Our scripture for this morning
is taken from the book of Isaiah chapter 11. Isaiah chapter 11
verses 1 through 16. And there shall come forth a
rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of
his roots. And the spirit of the Lord shall
rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the
spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and
of the fear of the Lord, and shall make him of a quick understanding
in the fear of the Lord. And he shall not judge after
the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of
his ears. But the righteous shall judge
the poor, and reprove the equity for the meek of the earth. And
he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with
the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness
shall be the girdle of his loins, and his faithfulness the girdle
of his reins. The wolf also shall dwell with
the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the
calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little
child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall
feed, their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion
shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play
on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand
on the cockatrice den. There shall not hurt nor destroy
in all thy holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the
knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And in
that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for
an unsign of the people. To it shall the Gentiles seek,
and his rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in
that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the second
time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left
from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Phathros, and from Cush,
and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the
islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign
for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather
together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the
earth. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries
of Judah shall be cut off. Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. But they shall fly upon the shoulders
of the Philistines toward the west. They shall spoil them of
the east together. They shall lay their hand upon
Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon shall obey them. And
the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea,
and with his mighty wind shall shake his hand over the river
and shall smite it in the seven streams and make men go over
dry shod. And there shall be a highway
for the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria
like it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the
land of Egypt. This is the word of the Lord.
May the Holy Spirit have understanding. Our dear Heavenly Father, we
are so Thankful and honored, Lord, that you give us this privilege,
this great privilege to worship you. Thank you for this building
you have provided and for each and every one of us that is here
and everyone who's watching online, because your glory is covering
the earth like the water covers the sea, Lord. And we just pray
that you bless these men that are coming to preach your glorious
gospel with boldness and utterance, Lord. And we cannot hear or understand
a single thing unless you give us eyes to see and ears to hear,
Father. So help us, we ask you to help
us, help our pastors, speak through them. The power of your spirit,
Lord, we pray your blessings on this congregation. In Jesus'
mighty name we pray, amen. Thank you, brother. Turn in your
hymn books to page 277, if you would. 277, and join me in singing
the church's one foundation. she is creation by water and
the Word from heaven he came and saw her to be his holy bride
with his own bloody father and for her life He left from every nation, yet
one o'er all the earth. Her charter of salvation, one
Lord, one faith, one birth. One holy day she blesses our
days, one holy food. and to one hope she presses with
every grace endued. With toil and tribulation and
tumult of her war, she waits the conservation of peace forevermore. Still with the vision glorious,
her longing eyes are blest, And the great church victorious shall
be the church at rest. Here she on earth hath union
with God, God three in one, and distinctly communion with those
whose rest is won. O happy ones and holy, Lord give
us grace that we, like them, the meek and lowly, on high may
dwell with Thee. All right. Two. Two. Years have spent in vanity and
pride, caring not my Lord was crucified. Knowing not which
road he'd, he'd die on Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me. Bear my burdens all by liberty
at Calvary. By God's word at last my sin
I learned, Then I trembled at the law I spurned, Till my guilty
soul in glory turned to Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free, Pardon there was multiplied to me, There my burdened soul
found liberty, at Calvary. I've given to Jesus everything. Now I gladly own Him as my King. Now my raptured soul can only
think of Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me, There my burden's all for liberty, At Calvary. Oh, the love that true salvation's
planned, Oh, the grace that brought it down to man, Oh, the mighty
gold that God did spend, At Calvary. Mercy there was great, and grace
was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me. There my burdened soul found
liberty at Calvary. Our first speaker tonight, I
met, well, let me back that up. I didn't actually meet him. I
listened to him several times as he spoke at different churches
around the country. And it was suggested that I could
call upon him to take my place here at Rescue while Kathy and
I was to travel. And what a blessing. What a blessing. In fact, both of the men tonight
were asked the same, came here for the first time the same way.
