You'll turn back with me now
to Romans chapter 8. My text this morning is a very
familiar one, one which I've read to you many times, and one
which I trust in your private devotions you read yourself often. And my message this morning is
in the form of a question. What shall we then say to these
things? A very dear and wise preacher
friend of mine said one time, when you preach, preach for a
verdict. Preach for a verdict. Don't just leave men hanging. Don't just leave women and children
hanging. Preach for a verdict. And having stated the gospel
so clearly in these first eight chapters of Romans, Paul gives
a brief overview of these things. And then he puts this question
to those who profess to believe. What shall you then say to these
things? The gospel we preach is set before
men and women by what the scripture calls doctrine. Doctrine. And this doctrine is concerning
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, whom God sent to accomplish our
redemption, to accomplish His will and to save His people from
their sins. And so it is called in 2 John
verse nine, the doctrine of Christ. If any man come to you, he's
not talking about a vacuum cleaner salesman here, he's talking about
a preacher. And if they come to you, they
come and knock on your door, and they don't bring the doctrine
of Christ with them, don't let them in your house. don't continue
on answering their questions and don't bid them the Lord bless
you when they leave. Just tell them you ain't interested
and shut the door. This is the doctrine of Christ.
There's just one doctrine. That is the doctrine of Christ
and it's made up of a lot of little doctrines. And I hesitate
to use that word little because they're very precious and great
in their content. Christ is the eternal Word made
flesh who came down and dwelt among men. And they saw, John
said, we saw his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth. And doctrine is how Christ is
set before men. I say every time I get up here
to preach, I preach doctrine to you. I try to set Christ before
you as God has set him forth in the scriptures. Who is this
man Jesus of Nazareth? The doctrine of God and the doctrine
of Christ deals with that. It deals with who he is. He's
God and man in one person. Where did he come from? He said,
I came down from heaven. I came down from heaven. That's
where he came from. Who sent him? I came down, my
father sent me. Why did he send him? To fulfill
his redemptive will. What did he do? He did all the
father sent him to do. He brought out a perfect righteousness.
He died a precious death, the death that redeems us from our
sins. We ask this question, why did
he die on the cross? What did he buy in his death
on the cross? Did he actually accomplish anything
by his death other than to become a martyr? Well, sure he did. He purchased, the scripture said,
by this death, he purchased eternal redemption for us. He obtained
it. And then what about the grave?
They took him down from the cross, he was dead. He wasn't breathing,
he was dead. They put him in a grave. Did
he stay there? Somebody sneak around, get him out? What's the
story about his resurrection? Did God raise him again from
the dead? Well, that's what the scripture
said. And if God raised him from the
dead, where is he now? Well, he said he ascended up
to heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. The answer to these questions
and more is sent before men by those who have been taught of
God and schooled in the doctrine of Christ from the Word of God. And not only sent of God as his
ambassadors, but also being accompanied by the Holy Spirit of God who
makes that message effectual, who makes it understood. If a man doesn't have the Spirit
of Christ, he's none of his. because he can't know Christ
apart from the Spirit. It takes the working, the demonstration
of the Spirit, taking these things and demonstrating to you, demonstrates
that anointing of the blood on your heart. He demonstrates these things.
He manifests these things to me. Paul said we're not sufficient
of ourselves to think anything of ourselves. but our sufficiency
is of God, who hath made us able ministers of the New Testament,
not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter killeth,
but the Spirit giveth life. And this morning, I wanna give
you several things in this passage to consider. And the first is
this. What things is he talking about? What shall we say to these things?
What things? Is he talking about one verse
in particular? Is he talking about these four
verses? What's he talking about? These things. What shall we then
say to these things? Well, the things to which the
apostle is talking about here are things that make up what
scripture calls the gospel. Included in these things is the
fall and consequent judgment of all men. Paul was careful
in Romans chapter 3 to describe and declare God's testimony toward
us as the sinner. Tells us what sin is. Tells us
the effects of it. In Romans 3, 9, he tells us that
it is a proven fact, proven in the word of God, a proven fact
that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin. What's that mean? What do you mean we're under
sin? Well, you're under the curse
of it. That's what that means. Cursed is every man who continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.
You're under the curse of sin. You're under the nature of sin. Let me see if you can swallow this.
Do you know that all you can do is sin? All that you ever did, all that
you ever, what you're doing, sin. You've never had a perfect
thought before God. You've never had a godly thought
before God, unless God given it to you. But I'm talking about
of yourself. We're talking about the sinner.
