Three weeks ago, maybe four,
I was in LA with my family, and I was chaperoning my three youngest
children, who are the ages of 14 through 21. If Glory was here,
she would correct me if I'm wrong. And we were at Disneyland. And,
you know, reluctantly, I acquiesced because Disneyland troubles me
on so many levels, politically and socially, having gone there
in about 10 years, or maybe 7 or 8, 10 years, since the kids were
younger. But to my surprise, my pleasant surprise, they were
still rather pro-family. And so the kids, the young adults,
my young adults, enjoyed themselves. And myself and Barbara were able
to observe the kiddy land where children have their portion of
play, and it's still a good place to go if you want your children
to just be exhausted and tired after a long day walking around
hundreds of thousands of square foot of property there. And I say this to say that while
I was there, one of the things that you discover is that Walt
Disney boasts in being the greatest place on earth. And it boasts
of imagination and vision and being the place where things
that are impossible occur. So their job is to just, as it
were, cause you to stand in awe with all that they have made
and all that they have produced. They close out their evening
activities late at night around nine o'clock with a major, major
presentation of something that on a human level is quite fantastic. They'll have a show where everybody
can gather together and this show will be large enough for
tens of thousands of people to observe and watch. And generally
it's jaw-dropping in terms of their activity. Some kind of
skit program or what have you. And then generally they have
the what? Fireworks, don't they? Massive fireworks. And they did
that the two days that we were there. They had a program called
WaterWorks. I forget the other one. But fundamentally,
it's the new technology of being able to project images into the
air without any backdrop now. But they use water this time
and the water would fly up into the air tens of feet, 30, 40
feet, 50 feet in the air. And so you saw this massive array
of theatrics that was absolutely exciting and for some phenomenal. and for others, wonderful. And
you could hear the crowds just going, oh, oh, amazing explosions
and lights and fires and Mickey and Minnie and Daffy and all
your folks. And as I was standing there personally
observing what was going on, I was saying to myself, this
is amazing, Lord. I'm talking to the Lord. This
is amazing, Lord, because this reminds me of Matthew's chapter
four, verse eight. You don't have to go there. But
here are two temptations of which the devil is always seeking to
try you, tempt you and cause you to fall. The first temptation
that he renders towards us is the temptation of what I call
false glory. False glory. a false glory that
fundamentally allures you through the lust of the flesh. It may
be coupled with, again, entertainment at levels that are massive and
assaulting on the mind, the emotions, your neurotransmitters are firing
off, you're feeling good, you're almost high, you're elated. He
uses the seduction of temptation. And that's often coupled with
the salacious provocations of female images. That is the temptation on a sensual
sexual level. That is a massive technique of
the devil, is it not? Virtually every form of entertainment,
every form of advertisement that he renders to humanity, it's
always mixed with that whorish woman. But in Matthew chapter
4 verse 8, our Lord Jesus was tempted by the devil and the
devil took him up on a high mountain to show him all the kingdoms
of the world and the glory of them. And what he said was, if
you bow down to me, I will give you all this. The glory of the
world. And as I was standing there observing
the masses of people around me, men, women, and children, tens
of thousands of people just amazed. I realized that God had kept
me. He had preserved me from falling prey to the idolatrous
amazement and wonder and awe and all of those terms that belong
to God alone because he had already shown me the true glory. And when you've seen the true
glory of God, every other glory fails in comparison. I understood
how easy it was for the believer to say no to sin when you have
seen the glory of God in Christ. When you have seen the real,
authentic, quintessential glory of God, every other glory fades
in comparison. When you see the glory of God
in Christ, that perfect, pristine revelation of God in Christ,
when it has penetrated your soul, when it has purged your mind,
when it has cleaned you up, and when it has brought you Coram
Deo into the presence of God, that experience is incomparable. And it's the thing that's going
to keep you from the false glory. What's going to keep you from
the false glory? The true glory of God in Christ. What's going
to keep you from the false glory? The true glory of God in Christ. And therefore His glory is essential
to be seen, is it not? The other temptation the devil
will bring to you and me, of which you and I now will be engaged
in a lesson today that largely will be a message to put in your
pocket, even though in part we experience it. The other temptation,
the other trial that the enemy brings against the people of
God is not so much temptation on a seductive level, but temptation
on a persecutory level. He persecutes the people of God. He persecutes the people of God. The two temptations are temptation
and persecution. The seductive drawing in through
the lust of the flesh to cause you to fall through your own
sensuality. And then when that does not work,
what does he do? He sets out to kill the children
of God. Is that not what occurred with
our Lord Jesus? First he tempted, then he sought
to kill him. And the same is true for every
believer. We live between these two extremes
of being tempted by the devil every day through the lust of
the flesh and then being accused and assaulted and condemned.
And if it's possible to kill you because you have made your
allegiance to whom? To Jesus. And this is where the
Apostle Paul is in our text right now. And I want us to work through
this. Will you notice Romans chapter 8 verses 31 through 39
is the closing argument of the Apostle Paul in terms of his
exhortation to his Jewish brethren and the Christian church at Rome
at large around this one particular question. If you don't get where
we're going right now as we close out Romans chapter 8, what Paul
is seeking to do is convince his Jewish brethren, right along
with his Gentile brethren, that when you trust Christ, and Christ
is really your Savior, and you know the grace of God in Christ,
and God has taught you how he has redeemed you from all iniquity,
nothing, nothing, nothing can separate you from the love of
God which is in Christ. His whole argument is over against
his Jewish brethren wondering how does a man, now that he is
free from the law, walking by the grace of God, totally justified
in Christ, keeps himself from falling back into error and sin
and departing from Christ. Ladies and gentlemen, that is
not an academic question. That's a very germane question
for you and me. Why is it that today you and I are still standing
before God accepted in the Beloved? It's the grace of God. Why is
it that right now you are trusting Christ? Can I tell you why? He's
keeping you. He's keeping you. He's keeping
you. And you know how we clap for
certain things? We better learn how to clap for
those important things. When you hear that God is able
to keep you from falling and present you before the presence
of his glory without spot and blemish, you clap and you do
a back flip in your heart. So the message today is the gospel
to the Romans. What then shall we say to these
things? Here's what we say. We are more
than conquerors through him that loved us. That's what we say.
