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. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called,
them he also justified. and whom He justified, then they
also glorified. What shall we 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? Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is He that condemns? 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. 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, for we are counted as sheep for
the slaughter. 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. Our blessed Father, our blessed
God in heaven, righteous and holy, just and true, are all
your ways and all your judgments. And, Lord, we who are your people,
we know that your ways are past finding out, that the wisdom of God is so
far above as the high skies is and the heavens is above the
earth. then our poor little puny brains can begin to comprehend.
But Lord, we thank you and bless you that you've allowed us in
your sovereign mercy, sovereign grace, sovereign power, to enable
us to worship you, to know you, to bow to you, submit to you,
to find great joy and peace in worshiping you. leaving our lives
and our children and the believers that we know and all the people
we love and care, find great comfort and joy in leaving them
in your hands and in your will and in your purpose. And Father,
we thank you that you allowed us to gather here today. God,
help us please to worship you and honor you through your Word,
through the singing, through our praying, through the preaching,
that we may honor you And Lord, we pray for those who are sick
among us, those who are greatly tried, greatly afflicted. We
ask for your mercies, ask for your healing, if you'd be pleased
to do it. We know you're able. We know
you can, if you will. So we ask, Lord, that your will
be done. Thank you for the way you've blessed Mary. Thank you
for the great strength you've given her, the abundance of grace,
the peace that has this understanding. We thank you for it. And Lord,
we pray again for our unconverted children and grandchildren, for
every family represented here. Please, open hearts, open minds,
open understanding. Saved by your grace, make them
to know they're lost in their great need of you. Meet with
us today. Bring glory to yourself through
us. In Christ's holy name, amen. Look in Romans 8, the title of
my message this morning, Blessed Assurance. I believe I can tell you why
we have this blessed assurance. You know, he says down here in
verse 31, the apostle asks the question, What shall we say then
to these things? Now, when he's talking about
what shall we say to these things, he's talking about everything
up to this point in the epistle to the Romans. What shall we
say then to the gospel? The gospel, that's the power
of God unto salvation. What shall we say to that gospel
when the righteousness of God is revealed? We say we're not
ashamed of it. We love it. What shall we say
then to justification? Being justified freely by the
grace of Christ through His precious blood shed for us where God declares
us just before Himself, justifies us. What shall we say to sanctification? That we're one with Christ, we're
sanctified in Christ as He is holy, we're holy. What shall
we say to our union with our Lord Jesus Christ? We're one
with Him. Just like the body is when a
woman's husband dies, if she'd be married to another, she's
not an adulteress. And that's why the Scriptures
tell us that we're dead to the law, and we'd be married to Christ.
We're considered one with Christ. And we're dead to the law. We
was in bondage to before. And, O beloved, what shall we
say to our struggles with our flesh? When the apostle says
this, he says, that that I would do, I don't. And that that I
wouldn't do, I do. So then I see this war in my
members. Struggling with my mind, I serve
the law of Christ. With my mind, I serve Christ.
With my flesh, I serve the law of sin. Oh, wretched man that
I am! Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? What shall we say to these struggles
we have with our flesh? What shall we say to, there in
verse 1, it says, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that
are in Christ. They just sung that. Save me
from condemnation. What shall we say to no condemnation? What shall we say to our suffering
with Christ? So be we suffer with him, we
shall also enter into glory with him. What shall we say to our
inheritance that we have with Christ? join heirs with him,
heirs of God in Christ. And that's why the apostle says,
what shall we say then to these things? What are we going to
say to these things? And Paul, what he does, and there's
all believers, they glory in this blessed security that believers
have. And he gives them, he'll give
you three reasons, three blessed reasons for our confidence and
our assurance that we have in our Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
why I call it blessed assurance. Look, first of all, what shall
we say then to these things? If God be for us. If God be for us, what are we
going to say to these things? Look, because of our relationship
to God. That's why we have this blessed
assurance. See, God is for us. First of all, if He's for us
in purpose, look back up in verse 28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. Now listen to this,
to them who are the cause according to His purpose. Oh my, God's
force in His purpose. Everything God does is on purpose.
There's no accidents with Him. There's no chance with Him. Everything
God does is on purpose. He saved us according to His
own purpose and grace given us in Christ before the world began.
