Good morning. Good to be here.
I may have relayed this story to
you before, but I think of it every time I say good to be here.
Henry told it to us. One time he introduced a really
elderly preacher And he said, it's good to have so-and-so here
this morning. And when the old man got up,
he said, it's good to be anywhere at my age. So would you turn to Romans chapter
8? Romans chapter 8, we'll begin
reading at verse 31. A portion of scripture I know
is probably as familiar to you as any other scripture. But despite
the fact I had two or three other scriptures in mind to preach
when I got here, this is the one that this morning it seemed
like the right place to go. What shall we say then 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 justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? 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. We are accounted 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. Now, I preached from this text
of scripture two weeks ago back home, and I entitled it, All
Things Freely Given to Us in Christ. And when I got done,
I realized I had never actually touched on that particular subject
during the message. And one of the things you learn
after you've preached for a while, it doesn't matter what you thought
you were going to preach on. Once you're done preaching, it
might've gone another direction. And if it did just accept the
fact that's the direction it was supposed to go. And so. I'm going to preach basically
what I did two weeks ago, though I'm going to make sure and get
that other point in there. Instead of just calling it that,
we'll title this sermon because we feel that we need titles for
sermons. We'll title it Confidence in the Gospel. Now, the gospel
is designed not only to seek, find, and gather in to the fold
all of God's sheep, Now, it's designed to do that, and it will
do it. But it's also designed to give to us who have already
been gathered into that fold a confidence and assurance that
that gospel which has sought us, found us, and gathered us
together unto Christ shall find complete fulfillment and that
we shall experience the fullness of it. Because let's face it,
you know, people say, well, I'm saved. And that's fine. That's
fine. Even the scriptures talk that way. But people get argued, when is
a man saved? Well, he was saved in eternity. He was saved when Christ died
for him. He was saved when the Spirit calls him. You know what?
All through his life he's saved. And then finally, When everything
is done, we can say, we are saved, there's no more saving to be
done. And you say, well, there isn't any more saving to be done.
Do you think you're gonna be like this forever? You think you don't have trouble
from which you need saving now? It is written the last enemy
to be destroyed is death. You don't think you need to be
saved from death yet? You see, God's salvation, from
his perspective is done. But we can know that fact. But that's because he looks from
the perspective of one who dwells outside of time and space. And
to him, everything is a now. We think of a succession of events. He sees them all as a single
event. You and I experience salvation
not as a singular one-time event all at once. It is something
which God purposed in eternity and through a series of events
brings about for everyone to whom He purposed to give it.
And even in the outworking or God's working of salvation, there
are, I don't know another word to use it, stages. I've heard people say that when
Christ said it is finished, all salvation was completely done.
I know what they mean. But the fact is all salvation
isn't even done yet. And it won't be done for any
of us until we are like Christ, for He has predestined us to
be conformed to the image of His Son. That's the end point.
That's the goal. He's predestined us to be adopted
as sons, and adoption doesn't mean being brought into the family
the old way of, I mean, it could include that, but the way Paul
uses it, and speaking of us being predestined to be adopted as
sons, it means to be made heirs, to receive that adoption, to
experience it. We're like children within a
family. Yes, we are heirs, but we don't,
possess those things of which we are heirs, that waits maturity,
that waits the adoption. The resurrection is referred
to as the redemption of our bodies and even the adoption of the
sons of God. Nonetheless, the gospel is, Paul
calls it in Romans chapter one, the power of God in salvation.
And it's the power of God in salvation in any way that you
want to describe the gospel. That is, it is the power of God
in salvation in its working. That is, the good news, the gospel
of God, as Paul calls it in Romans chapter one, His sovereign purpose
to save a people, it's powerful. But the gospel is not simply
a plan of God, it's also a message. And that message is powerful
in the hands of God. Now it's not powerful in our
hands. Really it isn't. How do we know? How long you been preaching it,
brother? Well, let's say, yes, it's powerful, because the fact
that there's anybody here, it shows that in the preaching of
it, there's power. But if it was powerful than in our hands,
and I don't want to act like we're more merciful than God,
because we're not. But if we had the power, everybody
we preach to would be saved. We would do that. And you say,
well, why doesn't God do that? If it means anything to you when
you get to heaven, ask him. Really. One time, something,
I was working with a guy, this was clear back when I lived in
Owensboro, and we were doing carpentry work together, and
something happened. And I said, when I get to heaven, I'm going
to ask God why that happened. And he said, why? Won't you care? And he was one of those believers,
and I wish I had more of his character. He was very calm.