What shall we say to these things? What are these things? These
things that Paul is concluding with as he exhorts us because
he is thinking through and reasoning through their response to his
teaching. That's verse 31. What shall we
say to these things? What things? The things that
he has been talking about from Romans 1 verse 1 all the way
up to this very point. Paul hasn't lost a step in his
argument of justification by faith, the power of the gospel
to save the sinner, make him the righteousness of God in Christ,
and give him a standing with God through Jesus Christ. That's
just unbelievable. He's been arguing for the gospel
of the grace of God. What shall we say to these things
then? Listen to the way the text puts it in verse 31. This is
going to be a pivotal turn in the conclusion of this argument
that you and I have to get. Here's what Paul is saying. What
shall we say to these things then? If God be for us, who can
be against us? I want you to think that through
because what the apostle has stated is that when the gospel
is properly preached and the man or the woman has comprehended
the gospel, Here's what they must conclude, that God is for
us. God is for us. And when you understand that
God is for us in the deepest, most profound gospel sense, the
rhetorical question then is, who can be against us? If God be for us, who can be
against us? Those are rejoicing words, but
I know why you're not rejoicing. Because while we believe them
theoretically, we understand that all hell has broken loose
against us and that every day the against us factors work to
wear us down and trouble us and would seek to destroy us if it
could. Is that true? But if God be for us, if God
really be for us, now we can get past religion right now because
you know we like to talk words. But if God really be for us,
I'm talking about the God of the Bible, the God of all grace,
the God of heaven and earth, the God that sits on the circuit
of the universe. the God that has all power over
all things. If God be for us, if God really
be for us, on our side, with us, he's got our back, he's covered
us in all of the redemptive implications that we have been reading for
weeks and weeks and months and months now, we must necessarily
ask the question, who can be against us? Now watch this, I'm
going to show you how, what Paul really wants you to do is to
subsume that response up under that rhetorical question. Take
that response, who can be against us? And let it be swallowed up
by this truth. God is for us. God is for us. Did you hear that? God is for
us. And if that be true, if God is
for us, Watch this then, verse 28 tells me everything, everything
will work together for good to them that love God. Watch this,
everything. See, I told you we love to quote Bible verses, but
this stuff gets serious, doesn't it? Everything will work together
for good. Pastor, do you mean everything?
I mean everything. It will work together for good,
watch this now, to them that love God, to the call. We talked about that, right?
Have you heard the voice of the Son of God in the preaching of
the gospel? Has the Great Shepherd called
you by name? Have you heard his voice? Have
you come to him? Has he, as it were, shepherded your soul into
the green pastures of grace? If he has, he is such a good
shepherd that he will lead you all the way to glory land. You
don't have to ever worry about any evil ultimately swallowing
you up. Are you guys following me? Watch
this now, watch this now. If God before us then, everything
that is against us, everything that is against us, comes from
the permissive hand of an all wise God who has a purpose to
use it for his glory and your salvation. This is high doctrine
because you know how we fight against everything we don't like.
But if I really was thinking in terms of the one who sits
on this throne and says yes to devils and angels, who can't
move one iota without the permission of God, then here's what I know.
When those temptations, when those trials, when those oppositions,
when those antagonisms come, when those troubles come, when
those pains come, when those difficulties come, my God, let
it come. and he let it come for a specific
purpose. Now see what we have to do, child
of God? We have to wrap our brains around the comprehensive nature
of the gospel, don't we? We can't allow our circumstances
now to operate free of our knowledge of God. If we don't understand
these things in light of the promises of God, we will never,
ever be able to benefit from them. So I want to call your
attention to a few things briefly so I can make my final point
with Paul around the whole idea of being conquerors in Christ.
Three fundamental arguments that I'm going to make, and then a
final point of close. maybe here for the first one
is there is no successful condemnation for the believer in Christ because
that's our first point there is no successful condemnation
for the believer in Christ because you guys got that point number
two there is no successful accusation against the believer in any courtroom
in the world because of Christ. That's point number two. Point
number three, there will be no successful separation. Even though we suffer because
of Christ's sake, there will be no successful separation. You guys got that? Watch this
now. No condemnation. No accusation. No separation. No condemnation. No accusation. No separation. Although every
day of your life you're going to have to deal with the attempt
to make it happen. Every day of your life you're
going to have to deal with the attempt on the part of the devil
and your own sinful nature. Fallen mankind, ignorant folks,
knowledgeable folks wanting to condemn you. Are you hearing
me? Wanting to condemn you, point
number one, there is, that should be a no, probably it was a typo,
there is no successful condemnation for the believer in Christ because,
and there are three things I want to underscore of which we have
developed in our message in the opening of the book of Romans
chapter 8. There's no successful condemnation
because first and foremost every believer is in Christ Jesus.
As Romans chapter 8 verse 1, watch how it works, watch how
it works. The reason for which the believer can never ever be
condemned is because of his position. The reason why the believer can
never ever be successfully condemned anywhere in the world is because
of his what? Position. Listen to the text.
