Our reading this morning has
been from Romans chapter eight. And the title of what I want
to say is simply this, For the Saints. I wonder if you remember
when you were young, getting a package delivered. And when
you looked at that package, It said, for Peter. Ah, and you always liked it when
the package came from the postman, or the package was delivered
to the house and it carried your name on it. Well, this sermon
is for the saints. This is for the Lord's people.
This is for the people of God, that we might be helped and blessed
and comforted and encouraged along our Christian pathway. Romans chapter eight is an extraordinary
chapter in the word of God. It is a chapter which I trust
all of us are familiar with. It contains the fullness of the
gospel in a wonderful way. And the way in which the apostle
Paul, in writing to the Romans, begins, of course, he didn't
write with the chapters, but the way in which these chapters
have been divided, and we see that it begins here with this
reference to no condemnation and builds up to the testimony
that he has concerning the eternal, enduring, unconditional love
of God for his people. and its durability and stability,
and the fact that we will never be separated from it, all speaks
to us of the union that we have together with the Lord Jesus
Christ. And it's that union that I want
to emphasise this morning. It's the union that we have with
the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know that there is no
condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. There's no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. When we talk about being in Christ
Jesus, we're talking about the union that we have together with
him. We're talking about the fact
that because In the eternal purposes of God, God had a love for a
people and set that people whom he loved in Christ, gave them
to Christ, committed them to Christ, and their well-being
to Christ. We have as those that he has
loved, and we'll speak a little bit about his love later, but
we are as those that he has loved. always been regarded as being
in Christ, under the covering of Christ, under the safeguarding,
under the representation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is
something that we ought to both grasp and understand and believe. Because it is because of that
union that we have that everything else that the Lord Jesus Christ
has ever done was done. and that all of the accomplishments
of his sacrifice flow to his people. There is an inextricable
union. There is a binding together. There is a closeness, a closeness
which is pictured and prefigured in that becoming of one flesh
that we speak about when a man and a woman come together. and
the two become one. The coming together, the bounding
together, such that what was once separated has become so
united that the bond makes a complete unity. And that is what we have
in Christ. We are bound together with him,
we are regarded in him And because of the union that we have with
the Lord Jesus Christ, all the blessings of God and the blessings
of grace and the blessings of mercy flow to us. And so here
the Apostle Paul is making this direct statement. And he says,
there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. In truth, there never has been. Never has been. When the apostle
writes, there is no condemnation now, he is not saying that this
is a new development, that there was condemnation once, but there
isn't any longer. What he's saying is that now,
behold, look at this, give attention to this. There is therefore now
no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. The Lord
Jesus Christ has always been that Lamb slain from before the
foundation of the world. We have always been seen in Him,
always been loved by Him, always been represented by Him. The love of God flows to His
people as an eternal love. and we have always been in this
place of having no condemnation set against us. We sometimes
speak about justification from eternity, and that's what we're
talking about. The fact that we have this eternal,
enduring love and mercy and grace from God because of the union
that we have together with the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no
condemnation, not from God. God doesn't condemn his people
who are placed there in Christ. Not from the law, the perfect
standard of God's holiness. There is nothing in the law can
condemn the people of Christ. Sin is not imputed to the people
of God and God sees no sin in his people because he looks at
their representative and their substitute in the person of his
dear son, Jesus Christ. That is the blessed state of
all those who are in union with the Saviour. That is the position
that we find ourselves in who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
and who are united to Him. In Romans chapter 4 and verse
7 and 8, We're told there the apostle Paul writes, blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. That imputation of the righteousness
of God by the Lord Jesus Christ is a righteousness that comes
apart from works. It's nothing to do with our works. It's nothing to do with our obedience.
It's nothing to do with our goodness. It is a righteousness that flows
to those who are united with Christ. And it has been our portion
in that union. even from before we were born.
There's a mystery. There's an incredible thing.