What is, a sinner is one who sin, he has a nature of sin,
that's all he can do is sin. Sin is bound him, he's under
the limitations of that nature. He can do anything he wants to
do in the realm of sin. I used to hear Armenians use
that portion of scripture, choose you this day whom you'll serve.
We had an old preacher, I got so tired of hearing him say that.
And one day I read it to him. I said, that's not what that
passage says. It says if you won't have Jehovah,
If you won't believe in the God of Scripture, then choose you
this day whom you'll serve, the God of the Amorites, the God
of the Hittites, or whatever other God you got. And I'll say
that to you this morning, if you won't have the gospel of
God's sovereign grace, then choose you this day whom you'll serve.
You go exercise your free will of sin and go worship whatever
God you'll have. I'm telling you, false prophets
take the Word of God and just make things up as they go. Brother Richard said he heard
a preacher here not too long ago and then he asked his daughter
after he listened to him, he said, you reckon that man's ever
read the Bible? That's the idea I get too when
I listen to them. You reckon they've ever read
the Bible? We're under the nature of sin.
We're under the consequence of sin. Death. By one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all
men. We're under the effects of sin. None righteous, none that understandeth,
none that seeketh after God, none good, together become unprofitable,
mouths full of cursing and bitterness. Destruction and misery in their
ways, the way of truth they've not known. No fear of God before
their eyes. And then he goes on to say a
little bit later on, all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. You see what I'm saying? This
doctrine of Christ, it first sets before us who we are, sinners. Tenors. And having told us of
the death from which we've been quickened in Christ, and describing
that death in detail, Paul sums up our sinful state in Ephesians
2, 3, saying we were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. That's where God found us, and
that's where he quickened us. All right, let me ask you something.
What do you say about that? what you've got to say about
that. What you've got to say about God's declaration of who
we are. Another thing Paul refers to
here is God's eternal purpose of grace. And contrary to what
men preach, teach, and believe this world, believe about this
world and in this world, this world is not engaged in some
sort of divine experiment to see how many souls can be won
for Jesus or how many souls can be influenced to choose God and
Heaven as their destiny. Paul told the Ephesians that
God hath made known to us the mystery of His will. That's what
believers come to see. God makes known the mystery of
His will. His will, His eternal will and
counsel is hidden from man. And so they just imagine things,
make up things. But here he said, God hath made
known to us the mystery of his will according to the good pleasure
which he purposed in himself, which was to gather together
in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, which
are on earth, even in him. Now listen to this. in whom also
we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. Ephesians 1, 9 through 11. God
has a fixed purpose, which is to save a people he chose in
Christ for the glory of his own name. Well, you say to that,
Huh? That's what I'm preaching to
you. That's what I'm declaring to you. And I'll go past that.
I'm declaring to you that this is taught in this book. Not in
one spot. From one end to the other. Thirdly, Paul has told us in
no uncertain terms that our God is absolutely almighty. He's
not limited in anything that he wants to do. Now get that
through your head. Won't you let God? You ain't
gonna let God. God's gonna do what he will. He said, if I wanted to, I could
raise up children to Abraham out of these rocks. God is absolutely almighty. He spoke and it was done. He
commanded and it stood fast and there was nothing out there. And I'm telling you this, that
statement he made back in Romans 8, 28, all things work together
for good. The only way for God to make
all things work together for our good and his glory is to
have the power to bring it to pass. Is that right? You can't
declare the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things
that are not yet saying my council's going to stand and I'll do all
my play. You can't do that unless you're almighty. Salvation necessitates a sovereign
savior. And when he says 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, it's because
none are able to pluck you out of his hand. And he tells you
that very plainly over in John chapter 10. I give unto them
eternal life, they'll never perish. Neither can any man pluck them
out of my hand. And even if they could, they
couldn't get him out of my Father's hand. God is almighty. Well, what do
we say to that? Huh? Do you imagine that you're
gonna let God do something? That you have any say so whatsoever
in what God does. He is absolutely, eternally almighty. He does what he pleases. That's
what David said. He does it in heaven, he does
it everywhere in the deep. He does what he pleases. What we gonna say to that? Fourthly, he states very clearly
the eternal election of God's saints. In Romans 8, 28, he said
these are the called according to his purpose. And then he goes
on and talks about them a little bit. He says that these ones
who are the called according to his purpose, he tells us that
whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. to be conformed to the image
of his son. He's talking about election here. Verse 33, he says, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? That's how I know
he's talking about God's elect. We know that he was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. He tells
us that in Romans 4.25. and that God chose a people in
Christ and predestinated them to the adoptions of sons according
to the good pleasure of His will. He tells us that in Ephesians
chapter one. God made them accepted in the
beloved in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of His grace. Well, what are we going to say
then about this election? It ain't fair. We have no idea
what fair is. We have no idea what just is. Well, that's not right. But there's none righteous, so
what opinion you have of that, what's that amount to before
God? What shall we say to these things?