Very stayed, looked at things as they are. Are we going to
care why he did that? Our Lord said, I thank you, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things
from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes. And
he gave the why. For even so, it seemed like a
good idea to you. And that's enough. That's enough. for us. And if he wants to reveal,
I almost hate to say thought process, because God doesn't
even have a thought process. A process implies time. But if we wanted to know why
he reveals it to babes and withholds it from the wise and prudent,
and if he wants to tell us, he may. But for now, like children,
we just say, well, our father thought that was a good idea.
And that's enough. But the gospel is designed to
give those of us who have partaken of its first fruits to be assured
that the full harvest will come. Not only the full harvest that
all whom God chose shall be saved, but each of us have experienced
first fruits of the blessings of the gospel. And that is an
assurance to us. The full harvest of those blessings
shall be ours in due time. Everything God intended us to
have by Jesus Christ shall be ours. It's already got our name
written up there. It's already a treasure stored
in heaven beyond what anything on earth can corrupt. And it
awaits our arrival at the Lord's appointed time. Then we shall
receive all that we have been promised for now. What do we
have? We have the Holy spirit as an
earnest now. It's not as though the Holy Spirit's
a small thing. We're not trying to say that,
and Paul wasn't trying to say that. I mean, the fact that the
Holy Spirit is given to us as an earnest, well, if something
like the Holy Spirit, someone like the Holy Spirit is the earnest
of the inheritance, what must the inheritance be? But that is our assurance. The Holy Spirit has been given
to us, has shown us what the truth is. Most people come into church
here, pass up a lot of churches along the way. And you know something,
the people in them are every bit as good as we are. Let's
never get the idea because we believe sovereign grace, we're
better people than those who don't. We pass them up. Why? Because
we're better? Because we're smarter? No. Because we have a different message. And, you know, here's something
I've experienced, and probably you have too. People from other
churches will come visit with us, and they listen, and, oh,
that's what we preach. And I say, no, it's not. I mean,
I don't tell them that. long ago gave up the practice
of telling people they were lost. If the gospel doesn't convince
them they're lost, me telling them isn't going to help them
out. And if they believed it because I said it, they believed
it for the wrong reason. I just leave them with the gospel.
After all, it is the power of God and salvation. And adding
my power to it is only going to take away from it. But you
can sit in one of their services and right away, oh, man. Wish
I hadn't come. Wish I wasn't here. It's a different
message. And this message contains absolute
unshakable confidence. Now that doesn't mean we experienced
that emotionally. And there's a reason for that. Our emotions are not the product
only of those things we understand in the spirit. We were born in
the flesh, and we are every bit as much in the flesh right now
as we were the moment we were born. When God worked in us, that which
is called the new birth, It was an enlivening of that part of
our nature, which is called spirit. Now this is the best I can understand
it. There's lots of needless debate
goes on the nature of man and all that. And I say it's needless
debate because the scriptures do not ever give a very definitive
definition. of just how man is made. We know
that man is unique among the created beings of the universe. We know that there are animals.
And we know that there are spiritual beings, that is, beings which
are altogether spirit. You say, well, what's spirit?