And yet in the eternal purposes of God, it is so. Our union with the Lord Jesus
Christ, our oneness with him, and the consequences of that
union, render all the children of God completely righteous. fully justified, free from all
condemnation by God, and viewed together in Christ, we are as
holy as Christ. Or we might say that another
way, the Lord Jesus Christ is our righteousness. He is our
righteousness. And that's why we read together
from Jeremiah chapter 23 and verse 6. In his days, writes
the prophet, speaking about the coming of the Messiah. In his
days, Judah shall be saved. This is not talking about the
Old Testament people directly. It is speaking spiritually. It's
speaking figuratively of the fact that when the Lord Jesus
Christ comes, they who are his elect people, his chosen people,
they who are the Israel of God, those who are the people joined
to the lion of the tribe of Judah. In his days, Judah shall be saved
and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is his name whereby
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. In his days. in his days. What are his days? What are his
days? Psalm 118 verse 24 says, This
is the day that the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and be
glad in it. His days are the day of grace. It's the day of redemption. It's the day of salvation. Isaiah 49 verse 8 talks about
an acceptable time, a time of acceptance, a time of peace. The prophet says, now is the
accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Jeremiah chapter 23 has a lot
to say about false prophets. Read it at your leisure and you
will see how condemning God is of those who speak falsely to
his people and the damage that is caused as far as the comfort
of his people is concerned and the direction of his people is
something that God will hold false preachers, false pastors
accountable for. And false pastors take away the
bread that belongs to the children and feed it to dogs. They rob
the Lord's people of their peace and their comfort and their helps
and they spread them around to everyone such that there isn't
enough for everyone and nobody gets satisfied. I wonder how often you've heard
that text employed, now is the accepted time, behold now is
the day of salvation. Heard it preached by some free
will preacher. Maybe some music in the background
appealing to men and women and boys and girls to come forward
because now is the accepted time. Don't wait until tomorrow. You
don't know what tomorrow holds. You might die tonight and you'll
have missed your opportunity. Now is the acceptable time. Now
is the day of salvation. But that's not what the prophet's
talking about. Neither is it what the gospel
writer or the apostle is talking about. It's talking about that
famous day, that remarkable day, that day of Christ's suffering,
that day of Christ's death. It's talking about the day of
his resurrection when he rose again for our justification.
That's why we meet together on the Lord's day because it's all
the Lord's day. These are his days, the days
in which he has accomplished his purpose, the day in which
we remember that the Lord Jesus Christ rose again for the justification
of his people. Indeed, it's the whole gospel
dispensation. It is made to his people a bright
day by that son of righteousness that rises in their life's experience
and shows them what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for them. I said to you earlier that there
is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. I said to
you that we are always in Christ Jesus from before the foundation
of the world. We are seen in Him, regarded
in Him. We are viewed in Him by God the
Father. And there never has been any
condemnation against God's elect. But the reality of our life's
experience, and I'm making a distinction here between God's view of things
and our view of things. The reality of our life's experience
is that we're children of Adam. And that we fell in Adam. And that in our flesh we're opposed
to the things of God. And we're rebellious against
God. And we are, by nature, the children
of wrath, even as others. But in his days, in his days,
in the days of the one who is the Lord of righteousness, Judah
shall be saved. When the Lord has accomplished
all that he is going to accomplish, Judah shall be saved, and Israel
shall dwell safely. For the Lord sends his Spirit,
he sends his Spirit upon his people, and his people hear the
word of the gospel, and they hear, and they know it, and they
recognize it to be good news to their souls. and they understand
what Christ has done. What changes? Nothing as far
as God is concerned. What changes? Nothing as far
as the Lord Jesus Christ is concerned. What changes is our understanding. What changes is our knowledge.
What changes is the fact that we are brought to see what has
been done for us. Not what we've done, not what
we've achieved, not what we've accomplished. The emphasis is
so often round the wrong way, but we are brought with opened
eyes, with ears that can hear, to understand the great work
of salvation. This is the day that the Lord
has made, and we will rejoice and be glad in it. We'll rejoice
and be glad in it because the blessings of grace have flowed
to us in our life's experience. We have learned something about
the peace of God in the midst of our conviction and our awareness
of our sin. We have discovered that there
is pardon that is possible. against a God that we have sinned
against, that there is a righteousness that isn't dependent upon our
good works or our morality or our efforts, which invariably
we have tried and spent and proved to be worthless. We have found
salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have realized that it
has come to us by free grace through the humiliation of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we hear it declared in the
everlasting gospel of our Savior. Our spiritual union This spirit
of life that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ has made us free
from the laws of sin and death. Law has no grounds for condemning
his people. It is fulfilled in us. It is satisfied, it is spent,
it is done, and it is gone. In Romans chapter eight, The
Apostle Paul lists a whole host of spiritual blessings that come
to the Lord's people, that flow to the Lord's people because
of the union that we have with our Saviour. The Psalmist David says in Psalm
23, my cup runneth over. And that ought to be the testimony
of all the Lord's people who read Romans chapter eight and
are given the grace to apply these things to their own hearts.