There is therefore now what? No condemnation. No condemnation
to them which are where? In Christ Jesus. Now watch this,
this last clause is actually an explanatory clause that tells
us what it means to be practically in Christ Jesus. Who walk not
after the flesh, that's the first Adam, but after the spirit, that's
the last Adam. What does it mean to be in Christ
Jesus? It means to follow Christ. to be after Christ, to be in
Christ, to be driven by the blessings and resources that come from
Christ. Because of that child of God,
there will never ever be a successful condemnation of your soul ever
again. Doesn't mean it won't happen
as a trial every day of your life. Some people will experience
more of that subtle intimate temptation to doubt God, to take
their eyes off of Christ, and to fix themselves on the horizontal
plane of everything that's not like God and fall prey to believing
it rather than believing God. Did not I teach us as we worked
our way through Romans 7 and 8 that the success of the believer
is his or her knowledge of who they are in Christ? That the
sooner you get a fixed understanding of your identity in christ Then
nothing in the world will actually tell you who you are because
you know who you are in christ And when you know who you are
in christ All you need to do is spend all your life learning
about christ because when you learn about christ you learn
about yourself Because all that he is he is for you and all that
you are he was for him so that if i'm gonna know myself I better
know christ And here's what I know, in Christ there is no condemnation. Going back to our point, watch
how I work this through. This is basically a brief excursion
through Romans 8, the first 17 verses of which we have developed.
First, there is no successful condemnation for the believer
in Jesus Christ because he is walking in the what? Now now
child of God notice how the Apostle Paul puts this in Romans chapter
8 verse 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God They
are the what for as many are as led of the Spirit of God They
are the sons of God and and this is why I say that this is a necessary
evidence of what it means to be a believer you cannot be a
believer in Christ and Not walk in the Spirit You cannot be a
believer in Christ and not have the Spirit. You cannot be a believer
in Christ and not be governed by the authority of the Spirit
of God, which has been dispatched by Christ to come hunt you down,
open your eyes, regenerate you, and start the life of sanctification. You are not Christ until the
Spirit of God has revealed the Gospel to you. You are not Christ
until you have said yes to Jesus as Lord. You are not Christ until
that revelation of the glory of God in Christ has so radically
impacted your life that you love Jesus and you are following Him.
Are you guys hearing me? To follow Jesus, then, is to
walk in the Spirit. To walk in the Spirit is to be
free from every kind of condemnation that will come. Why do I say
that? Because in verse 6, it says, For those who walk after
the Spirit, the character and quality of their walk is that
of life and what? Peace. Life and peace, life and
peace. For to be calmly minded is what? When you walk after Adam one,
when you walk after the flesh, you can be sure that the outcome
is death, death in every area of your life, death in your relationships,
death in your decisions, death in your walk with God. The flesh
is hostile to God and God is hostile to the flesh. There cannot
be a harmonious, joyful communion between you and God while as
yet your sin rules. So when the apostle is arguing
for why the believer is so secure in his justification, it's because
when God liberated you from the prison house of sin, he didn't
just let you go free. He sent an executor of the covenant
to hunt you down and walk with you to glory while he is conforming
you to the image of God. Is that true? That's exactly
what the Holy Ghost does and watch this now Largely the life's
experience of the believer is that of peace and joy. Is that
true? Am I telling the truth? Those of us who have learned
how to walk with God don't we have a life of peace a life of
joy We got troubles, but we got peace. Don't we we got troubles,
but we got joy Don't we we got struggles, but we're happy in
the Lord. Are we not I? And that's a gift from God, because
the Holy Ghost pours in the love of God, which reminds you of
who Christ is, which helps you get over your trials and brings
back the joy again. For the kingdom of God is righteousness,
peace, and what? Joy in the Holy Ghost. It's that
otherworldly joy that is able to overcome our circumstances,
because that joy is attached to Christ, whose you are and
who you are. This is why our brothers and
sisters who could suffer for the gospel could still rejoice
in the midst of their suffering. It's an otherworldly joy, but
it only comes with walking in the Spirit. Are you guys hearing
me? And so our second point under our first heading, as we are
arguing for there is no successful condemnation for the believer
in Jesus Christ, is that his sonship is what? Constantly affirmed. You better go back and listen
to those messages. I've taught you some wonderful stuff over
the last several months the goal of the Holy Ghost According to
verses 14 through 16 is to bear witness with our spirit that
we are sons and daughters of God Isn't that his job his job
is to remind us That we are Christ His job is to remind us that
no matter what's happening, your status as a son of the living
God is not threatened. This is so critical because what
we're dealing with right now theologically is what we call
the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. The doctrine of
the perseverance of the Saints has everything to do with you
and your walk with God Having those necessary gifts and those
necessary resources I called them the grace package you guys
remember that in the grace package what you get is is the justifying
work of Christ, the blood of Christ, the work of the Spirit
of God, which takes the blood of Christ and cleanses your conscience
from the guilt and stain of sin. And then you are once again brought
back into fellowship with God. Not that you lost your salvation,
but that your salvation now is brought back into harmony so
that you walk with God. That's the role of the Spirit
of God. When we mess up, he chastises. But after he chastises, he says,
get up, you're a child of the living God. Christ paid for that
too. Let's go, let's go, let's go. So he's not going to leave
you stuck in your mess. Because he's a good shepherd
too. He's the resident Lord and he's leading you to glory, right?
