was Joshua. Uh, he said, Joshua said, are
you for us or them? He said, I'm the captain of the
host. I'm the first man in. He said, I'm not for either one.
I'm the Lord's man. He is first into the battle. He must win the battle. If the battle is the Lord's and
he is fighting for us, if God be for us, who can be against
us? When I read that, I thought of
some songs and we just sang them. I wrote down these songs and
we just sang them. We sang, oh God, our help in
ages past, our hope for years to come, our shelter from the
stormy blast. And we know what the greatest
stormy blast is, the blast of God's wrath on sin. Our shelter
from the stormy blast and our eternal home. We just sang a
mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing. Our helper, he
amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing. Verse three, I believe
it is said, did we in our own strength confide? which is what
man naturally does. He wants to confide in his own
strength. Did we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing. We're not the right man on our
side, the man of God's own choosing. Just ask who that may be. Christ
Jesus, it is he. Lord Sabbath is his name. From age to age, the same. And when I wrote that down, I
enjoyed that. From age to age, the same. As we know him to be, as we know
that he was, that's how he is. That's how he will always be.
From age to age, the same. Martin Luther wrote, and he must
win the battle. And he will win the battle. and
He has won the battle. If God be for us, then no one,
nothing can prevail against us. And the one that I'm most happy
to hear that about is this one right here, my own self. I will not even be able to bring
my own self down into destruction, no matter how hard I try in the
flesh, and I try pretty hard. but I can't defeat him. I just
cannot do it. While I was dwelling on this
verse, I thought about the story of David and Goliath. The entire
army of Israel was scared to fight. You know, they were lined
up and it was a standoff. They were all of them scared
to fight. They all knew that they were no match for this great
Philistine army. And the greatest adversary of
that army, that great giant named Goliath. He walked out and he, he was
taunting Israel. He said, you send one man down
to fight with me. One man to represent the whole
nation. That's what he was saying. Send
one man to represent the whole nation. Whatever happens right
here, it'll happen to the whole nation. He said, whoever loses,
the whole nation will be the servant, the captive of the other
side. And every man in Israel knew
that he could not win. Every man, has he heard that?
Declaration go out. Every man knew that he could
not win, but won. One man, the son of Jesse, David,
God's anointed king of the people. The one who was seemingly a tender
plant. That's what everybody thought
he was. He just looked like a root out of dry ground. He said, send me. In the volume
of the book, it is written of me. I delight to do thy will. And by himself, he marched straight
into that battle. He set his face like a flint. Wouldn't you love to have seen
that? He set his face like a flint and with a flint, a smooth stone, He defeated the enemy, one mighty
blow, once. By himself, once. He slayed the enemy and he set
all of his people free. That is exactly what Christ did
on the cross for us. That is the battle that he by
himself fought for us. All of his people knew we can't
win this battle. We'll die. But one man went in and slew
the enemy and won the battle. Won the battle over sin, won
the battle over death. Won the battle over death. Fought
death and won. Won the battle over hell. That's the eternal victory that
he's given to us. Now with that being said, Let
me show you what stood out to me about this verse. One word
got my attention. Verse 31 says, what shall we
then say to these things if God be for us? That word for, I just kept looking
at that word for. If God be for us. You look up the definitions of
these words and here's one of the definitions of that word.
It means for the sake of. That's what it means. For the sake of. And I pray the Lord will make
this clear to us. My heart has been rejoicing over that. I pray
he'll make this so clear. If God be for the sake of us. If God be for the sake of us. Now let's see if we can emphasize
it in this way. Turn with me to Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4, now there are commandments
just like what we're about to read all through the scripture.
The whole chapter of Ephesians 4 is full of them. I was gonna
read the whole chapter, but there's other things I wanna read. So
we'll let these last two verses summarize the type of commandments
that the whole chapter is given. Verse 31, Ephesians 4, 31, it
says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and
evil speaking, be put away from you with all malice and be ye
kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. Why? So you can be saved. Do all that
so you can be saved? Is that the motivation? Is that why we strive to do all
these things so that we can be saved? No, Christ has already
won that battle. That battle's over. That's already
settled in heaven forever. He cried from the cross, it is
finished. And what he meant by that was
the battle is over. It's over. Salvation is complete. Peace with God has been made. Captivity has been led captive. So that work is finished. Well,
then why would we do that? If that's the case, why would
we do those things? Why would we have a heart and a desire
to do those things? The end of verse 32 says, for
Christ's sake, That's why, verse 32, be ye kind
one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. We desire to do these things
and we strive to do these things for Christ's sake. That's the
only reason. It's because we love him. We desire to honor him. Nothing
pleases a forgiven, redeemed, blessed of God sinner more than
bestowing their all unto him. And I'm gonna repeat that. Nothing
pleases a redeemed, forgiven, blessed of God sinner, nothing
pleases that sinner more than bestowing his all unto him. All unto Him. Does anything give
you more joy, honestly, than saying and crying from the heart,
not unto us, O Lord, not unto the us. All of it goes to you. Does anything give you more joy
than that? All of it. All of it is unto you. Everything
that I am, everything that I have, Everything that I do is unto
you. It's all, all of it for your
sake. All of it. Can you say that that
is the desire of your redeemed soul? I'm not talking about the
old man's simple flesh that we're still dragging around. Can you
honestly say that's the desire of your redeemed soul and your
only plea before God? That's the only plea before God,
for Christ's sake. Dear Heavenly Father, it's all
for Christ's sake. That's the only plea I have.
