Romans 8. The title of the message. Some things that we know. There
are some things that we know as God's children. We know these
things for a fact. We know them to be sure. And Paul gives us some of these
things in the verses we are going to look at this morning. Now,
in light of all that has been said, we know. Paul says, we know this. This is something we know. We
have been taught of God. That's why we know. It's how
we know. God has taught us some things. We have not been left
to ourselves. God has no uneducated children. All thy children, it is written
in the gospel in John, all thy children shall be taught of God. We are educated by God. We have the best teacher. And
He knows how to get the lesson across and make it stick. We've not been left to ourselves
to guess as to what's going on or to why something is happening
to me, something is happening to you. We are not left to guess
why is this going on. We know by the Spirit of God,
the same Spirit that Paul's been speaking of in whom we walk,
walking in the Spirit. And the Spirit of God, which
is the Holy Spirit, He instructs us, teaches us, and is conforming
us to the image of Christ. This is why whatever I'm going
through, what I shall go through, and I don't mean just the difficult
things. You know, we always look at just
the big things. It's everything. Everything from
the time I wake up, the time I go to sleep, is conforming
me to the image of Jesus Christ. God is making me, He is making
you, like His Son. We know this by revelation of
God's Spirit, we know it by experience. As we grow in grace and in knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ, We understand this. We understand
this. We know this. And we know by
God's Word that all things are working together for our good.
Now, he says here in verse 28, and we know, keeping this connected
to what has been said in verses 26 and 27, Paul said in verse 26, likewise,
the Spirit also helps our infirmities. For we know, we know not what
we should pray for as we ought, we know that. We know we don't
know what really we ought to pray for. But the Spirit itself
maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
He that searches the heart, which is God, knoweth what is the mind
of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints of
God according to the will of God. And we know. We know that
all things work together for good. All things covers all things. It covers all things. What about
this? That's included too. What about
Satan? He's included too. What about
all the demons? They're included too. What about
good and bad? Good and bad mean what we call good and bad. They
are included too. They are also included. All things,
good and bad, all of our experiences, all of our experience is for our good. It's working
for our good. We know this, we know that all
things are of God. In 2 Corinthians 5, All things
are of God, and He makes everything to work together for our good.
Everything in this world, everything that's going on, all the things
that even upsets us, those things right now that are upsetting
us, that we see, is working for our good. First of all, it's
bringing about the end, isn't it? Every day puts us one day
closer to the end of this life. It puts us one day closer to
the end of this world. And it puts us one day closer
to a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. So all that's going on, whether
it's upsetting to us or not, is working for our good, our
good. Now, it may not necessarily be
working for what we consider our temporal good. He's talking
here about our eternal good. And that's what you and I need
to get real concerned with. We need to get real concerned
with our eternal good and not our temporal good. Not what feels good today. It's
what you and I are going to have in eternity. This life is so short. It's so short. Even if you live
to be 150, 200, it doesn't matter. In Genesis, they lived to be
900 years old and they died. And look how long ago that's
been now. Life is so short. Our concern
is to be with eternal matter. Set your heart on things above.
Lay up treasures, he says, in heaven, where moth and rust does
not corrupt, and thieves cannot break through and steal." So all things are working for
our eternal good. God makes them to do that. God
has the power to make, to control everything and make it work for
my good and your good. He has the power to do that,
and He does it. He does it. God has the power
to make everything work in harmony. In harmony for our good, our
eternal good. Apart from God, nothing works
together for good. Take God out of the equation,
nothing works together for good. Actually, if you take God out
of the equation, nothing exists. But nothing works together for
good apart from God making it work together for our good. And
that's what's going on. The world doesn't see that. The
lost man doesn't see that. You see that. You see that. When Joseph's brothers sold him,
they meant it for evil, the Scripture says, but God meant it for good.