I didn't get to meet them until long afterwards when I went out
to Kingsport, Tennessee was the first time I got a chance to
meet you. And I thank God for men, for
raising men up like you, young man. Luke Coffey from Kingsport,
Tennessee, come. May God be with you as you preach
the Gospel to us. It is an honor and a privilege
to be here with you all this weekend. I'm very much looking
forward to catching up with some friends that it's been a little
while since I've seen. In just an hour or so, I'm ready
to get together and meet some new people and I can't wait to
fellowship with you all as well. If you would, open your Bibles
to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. We'll read
one verse to start Romans 8 verse 28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose. Every time I hear this verse,
and every time I hear Romans chapter 8, I think of a particular
story. It was 75 years ago in 1950,
and a traveling evangelist named Rolf Barnard had come to Ashland,
Kentucky. And during a message, he looked
down to a young man sitting on the front row, and he out of
nowhere said to him, Son, can you quote Romans 8.28? Now the
first reason of the two reasons I think of this story is because
after hearing that story at a young age, every single time I was
sitting in church and I heard someone up here say Romans chapter
8, all I could do was to just pray and hope that that man did
not look at me and say, please quote a verse of Scripture. The
second reason is the rest of that story goes that that young
man said, And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God." And paused. And Brother Barnard said, do
you know the rest of it? And he quoted the rest and said,
"...to them who are called according to His purpose." And the moment
that he finished that last word, purpose, Rolf Barnard yelled,
PURPOSE! At the top of his lungs. And
said, if you can understand the meaning of that word, then you
know the gospel." Well, that young man on the front row was
Henry Mahan. And after that service, he was
asked if he wanted to go eat lunch, to which he said no. And his reasoning was because
he had to go back and read more about this. This evening, I just
want to take a few minutes, and I want to look at this word,
purpose. In this particular verse, and a few verses around it, And
hopefully at the end, we can understand a little more about
God's purpose. I wanna start with that particular
word, purpose. And I'm gonna go back through
this verse in reverse order, word by word. I wanna look at
it closely because every single word in this verse, in this portion,
it's exactly the way it's meant to be. Now we're not smart enough
and I'm definitely not smart enough when I read the scripture
to decipher many of the meanings of this. I'm so fortunate to
have grown up under the gospel and heard so many men preach
it and tell me what it means. There's so many books that men
have written that I can see and understand it because I just
don't get it. But sometimes the Lord just shows us a few things.
And I hope that this evening we can just get a few little
things. First this word purpose. This word purpose means the reason
for which something is done. God's purpose, the reason for
the things he's done. This word here is singular. It's not purposes,
it's purpose. There's one purpose. Turn with
me to Isaiah 46. Isaiah chapter 46. Verse 10 of Isaiah 46 says, declaring
the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things
that are not yet done saying, my counsel shall stand and I
will do all my pleasure. Calling a ravenous bird from
the east the man that executeth my counsel from a far country,
yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass, I have
purposed it, I will also do it. His purpose will be done. Not only will it be done because
he's able, but because it's his purpose. Everything of God will
be done. Only He has that power. The word
right before purpose, and you don't have to turn back, I'll
just say this because we're going to come back to Isaiah in a minute. The
word before purpose is His, and it's in italics. Now a word in
italics means that it wasn't there in the translation, but
often times it's put in there for us so that we can better
understand things. This word doesn't have to be
in there. This verse can very easily be read to them who are
the call according to purpose." There is only one purpose. It
has to be His purpose. But just in case, those of us
who like to try to insert ourselves into things, who like to try
to take credit for stuff, they put this word His in there so
there's no doubt it's God's purpose. And before that, the word is
to. It says, to his purpose. Or it says, to purpose. So let me read this and listen.