My cup runneth over. In verse five of Romans chapter
eight, we see, we're told there that we are given eyes to see
spiritual things. We are brought to grasp and to
understand the things of the Spirit. The things of the Spirit
are the love of God. The things of the Spirit are
spiritual worship. We enjoy and experience the love
of God towards us. We enjoy the blessings that flow
to us in spiritual worship. We come together in the fellowship
of his people. We desire the hearing of the
gospel. These are blessings that flow
to the particular distinctive people who are united with Christ. Why are there empty seats? Why is the room not bulging full? Why are people not clamouring
to be here? I know some of you guys have
dug yourselves out of snowdrifts this morning to be here. I know
that some of you people have had to have diversions and troubles
just to be here. Why is it that we have this passion
after the things of God? Why is it that we don't want
to be anywhere else in the world this morning, but under the sound
of the gospel? What makes the difference between
you and your neighbour, or you and your workmates, or you and
your school friends? What makes the difference in
these matters? That we have seen the blessedness
of being united with Christ. We have spiritual appetites. We have a desire after spiritual
things. Paul goes on, verse nine. We
please God. Here's another fact of our union
with the Lord Jesus Christ. We please God. not by our work's
obedience, but because we are seen in Christ, because we are
united to Christ. God's pleasure as it is upon
his Son, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, so
his pleasure is fulfilled in his people also. And God looks
upon us with favour and goodness. And he applies his love to us
and it flows to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul tells us, verse 11, that
we learn that flesh profits nothing. We learn that we are but waiting
in this physical body for the fullness of the manifestation
and the fullness of the revelation of what God has for us. Now our days might be longer
or shorter. Some of us may have many years
ahead. Some of us may have a very little time ahead. But the reality
is that the Lord's people are all looking forward. We are looking
beyond this life. We are looking beyond this flesh. And we are anticipating eagerly
those things that the Lord has stored up for us. In verse 23,
the apostle calls it the redemption of our body, because this body
has to be laid in the grave. It has to go back to the dirt,
back to the dust. It has to go back to corruption,
but it won't always be there. There is a day coming when a
trumpet shall sound. There is a day coming when Jesus
Christ will come and he will bring his people with him, those
who have already died and gone to heaven, and the graves will
be opened and there will be a reuniting with these bodies and our souls. and there will be a change made,
and we will have a heavenly body, a body like Christ, and we will
enter into His presence there to dwell with Him, with these
heavenly bodies, changed heavenly bodies, there to be with Him
for eternity. That's what's meant by the redemption
of our body. He that raised up Christ from
the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that
dwelleth in you. There's a lot in this chapter,
all the blessings that we have by our union in Christ. Would
you like some more? Verse 14, we are sons of God. We are adopted
into His family. We are heirs, verse 17, awaiting
glory, joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ of all the blessedness
that is in heaven. We're a delivered, saved people. Verse 24, we possess hope, patience,
trust. We're men and women of faith. Why is that? Because we're better
than anyone else? No, because we're united to Christ,
because we've been placed in Christ, because of the magnanimity,
because of the goodness, because of the kindness and grace of
God, because of the love that he has for us. All of these blessings
flow to us. And as we wait in hope for the
fulfillment of all of God's promises, His future promises, that will
accrue to us in Christ, we're also given this promise and this
help, that the Holy Spirit here and now, in time, in these days
of our life's experience. He supports and sustains. He helps us in all our infirmities. He deals with our weaknesses. Now we're not without strength. in the same way as the men and
women of this world are without strength. There is a complete
inability for anything spiritual to be done by those who are still
carnal and carnally minded. We're not absolutely without
strength. The fact that we have the Holy
Spirit dwelling in us means that we have spiritual life and we
have spiritual awareness. But what the Apostle is telling