That's my only plea before you. That's the only desire of my
heart, for Christ's sake. As His humble people, we can
say that, can't we? Well, listen to this. in the
regenerated man, that new regenerated man that has been given to us
and created in us. Everything that we do, everything
that we are, everything that we have is for Christ's sake. And being made one with him,
because we have been made one with him, everything he does,
everything that he is, and everything that he has is for our sake. That's what Paul meant. That
is scratching the surface of what he meant, the depth of what
he was saying when he said, if God be for us. if God be for the sake of us. We approach that with such great
fear, fear and trembling. We acknowledge that all things
are by him, through him, to him, for him. It's all unto him, all
of it. It's all to the praise of the
glory of his grace. But by his sacrifice for us,
He has included us in every bit of it. All of it is unto Him. But because of what He did for
us, He has included us in every bit of it. Look with me at 2
Corinthians 8. 2 Corinthians 8. Verse 9 says, For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet
for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty
might be rich. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became
poor. That you through his poverty
might be rich. Our brother quoted this for us this morning. Look
at 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 13, it says, We having the same spirit of
faith, according as it is written, I believe and therefore have
I spoken, we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that
he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus
and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes. that the abundant grace, you
talk about abundant grace, might through the thanksgiving of many
redound to the glory of God. Look back with me at Romans 8.
We've quoted it quite a few times now, but verse 17 says, joint
heirs. Verse 29, we read it this morning,
whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his son. The scripture says, as he is,
so are we. In John 17, our Lord prayed to
his father, and this is what he said. I'm in you, and you're
in me, And my desire is that they might be in us. One with
us. That's amazing. One with us. Everything he has done from eternity
to eternity is for his glory and is for the sake of his people. God is self-sufficient. He's
self-sufficient. That means God is in need of
nothing. God does not need man's presence. I remember the first time I really
got ahold of that. God does not need man's presence. God does not need man's praise. God is not bettered. He is not
increased. He is not exalted more because
of anything that involved us. God was already highly exalted
and he brought himself down from that. We read for the scripture
reading Philippians 2. He brought himself down from
that. God was already increased and he gave it all away. Eternal
life was his from eternity past. but he made himself to be the
lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Everything that
he's done, he has done it for our sake. Everything he has done. That has to be the most all filled
thing that could ever enter our mind. Everything he has done
is so humbling. Everything that we do is because
we love him. And everything that he has done
is because he loves us. He has commended his love to
us. That's where he put his love.
Greater love had no man than him. He has it all. He does it all. And he is all. And he said all of it. I'm giving
all of it to them. All of it is for their sake. Verse 29 says, 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. And he personally was in need
of none of that. None of it. Every bit of that
was for their sake. By grace, through faith in Christ,
our sake. Our sake. Now here's the question
of the hour, okay? Verse 31 says, what shall we
then say to these things? How can you possibly respond
to that? What words could we possibly
use that would be an adequate response to that? The Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians
12, there are none. There are none. He said, it's
not possible. He said, I heard things from
the mouth of God concerning the will and the purpose and the
desire of God. God himself, Jesus Christ taught
Paul the gospel. And what that means is God declared
declared to him the glorious news of what he purposed in himself
to do for his people. And Paul listened to that. He
said, I sat there watching the lips of God almighty tell me
the glorious news of what he purposed to do for his people.
Everything that was in his heart, everything that was in his will.
And he said, it is not possible for a man's mouth to say anything
in response. You can't repeat it. It's not
lawful for a man's mouth to utter. What could we possibly say to
these things? This is it. This is all we can
say. If God be for us, there's the
only response we can have. If everything that God is and
everything that God has and everything that God has done, if He did
all of this, all of it, For our sake, if God be for us, then
who can be against us? If that is his heart's desire,
then he's gonna have it. And the reason is because he's
God. He's God Almighty, and he's going to have his way. Now, let
me close this message. Let's hear from His own mouth,
Him being for us, all right? This is Him in the favor of us. Turn with me over to John 17.
We'll close with this. This is Him praying for our sake. John 17, verse one, it says,
These words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said,
Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And
now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all
things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given
unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received
them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they
have believed that thou didst send me." And we do, don't we?
We believe God the Father sent him. Verse nine, he said, I pray
for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine, and all
mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I'm no more in the world,
but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that
they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I
have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition,
that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee, and these
things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled
in themselves. I have given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them
from the evil. They are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth,
thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the
world, even so have I also sent them into the world. Watch verse
19. And for their sakes, I sanctify
myself. I sanctify myself. I set myself
apart for holy use for their sake. that they also might be
sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word,
that they all may be one as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee,
that they also may be one in us. that the world may believe
that thou hast sent me and the glory which thou gavest me, I've
given them that they may be one even as we are one. I in them
and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one and that
the world may know that thou has sent me and has loved them
as thou has loved me. What an amazing. Father, I will
that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I
am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for
thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father,
the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these
have known that thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto
them thy name, and will declare it. that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them and I in them." What he said
in that prayer was, Father, we chose them, we have predestinated
them, we have called them, we have justified them, and it is
my will and desire that we might glorify them. Now, what shall we say to these
things? That was the high priestly prayer. What shall we say to these things?
Here's all we can say. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Amen. All right, let's all stand
together.