That's the role of the Spirit of God in affirming our sonship. And so in our text we can read
in Romans chapter 8 verse 16 these words and it's very important
for you to hear it. The Spirit itself bears record
with our spirit that we are the what? Children of God, children
of God, absolutely wonderful concept. Paul is using a play
on the Greek words in here. One, he uses the term kiosk,
which means our official standing. The other one, he uses the term
technos, which means our actual identity with Christ. Here's
our identity with Christ. In other words, the technos means
you look like Jesus now. You look like Jesus. Now you're
starting to look like him. When he adopted you, you didn't look
like him. But once he started his work of grace in your life,
he started saying, I'm starting to see some images there, chipping
off stuff, adding on stuff, like patience and kindness and joy
and faith and hope and love and goodness and temperance and meekness.
Isn't that what God works in us? A little bit at a time, but
he sees it and he tells us, you are my son. You are my son. And so the second proposition
is his sonship is constantly affirmed in our life. That's
called the perseverance of the saint. And finally, closely associated
to it is his conformity to Christ is what assured. We saw this
last week in second Corinthians three verse 18, where the apostle
Paul says, now we all with open face behold as in a mirror, The
glory of the Lord. Remember that? 2 Corinthians
3, 18. That's another verse that you want to lock in because he's
telling us a mystery that we've got to believe. And that mystery
is this. Change comes from our looking
in the face of Christ. Your change doesn't come by your
self-help or self-efforts, by your labors to take this off
or put this on or to do this or to do that. Your change comes
by fixing your eyes on Jesus, honing in on Him and staying
there until the Holy Ghost, whose job it is to whittle away at
what you used to be to make you look just like Him. That's His
job. We are therefore changed from
Glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of God. Do you see that
last line? We are changed. See the word changed? That's
the word metamorphosis. Metamorphosis in the literal
Greek language, it means a change of form. Literally, it's a change
of substance. Morpho is the Greek term that's
used in Philippians chapter 2 concerning Jesus bearing the form of God. Not some external image of God,
but the very substance of his nature, which was evidenced by
his acts. that he was indeed God in the
flesh, Emmanuel, and we beheld his what? Glory. What Paul is
saying here is as you and I sit under the gospel and yield our
hearts to Christ, that's the key. This is called worship. The key
to worship is when you sit under the word. You don't judge the
word. You bow to the word and let the
word have its way in your life. You humble yourself before the
mighty hand of God. You submit to the truth of the
gospel. And you allow the engrafted word
of God to get a hold of your soul and change you. What that
means is some days when you come to church, it's gonna hurt. Some
days when you come to church, you're gonna cry. Some days when
you come to church, you're gonna get mad. Because God has come with a sledgehammer.
There's a big old piece of the old Adam that he can't knock
off except with a sledgehammer. Oh, that hurt. But all things,
all things, even church, even Sunday. So you ain't going to
get away from the work even on Sunday. All things are working
together. And that's why we come because
of the mystery of how grace works in the ministry of worship and
preaching to shift us. and to change us, and to enlarge
our capacity to comprehend what God has promised to us. Am I
making some sense, child of God? This is very, very important.
This one is an amazing concept. By the preaching of the gospel,
we look into the mirror, and in that mirror is the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the glory of the Father. He is
the glory of the invisible God. And as a consequence, we are
being changed. That's a present, passive indicative. We're not changing ourselves.
The Spirit of God is changing us from image to image, from
glory to glory, into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank
Him for it. And if that be true, Lord, keep
me under the gospel until I breathe my last breath. When I'm laying
on my deathbed in the hospital, send a gospel preacher in there.
and have him quote the scriptures and preach the gospel to me.
Let my ears, before they fall off, hear one more glorious precept
about the lovely Lord Jesus Christ. Because I know I'm not done until
I'm done. Keep working on me, Lord Jesus.
Keep working on me. Point number two, then. There
is no successful accusation against the believer in the courtroom
of this world system that can successfully accuse you before
God. There is no successful accusation
against the believer. Now you understand I put the
qualifier successful because accusations abound everywhere. But see, as Paul closed out his
argument with who, as it were, what shall we say then to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He begins
to argue one more time in his close, throwing in every argument
you can imagine, including the kitchen sink, to affirm us in
this proposition that God is for us. First he says in verse
32, He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for
us all, how shall he not Also with him freely give us all things. I love Paul's argument. If Christ
is ours and the Father gave him to us, is not the Father going
to give us everything else necessary for life and godliness? And therefore
he moves now to what he knows are the accusations that the
people of the gospel have to face every day on their jobs,
at school, and wherever they go when they stand for Christ.
even in your home, even with your relatives, even with your
spouse. If you have a loved one who hates
Christ, they're going to daily accuse you of being everything
that you are not in Christ. And the reason why they're going
to do that is because they don't know him. Cause if they knew
him, they would know what you have, but that's not your problem. Child of God, watch me now. Your
problem is not trying to get him to understand what you have.
Do you understand? Because only God can reveal that
to him or her or them. Your job is to retain a focus
not only on the Lord Jesus, but on the promises that God has
given so you can take the hits for Jesus. I'm getting ready
to go there. Your job, your objective when
trials come and accusations come is for you to stand. Because
when you stand, you will discover the faithfulness of God. If you
don't, you won't. Are you hearing me? We're getting
ready to go there. Because see, I know what Paul
is doing. I thank him. Here's what he's doing. He's
saying to the church at Rome, the storms come in. You and I
are headed right into the eye of the storm. He's telling the
church at Rome, you've been having it pretty good for the last decade
or so. The Gospels have been preached
and churches have been established all throughout the Roman Empire
and your bank account has been well Your money's been good.
Your health has been good, but the storm is coming and life
changes when the storm comes Life changes you and I can all
talk a good game while the storm is not here but see a good shepherd
is gonna let you know the storm is right around the corner and
you've got to brace yourself for the storm and You gotta be
able to stand on the promises of God with the whole armor on. Remember the armor? The promises
of God. Because the devil is about to
hurl at you everything to overthrow those promises in your life.
