Now last week our lesson ended
in verse 31, where Paul said, What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Now in verse
32, Paul gives us the most clear illustration that there can be
of God being for his elect. He says in 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? This has to be
the greatest illustration that God is for His people, that God
truly loves His people, that God gave us the greatest gift
that can ever be given, the gift of God's own Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ. He gave Him as a gift His people. Scripture says, For God so loved
the world, the world of His elect, that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever should believe within Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. And when God gave His Son in
justice, when the Father gave Him in justice, He did not spare
Him from anything. He didn't spare Christ from being
made sin. The Father didn't play at imputing
sin to His Son. He didn't just pretend like He
imputed sin to Him or somehow charged sin to Him. He made Him
to be sin and killed Him for it. Christ must suffer the humiliation
of being made sin. He had to be made what he was
not. Now, to you and me, we don't
understand the real suffering of that because that's all we've
ever been is sin. We were born in sin. We're shaped
in iniquity. We don't know what it's like
to be made holy. Christ is holy. Yet he suffered the humiliation
of being made sin for his people. The Father didn't spare him that.
And when he was made sin, the Father didn't spare him any punishment
that our sin deserved. He gave him no mercy, not a drop
of mercy. He gave his son pure wrath, separation
from God and death that our sin deserved. He was not spared.
And when he didn't spare him, the Father delivered his son
up as a sacrifice. He delivered him up as a substitute
for the sin of his left. He delivered him up Unspeakably,
I just can't comprehend this, the Father delivered up His precious
Son into the hands of wicked, sinful men to do with Him as
they would. And as He suffered, He suffered
everything that we deserve. Christ accomplished everything
that's necessary for the salvation of the souls of His elect. All
those that the Father gave Him, He accomplished their eternal
salvation. Now, if the Father would not
withhold His Son, He wouldn't withhold the Son of His love.
He would not withhold the One who is more precious to the Father
than anyone or anything. Then why would He withhold anything
else from us? He gave you His Son, the greatest
gift that ever was. Why would He withhold something
lesser? He wouldn't. The answer is he wouldn't. He
will not withhold any good thing from his people. He won't withhold
anything that's necessary for us. He won't withhold anything
that's good for us. Look over at Psalm 34. Even in
the midst of trouble, and we've been talking about, Paul's been
writing here in Romans 8 about trouble and things that come
upon us. Even in those times of trouble and trial, God's elect
will not go without any necessity, anything that is good. Psalm
34 verse 9, O fear the Lord, ye his saints, for there is no
want of them that fear him. The young lions do lack and suffer
hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good. That word thing is in italics,
added by the translators. What David is saying here is
they that seek the Lord shall not want any good. Because the
Lord will not withhold any good, anything that's good for his
people. He will not withhold it. He already gave us his son.
Then you can just be confident he'll give us everything. And
he'll give it to us, Paul says, freely, without price. It's free because Christ has
already paid the entire debt. That word freely also means without
condition. You don't have to meet any condition
to receive the gift of salvation because Christ has already met
every condition that's required for the salvation of His people.
So the Father freely gives us all things. Freely gives us everything
that Christ purchased for us. You see, if He didn't, if the
Father would withhold anything, even the most minute thing that
Christ purchased for us, if the Father would withhold it from
us, then Christ died in vain. And you can rest assured of this,
the father who loves his son will never see him die in vain,
but he won't allow it. He'll freely give us everything
that Christ purchased for us. So Paul says in verse 33, he
asks a series of questions. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies it. Now
here, Paul's talking about God's elect, those who Christ died
for. Who will lay anything to their charge? Well, are they
chargeable? Absolutely, we're chargeable. 100%. We're chargeable with Adam's
sin and Adam's fall. We're chargeable. We're guilty.
We're chargeable with our own sin, our own conduct, both before
conversion and after conversion. We're chargeable. But who shall
attempt to lay anything to the charge of God's elect? He didn't
ask, are they chargeable? Because they are. Who shall lay
anything to their charge? Who will be able to lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? Now plenty of people will charge
us. Satan will charge us. He's the accuser of the brethren.