I don't know. So far as I can tell from the
scriptures, man is the only creature that is a combination of flesh
and spirit. And while I do not know what
spirit is, I know what it does. God is spirit. And the spirit
of a man is that aspect of a man that can know, believe, and love
God. Our flesh cannot do that any
more than the flesh of our dog can. You say, well, a dog doesn't
have the mental capacity to know God. Knowing God is not a mental
capacity. Knowing God is not a matter of
being able to, what would be the appropriate word? will understand
a series of or set of doctrines. Understanding God or knowing
God is a matter of knowing a person, knowing him. But the gospel in it is contained
everything necessary to make us at least spiritually speaking,
confident, unshakably confident of our eternal welfare. But the flesh, the flesh believes
nothing but what it can see. And we use see to include all
the senses. There are fleshly senses, you
know, five and some say six because they say the sense of balance
is a separate sense. Okay. However many senses we
have, our natural senses, if we call it that, they're well
suited to discover the things of this creation. They are wholly
incapable of discovering anything about God and the uncreated existence. That's why people can study and
learn about Jesus the man. But that's as far as it will
get with them. They can learn the doctrine of the deity of
Christ and say, I believe that Christ is God, but they have
no clue what they're saying. Because they cannot know God. But our flesh in its present
state is utterly incapable of believing the gospel. Now let
me issue a disclaimer here. I understand there are some people
for whom God, or to whom God has given this grace, that there,
at least according to their confession, there is no doubt of any kind
in their mind regarding the gospel and their interest in it. And
I'm envious of them, because I'm not that kind of person. Scott once said in a sermon,
it may have been something he'd say from time to time, but I
remember on one occasion he said, he made a point, he says, I'm
not preaching to you, I'm telling you the truth. Let me tell you
the truth a bit. Do you know what my faith gets
down to sometimes? Well, if this isn't in the gospel,
there isn't one. If this God described in the scriptures,
if he's not God, there isn't one. Sometimes that's about as high
as my feelings of faith can get. Now, when you go through that
kind of stuff, When you live there, for the most part, what would give you any confidence
then that you are among them who really
believe? I never or rarely ever have a
person to investigate anything about themselves. in order to
give them any kind of confidence about their interest in God's
grace, their experience of God's grace. But there is one thing
that the scriptures do say about believers. They don't quit. Even when they do not feel any
faith at all Even when they lie in their bed
at night and think all of this just sounds Like so much pie in the sky and
a sweet by and by stuff Even when And I'll confess to
it Because it's true. You know, we may as well tell
the truth. We're not trying to pretend here. Even when you lie
in bed and wonder if there really is a God, nonetheless, you keep going. You don't go
elsewhere. And I'm not talking about to
another church, though that could be one aspect of going elsewhere. I mean, you don't look to anything
else. And one reason, and again, I
hesitate to do this because, to say these things, because
I know you can get in a state you think you did look other
places. Or, you know, whatnot. But what I'm saying here is,
our faith, or the, let's call it saving faith, you know. The
faith that saves in the way the scriptures talk about faith saving.
That faith, It is not simply a matter that at some point in
time the faith you had in something else was turned to Christ. That
would just be fleshly faith turning to one false religion unto the
proper object of true religion but without any real understanding
of it. There are a lot of people that
believe in Jesus Christ. That is, they believe that He
existed, they believe He died, and they believe that the ones
that believe on Him will be saved. And that's just their religious
beliefs, and it's no different a kind of faith than the guy
over here who believes that it's, well, looking to Christ plus
water baptism. All they did was change their
doctrines. That faith which saves is the gift of God. It's the
expression of spiritual life, and it's a faith that does not
exist in any form. It never is pointed to anything
other than Christ, because it comes from the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of God does not merely redirect our faith. He gives
us a kind of faith that did not exist before. It's just as our
Lord Jesus Christ said, I have come that they might have life,
and they might have it more abundantly. And in the religion I was brought
up in, the conservative fundamentalism of the 60s and 70s, they talk
about, you can have the abundant life. And they talk about the
abundant life in terms of always being happy and having victory
over this and all that. And they act as though all it
is is God making our life more abundant. They're forgetting
what he said at the beginning. I've come that they might have
life, which means they don't have life. They're alive, but
they don't have the life he's talking about. It's a different
life. It's a spiritual life. He gives
it to them and he gives it to them to the full. It's not a
sick spiritual life. It's not a weak spiritual life.
It's the full-fledged thing. And that life expresses itself
in a kind of faith that did not even exist until that life came. But we are alive in the spirit.