Paul knows that's what's coming. So what he deals with next is
this issue of accusations. You see, the saints in the first
century Rome were put in jail frequently. They were cast into
prison frequently. They suffered frequently for
the cause of the gospel. How many of you have gone to
jail for the gospel in here? You better not raise your hand.
I want you going to heaven when you leave here. So you see what I mean, brothers
and sisters, that for us right now, this is largely academic.
That's why I pray that you don't take the gospel lightly because
this is a real mercy to God from God when God teaches you the
truth and your quiet time and your peaceful time and your happy
time. Your job is to do what Mary did hide it in your heart
because the day is coming when a sword is going to pierce through
your heart too. And when it does, you will discover that the word
of God hidden in your heart is going to keep you from sinning
against God. Are you hearing what I'm saying? It's so very
important to understand that what I'm saying is Paul knew
that one of the things that was going to happen to the saints
throughout the whole of church history is that they were going
to be thrown into prison for the gospel sake. Jesus talked
about it in Revelation chapter 3 where he spoke concerning the
church in Smyrna He says the devil is gonna cast you in the
prison for 10 days and some of you are going to be put to death
for the cause of the gospel be Faithful unto the end and you
will receive a crown of life you guys remember that Saints
again where you and I are in the real comfort of a Lifestyle
right now that at best all we get are accusations from people
that don't like us It's important for you to grasp what I'm saying
to at least pray for the Saints who are going through this in
other countries because the day is coming when you and I may
go through this and But Paul knew this and he let them know
you will hear accusations and those accusations will rise to
the level of Judiciary's putting you in jail and condemning you
to death and you will be killed For my name's sake that's Matthews
24 Luke 17 through 19 mark 13 You guys know that Jesus made
it very clear that when you follow Christ, you are actually going
to be one who is called to suffering That's what Paul is doing He's
squeezing down the subject of the glory of God and the work
of grace in your life to this. You've got to suffer if you're
going to reign with him. He's squeezing it down. Are you
guys hearing me? He's squeezing it. I want to try to make it
as practical as I can as we get to our last few points. But it's
important for you to understand it. Historically, the church
has suffered for the cause of the gospel. But there is no successful
accusation against the believer for these three reasons. Are
you ready? God is his justifier. Is that true? Sorry, God is his
judge. There's four reasons here. God
is his judge, and therefore, every accusation that comes under
God is by default an accusation that has no validity. God is
his judge. Can you imagine this? You're
a child of the living God. Christ has paid for you, and
the Father is your judge. Romans chapter 14, verse 4. I
like this. See, now, because I'm one of those brothers that
ends up in the courtroom from time to time. I don't know about
you, but inadvertently I end up in the courtroom. Because
I'm still human. Pastor in the courtroom. Yeah,
I go to the courtroom from time to time. It's been a long time,
but I end up there from time to time. And I know what God's
doing. You know what God's doing when I end up in the courtroom,
Carlos? He's helping me remember the sheep that I pastor. That'll
come to you in a minute. You understand what I'm saying?
Because my sheep get in all kinds of trouble. And I have to remember
that we often, by our sinfulness or inadvertently, end up before
the judge. And it's a good thing when that
happens, because we are taught that God means business about
His law. Is that true? Because we, by
nature, are such sinners that we can mess up royally, lose
everything in our life, and end up actually in prison. I know
so many believers who are in jail now. We do ministry to the
prisons because of believers in jail. Now, sometimes they
become believers after they're in jail, but sometimes, unfortunately,
they're believers before they go. And because they have failed
to learn how to walk in the Spirit, redeem the time, and occupy their
lives in a way that is industrious and productive, they end up in
prison. Is that true? And they're born-again believers.
I mean, they're authentic believers, but they find themselves behind
bars, giving in to the lust of the flesh. What do we have to
do? We have to minister to them. We have to share the gospel with
them. Go in the prisons and minister to them. That's what God has
called us to. But now think about the benefit of the true believer
in prison knowing that the true judge is his God. Is that brother
walking in a sense of peace and confidence and joy? We get the
letters all the time. Frequently I'll hear, Pastor
Jesse, man, I thank you for your ministry. I'm in here for life.
I'm in here for life. But you know what? Watch this.
The Lord is good. If he hadn't done this, it wouldn't
have brought me to him. And I wouldn't change it for
the world. Because to know Christ in prison is better than to know
Christ outside of prison. Can you get with that kind of
radical transformation of mind? All he wants from me is the CDs.
He ain't trying to appeal to get out. Because what he wants
to do now is become a gospel preacher in prison to bring this
glorious gospel to his brothers and sisters that are in the next
cell. God is his judge. God's his judge. Romans chapter
14 verse 4. Watch it. Romans chapter 14 verse
4. This is what the Apostle Paul
says in a wonderful chapter that we'll get to in about five months.
Who are you? that judges another man's service.
See that first line? You can mark that, yellow mark
it, black mark it, put stars around it, go hallelujah! Because
that statement there is ubiquitous. It has its application to every
peon, Lilliputian judge on planet Earth. To every little peon judge who
would sit in a courtroom of judiciary and dare to take God's place.
Are you hearing me? See, I can walk on this, but
I'm not going to do it. I'm just going to let you know.