To them who are the called according, to purpose. Now you remember
I said that that word is singular. There's one purpose. God's purpose is the only purpose. Now, I don't know if you've heard
this, but I hear people all the time say to a young person, you
gotta find your purpose. You gotta find what you're meant
for. Well, we couldn't find our purpose if it smacked us in the
face. Not to mention, do you know what our purpose is? Whatever
his purpose is. Does that make sense? You know,
we as men and women and sinners, we go through this life in trying
to find ourselves, trying to find our way because we just
don't know what we're doing. But you know what? Our purpose
finds us. because it's His purpose. Every
single thing we do, every single thing we say, every step we take,
it's His purpose. We don't have any idea why that
happened with this water, but it's His purpose. And we'll get
to it, I'll jump ahead of myself, at the beginning of that verse
it says, and we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God. I don't know what it is, but in His tapestry something
comes of that. He did that because it's His
purpose. And it's glorious because one day we'll find out why. All those things, all these things
that either seem inconsequential, they seem like a bother, they
seem like trouble, all of them, we'll see them one day and think
it could not have been done any better in any way. It couldn't
because it's His purpose. Look at Isaiah 14 with me real
quick. Isaiah 14. In Isaiah 14, look at verse 24. It says, The Lord of hosts hath
sworn, saying, Surely, as I have fought, so shall it come to pass,
and as I have purposed, so shall it stand. His thought, his purpose,
it will stand. Look at verse 26. This is the
purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth, and this is
the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the
Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? Who
can stop it? And his hand is stretched out,
and who shall turn it back? His purpose, God's purpose, is
what's going to happen. Turn back to Romans 8. To them who are called according
to purpose. This word according, it's dependent. Every single thing that happens
is dependent upon His purpose. Nothing can happen apart from
His purpose. Nothing can. This phrase of free
will, His will be done. How can anyone else argue anything? Now, we don't know it. We don't
know His will. So many things we do, it doesn't
make sense to us, but it's His purpose. It's His will. It's
according to His purpose. To them who are the called, that
word called, what does that mean? Called means to wake up, to bring
to life, to teach, to show. That's what we need, all of that. We're dead sinners. He has to
call us. He has to wake us. He has to
make us to rise. He has to teach. He has to do
it all. And you notice that that word is past tense? Called, it's
already been done. We've already been called. And
what about THE called? That little three-letter word,
THE called. It's a particular calling to
a particular people. THE called. In 2 Timothy 1 it
says, Who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose. and to His grace
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. There is just one calling. All that were called were called
in the same calling. It was by the same person at
the same time and in the same way. We are called by the grace
of God before the world began. Now the next verse after the
one I just read in 2 Timothy helps us because we're all on
a different time frame, aren't we? We're all on a different
schedule. Some of us are hard-headed and
it takes forever for something to beat in there and we see it.
Some of us have heard the gospel for many years, some of us for
just days. We're all on a different time
frame. So listen to this verse. It says, But it is now made manifest,
that calling that was done before the foundation of the earth,
it's made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ,
who has abolished death and has brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. He called us a long time ago,
before the foundation of the world. One calling. He doesn't need a second calling.
It's one call. When God Almighty calls, you
hear, you come, you understand, you know. I didn't know all the time. It
took me years and years. I don't know how many thousands
of times somebody told me the truth before finally the Lord
opened my eyes and made me to see it. But I was called before
the foundation of the earth at the same time all His sheep were
called. This verse says, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. Who are. You understand how definitive
that is? How positive that is? They are
called. They are the call. It can't change. It can't. We'll come to a verse
just a few verses later in a few minutes. For those of us who
are doubters, it'll tell us over and over again. It can't change.
The effectual call of God. That term effectual, it works. I call my children all the time. Sometimes I have an excuse they
were on the other end of the house and they couldn't hear
me. Sometimes, you know, I didn't say it clear enough by saying
one of their names. There's all kinds of excuses why they don't
come when I call. But the real reason is I don't
have the power to make them come. God Almighty, when He calls,
it's one time and it's to every particular person the call was
meant to go to and every particular person whom He called, the call,
all hear it. That's right. They all do. And
that's wonderful because you know what? If it wasn't a factual
call, I wouldn't hear it. I wouldn't listen, I wouldn't
come, I wouldn't do any of that stuff. But it's Him who makes
us do that. To them who are the call according
to His purpose. Them. That word them. In Jeremiah 33, 22 it says, As
the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of
the sea measured Them, the call, it's a great host. Just because
we don't know them all, just because we can't tell, we can't
see, it is a number. What does that say? Neither the
sand nor the sea measure. I was on vacation not that long
ago. I do everything I can when I come in from the beach to get
every single piece of sand off me. From the time I was a child,
my parents tell stories of me when I was two or three years
old. The moment I got to the beach, I just put my arms and
legs out and thought, what is this stuff? I don't like it.