What shall we say in these fours in His foreknowledge in verse
29? For whom He did foreknow, those He foreloved. Jeremiah,
before you was formed in your mother's belly, I knew you. Abraham, of all the people on
the face of the earth, I know you. Jacob, I love you. Before the children yet being
born, he said he loved Jacob. And oh, he had this great foreknowledge,
this great intimate acquaintance with his people. And if he's
for us in predestination, thy Lord did foreknow us, he did
predestinate us. He's for us in his predestinated
purpose. I love that word predestination.
I love it. That means that I'm going to
get where God purposes and foreknows me to go. Now, we predestinated
today. We got our plans to go and end
up at Bruce Crabtree's house this evening. There could be
a lot of things happening between here and there, and we don't
get to that destination. But I know one thing cannot happen
to keep me from getting by that destination, and that's because
God Himself predetermined for it to be done. As many as were
ordained to eternal life, what did they do? They believed. As
we're ordained to say, we're to predestinate. I love it. I love this predestination.
God declared the end from the beginning and from ancient times
of things that are not yet done, saying, all my counsel shall
stand and I will do all my purpose. My pleasure, and he said, I'll
stretch forth my hand, who shall do him dishonor, and who shall
stop my purpose? Men may not like it. Men may not enjoy it. But all
those who know something about it. If God hadn't predestinated
us, where would we be? He predestinated us to be chosen. We were predestinated to be set
apart in Christ. Christ was predestinated to be
put on a cross. We were predestinated to be called. We were predestinated to be justified. All these things happened from
eternity. This is not some age. Where would
we be if God had not predestinated us to this call, this election?
To be here this moment in time? Wouldn't you hate to think that
you'd be left to chance and luck and misfortune? Mother Nature? Your own free will? Where would
we be if we was left to those things? Same place the world's
left in. With your fingers crossed? Good
thoughts for you? And that's why we have blessed
assurance. Not only is our relationship
to God is cause of our blessed assurance in purpose and foreknowledge,
since God is for us. But look what it says there again
in that verse 31. If God be for us, then who can
be against us? Who in the world can be against
us? Turn with me. I want you to see
this. And we went through this the other night. But, oh, what
a blessed verse of Scripture. I see something this morning
in it, looking at it again, that I hadn't seen before. Psalm 91,
verse 1. Psalm 91, verse 1. You know,
the name of the Lord is a strong tower, and the righteous runneth
into it and are saved. You see, beloved God, is our
protection. Here's our protection against
everything that could possibly be against us. Everything that's
against us, our Lord Jesus Christ took it out of the way, nailing
it to His cross. But look what it said here in
Psalm 91, verse 1. He that dwelleth in the secret
place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the
Almighty. Now, in the margin, it says that
word abide shall shall lodge. Where are you lodging place at?
In the secret place of the Most High, under the shadow of the
Most High, under the shadow of the Almighty. And God's shadow
is more powerful than all the substance that's in heaven and
in earth besides Him. Just to be under His shadow is
enough. So I tell you, beloved, and that's
why, and let me show you another thing over here in Acts chapter
5. Look at this with me just a moment. Acts chapter 5. If
God be for us, what blessed assurance we have. Acts chapter 5. If God
be for us, who in the world can be against us? Oh, what assurance
that gives us. Mary and I was reading the scriptures
one day, and after a couple days she kept saying, you know, it
says there, God's our defense. God's our defense. God's our
defense. We need a defender. We need defense. God, you know the greatest place
to hide from God is in God? The greatest defense that you
can have in this world is God Himself. That's why I said, if
he be for you, who can be against you? Now, here in Acts chapter
5 and verse 34, look what it says here now. Now, what happened
was they brought all the apostles. They brought John and James in
and Peter in, and they beat them and threatened them and told
them never to go preach again in our Lord Jesus Christ's name. And then they came to bring these
men and going to destroy them. It says here in verse 34, Then
stood there one in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel. Now he was the one that Paul
studied under, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among
all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little
space. And said unto them, Ye men of
Israel, Take heed to yourselves what you intend to do is touching
these men. I know you've got some ill will
toward them. I know you intend to destroy them. It's in your
heart to kill them. But before these days, rose up
Thutis, boasting himself to be somebody, to whom a number of
men, about four hundred, joined themselves who were slain. And
all, as this many obeyed him, were scattered and brought to
nothing. And after this, Man rose up Judas of Galilee in the
days of the taxi, and drew away much people after him. He also
perished, and all, as many as obeyed him, were dispersed."