Every judge has to answer to that judge. I'm talking about
every judge. I'm talking about every judge. So when a believer
goes in handcuffed in that orange jumpsuit, when he stands before
his honor and he's supposed to respect him, yes, your honor,
The true believer who understands his standing in Christ knows
this. He has a judge in heaven who is for him. And guess what
he's doing? He's praying for the judge that's
in front of him. That that judge does not mess
up his judgment against the child of God. He's praying that that
judge gets it right. Oh yeah, he's praying that he
get out, but he's praying that that judge gets it right. Because
if the judge gets it right, he'll be able to hear from God through
the judge. But if the judge gets it wrong, he's got to pray for
that judge, because that judge has just now borne false witness
against a child of the living God. Are you hearing me? Do you
understand the liberty of the soul of the child that understands
his God is his judge? Listen to the next line. Watch
it now. To his own master, he stands or falls. Hallelujah! I'm happy. You're not happy.
That's OK. Watch this now. Here's the point. He knows that
his standing or falling is not based upon man's opinion or the
circumstances he's about to go through. His real issue is with
the God who has already provided his son to redeem his soul. He
knows that if he falls, God has failed. But because he knows
that God can't lie, change, or fail, that brother ain't gonna
never fall. It doesn't matter what the human
courts say. Do you see that? Watch the last line. Here it
is. To his own master he stands or fall. Yea, he shall be what? Holding up. Why? God is able
to make him stand even in the midst of the courtroom. I'm moving
to my other point because this is where Paul wants you to understand
what it means to be more than a conqueror through him that
loved us. Even in the most adverse circumstances in your life, you
can still rejoice in God, in the glory of God, in the Christ
of God, even in the worst circumstances, because you understand what's
going on. Am I making some sense, child of God? Are y'all getting
this? All right, then let's move on to our next sub point here
then under point number two. Not only is he his judge, God
is his justifier. Romans 3, 24 through 26. You've
heard it, but I want you to get it again. This liberates the
child of God who is facing the human court system or human opinion
system of anyone personally or even within the legal system.
He's able to know what the scripture says very plainly in verses 23
through 25. Here it is. For all have sinned.
Is that true? and keep on coming short of the
glory of God. Is that true? That's just Dr.
Jesse Gistan's translation. That's the original Greek. I
wish the King James would have put it in there. And they keep
on coming short of the glory of God. Being justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that's in Jesus Christ, whom
God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, To
declare his own righteousness for the remission of sins that
are passed through the forbearance of God. Now watch this. To declare,
I say at this time in the preaching of the gospel, his righteousness.
To declare God's righteousness through the proprietary work
of Christ that he might be what? Just! And what? The justifier
of him which believes in Jesus. If you are a believer in Jesus
Christ, God is your what? Justifier! Crazy! Do you know what this means?
Every time a person raises an accusation against you, God's
your justifier. When they say to you, you're
guilty, God says, not guilty. You did it. You know what God
says? He didn't do it. When they say, you're wrong,
you're wrong as dirt, God says, no, he's right as Christ. See,
God's your justifier, and He continues to justify you. One
day you'll get it. That's the work of the Holy Ghost,
letting you know there is no condemnation, no condemnation,
no condemnation, no condemnation, no just condemnation, no accusation
that will ever stick. It won't stick. It won't stick. It won't stick. Even when they
give you the death penalty, it won't stick. it won't see. Can
you imagine the brother or the sister that's more than a conqueror
in Christ walking to the electric chair and the Holy Ghost is saying,
we're just about home boy. We just about home. My son, you're
just about home. I'm going to make this easy.
It's going to look bad on the hour, but I'm going to make this
easy for you. I'm going to speak to your soul. I'm going to bless
you with peace. Your heart's going to bubble over with joy.
Your flesh is going to tremble, but your soul is going to rejoice
because I'm going to keep you. I'm going to keep you. In fact,
as we are headed to the electric chair, as we're headed to the
electric chair, the Holy Ghost is opening up the windows of
heaven. and showing him the glories of
heaven, the glories of Christ. Am I telling the truth? Stephan
is the first martyr of the New Testament church. And that's
exactly what God did for him. They condemned him to death.
They accused him of being a blasphemer. And the Holy Ghost met him in
that trial. First gave him a manifestation
of glory. Remember? And his face shone
as an angel. Did not I tell you last week?
Glory starts at conversion. And they all beheld the glory
of God sitting on Stephan, the spirit of glory that comes when
we suffer for Christ. Remember that? And as Stephan
is about to be stoned, what is the Holy Ghost doing? Anesthetizing
him. Causing him not to feel any pain.
while they're throwing rocks at him, stoning him to death.
The brother is in the midst of a glorious state of insulation. His mind is so clear, he don't
even see the stones. I see the Lord Jesus seated at
the right hand of the majesty on high. And it's such, it's
such that he's able to pray for his enemies while they're stoning
him to death. He said, Lord, don't lay this
to their charge. I'm out of here in a second. And he's promoted, not condemned,
promoted. Do you understand then how your
faith must mature, as we talked about on Friday, to become inverted
so that you see through the prism of the gospel, the situations
that are taking place, or else we cannot be more than conquerors. You cannot have a corner worldview,
a selfish worldview, a self-centered worldview, and handle the trials.
The flesh can't get this. Only the gospel can get this.
Are y'all with me in the house? All right, let me keep going
because I want to finish my fourth point for sure. God is his judge,
God's his justifier, and God and Christ is his justification. Look at verse 25 of chapter 4.
Here's how Paul puts it. He states with regards to Abraham's
righteousness, verse 23, it was not written for his sake alone
that it was imputed to him, that is the righteousness of God in
Christ, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe
on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered
for our what? It's crazy. And he was raised
again for our what? Did God raise Christ from the
dead? Christ is your eternal justification. If you believe
in Christ, Christ is your eternal justification. The resurrected
Christ is the seal that you are justified for all eternity. You
got that? You got it. And so long as Christ
is raised from the dead, you're justified. How long is he raised
from the dead? Forever. How long then are you
justified? Forever. It's a done deal in
the courtroom of heaven. And if the believer can get a
hold of this, through the preaching of the gospel and the soul gets
a hold of this, justification is what gives you comfort in
the midst of your trials. Am I making some sense? This
is very important then, very, very important then. Finally,
our fourth point then, all three persons are interceding on our
behalf to overthrow every accusation against the believer. Isn't this
crazy? You mean all three persons? Ladies
and gentlemen, do you know that God set his love on you if you're
a child of God today? From before the foundation of the world?