us here is that nevertheless, we who are spiritually aware
still have to deal with weaknesses, still have to deal with the trials
and the troubles of this physical life and indeed our spiritual
life. bodily, physically, emotionally. We have trials, we have problems,
we have dark times. We have times when we feel far
from the Lord. But the Lord encourages us by
the Spirit to realize that we are his sheep. And as our shepherd,
the Lord, our shepherd, he has undertaken to provide that which
His sheep need. He will lead us by the still
waters. He will take us to the green pastures. He will help
us, and that's the work of God the Holy Spirit, calling His
people to experience these blessings. So we know some things. We know
some things about the grace of God and the mercy of God and
the truths of the doctrines of the gospel. But the reality is
we don't know much. And the apostle here tells us
in verse 26 that we don't even know what to pray for. We don't even know. He's promised
to help us, but we don't even know what we should be asking
help for. These things are personal. We
are the Lord's people, but we all have personal needs. We all
have things that are peculiar to our own situation, things
we keep quiet, things we don't talk about. And it's a wonderful
privilege because of our union with the Lord Jesus Christ to
know that we can take these things to Him. And even although we
are at a loss as to what's happening to us, a loss as to know what
the best course of action is, a loss as to know what will happen
to help us, that God the Holy Spirit knows us better than we
know ourselves. And he intercedes for us with
the Father with groanings that we can't utter. We can't even
express the needs that we have, but the Holy Spirit takes those
needs and sets them before the Father in glory. Look at verse 27. He that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit. That's talking about
God the Father. It is God the Father who searcheth
the hearts. And it is God the Father who
knows the minds, the mind of the Spirit. Because he maketh
intercession for the saints according to the will of God. The saints. the sanctified ones, the ones
who have been set apart in the Lord Jesus Christ, the ones who
are united with Christ. This is intercession for the
saints. Saints are the objects of God's
delight. They are those who have been
chosen in Christ, preserved in Christ, made righteous in Christ,
And we have the blessings of that union flowing to us here. We have the Gospel, we have tasted
of the grace of God, and we are awaiting the inheritance that
is soon to be revealed. And so that intercession that
is made on our behalf by God the Holy Spirit, is an intercession
which comes together and dovetails together with the will of the
Father for us. So that because God has our best
interests at heart, because everything that he is doing is done for
our good, We, in our ignorance, nevertheless have our requests
made known to the Father by the Spirit, and those two things
come together perfectly in the mind and purpose of God for His
people. He makes intercession for us
as the saints of God. and he makes intercession for
us in holy things regarding our needs. Spiritual blessings flow
to us because the Holy Spirit knows what we need. Divine favours
are ours at the time when the Holy Spirit knows we need them
the most. And there may be times when we
drift in our experience as far as the closeness of God is concerned,
but God the Holy Spirit is always with us, teaching us, helping
us, leading us, guiding us, comforting and encouraging us. These heavenly
blessings, these divine things, they are consistent with the
goodness and the nature, the grace and the purpose, the blessedness,
the glory of God towards us. So, now, to use Paul's word,
because it is the Holy Spirit that makes intercession, because
it's the Holy Spirit that makes intercession, and not us, but
the Holy Spirit that intercedes for us. And remember, of course,
the Holy Spirit is God. And because the persons are holy
for whom he makes intercession, that is the redeemed people of
Christ, And because that intercession is made for holy things, for
their spiritual good and their spiritual blessing, according
to the will of God, which the Holy Spirit must fully know being
God, because of all these things, we, the saints, may be confident
of the success of that intercession. When we go and pray, we don't
know what to pray for, but the Holy Spirit knows exactly what
we need, and he prays to God on our behalf. He intercedes
for us. Therefore, we can have confidence
even in the coldness and the dullness and the darkness of
our understanding and the limitations of it in this body of flesh.