Now listen to him, "'And now I say unto you, refrain from
these men, and let them alone. For if this work be of men, it
will come to nothing. But if it be of God, now listen
to it, you can't overthrow it, lest, happily, you be found even
to fight against God. If this thing's not of God, it
all comes... And that's the way we believe
about the God. If this is not of God, there's no hope for us.
But if it's of God, who is going to destroy it? Huh? In all of
11, now look back over in our text again. Oh, He's our advocate. Oh, He's for us. Who can be against
us? And then look what He is. This
is why we have blessed assurance. Look what He provided for us.
In verse thirty-two, He that spared not His own Son, but delivered
Him up for us all, how shall not He with Him also freely give
us all things? Oh, what a provision He made
for us. What a glorious provision He made for us. And given His
blessed Son, sparing not His own Son, He provided for us our
greatest need. And you know what our greatest
need is? A Savior. Someone to bear our sin. Someone
to be our substitute. It's like when Abraham took Isaac
upon that mountain and was fixing to slay him and offer him, the
Lord stopped him. And they looked behind him, and
there was a ram caught in a thicket. And he took that ram and put
it in the stead of Isaiah. And, beloved, that's what God
did for us. He put our Lord Jesus Christ
in our place. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all. He gave us one to bear our sins
in His own body on the tree. He gave us a substitute to take
our place before God's justice, to fulfill God's law, and to
obey and fulfill all of God's righteousness. And the one that
He gave was the Son of His love. He gave us all that we needed
in His blessed Son. He provided us one to take away
all our sin, all our sin. And when I say all our sin, I
mean past, present, and future. Because all of our sins were
future when our Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross. All of our
sins were future when Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. All of our sins was yet before
us ever to be committed again. So Christ died for our sins,
and He by the sacrifice of Himself put away all our sins once in
the end of the world. And God said, I'll never remember
Him against them again. Oh, and I tell you, beloved,
He could give no more than what He gave. He could give no better
than what He gave. And tell you something, beloved,
He didn't have to give Him, but I'll tell you why He did. Because
He said, I loved you with an everlasting love, and with cords
of lovingkindness I drew you. He said, God commendeth His love
toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. God who saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our words, but according to
His own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ before the
world ever began. And I say not only did He provide
us His blessed Son, a sin-bearing substitute, but He provided us
a righteousness that we didn't have. And you know we've got
to have a righteousness equal to God's Himself. If you're going
to be saved by goodness, you've got to be as good as God. If
you're going to be saved by righteousness, you're going to have to have
the very righteousness of God. It's got to be as good as God's
Himself, or you won't stand in the judgment of God. And we couldn't
have this righteousness by works that we ever did, by the deeds
of the law. Shall no flesh be justified?
By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. And though
God may have provided us a righteousness in the blessed person of his
Son, and guess where he made it known to us now? In the Gospel. The Gospel reveals God's righteousness
to us. We thought we was okay until
God revealed the righteousness of God to us. He said, I'll lay
you to the drumline. And the plumb line, as Scott
Richardson said, it don't make the wall straight. It shows you
how crooked the wall is. And we've seen the righteousness
of God, and it showed us how crooked we were, how far off
we were, how out of plumb we were. So God gave His Son, and
His Son provided us a righteousness. the righteousness of God. And
it says, I'm telling you, God accepts us as righteous as His
own Son because it is the righteousness of God given us in His blessed
Son. And He revealed it to us in the
Gospel. And that's why so many people
are going around trying to establish their own righteousness. Have
you got anybody in your family trying to establish their own
righteousness? Do you know anybody personally that's going about
to establish their own righteousness? Talking about they're just as
good as anybody else? Talking about how that they live
good? Doing the best they can? Living
a good moral life? Well, I tell you what, that won't
do. That won't work. The only righteousness that God
will accept is the righteousness He provided, and He provided
that righteousness in His Son. I wouldn't dare. I wouldn't dare,
after I've seen the gospel, and heard the gospel, and seen God's
righteousness made known in the death of His blessed Son as our
sin-bearer, and our substitute, and our sacrifice, and His righteousness
charged to our account. I wouldn't dare come to God with
anything that I've got to offer. I wouldn't come with a prayer
that I've ever prayed. I wouldn't come with a tear I
ever shed. I wouldn't come with a prayer
with a repentance I ever repented. I wouldn't come with a good thought
I ever thought, or a message I ever preached, or a good intention
I ever intended. I wouldn't come with the best
that I've ever done because the best that I've ever done on my
righteousness is as a filthy rag. But I will come in His righteousness,
I will come in His name, I will come to Him as the one I offer
to God, and say, Lord, for Christ's sake, I come in His name, I come
in His merit, I come in His obedience, I come clothed with His righteousness. And you remember when as Heaven
that Mary suffered? Finally, they went around, they
looked, and they said, they asked this fellow, how did you come
in here without a wedding garment? He said, I didn't even know there
was one. They said, bind him at his foot
and get him out of here. Oh, my. Then look what it says
here again in this text. He that spared naught, he provided
us his own son, delivering him up for us all. Now, watch this.