He'll charge us. People who know you out in the world, they'll
charge you. Just talk to somebody's husband or wife. They'll be able
to charge you. They know you. Talk to Janet.
She knows things. She's got all the dirt on me.
She knows. She'll tell you I'm chargeable. Look over at Psalm
51 and we'll see a mark of a believer. Satan will charge you. People
you know will charge you. But the mark of a believer is
we'll charge ourselves. We won't need somebody else to
charge me. I'll charge myself. Psalm 51, verse 1. David writes,
Have mercy upon me, O God. According to thy loving kindness,
according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgressions. And notice in these verses, David
always takes sin and transgression and iniquity and says, It's mine.
I did it. I'm charging myself. Blot out
my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. For I
acknowledge my transgressions and my sin as ever before me.
Against thee and thee only have I sinned, and I have done this
evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou
speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen
in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." I charge
myself. I'm certainly chargeable. But
Paul says no one can make any of those charges stick. They'll
charge you. They can charge you with anything,
but they can't make that charge stick. Well, why not? because
it's God who justifies. No charge can stick because God
has justified His people in the person of His Son. No charge
can stick. They can't make any charge stick
against you because every charge stuck to our substitute as he
hung on Calvary's tree. He became guilty of every sin
we ever committed. He was guilty. He pled guilty. He opened not his mouth. He never
opened his mouth to defend himself because he had become guilty. Every charge stuck. And God killed
him for it. Therefore, no one can lay anything
to the charge of God's elect. No charge will ever stick. And
God says his elect are justified. This is not like the Pharisees
who went around trying to justify themselves. They might justify,
they might be able to tell themselves a lie so often they can justify
themselves in their own mind. They might be able to rein in
their behavior enough in public and act so religious enough in
public, they might be able to justify themselves in your eyes,
but not in God's sight, not in reality. But God says His people
are justified. He declares them justified and
He goes further than that. He makes us justified by imputing
the righteousness of His Son to us. And as we've heard, I've
heard all my life, this is not a pasted on righteousness. This
is the righteousness of Christ through and through. He declares
us righteous and he makes us righteous in the person of his
son. So the first question Paul asks is, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? The second question is in verse
34. Who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
than is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God. who
also maketh intercession for us." Now, who is he that condemns? Well, it's the same people that
try to lay something to the charge of God's elect. They'll try to
condemn. Satan will try to condemn us. The same people that know
you, they'll try to condemn you. Your own heart. If you're a believer,
your own heart will condemn you for the things that you do, the
things that you think, the thing that you are by nature. But none
of those people can condemn God's elect. Look over in 1 John 3. 1 John 3, verse 20. For if our heart condemn us,
and it does, if you're a believer, your heart will condemn you.
For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart
and knoweth all things. He knows you're justified. He knows that you're justified
in the blood of His Son. He knows all things. He's greater
than our hearts and He's greater than any of our other enemies.
So our hearts can be comforted. God is greater than any who would
try to condemn. And here's why no one can condemn
God's elect. Paul says it's Christ who died. Christ died as a substitute for
God's elect. He took our place And you cannot
be condemned if Christ did condemn for you. Justice will never kill
you if Christ died for you. It's Christ who died. God's holiness
will never allow Him to die for your sins and then you to die
for your sins. God's holiness won't allow it.
This whole chapter began in verse 1. There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. There's no condemnation
in Christ Jesus. Just like there is no condemnation
to Noah when Noah was in the Ark. The condemnation that fell
on the world fell on everyone outside the Ark. The condemnation
that Noah and his family deserved fell on the Ark. And they were
secure. They were safe from condemnation
in the Ark. Noah was safe in that Ark. In
the same way, The condemnation that God's elect deserve, the
condemnation you and I deserve, fell on Christ our substitute.