And until we die, we're alive in the flesh at the same time. And we've got two messages going
through one consciousness. And that's what creates the doubts
we have. It's the conflict. It's the warfare
between flesh and spirit. Now, what gives us confidence
in all of this? Well, right here in verse 31,
what shall we then say to these things, if God before us, who? can be against us if God be for us. Now here's to me the most important
thing to take away from this. The apostle puts all of our salvation
in God. He didn't say, if God be for
us and we believe, he just say, if God be for us, who can be against us? One of
the commentaries I picked up along the way, and this was in
my days of, you know, when I was still in a religion that promoted
freewillism. I'm not sure, but I think that
the writer was a guy named Oliver B. Green, but I'm not sure. But
anyway, it was on book of Romans and he gets to this part. And
actually he was down here at the end where it says, nothing
can separate us from the love of God. And he says, of course
you understand that he means that nothing except our own selves. We could separate us from the
love of God. Well, Paul says, if God is for
us, Who can be against us? And, you know, I am much less concerned about
what the devil can do to me or what the enemies of the gospel
can do to me. Much less concerned about what
they might do to separate me from the love of God, which is
in Christ. Much less concerned about them
than I am about what I might do. And if I am not included
in all those things that cannot separate me from the love of
God in Christ, then just count me lost. Really? Do you believe that?
I mean, do you honestly think you've done enough that if you
could be separated from the love of God in Christ, you would have
been separated from the love of God in Christ? You see why
it is that we do not go out and tell people God loves them? Because
according to the Bible, if God loves you, he's for you, nothing
can be against you. I know there's lots of things
against us, but it means nothing can be against us successfully.
The love of God is the certainty of salvation. Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated means something. It means something in the destinies
of those men. If God had had the same attitude
towards both of those men, their end would have been the same. So we don't tell people God loves
you. Why? We don't know. Now, if they
profess faith in Christ, and you know, if someone does and
is content with listening to the gospel of God's grace, then
we've got no reason to doubt that they are. And therefore,
we can say to them, as Paul said to the churches, God loves you.
And I say to any believer here, God loves you. How do I know?
Well, you wouldn't believe if God didn't love you. However, when I say that even
to a group of people who assemble in the name of Christ, I say
it on this foundation or on this assumption that you actually
do believe. But until a person believes,
we have no reason to think that God loves them. Now, maybe he does. And if he
does in time, they will believe. Because God's love is real love. If you love someone. Now you
think of this, if you love someone, you will do anything and everything
in your power, not to lose them. Right. And if you love someone who does
not at that point, love you ask Bonnie about this. You will do
anything and everything in your power to pursue them until they do
love you. But our wisdom and power has
limits. Doesn't it? Our patience has
limits on it. I set my eye on Bonnie. Poor
thing. Wouldn't leave her alone. Really. There was a rule that the guys
couldn't go into the girl's dorm, and that's about the only safe
place she had when it came to me. But you know, there was even
one time when I had decided, OK, I've been after this long
enough. Might as well just accept it.
she's not going to reciprocate. And I even acted on that, but God's
providence was at work and she reached out somewhat, not even
knowing, I don't think, that I had made that decision in my
mind. So, you know, God's providence
works in mysterious ways for sure. But we have limits. God doesn't. If he loves a person, he's going
to have that person. If he loves a person, a time
will come when that person begins to love him back. Because God will not let his
love go unrequited. We have to put up with that,
don't we? We love those who do not love us back. We desire the affections of,
or we have affections for those who will never have affections
back toward us. And it hurts. God never hurts. God, God's never
up in the Lord saying, Oh, I don't know how I can go on. William
Shakespeare could never write a good play about God's love
because with him, there's got to be a tragedy at the end of
it. It's got to be Romeo and Juliet or it ain't worth writing. No. God is going to have everyone
he wants to have. That's why it could be written.
And we know that God works all things according to the count.