And He said He meant it for good to save much people alive. And
He's talking about Israel. God meant it for good. What men
did to Jesus Christ, they meant it for evil. They didn't look
at the Scriptures and say, you know, here's what we're supposed
to do. They did what their wicked hearts dictated to do, and yet
God meant it for good. Why? To save much people alive. Look over in Acts 2. In Acts 2, look in verse 22-24. Hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth,
a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs,
which God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also
know, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and
slain." You meant it for evil. What you did was wicked. But
now God delivered him to you by his determinate counsel and
foreknowledge, foreordination. You by wicked hands have crucified
and slain whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of
death, because it's not possible that he should be holden of death,
that is of it. But by wicked hands you have
crucified, you've vented out your hatred of God, but God meant
it for good. Here's some people here this
morning. God has saved you by the death and resurrection, the
blood of Jesus Christ. What was meant for evil by men,
God meant it for good towards you. And this promise, now listen, and
we know that all things work together for good. to them that
love God. This promise is to a certain
people. You see that? To them that love
God. If you or I do not love God,
then now listen, nothing is working for my good. Everything, everything
is working to my condemnation. Everything that is working is
adding to my torment. If I do not love God, it's working
against me. But, if I love God, it's working
for me. There's one thing I've learned,
and one of the things I've learned, is that for anyone to lay hold
of a promise in the Word of God to lay hold of that promise,
you must fit the character described in the promise. Come unto me
all you that labor and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. That's
not to anyone else but those who are laboring and heavy laden
under sin, under the burden of sin. He said, now you come to
me and I'll give you rest. And here, here he's saying we
know that all things work together for good to them that love God. Now here's the question, here's
the question. And I ask myself this when I'm
making these notes and going over this. Do I love God? Peter, do you love me? You know, we know what we love
because it's what we go after. We go after what we love. We
spend and be spent over that which we love. Do I love God? If yes, then this is for me. I can just absorb this promise
to myself. If not, then this is not for
me. To love God... It was read in
the Scriptures back in the study a little bit ago. To love God,
it says in 1 John 4, 7, to love God is to be born of God. He that is born of God loves
God, or love is of God. And if I love God, if I truly
love the Lord Jesus Christ, it's evident, this is a true mark
of sonship, is that I love God. And here's
another mark of sonship given in this verse. 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. Called effectually. Every child of God here, you
know at one time when you heard preaching of the gospel, you
had no interest. You had no interest. And then
one day you had an interest. You had an interest. You were
drawn to it. You were drawn to it. You couldn't
wait to get to the service and hear the word of God, to hear
the gospel. You know what was going on? God
was calling you. You remember, a good example
of this is Samuel, when he was a young fella, he was staying
there with, was it Eli? I think it was Eli. He was staying
there, and Eli was the priest, and God called him. He got up
and he goes in to Eli and said, here am I. And he said, Eli goes,
I didn't call you. He goes back to bed and God calls
him again. And he gets up and he goes in
to Eli and he says, here I am. And he said, I didn't call you.
I didn't call you. And I think he did it a third
time. Then he said, and the next time, the next time that happens,
you just say, speak Lord. You just tell the Lord to speak.
And then the Lord spoke to Samuel. He called him. It was an effectual
call. It's what the old timers called
an irresistible call. When God calls you, you come. You don't have to beg a person
who's called. They cannot not come. Because
God is calling them. And He's calling them by His
Spirit. Not just me standing here. The
Spirit of God. God Almighty. The voice of God
through the word of God is calling them. And this call is a holy
calling. What it says in the scriptures,
it's a holy calling. And it's an inward call. It's
an inward call. It's not an audible voice. I
mean, you hear my voice, but there's a voice in you that's
just calling you. And you have to come. You have
to. To them that are called, and
listen, and it's a call, and here's how you know that you
have been called of God. Here's how you know. You say,
how do I know I've been called of God? Because that call always,
always brings you to Jesus Christ. It always brings you to Him.
Look over in 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, look in
verse 9. God is faithful, God is faithful,
by whom you were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus
Christ our Lord. You were called unto the fellowship. You were called to union with
Jesus Christ. The greatest evidence of a call
that's of God is this, it will always bring you to Christ. Every
time. Every time. And now in verse 29, we're going
to have a little more light shed on verse 28. And He called them
according to His purpose. It wasn't just a general call
to see who's interested. God, the eternal purpose of God
concerning you, you, before the world began is in that call. God called you according to His
purpose. What He has purposed for you in Christ is the reason
He's called you. That's why God called you. Now,
he says here in verse 29, "...for whom He did foreknow, He also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son." Now,
whom He did foreknow does not mean whom He did foresee. You know, it's not like something
existed before God created it and now He looked and saw it.