And we're secure, we're safe in Him. Safe from all harm. No harm can come to anyone in
Christ Jesus. You'll never die if Christ died
for you. It's Christ who died. But it
doesn't stop there. Paul says, Yea, rather, who's
risen again. Christ did die for the sins of
his people. He died a real death. That body
was dead and lifeless and laid in a tomb and the rock was rolling
in front of it. But he did not stay dead. He
rose from the grave. And that's very important. The
apostles died for that truth, defending the truth. He rose
again. That's no fairy tale. He rose
again. It's very important. The proof
that all the sin that was laid on Christ has been put away forever,
behind God's back, is that he rose from the grave. He never
would have rose from the grave if the sin wasn't put away. But
he did arise from the grave. And if he did not arise from
the grave, the sin, your sin, that was charged to him is still
on him. It's not been put away. Look over in 1 Corinthians 15.
I'll show you that. If he didn't rise from the grave,
we're still in our sins. He was delivered for our offenses,
but raised again for our justification. If He wasn't raised again, we're
not justified. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 17. And if Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain, and you're dead in your sins. Then they
also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in
this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most
miserable. But now has Christ risen from
the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since
by man, by Adam, came death, by man, the second Adam, the
Lord Jesus Christ, came also the resurrection of the dead.
For as an Adam all died, even so in Christ shall all be made
alive, because he's risen again. But it doesn't even stop there.
Who even is at the right hand of God. Not only is Christ risen,
but he's gone back to glory to sit in the place of honor and
acceptance at the right hand of the majesty on high. When
he ascended, he sat down. The great work of redemption
is done. It's accomplished. It's finished. And he sat down.
Right now, this very second, there's a man in glory seated
at the right hand of God Almighty. And he's preparing the way for
many more men to come, to follow him there. And all those that
will follow him there are the elect, the ones that he died
for, the ones that he arose for. But it doesn't even stop there.
Not only is he seated at the right hand of God, he's there
making intercession for us. Christ didn't just ascend back
to glory, a job well done, sit down, and then forget about us. Forget about the people that
he died for. Seems like I always had a huge list of things to
do, and I might get the most important things done and I'd
give out and I just sit down in the evening and I forget about
the rest of the things on the list until I'm going to bed.
I don't know if I was supposed to do that and didn't. Our Lord
never does that. He did not sit down and forget
about his people. He's there making intercession
for His people. He's concerned about the welfare
of His people. He's there at the Father's right
hand, at the Father's ear, applying the benefits of His sacrifice,
always pleading His sacrifice and pleading His blood for His
people. He's offering up the prayers of His people. He's offering
up the thanksgiving of His people, making those prayers and those
praise and our thanksgiving acceptable to the Father. 1 Timothy 2, verse 5. For there is one God and one
Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave
himself a ransom for all, for all of his elect to be testified
in due time. The reason he can be the Mediator
is because he gave himself for a ransom. And as our intercessor,
that's what he's pleading. He gave himself as a ransom for
our souls, ever living to make intercession for us. So the first
question, God be for us, who can be against us? Second question, verse 33, who
should lay anything to the charge of God's love? Third, verse 34,
who is he to condemn? Now, verse 35. The next question
Paul asks is, who shall be able, who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Who would have the power to ever
be able to separate the elect of God from the love of Christ?
Well, no one. That's just a foolish thought.
But in case you're wondering, Paul gives you some examples
that may come up in your mind, just to prove his point. So,
tribulation, trial, hard, difficult trials, will that be able to
separate you from the love of Christ? When hard trials come
upon you, is that the proof? As the world will tell you, well,
God doesn't love you. If God loved you, He wouldn't let that
happen to you. Is that so? Absolutely not. The Lord only
sends trials to those He loves. He isn't chasing those he does
not love, only his sons and daughters. Tribulation, trial won't separate
us from the love of Christ. So distress? Stress. We live in a stress-packed world. I'm just pressured, just like
at the bottom of the ocean, just constant stress. Seems like the
more Technology and communication and the faster we move around
and get information, the more stress we're under. Just in stress
and no relief in sight. And that affects you. It affects
your mental health. It affects your physical health.
It does not affect our Redeemer.