Excuse me. Wrong scripture. It's true, but it's not the one
I was going for. And we know that in all things, God works
for the good of them who love him. Now he doesn't do that because
they love him. They love him because he first
loved them. And that's the real foundation
of his working all things to their good. But Paul put it the
way he did because it would be little comfort to us if he said God works all things
for the good of those whom he loves, because he wondered, well,
does he love me? And so he put it in some terms
that we could know whether or not it applies to us. But if God be for us, who can
be against us? Imagine, and this is actually
the visual that came in my mind. Here's me. And over there is all the things,
whether they be forces or spirits or my own sinful nature, whatever,
over there is everything that would desire my destruction. And every time one of them approaches
me, it's like God comes down like a thick steel plate, boom,
between them and me. And every time they approach
me, they come up against the impenetrable wall of God himself. They can't touch me until they
can overpower God. Consider that, brethren. Now
for a lot of people, that would provide them no comfort because
their view of God is there are things that can overpower God.
God wants to save you, but you won't let him. Well, then forget
salvation by God. Because if something so wavering,
so weak as my will can stop Him, I figure pretty much anything
else, a light breeze could stop Him. He is an impenetrable wall. That's why Martin Luther could
write, and this was based on Is it the 96th Psalm? I can't
remember. I think it's 96th Psalm. A mighty fortress is our God,
a bulwark never failing. They eventually breached the
walls of natural Jerusalem because they were just natural walls
and if you've got a natural army big enough, it can do it. But the heavenly Jerusalem, Its
walls are God. Try getting over that one. Try
busting through that one. Not any single thing, not all
created things joined together can mount a successful offensive
against God. If there's anything the scriptures
teach us, it's this. Salvation is of Jehovah, is of
God, in every aspect of it. There's not a weak spot in the
wall because there is not any part in the wall that is not
God. You say, oh, but that wall's
made up of the promises of God. Wait a minute. Promises of God
are wonderful. But the only reason they have
any power is because they are the promises of God. You listen to preachers on TV,
they'll make all kinds of promises. But you can't find God making
the promises they make. And they'll tell you, well, if
you, you know, name it, claim it type of business, and you
name it and you didn't get it, and then you're wanting to say
they were wrong, you know, no, no, you didn't have enough faith. All the power of God is not dependent
on my faith. The power of God created my faith. The power of God sustains my
faith. We talk about the perseverance
of the saints. Brethren, I realize that as we perceive it, the saints
persevere. But do you know why? And this
would be a much better name for the doctrine. It's the perseverance
of God. It's God who works in you to will and do gives good
pleasure, and he that began that good work, he'll perfect it until
the day of Christ. We keep believing, that's true,
but here's the reason why. God keeps sustaining and working
within us. If God is for us, who or what
can be against us? And then he starts to detail
some things. He says, 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? Now people say, yeah,
see there, Jesus Christ died for all, because it says he was
given up for us all. Remember, every letter is written
to somebody. And you don't take to yourself
those things which are written down in a letter to someone else. said he delivered him up for
us all. Well, who would that be? Well,
we're not gonna go through all the things, but it would be the
saints, which mean those that have been called by the Spirit
of God, set apart. It would be those whom God chose. But if you wanna
look at the closest description of those he means by us all. It's them that love God. That's back in verse 28. And
once again, that's how Paul describes these people because he gives
a description that we can look at and determine whether or not
these things apply to us. Now, if he, If he gave Christ,
when actually it says he delivered him up, that's more than simply
gave. He delivered him up. And to be
delivered up in that sense is, well, he's talking about there
being delivered up, to be crucified, to be our sacrifice, delivered
up to justice. Now, if God did that, will he not also with him freely
give us all things? Now, once again, a little honesty. I can't think of anybody in this
world for whom I would willingly deliver up one of my children
unto death. It's not gonna happen. And this
one preacher said, aren't you glad I'm not God? God's the only one that would
do that. And he delivered up his son who
pleased him in every way. I love my children. In general, I'm pleased with
them. I think they're good people. But let's face it, the best lesson
in total depravity is children. You know, people that don't believe
in total depravity. Did you ever try to raise kids?