And then fifthly, he tells us that the preaching of the gospel
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. He tells us that faith
comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. In Romans 6,
17, he said, God be thanked that you were the servants of sin,
but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which
was delivered you. being then made free from seeing
you become the service of right how do you do that you heard
the preaching of the gospel you heard that doctrine set before
you or what we're going to say to these things when God sets before us a doctrine
it demands submission it demands acceptance it demands
obedience You cannot go on arguing about some old experience or
vision or feeling or dream. You can't go on resting your
soul on what seems right to the sinner. Nothing, listen to me,
nothing about God seems right to a natural man. Nothing. The scripture said it's foolishness
unto him. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto
him. 2 Corinthians 2.14. The gospel of Jesus Christ to
them that perish is foolishness. Why? Because there's nothing
of man's nature in it. He has nothing to compare it
to. So he has to take what he's hearing
and compare it to his idea of fairness. He has to take what
he's hearing and compare it to his idea of righteousness, to
his idea of wisdom, to his idea of glory. There's nothing in
his nature for him to compare it to. Isn't that what God said to his prophet
Isaiah? Who then will you liken me to?
Who you gonna compare me to? I'm God. There's none like me. None like me. Men judge what they hear by their
fallen nature. And the gospel's not based on
man's nature, it's based on the nature of God, on His power,
His wisdom, His justice, His righteousness, His love, His
mercy, His grace. Not yours. Not mine. Paul began his letter to the
Romans declaring himself to be separated. Now listen to this,
unto the gospel of God. What are we going to say about
this preaching of the gospel? And then, sixly, it is the predestination
of God's saints to be conformed to the image of his Son. Now how are saints conformed
to the image of Christ. That mean they appear like Him? No. What's that mean? What's that
mean? Now this is God's predestination. This is going to be. No question
about it. Well, how are you and how are
I conformed to the image of Christ? Well, first of all, by knowledge. By knowledge. He's my wisdom. He's my wisdom. Having a right
knowledge of God in Christ. We know that the Son of God has
come and given to us an understanding that we may know Him that's true.
That we're in Him that's true. This is the true God and eternal
life. a distinct and saving knowledge
of God in Christ, which is called eternal life. And then thirdly,
we're conformed to His image by a response to His love. We love Him because He first
loved us. He that loveth not knoweth not
God. God loves. Fourthly, we're conformed to
His image as we see ourselves together with Christ. We're one
with Him. We're not only, I don't even
know how to state this except to state it as it's stated in
the scripture, but we're one with him. The more you realize
that, the more that that enters into the faith of God's elect,
the more he quits looking at himself and the more he starts
looking at Christ. We're conformed to the image
of Christ, seeing the true attributes of God, which is His glory and
ours. There's a portion of scripture,
I don't know that I can quote it. I can look it up, though. It's
over in the book of 1 John. I want you to see this. And I may be jumping ahead of
myself again like I did earlier. But in 1 John chapter four, he says in verse 17, listen to
this. Herein is our love made perfect,
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because
as he is, So are we in this world. There's no other way to have
boldness about judgment than to see yourselves one with Christ. I don't care what you do, you'll
fall short of it. And there you sit, worrying,
fearing. Only one way to have boldness
in this love of God And that's to know that you're one with
him and as he is, right now, glorified, seated in heaven,
so are we right now. We're conformed to the image
of Christ, seeing the true attributes of God, which is his glory in
ours. And sixthly, in conformity to
the will of God. Believers, they desire God's
will to be done. Not theirs. Every time I've ever
willed anything, it was a disaster. Absolutely. But God's will doesn't
fail. It's true, it's holy, it's loving. Once you know what the will of
God is, that's all you want. Not my will, Lord, thy will be
done. And God has predestinated these
things and He works all these things after the counsel of His
own will. And then here's another thing
we're asked to respond to. The calling of God. The calling
of God. Whom He did predestinate, them
He also called. Do you believe that God has purposed
the means and the time and the place and the person of your
calling? Well, he has, whether you believe
it or not. He has. This is all in the purpose
of God. Paul told the saints at Rome
in chapter one and verse six that they also were the called
of Jesus Christ. And he told the Galatians that
God separated him from his mother's womb and then called him by his
grace. In Ephesians 4.4 we're told that
we're called in one hope of our calling. And then in 2 Thessalonians
2.13 he tells us that God hath from the beginning chosen us
to salvation by sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth whereunto He called you by our gospel. God calls His
sheep, called out of this world. And when men hear the calling
of God, they receive it. Not as the word of men, but as
it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also
in you that believe. It is an effectual calling of
God that manifests our election. No other way to know your election.