How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? What's all things, you reckon?
Ah, it's all things. Well, I need all things. Don't
you, Brad? I need all things. And listen,
God said that He made all things for us. All things work together.
And He said over in 1 Corinthians 3.22, He said all things are
yours. Whether Paul or Apostle or Sethus, life or death, He
said all these things are yours. All of them belong to you. I
give them to you. And all things we need spiritually,
He's given us. God has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings and heavenly places in Christ. Now, if I've got all
blessings in Christ, and they're all spiritual blessings, then
what else could I possibly want or need in this world or in the
world to come? And then it says freely. You
know what that word freely means? That means without any cause,
found in us. Look over in Romans 3.24, let
me show you that. You know, how shall he not with
him freely give us all things? This tells us that salvation
is altogether of grace. That what God, He gave His Son
freely. He gave us His righteousness
freely. He forgave us freely. He saved us freely. That's why
salvation is by grace. That's why faith is by grace.
That's why repentance is by grace. Look what it says in Romans 3.24,
being justified freely. By His grace, through the redemption
that's in Christ, God justified us without any cause found in
us. The cause is found only in Christ, because if He spared
him not, if He delivered him up, if He made him our sin-offering,
our sacrifice, our sin-bearer, and He gave us the righteousness
of God in Him, how much more will He give us? Huh? Oh, my. Freely. Freely. Well, I tell you what, I'm sticking
out both hands. I want all the freeness you've
got. You know, you go in to buy something,
what's that cost? Everybody's looking for a bargain.
Everybody's looking for a bargain. But, oh, beloved, listen. You
come to God and say, what does it cost? God says, I've done
paid the price. I've done made the cost. Everything
you get from Me, you'll get it freely, without any cause in
you. Then look what else it says about
Him over here. Verse thirty-three. Oh, this is why we have such
blessed assurance. So who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Oh,
my. Not only does He provide for
us, not only is He for us since He's for us, Not only does He
protect us, but He's our justifier. Is there anyone, anywhere, who
will dare lay a charge against God's election? Anywhere, any
time, any place, they'll show up. Lillie, get up. Get up. Be still. I'll come up there
and get you. Look what it says here. Now,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's like? He's the
justifier. There's no ground. There's no reason for us to be
condemned. Ain't that what it says? There's therefore now no condemnation
of him that are in Christ. Who is he that condemns? There's
no reason for us to be condemned. Why not? Because God spared not
his own son. It is Christ that died. There's
no ground for condemnation. Christ suffered the penalty due
our sins. And you find a law that could
come and condemn us. Is there a law in God's book
that would come and condemn us and find fault with us? Has God
got a law that would come and say, you're guilty? Not anymore. Because we're not under the law,
we're under grace. Why has God sent the throne of
judgment? Christ's already been there for me. for all of my judgments. So now I come to a throne of
grace to obtain mercy and find health in the time of need. And
there's no judge now to sentence us for God Himself who is the
judge. He's the one that justified us. Look in Isaiah 50 with me just
a moment. Isaiah 50. There's no judge that's
going to sentence us because the judge himself is the one
who justified us. I'll tell you, if you ever get
called to court or have to go in front of a judge or something,
you're always, always nervous. Always think, you know, what
in the world is he going to do? What kind of, what's he going
to do? What's he going to do? Even if you have to go just to
be a witness, you're nervous about that. But I've not even,
you know, before God Himself, He says, it's God that justifies
you. Who's going to condemn you? God
can't condemn you. He's the one that justified you.