But I rinse off my feet when I walk up. When I go inside,
I can take a shower. I can change. I can do all this
stuff. And what happens? Within seconds, all of a sudden,
I'm like, where did that come from? Just hundreds of pieces
of sand all over me. The host of heaven. So many. And that shouldn't surprise
us how amazing our God is to think that we would somehow put
a hindrance on how many He's called, how many He's saved. We'll come to this in a minute,
but His sacrifice, His blood, it's limitless. It's perfect. It covers all the sin of His
people. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. The beginning of this
verse says, and we know. I'm ashamed to say that I don't
feel like I know anything 100%. Especially not things I can't
see. But this says we know. In the
middle of that verse it says to them that love God. Anybody
in here want to stand up and feel really confident saying
that I love God? Because He called us, we know
Him. Because He loved us, we love
Him. Our knowledge and our love are
both feeble. They're frail. They're weak.
They're embarrassing. They really are. And that's not
even in comparison of His perfect love to us. I just mean in what
I think love should be. But His love is so amazing that
anyone that He loves, it is impossible not to love him back. I mean
that. And what a glorious thought that
one day we will love Him like He deserves to be loved. And
why do we do that? Because we're in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We're in Him. And we know that all things,
this phrase, all things, that's everything. We use the word thing
to describe everything. Thing encompasses it all. And
this says all things. Everything is under there. We
know that all things work together. I'll go back to my kids real
quick. It's really hard to get them to work together. Even if they all want the same
thing. Everybody still pulls in a different direction. Everybody
has a different way of doing everything. All things work together. How is that possible? Because
it's his purpose. It's his purpose. It's not our
purpose. Everything we do is just craziness. But what he does
is a The perfect order of all things that we refer to as his
purpose. Everything. And then all things
work together for good. Now, I remember hearing from
my parents and grandparents that the news used to be about a lot
more good things. And how often does every generation
say the generation after them is worse? We just keep saying
things are worse and things are worse. Everywhere we turn, everything
we read, everything we hear, none of it seems to be good.
Am I wrong that every time you hear something good, you perk
up and you think, oh, that's great, like something good. This
says all things work together for good. Now what does that
mean? What is the best possible thing
that could happen to any of us. It is being found in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen. That's it. Being saved
by the blood of Christ. However we want to phrase that.
Salvation in Him. Whatever we want to say. It all
comes down to the Lord Jesus Christ. So this says, and we
know that all things work together for good. to them that love God. In the flesh, I think we all
know, by our own personal experiences. And if we didn't, if you're one
of those people that everything does just work good for you.
We have the Scriptures, and it seems like every single child
of God in the Scripture, it just doesn't usually go their way.
In the flesh. But you know what? Every single
one of them have the same thing in common. They're saved by the
Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, there's one thing needful. I mean, there's nothing in the
flesh. I mean, we have so many Scriptures,
you know, none are good, no, not one. I mean, nothing can
be described about us as good. But in the Lord Jesus Christ,
that's what we need. Salvation in Him. And we know
because He's shown us that all things, everything works together
because of His purpose for the salvation of them that love God.
And aren't you so glad it's not our love that we came up, or
we produced, or us loving Him, that it's because He loved us?
Everything in these verses we're gonna read in a minute. It just
beats it over our head over and over again. Get yourself out
of it. It's not you, it's Him. We don't
have anything. We don't provide anything. So
for just a couple minutes, I just want to start in verse 24 and
just go through a few of these verses. Just to look at a few
more things, a little more context that we can see more about His
purpose. The purpose of the Lord Jesus
Christ. In fact, God's purpose. Verse 24 says, For we are saved
by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth,
why doth he yet hope for? We have hope because we've read
about the Lord Jesus Christ. To a sinner, isn't it wonderful
when we read things, I came not to save the righteous, but to
save sinners? That's good news for a sinner.