That's what Paul said, I know your election. My gospel didn't
come unto you in word only. It wasn't just a theory. It wasn't
just a proposition. It wasn't just my opinion. but
it came to you with the Holy Ghost, and it came in power. It takes that which is foolishness, foolishness to those who are
perishing, and the believer calls it the wisdom of God. That's a calling. It takes what
men say. How can you believe those things?
and makes you say in return, how can you not? And then listen to this, whom
he called, them he did also justify. Now it's not your faith that
justifies you, it's God that justifies. Faith simply manifests
who it is that's justified. That's what faith does, it lets
you in on it. It's not hard for anybody to
confess that God alone can justify. He's God. He's the judge of the
quick and the dead. The hard part is to say who is
and who isn't justified. Only God can tell you that. How does any member of Adam's
race come to know that he or she is justified? How can we
learn, if we are His elect, that He is appointed as our covenant
surety, our representative and substitute, that when He died
on that cross, He died for me? How can you know that? How can I know that I'm one for
whom He rose from the dead and intercedes in glory? Well, turn
with me to Galatians chapter 4, and I'll see if I can answer
that question. This present evil world has answered
this question by denying the eternal election of God's saints. It denies particular redemption.
It denies the irresistible calling. And it says that God loves everybody
and Christ died for everybody. That's how they answer that.
But you won't find any scriptural foundation for any of those things. Here's the scriptural foundations,
Galatians 4, 6. Because you are sons, God has
sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. That's how you know. God's spirit
bears witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God.
That's the only way you know. In John chapter 1, verse 12 and
13, it says that God gave us power, that is, permission and
ability to become the sons of God, believing on His name, being
born, being born, not of the will of the flesh, not of the
will of man, not of blood, being born of God, being born of God. And then Paul said this, The
same God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And then one more thing he says.
Paul tells us that whom God did justify. Now watch this. This
is past tense. All these things, past tense. He did also glorify. I want you to go home this afternoon
and look at yourself in the mirror and even try to imagine yourself
glorified before God. But we are. If you're a believer,
you are. That's what he said. In 2 Thessalonians 2.14, Paul said
he called you by our gospel, now watch this, to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's our hope, He's our
glory, all of it, and we're complete in Him. In Ephesians 2.6, He
tells us that He's raised us up together with Him and made
us sit together with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We're
already seated in glory, being one with Him. My friend Larry
Brown sent me a film clip one time that he got off of YouTube. I think Joe Terrell actually
got it first and sent it to him and then he sent it on to me.
But it was a film clip of the Special Olympics. And this daddy
had his son who was totally paralyzed. And he was going in a decathlon
with his son. His son couldn't do anything.
He could move his hands a little bit and move his mouth a little
bit, and that's all he could do. And here's this guy running
along, and he's got this little boy stuffed down here in what
the Indians used to carry their babies in. And he's stuffed in
there, and he's running. And that boy, he's waving them
hands and cheering. And he goes over there and then
he has to swim a piece in the water and he gets in the water
and that little boy just doing this. And he goes all the way
through that and finally he crosses the finish line and he's declared
the victor and they bring out this big award. And he just,
he didn't do anything. He was carried the whole way. You with me? He did also glorify. Yeah, we're walking. We're walking. But He carried us right along.
Carried us right along. Oh, my soul. We've already been received into
glory, crowned and welcomed and seated at the right hand of God. When John was permitted by the
Savior to peer into glory, here's what he saw. He said, I saw a
number which no man could number of every nation, kindred, people,
and tongue under heaven. And they were all, A-double-L,
all, standing before the throne and before the Lamb clothed in
white robes and palms in their hands, and they all cried, saying,
Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne and unto the
Lamb." There's no way he could see them
all in glory if they all weren't in glory. But we are in Christ. We are in Christ. Whom he did
justify, them he also glorified. Let me ask you something. What
shall we then say to these things? Well, I can tell you what the
believer says, that's what Paul says next. If God be for us,
who can be against us? Huh? When you hear the gospel,
as God has set it forth in this book, that's what you're gonna
say. Every believer, that's what he's
gonna say. If God be for us, who can be against us. May the Lord give us all an understanding
of what I preached to you this morning. Thank you.