He set his eyes on you. And you know what he did? In
setting his eyes on you, he has now made a provision by which
you would never ever be successfully accused ever again. You know
what he did? Mediatorially, God provided his
son. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him
should not what? No successful accusation but
have eternal life through Jesus Christ. Do you got that? The
Father provided the Son. That's His mediatorial work.
That's how He interceded for us. The Son mediatorially sacrificed
His life. He laid down His life for us,
didn't He? That's our mediator. He presently lives to make intercession
for us right now, doesn't He? He's at the right hand of God,
Hebrews chapter 7 around verse 25, saying that He intercedes
for us right now. That's crazy that I have a Savior
who is a God-man interceding for me. But what that tells me
is the reason I'm standing before you right now is because he's
interceding for me. Because if he wasn't interceding
for me, I wouldn't be here right now. And you wouldn't be in this
room. And the last point is the Holy Ghost is interceding, is
he not? Now, those of you who know your
Bibles, this is Romans 8, verse 26 and verse 34. The Holy Ghost
intercedes with us with groanings, for us with groanings, which
cannot be uttered. What is He doing? He's saying
to the Son and to the Father, let's keep this knucklehead,
let's keep him. We bought him, let's keep him.
We bought him, let's keep him. His prayers don't mean nothing.
Take what I say and that'll work. Let's keep him. Can you imagine? Now, this is
a segue into another point. The Holy Ghost has to intercede
and jump in front of your jacked up prayers. Is that good or what? Father, no, don't pay no attention
to that. This is what he means. This is what he meant. This is
what he meant. I love it. I can talk about that. Just for some of y'all, just
in case you don't get it, when you start praying and you end
up in Paris, the Holy Ghost had to jump in. He had to jump in.
You in Paris. God ain't listening to your Paris
prayers. The Holy Ghost had to jump in.
You go, man, why can't I pray? Why? Why? The Holy Ghost had
to jump in. You'll get that one day. I thank
him. I thank our God. The enormity
of the blessing of all three persons in your life, is why
we underscore grace. The enormity of the blessing
of all three persons in your life is why we underscore the
concept of grace. Because if you have the ability
to infer from what I'm saying, what you recognize is all three
of the persons are working on your behalf on levels that fundamentally
simply make you the object of their love and mercy. You tear
it up, they fix it. Yeah, you need to cry. You need
to cry. You need to thank him. Point
number three, there will be no successful separation. Are you
there? There will be no successful separation.
The Apostle Paul is amazing to me. Amazing. Thank you, Lord,
for Paul. He said there will be no successful
separation from the love of God in Christ. Listen to what he
says in verse 35. Who? shall separate us from the love of
God in Christ. Now, just like with accusation
and just like with condemnation, the whole world is going to seek
to separate you from Christ. Just like with accusation. Somebody
going to say, now, you're not a believer, you're a hypocrite,
you lie too much, you do this too much, you do that too much.
That's true. But that don't stop me from being a believer in Christ. Your own fallen nature, your
own sinful nature is gonna say to you, see man, see how you
thinking, see how you acting? Brother, you so deep in the gutter, you
can't be saved. That's true. But Christ is my righteousness
anyway. That's the new nature in you saying, yeah, that's him,
that ain't me. Didn't we learn that in Romans 7? The good that
I would, I'm not doing that. The evil that I would not do,
that's my old man doing that. So that I struggle and I find
myself saying a wretched man that I am who shall deliver me
from this body of death. I thank God That through my Lord
Jesus Christ with the new man I serve the law of God with the
old man the law of sin So I accept the struggle Until the day this
thing is fully and totally glorified. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
now the only reason you can talk like that is because the Holy
Ghost intercedes to keep your mind and heart in Christ Jesus
and No separation. No separation. What shall separate
us? Who shall separate us from the
love of God in Christ? And literally, it's nothing that
shall separate us, the way Paul is putting it. The who is in
a personified way because it seems so personal. When you and
I are going through trials, we wonder who in the world is coming
against us. But you and I know that there
is a maniacal force called the devil and all of his host of
fallen angels that would send you to hell with them, would
they not? And the reason you find yourself
falling and fearing is because you know you got tripped up. You got tripped up. And I'll
just say this as I go on to build my last point. You're not smarter
than the devil. No, you're not smarter than the
devil. because you're so dumb and he trips you up if it wasn't
for the mercy of God if it wasn't for the mercy of God if it wasn't
for the mercy of God because you cannot outwit the devil he
will get you every time who what or who shall separate us from
the love of God in Christ nothing although point a men will forsake
you this is true Ladies and gentlemen men will forsake you and being
abandoned Is one of the devil's tactics as well Because he would
have you to be isolated By people who do not understand who you
are in christ And the trouble that you're going through this
is very important. I'm gonna keep preaching until I finish today You don't
have to come back, but I gotta drop this. This has got to be
dropped. This is very important So see here's the other way it
works and this I pray that you who call yourself children of
God stop this crap Because this whole idea of abandoning people
and threatening to abandon you get mad and argue I'm talking
about husbands and wives. I'm gonna leave you. I'm gonna
leave you. I'm gonna abandon you I'm gonna separate myself
from you. Who are you? Who are you in yourself? that
think you can have the idea of just abandoning somebody like
you're not a hell-bound sinner that doesn't need the grace of
God to keep you too. Are you hearing me? Are you here?