that we are asking God by the intercession of God the Holy
Spirit perfectly for all the things that we need. Look at
verse 28. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. How do we know Why are we so
confident that everything is working together for our good? Because it's the Holy Spirit,
who knows, that is making intercession for us according to the will
of God. The argument that Paul is setting
out here is copper bottomed. It is watertight and it is irrefutable. He is saying that the divine
persons have united here in order to safeguard and secure and bless
the people of God in absolutely every aspect of their life and
that nothing happens outwith the will and purpose of God for
our good. Now, because we are flesh, we
struggle with that. Because we are limited in our
knowledge and our understanding, we struggle with that. But by
faith, we grasp it and we understand that these things are so. It is the unfolding of the everlasting,
eternal purpose of God for the good of his people that we see
happening round about us every day in our lives. It is his providence
that is at work securing our well-being and smoothing our
path into his eternal presence. This is the end. of all that
Paul goes on to speak about in the coming verses. This is the
unfolding of that everlasting covenant of peace. It's the end
of election, it's the conclusion for all that the Lord Jesus Christ
came into this world to do. He bled, he suffered, he died
for this, for this, that his people might be taken home to
glory. Note the little joining word
that we have here in verse 29. For. We know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them that are
the called according to his purpose. For. You know what a conjunction
is, right? Okay, it's one junction and another
junction. And then you get the conjunction
that joins them both together. Well, that's what he's, he's
simply saying here that all things work together for good to those
that love the Lord and are called according to his purpose because
he has foreknown us. He's loved us from eternity because
He's predestinated us to be united with the Lord Jesus Christ. All
things work together for good because we are justified in Christ. We are already securely glorified
in Him. These things are all the purpose
of God and nothing can change or affect them. This is Paul's
golden chain. It's our escalator to glory.
The apostle almost seems lost for words when he gets to this
end of the chapter. But I like to think that this
gospel chain really begins in verse 28 and not verse 29, as
is often suggested, because I'm sure that the all things are
part of this gospel chain too. And if I'm not wrong, can we
not include the Trinity of the Godhead in this all things? I know that God takes on the
masculine, so we perhaps shouldn't regard him in the neuter with
the things, but all things, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost are here perfectly united. in accomplishing the purpose
of the Godhead in the salvation of his people. What on earth
can we say to these things? What on earth can we say to the
revelation of this plan and purpose of God? The love, the union,
the blessings, the Holy Spirit intercession, speaking to God
with groanings that cannot be uttered. Even the gracious placing
of our persecutions, our trials, in their proper context that
we might understand what it is that's happening to us in this
life. These blessings in disguise that
come to us in the trials of life that are nevertheless working
together for our good. What can we say to these things?
Really, are we lost for words? Can anything be added? Could
it be better expressed? The apostle concludes this epic
passage by giving and answering four questions. What does all
this mean? How might we summarize these
gospel truths? Paul says, basically, it comes
down to this. If God be for us, who can be
against us? If God be for us, who can be
against us? God spared not his own Son, the
darling of heaven, the heir of all things, the object of the
Father's affections from all eternity. He was not spared the
vile, brutal death of the cross. Why? because God had placed the
people of his choice under the care of the Saviour. The Lord
Jesus Christ was delivered up for us. The elect, the predestinated,
the called, the justified, the glorified. Another question says
Paul, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
He's already testified that there's no condemnation. Who's going
to lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Paul, as it were,
is challenging the accusers. Is the law going to condemn us? No, the law is satisfied. Is
Satan going to condemn us? No, he's bound and he's silenced. Will our own hearts condemn us? Oh, they often do. But when we
see the gospel, when we see what Christ has done, when we see
the blood shed, when we come together around these elements
that speak to us of that perfect satisfaction and the atonement
and cleansing of our sins, Then our consciences are eased and
we are given occasion to thank God for what he has done for
us. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect when God himself declares us to be holy? Another question, who is he that
condemneth? Will the condemnation of this
world, will the condemnation of this time undermine the Lord
Jesus Christ's intercession as he stands in the presence of
his Father with his pierced hands and side and brow? As the Lord
Jesus Christ, as it were, shows forth to all eternity the price
of redemption, Will anyone be able to condemn the Lord's people
when such a substitute has been found? The work of redemption is complete. It is not awaiting an uncertain
outcome. Christ has died and risen again. He has now ascended at God's
right hand and every mouth is stopped. Justice has been satisfied. Redemption is accomplished. Salvation
is complete. Paul asks a final question. Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Look at verse 37. In all these things we are more
than conquerors through him that loved us. 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. The love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. Love of the Father, love of the
Son, and love of God the Holy Spirit. manifested, revealed,
conveyed, bestowed, applied in the Lord Jesus Christ and by
God the Holy Ghost. Whom God hath loved is loved
forever, loved effectually to the accomplishments of his purpose,
loved unconditionally, loved savingly. This is not a love
that fails, it's a love that accomplishes all the sovereign
purpose of our God. The eternal Godhead is well pleased
and the eternal Godhead is satisfied. Romans 11, 29 says, the gifts
and calling of God are without repentance. Brothers and sisters,
that's what it means to be united with Christ. And that's for the
saints. Amen.