You don't need, you know, a theology book to teach you total, you
find out it's in them. And I didn't, you know, my parents
thought very highly of me, but not everything I did pleased
them. Everything the Lord Jesus Christ did pleased his father. He was loved to the father, not
simply because he was the son, that was in it, but everything
that God would love, he found it in his son. This is my son
whom I love. With him, I am well pleased. And he gave up that son for his
people. Now, having given up him, and
he gave him up for us, in what condition were we in? Rebellion? Utter wickedness,
total depravity. At that point, Paul says, while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ was given up,
delivered over for us. Will he not then freely, graciously
give us all things? Is he going to make the payment
Now forget about you and me and our thoughts about this. Is God going to make the payment and then not assure that the
promised purchase is delivered? I said I'd never give one of
my children for someone else, but if I did, You better be sure
I'd say, listen, I gave up my child for that one. You're not
gonna take vengeance on him, right? Do you think God would
do less? Will he give the son and then
not give us all those things which were in him? Is he gonna
give his son for us but not give us the forgiveness of sins that's
in him? Well, that would be absolutely
ridiculous of God to act that way. Though that is the way God's
preached up in most churches. He gave a look for everybody,
but you know, he's not going to give all things in him to
everybody. I'm so glad Paul wrote this scripture. He will give us all things, all
things necessary to this life and to the life to come. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justify. Justification is not nearly as
complicated a concept as a lot of people would like to make
it. The word simply means to declare righteous. It is identical. I mean, it's mostly a courtroom
word. And it is simply a verdict rendered
against someone who's been charged. And it's a verdict of not guilty.
Now, we say not guilty. Justification says righteous.
But when you read about justification Romans chapter four, I believe
it is. And there's several words and phrases he uses that mean
exactly the same thing. Justification means exactly the
same thing as your sins not being imputed to you. You're not charged
with them. You're free of them. Justification
means the very same thing as having your sins forgiven. Because
Paul says that, David describes the blessedness of the man to
whom the Lord will not impute sin. And blessed is the man whose
sins are forgiven. It's all the same thing. So we
don't have to get complex about it. But here's the key. Who justifies? God. Now in our judicial system,
if a man is ever justified of the things he's been charged
with, he can never be charged with them again. Now if the British
TV shows that Bonnie and I watch occasionally, If they're right,
evidently in England, the prosecution can appeal the sentence as well. And so a person who had been
found not guilty by a jury of his peers might be brought up
again. Well, here's the thing. With God, there is no appeal
because there is no higher court than God's court. So no matter what the rules are
about double jeopardy, every believer has already been tried
in the highest court there is and has been declared not guilty. Then who's gonna be able to come
in then and say, wait a minute, I've got some charges. Some charges
I think that you missed, charges God missed. God knows all the charges already. Why? Well, every one of them
is against him. That is, everything you're charged
with is a sin against him. It's not just a breaking of the
law. It was a personal affront to
him. He knows about it. And knowing all of that, he said,
not guilty. Who's gonna be able to bring
anything in? You can't unjustify somebody
that God justified, because there's no, you can't change God, and
there's no higher court to appeal to. And then he says, who is he that
condemns? Excuse me. Yeah, who is he that condemns?
It is Christ that died. So it says, see, our salvation
is dependent on God and Christ. Who do you think Christ is? He's
God. Now he's God in human form, but
that doesn't make him any less God. When Christ saves us, that's
God saving us. And here's his point, who shall
condemn? Christ died. Now, why does he say Christ died? Well, that begs this question. Why did Christ die? Because he
was condemned. Condemnation brings death, period.
And there's no death without condemnation, ever. Christ was condemned, so He died.
So how is anybody going to condemn me? If he died for me, how can I
be condemned? Because he was condemned for
the things I did, and he died, and he's the only one who ever
died. You say, wait a minute. Bible gives these genealogies
that says, and he died, and he died, you know. Well, you gotta
understand the context in which the genealogies are written.
They're just talking about life and death as we see it. Do you
know why, hell? goes on forever. Hell is called
eternal death and it's eternal because the people there are
always dying and never dead. But on the Mount of Transfiguration,
Moses and Elijah appear to the Lord Jesus and discuss with him
the death that he would accomplish in Jerusalem. But Tim James said,
whoever considered death an accomplishment, it was quite an accomplishment. We have those who never die.