It will affect you, but it doesn't affect me. That will not separate
you from the love of Christ. How about persecution? from the
world that hates God, hates grace? That's not going to have any
effect. The fact that the world hates you doesn't have any effect
on Christ's love. It's not going to change just
because somebody else hates you and persecutes you. What about
famine? You know, I've never been this
real hungry. I'd imagine having your body
be so hungry would be an awful experience. But that won't separate
you from the love of Christ. Look at the history of the church.
How many times has God's people been in famine? Did He not love
them? He always sent relief, didn't
He? That's not going to separate you from the love of Christ.
What about nakedness? Not just the loss of all your
clothing, all the loss of your worldly possessions and creature
comforts. That's just this physical being.
That doesn't have anything to do with Christ's love for you.
Peril, dangers. Paul, we read it last week, knew
more about perils and dangers than anybody. Does that mean
God didn't love him? Of course not. The choice servant of the
Lord. Shall the sword, someone taking
a sword and killing your body? Look over Hebrews chapter 11.
Let's just look at the history of the church, history of God's
love. Will these things be able to
separate you from the love of Christ? Hebrews 11, verse 36. Others had trial of cruel mockings
and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They
were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, were slain
with a sword. They wandered about in sheepskins
and goatskins, naked, being destitute, afflicted, tormented. Reckon
there went some stress went along with that. Of whom the world
was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and
in mountains and in dens and in caves of the earth. These
all obtained a good report through faith that never separated them
from the love of Christ. Now, won't you either? Because
Christ is the same. If His love wasn't changed for
them, His love won't be changed for you either. Now, these things
may be able to separate us from the love of men, but never the
love of Christ. When Paul stood before Nero,
he was separated from the love of men. No man stood with him. Paul, I love you, but not that
much. He stood alone. No man stood
with him. But he was not alone. Because
he was not separated from the love of Christ. Christ stood
with him. And Christ loved Paul as much
as that moment, standing before Nero, as when he was writing
this epistle. When he preached his best message,
whenever that was, he loved him just as much. Because the love
of Christ does not change. Now, verse 36. As it's written, For thy sake we are killed all
the day long. We are counted as sheep for the
slaughter." See, Scripture warns that these trials will come on
God's elect. It's always been that way. It
was that way in David's day. This is a quote from Psalm 44.
It's always been this way. The world's always hated God's
people. The world's always persecuted them. Done anything they could
to them when they could. When God allowed it, the world
killed them. The elect are like sheep living in a pasture. It's
God's pasture. But those sheep are always being
subject to the slaughter. That's all the world thinks they're
good for. The world thinks they're just being raised to kill them.
Somebody doesn't raise a cow to be a pet. They raise that
cow to slaughter it so they can have some beef. And that's all
the world thinks you're good for. Well, that's a pretty depressing view,
isn't it? That's just depressing. Does that mean that God's elect
are just a conquered, defeated people just not worth anything?
Absolutely not. Look at verse 37. Nay, in all
these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved
us. All these trials and afflictions
that come upon believers, they don't destroy us. They don't
mean you're worthless. Those trials are like the refiner's
fire that come to the precious gold to burn off the dross. I'm not going to put some hunk
of lead in that. The refiner's knife puts gold
in there to burn off the dross and make it more valuable. Make
it stronger. And we are not a defeated people. God's elect cannot be defeated. We are more than conquerors through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, it's only through Him. It's
not through our power, not through our faithfulness, not through
our might. It's through the power of Christ. It's through His might. It's through the faithfulness
of our Redeemer that we're conquerors. We are conquerors through Christ.
who's already won every battle against every one of our enemies.
He's already defeated them all. Christ is the mighty conqueror,
and we're more than conquerors in Him, the same way we're righteous
in Him. The same way you're made righteous,
you are made a conqueror in Christ. Now, the natural man will say,
that's pretty strange. That's a mighty strange way to
say someone's a conqueror because everybody persecutes them and
puts them under distress and kills them and they're always
being subject to somebody in the world doing away with them.