The judge on the bench, he can't condemn you because he's the
very one that justified you. And justification is something
that takes place outside of ourselves. This is the declaration of God
that He, because the sentence has been paid for, our death
has been paid for, Christ is our atonement, God Himself declares
from heaven, I justify you from everything that could ever be.
It's more than just an acquittal. It's declaring a man not only
not guilty, but it's also declaring that he done everything that
the law required. And so, beloved, I justify him. He can leave this courtroom and
never, ever have anything come against him ever again. What
about this sin? Don't bring it up. What about
that neediness? Don't bring it up. What about your words? Don't
bring it up. What about that place he went?
Don't bring it up! That's what he's talking about.
Huh? Oh, listen, the devil will come
to us and say all kinds of things. But God said, don't you bring
it up. Look what he said here in Isaiah
50 and verse 8. Talking about God being our justifier. So there's no one that can condemn
us. He is near that justifies me. Who will contend with me? Huh? Let us stand together. Who's us standing together? The
justifier and the justified. The one that justifies me, he's
right here near me. Who'll contend me? The one that
justifies me and the justified, we're standing together. Who's
my adversary? Let him come near. to me. Behold, the Lord God will help
me. Who is he that shall condemn me?" You know what he said? Everything that would condemn
me, they're all wax holders of garment. The moth eats them up.
The moth eats them up. Let's go back over to our text. Look what it says in verse 34.
So who is he that condemneth? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect as God did justify? And then look what
it says in verse thirty-four. This is why we have such blessed
assurance, because look at our relationship to our Lord Jesus
Christ. Who is He that condemneth? Is
there anyone to condemn us? No. No. No one can condemn us. And I'll tell you why. It gives
us four reasons for it, right here in this these things. Look at His death. That's why
we will not be condemned. It is Christ that died. It's
Christ that died. His death was the propitiation
for our sins. Christ that died. So who's going to condemn us?
It's Christ that died. He was the propitiation for our
sins. And the mercy footwork propitiation means an atoning
sacrifice or blood put on the mercy seat. That propitiation
means a mercy seat. And the mercy seat was that place
where the high priest entered once and put his blood there.
Christ entered once into the holy place and put his blood
there and obtained eternal redemption for us. And not only did his
death, we're protected by his death. That's why we can't be
condemned to look one other as he died, but yet rather he's
risen again. His resurrection is the proof
of our justification. How do we know that we're justified?
Christ was raised again from the dead. Those apostles and
those disciples, they did. They were scared to totally the
death after Christ was crucified. They said, the Jews will come
and get us. They'll destroy us. Oh, they hate us, and oh, we
thought this would be the one that would justify us. And one
day, they was all together, and all of a sudden, there was one
standing right in the midst of them. And he said, Peace be unto you.
Who are you? I'm the Lord. Son of the Lord,
Thomas said, I ain't gonna believe unless... And Lord Jesus said,
here they are. Go ahead and stick your fingers
in there. And when those fellas saw him,
Peace filled their heart. Joy filled their heart. They
knew right then and there that they was justified from all sin. The resurrection was proof that
He was who He said He was. That our sins are all gone. He
was delivered for our offenses. Oh, yes, He was. But when God
raised Him from the dead, that's proof that the offenses were
paid for. It's like that scapegoat that carried the sins far, far
away. That fit man took him way out
in the wilderness, they confessed all their sins over him, and
they watched him go, watched him go, watched him go till he
was plum out of sight. And then they kept watching for
him to come back. And then they saw the God only arising, and
here comes that fellow back. You know what that meant? That
the sins was left over there, and when he come back, that's
like our Lord rises from the dead, and the sins are gone.
And then look at his ascension. Not only nobody can condemn his
cause, it's Christ that died, Christ has risen again, and it's
Christ that sits at the right hand of God and makes intercession
for us. Oh my. He says there's our advocate
at God's right hand. The position of power and authority
and honor. And there he sits at God's right
hand. What's he doing up there? Talking to God about me and you.