That gives me hope. I remember Todd Nybert, every
time he'd say that, he'd say, I'm so glad that it doesn't say
for Todd Nybert because there's probably another Todd Nybert.
It might be someone else. But when it says sinner, I feel really
confident that he's talking about me. Verse 25 says, but if we
hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for
it? How can we wait for it? Because He makes us wait for
it. Verse 26, Likewise the Spirit
also helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what we should
pray, for as we ought, but the Spirit itself make an intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. The Spirit also helpeth
our infirmities. Do you know a time, one of the
most particular times, that I am exposed to my sin is when I pray. Now that sounds odd, but as I've
gotten older, I realize how awful I am at it in every way. I don't
know what to say. I don't know how to say it. I
don't know when to say it. And when I do say it, I can't
keep saying it. My mind wanders to who knows
where. It just is all over the place.
But this says, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for
us." Our God, our Savior, prays for
us. Does that blow your mind? So often we see things about
the love of God. I said something about it a minute
ago. And it feels as if we don't deserve His love. And of course
we don't. But we think to ourselves, that this is almost like a pity,
or He has to love us in the same way that a parent would have
to love their own child. But no, He loves us. He loves to
love His children. Now why is that? Because we're
in the Lord Jesus Christ. When He looks at us, He sees
Him. Verse 27 says, And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth
what is the mind of the Spirit, That scares me to death when
it says, searcheth the hearts. Anybody want to have their heart
searched? Because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the
will of God. He maketh intercession to us.
Why? To the will of God. That's why
He does it. Verse 28, And we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow,
He also did predestinate." So this is back to whom He did foreknow. He knew us before. A long time
ago. Way before. Before the foundation
of the earth. He foreknew us. And He predestinated. He made the decision. He did
it. He predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son. be like Christ, that He may be the firstborn
among many brethren. As one man's sin came into the
world, and death by sin, through the Lord Jesus Christ came life
to His children as our intercessor. Verse 30, moreover whom He did
predestinate. This moreover, I love when He
says words like this. He says, in case that wasn't
enough for you, let's just say it again one more time. Moreover,
whom He did predestinate, then He also called. It wasn't just
that He foreknew us and He predestinated us in conformance to the image
of His Son, but He called us. He's the one who did the calling.
And whom He called, then He justified. And whom He justified, then He
also glorified. What shall we then say to these
things? What a question. What should
we say to that? Well, there's a lot of answers.
Amen? Praise God? Thank you? Tears? Mumbles? I don't know. I mean, so many
things. So many emotions to that. What should we say to a perfect
God who would choose a dead, lost sinner and that He would
predestinate them, call them, justify them, glorify them? What
should we say to that? Well, in this instance, We get,
if God be for us, who can be against us? If God for us, who
against us? Sometimes I picture that phrase
as just this, of someone saying this in a sense of, are you crazy? If God is for us,
what else is there? What are you worried about? Why
are you stressed about stuff? I mean, nobody can do anything.
I mean, really, it's his purpose. You know, anything that anybody
else could do to you, you know what that is? It's God's purpose. If someone does something to
you, it's because he purposed them to do it to you. If God
be for us, who can be against us? Verse 32, 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? He'll give us
all things. Spare not His own Son. The Son of God died on a cross
bearing the sins of His people. Why would we think that anything
else should be a worry to us? If He would do that for me and
you, what wouldn't He do? Better yet, what hasn't he done?
It's already done. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of us? Now if we went around the room
here and every single person came up with a charge against
me. You did this, you did that. We
could go around the room as many times as we wanted. And whether
in deed or in thought, I would have to go guilty, guilty, guilty,
and just keep going forever. We'd run out of time before we'd
end enough things that we're guilty of. But this says, who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? How's that possible?
It is God that justifies. Our Savior became a man and did
what we couldn't do. He satisfied the law. He was
perfect in all counts, in all regards. And yet He then bore
our sins on Calvary. He took our sins and put them
on Him and gave us His righteousness, His perfection. That's why nothing
can be charged to God's elect. That's why we're perfect, because
we have His righteousness, His blood. We're covered in His blood. It is God that justifies. Verse
34, I'm almost done. Who is He that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again. Who is He
that condemneth? We're not condemned. Why? Because
He was condemned for us. He took our place. I love how
in the Scripture there are so many things that's the same thing
and yet our God gives us a verse looking at it from this direction.