We have those who are never done dying. And we have one who died. Everything that death means,
Christ experienced it. And he's the only one that can
say, it is finished, it's accomplished, death. And if Christ died and he says more than that, he is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us." Our Lord died. OK, that's good. I mean, you know, that was necessary.
The wages of sin is death. But was his death a suitable
death? God said yes. And how do we know
he said yes? He said, come out of there. The graves for the unrighteous.
By your death, you put away the sin that you bore. Once again,
you have no sin. So come out of the grave. You
don't belong there. And our Lord came out, but that
wasn't all. He made a 40-day stop. You know, the resurrection
was just the beginning of His ascension to the throne. But
He stopped here for 40 days to give some final instructions
to His disciples and to prove to them visibly His resurrection
and said He ascended on high. He it was that came up and said, Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors. He's the one that said
that. He approaches, and of course this is all put within the imagery
of great cities of that time with their huge gates, and their
gates didn't swing out, they went up and down. And so, Christ,
who had been on earth, he'd been in the belly of the earth, he'd
been into, it says Hades, that's the region of the dead. He comes
out, and he comes to the city of the living, the city of the
living God, as it were, and he says, lift up your heads, O ye
gates, be ye lift up in your everlasting doors. Why? So that the King of glory may
come in. Who's the King of glory? Jehovah, God Almighty. Me. And they opened up those doors.
And our Lord Jesus walked in. And there's His Father, God the
Father, on the throne. And He says to the God-man, He
says to our God and Savior, sit here till I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet. And our Lord sat down at His
Father's right hand. Now this is all imagery. I don't
think the Lord's been sitting down for 2,000 years, you know.
But the point is, he is at the seat of favor with the God of
the universe. As a man, he's there. Henry used
to say, there's a man in glory, which gives me hope that this
man can be in glory. And God's making his enemies
a footstool for his feet. But he's making intercession.
Say, boy, he's awful busy then. He must be talking constantly
because there are believers all over the world sinning and they
need intercession. His presence there is the intercession. Five bleeding wounds he wears,
received on Calvary. They pour effectual prayers. They strongly plead for me. Forgive,
forgive they cry, nor let that ransom sinner die. The father
hears him pray his dear anointed one he cannot turn away the pleadings
of his son and The spirit answers to the blood and tells me I am
born of God Christ died And then he gets Beginning to verse 35 who shall
separate us from from the love of Christ. He talks about events. He talks about death and life,
angels, principalities, powers, things present, things to come,
height, depth, any other created thing. Now do you know what that
includes? Everything other than God. Everything other than God is
created. So nothing other than God can
separate us from the love of God. And love's one of those things
that never stops. So God's not gonna separate us
from his love, because he's not gonna quit loving us. He's already
loved us with an everlasting love. No use giving up now. Oh brethren, this flesh is gonna trouble us
from now until it dies. But there is no good reason,
no good reason. for us to ever be worried about
our souls in the least, which means we have no reason to worry
about anything else. If we are those whom God loves, if we are those of whom it could
be said God is for them, And how do we know that? Well,
we love God. And if that's, if you're going
through one of those times, you think, I don't know if I do love
God. Because we ask those questions of ourselves. Then another way
to put it is this. Has God enabled you to see that Jesus Christ is a sufficient
Savior for someone like you? I mean, the only reason we doubt
is because we think we're not good enough. Well, have you been enabled to
see that bad as you are, Christ is Savior enough for you? Just as you are. not as you hope
to be, not as you once were, just as you are. If you can see that, it's because
you have eyes to see. Not everybody can see that. And
the proof of it is this. They cannot follow a religion
where they're not involved. It's that simple. They always
find a way to get something about their natural selves in there. If you can truly say, I'm not
good enough, never was, and never can be, you're the kind of people God
saves. In fact, if you really believe that, He's already begun
that good work in you. And he's not going to quit. You
may want to, but he won't. And that's why someday you'll
stand before him in perfection and say, worthy art thou, for
you redeemed us out of every kindred, tongue, tribe, and nation. Worthy is the lamb that was slain. Amen. Turn this thing off.