Talking to God about me and you. Taking our burdens, taking our
shame, taking our trials, taking our fears, taking our anxieties,
taking our unbelief. Protecting us there at God's
right hand. And then look what else, not
only His ascension, but the protection of His intercession, because
He has the power of an endless life. Look with me in Hebrews
chapter 7, verse 24, just a minute. I want you to see this. We have
the protection of His intercession. I just said that, but I want
us to look at it a little bit closer. You know, He has the
power of an endless life. It's said here in verse Hebrews
7, 23. He says that Jesus was made sure
to give a better testament, a better covenant. And there were truly
many priests. There was lots and lots of priests
under the law. But they were suffered to continue
because they died. They died. Their intercession,
their work, their ministry quit, ceased to be. But this man, now
listen to it, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. He don't pass from one generation
to the next. Not like Aaron and into his sons and into his sons.
This man continueth ever because he hath an unchangeable priesthood,
an eternal priesthood, an everlasting priesthood. he ever lives to
make intercession for, wherefore he is able to save them to the
uttermost or evermore that come unto God by him." Now listen,
seeing he ever liveth, ever lives, have an endless life, what does
he live for? To make intercession for us. And I tell you what, it's who
makes intercession that makes the intercession effectual. Now,
I know, I know there's been lots and lots of prayers made for
us, and we make lots of prayers for a lot of people, and we truly
intercede for one another. But you know who we go to ask
to intercede? We go to Christ. Lord, You take
it up. You take it up. And that's why all we need is
really given us in Him. Christ is made unto us our wisdom,
our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption. And then I know
I need to hurry on this, but this is really a blessing to
me, talking about our blessed assurance. Look what he says
then in verse 35. Oh, we have such blessed assurance
because what can separate us from the love of God in Christ?
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? You see, there
are three who's there. Who shall lay the charge of God's
lift? Who has he that condemns? And who shall separate us? Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? the love of Christ. Is there
anything, any circumstance, any situation, anything so great
or so painful that can separate us from the love of our Lord
Jesus Christ? Can there? Look what he asks
here in this question. Now, he deals with everything
that can be dealt with here. Shall separate us from the love
of Christ. Tribulation? Tribulation, case of trials,
afflictions, burdens you bear? No. What about distress? Sometimes
we have distress in body or soul. I heard of one of the, a lady talking
one time, she was talking about somebody being in distress, and
they was trying to, they was in, cardiac, you get a cardiac
distress and pulmonary distress and all that. And you try to
say, but we have distress and that distress of body where our
body gets distressed, gets so sick and we get distressed in
our soul, where our soul hurts and hurts bad. And all it says
that will separate us from the love of Christ. Persecution.
From the world or from false brethren? No. What about famine? Want a food or drink? No. What
about nakedness, not having enough to wear? What about peril or
sword? No. And then look what he says,
and he's written, for thy sake we're killed all the day long,
we're counted as sheep for the slaughter. This is how the world
and false religion reckon God's people to be. He said, you're
nobody. You're not worth thinking. You're
not worth living. That's why they thought about
the apostles. They're not fit to live. And that's the way the
world regards us. That's the way false religion
regards us. They're God's people. Them people
over there think they're something special. Said, Oh, listen, they're
not nothing. But they love it. They'd put
the world put us to death if they could. But look what he
says in verse 37. But no, no, no, no. And all these things. We are
more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Now, what
does this word conquerors mean? That means that we overcome.
We are conquerors. All these things that come against
us, we not only win, but we conquer. How do we conquer? Because of
the love of Christ in us. It's more than just winning,
but we grow by this. More than conquered, we learn.