And then he gives us one looking at it from this direction. And
then from this, and every direction so we can see it. Because isn't
it true how often we were riding in the car earlier and my wife
said, you know, what is that? Well, I look and I have no idea
what she's talking about. I can't find it. I can't see
it. We're beside each other and we're looking in the same direction.
I can't figure out what she's talking about. He gives us all these
looks. He shows us from all these...
Look at the verse before this. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Us being charged, right? The
next verse says, Who is he that is condemneth? It's the same
thing, being charged with something, being condemned with something,
but He gives us all these things to show us. You're not going
to be charged because I was charged with your sin. You're not going
to be condemned because I was condemned in your place. Who
is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us? intercession for us. I think
of a story of someone coming to someone and a parent jumping
in front of a child and stepping in front of an intercession of
we've got something coming to us. We don't only have death
coming to us, we're begging for it. We're asking for it. We might
say we're not, but our actions sure do seem like we just got
it coming our way. And yet He makes His intercession
for us anyway. It's one thing to make intercession
for someone who's wrongly accused. It's totally something else to
make intercession for someone who's guilty. And that's what He did
for us. Now, verse 35. Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? All these things we've read.
All these things about the call, about His purpose, and what He's
done for us. What He's done for His sheep.
What He's done for His children. I made this comment earlier.
Is anybody else here kind of a doubter? You know, every once
in a while, just isn't quite sure about things. You know,
always has to have a backup plan. You know, you're not sure about
things. Well, this is for us. Verse 35 says, who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? All these things he's done for
his sheep. It's wonderful. It's amazing. It's perfect. But
can you reassure me that this isn't going to change? I mean,
it's one thing for somebody to do something, but is it going
to be there forever? Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation? Shall distress? Persecution? Famine? Nakedness? Peril? Or sore? Can any of those things
do it? As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter, Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors
through him that loved us. Do you know what you have to
do to be classified as a conqueror? Throughout history, there's been
very few people who've been labeled conquerors. But you know what
they do? They take things for themselves.
They own something. Something that was not theirs
becomes theirs. We are conquerors through the
Lord Jesus Christ because He loved us. What do we have? We
have salvation. We have righteousness. We have
eternal life. All these things that we have
because of Him. All of it. For I am persuaded,
verse 38, Just in case these other verses gave us a list of
things and you're thinking to yourself, well they've listed
a lot of stuff but I've still got a couple more that might break me away. For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come. That's covered just
about everything. Death and life, things of this
world and things not of this world, any power, What about
things right now? What about things that might
come? Stuff I don't even know about. None of them. But wait, there's
more. Nor Hype, nor Death, nor any other preacher shall be able
to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. His purpose, the love of God
to His people. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God. Now you notice this doesn't say,
nothing can separate our love of God, or our love from God,
nothing can separate us from God. This says, nothing is able
to separate us from the love of God. Our connection with God. You know we say we're in Him?
We're attached by His love. If it's us holding on, We won't
make it. What would He be there? We're
not strong enough to do anything. But it's His love that has hold
of us. And nothing can dissuade His
purpose. His love conquers all. Nothing shall be able to separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. I am so thankful that it is His
purpose. That everything is of Him. That
all the things that go on in the world, it's His purpose. He's in control. And I know in
three minutes I'm going to be worried about something I shouldn't
be worried about. But may the Lord give us comfort. May the
Lord give us peace. May the Lord give us rest in
His purpose. Every single time we look at
ourselves, every single time we look within, in any regard,
that's when we start to falter. Ask me about my love of God.
Don't ask me. Ask me about my faith. My faith
is so fleeting, it's so feeble, so frail. Any of those things. But ask me about my God. Ask
me about His love. Let's read a verse of what it
says about His love, His faith. His perfection, His righteousness,
all those things. That's where we find our peace,
our rest. Look to Him. Look to Him.