No, it has nothing to do with foresee. That means foreordained. For whom He did foreordain, He
also did predestinate that same person and persons. He also did predestinate for
them to be conformed to the image of His Son. There's one thing
I want you to understand and notice, and you probably, I'm
sure you know this, but we never assume anything from the pulpit.
Predestination always has to do with the person, the person
Jesus Christ. It does not have to do with a
place. When we read of predestination,
here it is being conformed. God has predestined, He has foreordained,
He has predetermined that you, whom He has saved, is going to
be just like His Son. And nobody is going to put that
in check. No one is going to stop that. Because God has foreordained
it to be so, He's predestinated you to be just like His Son,
is what He's doing. Look over in Ephesians 1. I think that's where it's at. Ephesians 1. Let me see if I
can find the verse. Okay, verse 5. Well, let's go
to verse 4. according as He has chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world," speaking of all
the spiritual blessings that we've been given, according as
He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be what? Holy. "...without blame before
Him in love." Listen, having predestinated us unto what? Adoption
of children, sons of God. Sons of God. He's predestined
us to be conformed to His Son. He's predetermined us, predestinated
us to be His sons. That's what He's saying here. And so many people I've heard
say, well, they talk about predestination, they talk about He predestined
this one to go to heaven, this one to go to hell. No, He's predestined
us to be made like His Son. The ones whom He has chosen,
the ones whom He calls, are the ones He has determined, predestinated,
they're going to be just like Jesus Christ. Holy and righteous as He is. That's what His purpose,
that's what He's predestinated. Here's what we see. Nothing left
to chance. Nothing left to check. Our God
is a God of order. They've said He has ordered all
things. This is the covenant of grace. He said He has ordered
all things, and sure. He made a covenant with me, ordered
in all things, and sure. God is a God of order. Listen,
God is infinite in wisdom. There is no way to measure the
wisdom of God. It's measureless. because it's
endless. God is infinite in knowledge.
There's nothing He does not know. In fact, there is nothing to
know that God does not know, that God has not created, that
He has not purposed. If it's not of God, it doesn't
exist. It can't be known because it
doesn't exist. He's infinite in knowledge. He's
infinite in wisdom. And when God created the heavens
and the earth, He did it with a purpose. He did it with a purpose. And the purpose is to have a
people just like Jesus Christ. And that's God's purpose. Nothing's left to chance. Nothing.
Nothing. And in verse 29, it finishes
out with this, "...for whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He..." Jesus Christ. Oh, how precious. How precious Jesus Christ is
to God. This is my only begotten Son.
This is my beloved Son. Hear Him. Listen to Him. Christ said, take my yoke upon
you and learn of Me. The greatest study in the world
is the study of Jesus Christ. The greatest study of theology
is the study of Jesus Christ. If you're going to know God,
you're going to have to know Christ. It's that simple. But here's the reason for all
this. that He, Jesus Christ, might be the firstfruits among
many brethren, that the Lord Jesus Christ might receive all
the glory and all the preeminence among the sons of God." God's chief glory, we know this
in the Gospel, God's chief glory is His redemptive glory. But
I dare to say God's chief glory is that man, Jesus Christ. He is God's chief glory. And
God's going to see to it that all men honor the Son, even as
they honor the Father. And God the Father is going to
see to it that every knee is going to bow to Jesus Christ. Every tongue is going to confess
that He is Lord, He is the Sovereign, Every tongue shall confess that
he's Lord to the glory of God the Father who made him so. He
made him both Lord and Christ. That's the whole purpose of it. People are bewildered. Scientists
are bewildered as to the reason, the reason for things, the reason
for the universe, the reason that everything exists. And people
don't understand the reason for life. And we live and then we
die. You and I understand it, don't we? You realize what we
understand. We know and understand that all
things are working together for our good, who are called according
to God's purpose, and He's conforming us to the image of Jesus Christ,
that Jesus Christ in the end will receive all the glory. That's the reason. You take Christ
out of the picture, there's no reason for me to exist. And you?
I exist for one sole purpose. You know what that is? Jesus
Christ. I don't exist for any other reason.