We gain experience. where hope maketh not ashamed,
because the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost. And patience worth experience, and experience worth patience. Let me tell y'all a story, just
a minute. When I first got in Vietnam, first thing that happened to
me when I first started going out country, going in country,
I got on an airplane to go It wasn't a C-130, it was one below
that. We got down there and we went to a place called Fubi. Red clay everywhere. And they
was taking mortar rounds, and this is my first day now. That
plane went and landed there, and they let that tailgate down,
said, grab your C-bags and roll out. You see them bunkers over
there on the right? Get over there as fast as you
can. I had a taxi gun there, rolled out with my C-bag, and
run over there and jumped in that bunker. That's my first
day. Second day, they put me in what
they call a CAC unit, Combined Allied Unit. It's in there with our
South Vietnamese. And the first thing, these little
old bitty shack there, a handful of Marines and a whole bunch
of these South Vietnamese Army. This Marine Sergeant told me
the second day, he says, this is where they just keep me until
they get me to my unit. He said, if anything happens here, and
we just got a little wire around this, he said, the first fellow
you shoot is one of them. He says, you two men next to
you, because you don't know what he's going to do. Now this, this
thing's just terrific. So I got to go, I got to go and
send him up to Don Hawk. I put in my unit. The first day
I was with my unit, there was a firefight going on and I hadn't
been, I'd just come right out of training. And they put me
in that tank and we went seven meters out of Don High. And the tank commander told me
to put such and such a shell in there. And I looked up at
him and I said, which one is it? How do I do it? And I said
all that to say this, I got experience quick. And by the time I left
there, I was the tank commander. So not only did I win in all
those things, but I grew by them. More than conquerors do. And
that's what he's telling us here. Everything that happens to you
in life, you not only win, but you get stronger and stronger
and stronger and stronger. You're a conqueror. Everything
comes against you. You get better. You get stronger. You get wiser. You get more patient. And then look what he says in
verse 38. For I'm persuaded. I'm convinced. I am persuaded. He's saying the love of Christ
is so certain, so constant, so changeless, that it fully persuades
us. We are convinced beyond a shadow
of a doubt. Oh, I'm persuaded. And once you're
persuaded about that, nothing in space or nothing in time will
be able to separate us, God's people, from the love of God
that's in Christ. And he comes up with every conceivable
enemy that could destroy us. And he said, I'm persuaded. I
mean, he goes to extreme conditions. He goes from death to life. You
can't get more extreme than that. Death, where life isn't. Life,
where death isn't. And then he goes to the most
powerful beings in all the universe, angels and principalities and
powers. He said, shall any of these separate us from the love
of God in Christ? He said, life or death, will
death separate us from the love of God? No, I'll tell you something.
When death is coming, you know what it does? It makes you draw
nearer to Christ, makes you need Christ, love Christ more than
anything else. And then when life New life comes
into this world, like little Riley when she comes. I called
on God for her and I still call on God for her. I draw nearer
to God for her. These great extremes. And then
look what he says. And then the things of time.
He says, oh, things present, things present, things to come,
things of the future, things present. Is there anything present
in your life right now that would separate you from the love of
God in Christ? Is there any trial you're going
through? Any burden you have? Any fear you have? Any trial
you have? That's why Paul said, I reckon
that the sufferings of this present time don't even compare to the
glory that's going to be revealed in us. Things present. I tell you, there's things that
are always present, and if it's not present now, it'll be present
tomorrow. If it's not present tomorrow,
it'll be present this time next year. But there'll be something
present. And will it ever separate you from the love of God in Christ?
How about things to come? They're coming. They're coming. Things are after us. Death's
on our trail. Weakness on our trail, frailties
on our trail, old age is on our trail. The will is separate. How about
the future? And then he talked about everything
in space or time. Look what he says in verse 9,
39. Nor high, oh my, I don't care how high you go. David said,
if I A sin of the heavens, you're there. If I make my bed in hell,
you're there. There's no place that I can go. For you're not
with me, not for me." And then he says, nor any other creature.
When he said everything that could possibly be, he finally
comes down to everything that could be found in creation, and
he says, not any other creature. He faced everything that could
be against God's people and concluded this, that nothing, nada, nothing,
nobody, anything can ever happen to separate us from God's love
to us in Christ. And that's why we have this blessed
assurance. Not because our love to Him.
Not because of our devotion to Him. Not because of our commitment
to Him. But because of His love to us.
Because of His commitment to us. Because of His devotion to
us. Because of His death, His blood,
and His grace. And oh, beloved, there ain't
no circumstances, there's not anything stand around us or hinder
our access to I, Lord. You know why? Because this love
of God is given to us in Christ. And it never changes. Never changes. Well, Mr. Spurgeon, one time
he was out visiting a farmer, and that farmer had on his weather
vane, up on his barn, it had a weather vane on it. It says
that God loves it, that God's love, he saw it on that weather
vane. God is love, he saw it on that weather vane. He told
that farmer, he said, that's not appropriate. That's not appropriate
at all. to be on such a thing. God's
love is not such a changeable thing. And that old farmer told
Mr. Spurgeon, he said, Mr. Spurgeon,
you misunderstand me. You misunderstand me altogether.
What it really means is that God's love will never change
no matter which way the wind blows. Whether it blows north, south,
east or west, God's love will never change. Never change. Huh? Never change. What a blessed,
blessed assurance we have in our Lord Jesus Christ.