That doesn't sound like any conqueror I know. But that's Christ's way,
isn't it? How did He become the mighty
conqueror? By being made sin and allowing His enemies for
a time to have Him in their hands and kill Him. That's how he became
the mighty conqueror. Same way, we're made conquerors
in Him. At the end of this verse, our
Savior is described as Him who loved us. I hope I never get past being
absolutely shocked and amazed at reading a statement like that.
Him. Who He is now. Think of who He
is. And who we are. Who I am. Him who is holy. Undefiled. Separate from sinners. Perfect. Perfection. Would love me, who is the exact
opposite of that. Wretched. Vile. I condemn my
own self. How can He love me? That's a
miracle of grace. Him who loved us. Well, how sure
is that love? Verse 38, Paul says, I'm 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. I'm
confident nothing can separate me from the love of Christ. And
just in case you wonder, Paul gives us another list. So death. Death will separate us from this
world, but it will bring us to Christ. The death of this body
is the last great act of Christ's love for us in this world. It
separates us from this world of sin, this body of sin, and
brings us to be with him. That doesn't separate you from
the love of God. That's evidence of God's love
that he brings you to be with him. What about life? In this life, it's not possible
for us to be with Christ. We live in a body of sin. If
we're going to be with Him, we've got to be changed. And no matter
how long we live, even in this body of sin, it will not separate
us from the love of Christ. One of the writers said, not
the tears of death nor the joys of this life will be able to
separate us from God's love. What about angels? Good or bad? You don't want to be able to
separate you from God's love. I don't know a lot about angels.
What I do know about them, I know from Scripture, and that's not
a lot. I know they're real, both good and bad. I know they're
real. I know they're very active. I know there's good angels right
now here in this worship service. But they cannot separate you
from God's love because they're under the direction of our Savior.
What about principalities, civil powers? Well, they're real, too,
and they can touch your body, but they can't touch you. All
they can do is touch your body. They can change the state of
your body. Let's look and change that. That will not have any
effect on Christ's love for you. He doesn't look on the body anyway.
He looks on the heart. What about things present or
powers? Powers. Religious powers. We see this
in our day. They'll lead many astray. But
it's not possible for them to deceive the elect. Not possible
for them to lead God's elect away from Him. What about things
present? Present. Right now, trials and
troubles or there could be prosperity, good times. None of those things
will affect God's love for you. What about things to come? Trials
or troubles that are yet to come. We know they're coming. Maybe
there'll be times of joy and prosperity and blue skies in
the future. What about the evils of old age? Some of us, the evils
of old age, are yet to come. My good friend Jim Meadows always
used to tell me those days of old age are the evil days. What
about those? David said, I've been young and
now I'm old. In all that time, I've never
seen God I've never seen the righteous forsaken or God's seed
begging bread. Never seen it. He never seen
that because Christ will never quit loving his people. It's
an eternal Lord. What about heights or depths?
No one in the heights of power in this earth or the heights
of power in heaven. Or the depths, the depths of
this earth or we heard a song yesterday. I don't know if you
noticed it playing in the background. I got friends in low places.
Who like those friends in low places or did somebody send to
get you? Not powers in the depths, spiritual
depths, Satan and his minions. Not be able to separate you from
God's love. Or any other creature. Paul could
have gone on forever naming things, but let's just sum it up by saying,
or any other created being. Nothing will be able to separate
you from God's love. The title of the lesson this
morning is Conclusions from Covenant Mercy. What's the conclusion
we draw from God's covenant mercies? The Lord Jesus Christ is the
same yesterday, today, and forever. If He loved you in eternity past,
He chose you in eternity past, He agreed to be your surety in
eternity past, He's loved you throughout human time, He loved
you when He was born in Bethlehem's manger, born to be your representative. He came for you. because He loved
you. When He went to Calvary's tree,
made sin for you, He had your name on His breastplate because
He loved you. He rose to glory and now is your
intercessor. He ever lives making intercession
for you because He loves you. And throughout eternity, to the
end of human time and throughout eternity, that love will never
waver. Even a degree. If He ever loved
you, He always will. So nothing will be able to separate
you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And I give thanks. All right.
Lord bless you.