I don't exist for myself. You're bought with a price. You're
not your own. You never have been your own. Before the Lord
saved you, you were under the spirit and power of Satan, the
spirit of darkness. He owned you. He owned you. You thought you owned yourself.
You didn't. He did. He did. Now notice here in verse
30 how all this is past tense. Moreover, to continue this, whom
He did predestinate, them He called. They are the ones He
called effectually. Now there is a general call that
goes out with the gospel. And listen, when God sends out
a call, He means it. He means it. God has commanded
all men everywhere to repent and believe the gospel. But left to themselves, no one,
no one is going to come to Jesus Christ. No one's going to have
a thing to do with God. No one. But God has purposed
that there is going to be a people and they're going to be saved.
And heaven's going to be populated with people just like His Son.
God said in Isaiah, I have not, now listen, He said, I have not
created the earth in vain. I didn't create this in vain.
If the whole earth perished, it was created in vain. He said,
I didn't create this in vain. Whom He did predestinate them,
He also called, and whom He called them, He also justified. and whom He justified, then He
also glorified." We are already glorified in Christ. I can't
see that part of it. I can believe it, but I can't
see that. I've never seen Jesus Christ. I've never seen the glory. With
my eyes, I've never seen the glory of the risen Christ, the
glory of His body and person. Once He came out of that grave, What a glorious person. I believe
it. I do believe it. And I believe
this. I believe that in Christ, you
and I have already been glorified. And in a little while, we will
experience it. We experience it, not now, just
in a small measure. But then it's going to be the
full-blown glory. Now He says here, here's the conclusion to
this, here's the conclusion to all this. What shall we say then? What shall we say then? What
conclusion shall we draw? Here's the conclusion. If God
be for us, who can be against us? You don't want God against
you. You shall call His name Immanuel,
God with us. No man, no woman can survive
God against you. Here it is. If God be for us,
who can be against us? Well, the short answer is this,
none. Now they can be against me, I mean, as far as not liking
me, Satan would want to destroy me. They can be against me in
that way, but they can't be against me in anything and make it stick.
You can't make it stick. You know, if you take somebody
to court, you got to be able to make whatever the charge is stick.
And if you take somebody to court, now I'm talking about a good
court, I'm talking about a legal court that's honest. But you
take somebody to court and you actually have an honest judge
and he's dealt with honestly, if the man's innocent, you can't
make it stick. You can't do it. If he's honest, I mean if he's
innocent. You and I stand before God innocent. Totally innocent. No sin whatsoever. Jesus Christ,
that's how effectual the redemptive work of Christ is. He put it
away. It's gone. My sins are gone. They're gone. Now you can die
with that. You can die with that. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God? What shall we say then? If God
be for us, who shall be against us? And then in verse 32, He that
spared not His own Son, I don't want to skip this verse, I started
to skip it. But here's the proof that God is for us. Here it is.
He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.
Remember I read that to you in Acts, He delivered Him up. He
delivered Him up to justice. He delivered Him up to the demands
of the law. God delivered His Son up. How shall He not with
us freely give us all things? Listen, all barriers have been
removed for God to deal with me in mercy and grace and give
me freely all that His Son has. We are heirs of God, as we read
last week, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. God can give me
everything that belongs to Christ freely. Freely. And now he asks another question
here in verse 33. He's just making the redemptive
work of Christ. He's just putting it on a solid
foundation. Who can charge God's elect? Who
can lay anything to the charge of God's elect and make it stick,
is what I said. Who can do that? No one. No one. If God does not condemn me, is
there any greater than God? No. You know, what's the old
saying, the buck stops here? Well, it stops with God. And if He says, not guilty, I
can just walk right out of there. I don't care if Satan and every
evil person under the sun is trying to condemn me. I can just
walk right out of there. I'm free. I'm free. Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It's God who justifies them.
It's God who justified them. Now, you can't charge them. And then Paul continues to argue
here the full redemption of God's elect. He says here, "...who
is he that condemneth? Is Christ that died for them?"
That's what he's saying. Who can condemn that Christ died
for them? He paid the penalty. "...Yet rather Christ was risen
again for them." He says in Romans 4, "...He was delivered from
our offenses and raised again for our justification." He's
risen for our justification. "...Who is even at the right
hand of God." Who makes intercession? For us. Satan is called the accuser of
the brethren. He's always accusing us. He's
always accusing us. Job didn't know that Satan went
before God. And he said, you know, Job, the
only reason he loves you, the only reason he serves you is
because you've blessed the work of his hands. He's rich. He said,
let me have him and I'll show you what he's made of. He'll
deny you. He'll curse you. Let me have
him. God said, you can touch everything
but his life. Everything but his life. Because there's one
who intercedes for him that his faith fails not. You know what
the Lord said to Peter? Peter, Satan hath desired thee
to sift thee as wheat. Now, he doesn't say, but I have
prayed that that won't happen. It did happen. He denied the
Lord three times. But I pray that your faith fail not. I pray that your faith fail not.
And I'll tell you this, if the Lord prays your faith fail not,
it ain't gonna fail. It can't fail. It's an impossibility
if the Lord prays that your faith fails not. What we have here in verse 34,
Christ died for us, he's risen for us, he sees that God's right
hand for us and he makes intercession for us. Who shall separate, this
being considered, now look, in light of all of this, in light
of this, who shall separate, sever, sin separated us from God, right?
That's what scripture says. When Adam sinned, it separated
him from God, he's kicked out of the garden. But in Christ,
our sins are gone. Now, who shall separate or sever
us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, shall a trial
come along that's so hard that you leave Christ? I'll tell you
this, the more difficult the trial, the more the child of
God runs to Christ, and the more he clings to Christ. I'll tell
you what, when Jacob was in wrestling with that angel, the Lord, He
said, I will not let you go till you bless me. The Lord touched
his thigh and crippled him. He walked with a limp, he crippled
him. He said, I'm not going to let you go till you bless me. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? There's no trial that can separate
us from the love of Christ. In other words, Christ Himself,
now this is the love of Christ for us. And He keeps us loving Him. But
now our love, because of sin, goes up and down. It's like this. But the love of Christ never
wavers. You and I go through a trial,
we'll complain, like Job complained. You go read Job, he complained.
But God's love to Job never varied. Who shall separate 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." This is God's saints.
He's speaking here of the Old Testament saints. They were killed
all the day long. They were persecuted, and we
will be too. They died in the faith, and we
will too. If we have faith, Christ said, when the Son of
Man cometh, will he find faith on the earth? I heard Henry say
in a message one time, well, he'll find it where he gives
it. Where he gives it, he'll find it, but he won't find it
anywhere else. Nay, listen, in all these things,
in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who
loved us. The very things that look like
they are going to destroy us, the very things that break us
down and expose our weakness, we are more than conquerors.
We just looked at it in Corinthians, when I am weak, then am I strong.
That's when I am strong is when I'm weak in this flesh, no confidence
in the flesh. That's when I'm strong in Christ,
confidence in Him. And Paul, you know, Paul was
in shipwreck, what did he say, two or three times? Three times
and he was out and he floated all night and the day on a plank
of the ship and he was starved, he was hungry, he said he was
naked, he was in persecutions, he was whipped, he was all of
that. And he said, now I'm persuaded. Experience persuades you, doesn't
it? experience in the grace of God, experience that His grace
is sufficient, will persuade you. It will persuade you that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities. These
are as high powers you can get besides God. Angels, principalities,
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, neither height,
nor depth, nor any other creature. I don't think Paul has left anything
out here, do you? You can't come up with anything that He hasn't
covered here. "...shall be able to separate us from the love
of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." You see, He's not
speaking here of our love to Christ, though we'd love Him. But He's speaking of God's love
to us. Nothing makes God's love waver. Nothing can weaken God. I can't weaken God's love. I
can't even do that. Paul said, old wretched man that
I am, I am too, you are too. But what will I ever do that
God doesn't already know? What fall will ever happen to
me that God does not already know and has already not taken
care of at Calvary? That's good news. That's good news to an old wretched
man that I am. And we know this. We know this. We're not talking about just
facts. We are not saying we know these
because we know some facts. We know this because of our union
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's made it known to us. That
all things work together for good to them who love God, to
them who are called according to His purpose. We can go home with that.