And we do it with each other. Abandon, shun, separate. I've told you this in the marriage
series. When you do that, you're telling people to go to hell. And the pain that comes with
abandonment It's so powerful that my master
on the tree cried out, Eloi, Eloi, sabbathachthani. My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me? Do you hear me? That's something
we will work through in Psalms 22. But abandonment is the precipice
to hell. And when you play that card,
you are seeking to destroy relationships. Are you hearing me? When you
play that card, you are seeking to destroy relationships and
you better be very careful. You better make sure your footing
is right. Do you hear me? Who shall separate us from the
love of God in Christ? The devil would do it all the time. Remember
what David said in Psalm 2710, when my mother and my father
forsake me? Ain't that what he said? And we have the implications
of it in the historical narrative, don't we? Jesse had no desire
for David to be the man that God had called to be the king
of Israel, out of whose loins the Lord Jesus Christ would come.
Can you imagine a daddy rejecting you when you are designated to
be the king? Can you understand David's pathology?
Can you understand his emotional bench? Can you understand how
he acted the way he acted once he got on the throne? Can you
see how then he was overloving to some of his kids? overloving
to Solomon, overloving to Absalom because he swore he would never
ever abandon his kids again because he knows what abandonment is
like when his own daddy acted like David didn't exist when
Samuel came to the house. Show them seven boys. The other
boy was out there. He didn't say anything. That's
abandonment. That's abandonment. Do you hear
me? The world will abandon you. But I'm sure David was so clearly
and keenly aware of the presence of the Holy Ghost with him out
in the field as he was taking care of those sheep. Will God
stay with his people? Point B, God will never forsake
you. When you're his, he will never
forsake you. Is that true? When you're his, he will never
forsake you. Mark 16, 20, Jesus tells the disciples, go ye into
all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. Watch this.
And the Lord was with them performing the work. See, God will never
tell you to do something for which he won't come alongside
of you and help you get it done. And even in the midst of you
doing God's will, when the world forsakes you, guess who's going
to be right there with you? Who? The Lord Jesus Christ, Daniel,
Shadrach and Meshach. Remember those three brothers
thrown into the fiery furnace, rejected by the whole Babylonian
system? Who is that fourth brother in
the fire with them? dancing, doing the shuffle, dancing in
that fire. The Lord Jesus Christ, the angel
of the Lord, who let those three boys know that because you've
stood for my gospel, Lord, I'm with you always to the end of
the world. These are amazing truths. You know what child of
God though? I believe it with every part of me. I believe that.
I believe God shows up when we stand up for him. I believe that
he shows up. Do you believe it? I believe that God shows up. This is what we call the preservation
of the saints. The previous one is what we call
the perseverance of the saints. Perseverance is when God, by
the grace of faith in you, gives you the ability to work out your
salvation with fear and trembling. That means he teaches you how
to walk. He helps you when you fall. You have to struggle in
perseverance. Preservation, God's doing all
the work. He's securing you so that you don't ultimately fall.
That's preservation. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Preservation is as simple as this. My sheep hear my voice
and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they shall
never perish. That's preservation. You can
shut it all down right there because God can't lie, fail or
change. Finally, their evidence, their
rejection rather of the world is an evidence of their what? Now see, we're turning the corner
into that last line. Whereas I've been sharing with
my men here on Saturdays for two weeks of how important it
is for you to have a kind of faith. that's able to embrace
troubles and filter it through God's objective for conforming
you to the image of Jesus Christ. That when you and I properly
understand the magnificent promise that everything is working together
for good, that you can embrace it and learn from it so that
you can actually see what God is doing in your life. So that
you can see in the midst of what is in your mind a setback is
simply a strategy on God's part to build you up and shape you
into the image of Christ and even to put you in a position
where you can advance God's glory in terms of the gospel. Now watch
this. This is what we mean by we are
more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Can you imagine
your enemies coming against you? They're coming against you to
do one thing, conquer you. And then God turns it around.
Well, you conquered him. They're seeking to conquer you
and you end up conquering them. They put you in a situation where
they're trying to shut you up in prison or shut you up on the
job. And that opens the door for a
platform by which you get to share the gospel. They try to
take you out. You end up in the hospital ward
with four people around you. And God means for some of those
folks to be saved. And all he did was let you get
sick because you're the person that he has chosen to open your
mouth and share Christ with them. The enemy is trying to subdue
you and you just subdued him. This is crazy. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? When you properly understand
suffering as having a redemptive component in your transformation
and God's glory, then you ask God to help you see it for what
it's designed to be and then to position you so he can use
you in the midst of that trouble to bring him glory. I'm just
going to quote two verses to help us comprehend this. This
is so very important. We're at our fourth point. The
believers are more than conquerors through suffering because of
Christ. I prepared that fourth line advisedly. Do you see it? The believers
are more than conquerors through what? Own it. You're more than conquerors through
suffering because of Christ. What Paul describes from verses
37 through 38 are nine things that amount to one word, the
world. Remember, he says nothing's going
to separate us, life, death, things to come, things present,
angels, principalities, all that. You can read that for yourself.
It's all summed up under one word. Are you ready? The world.
The world. The world system would seek to
separate you. But watch this now and destroy
you. But you are more than conquerors because in every situation God
makes a way to use you to advance the cause of the gospel when
you submit to him in it. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, 17. I'm going to develop just this
verse a little bit, and I'm going to leave you with it. Just let
it tie your head up. Because it tore me up for our
light affliction. Do you see that? So right, now
watch this. This is the same dude talking
in 2 Corinthians 4 that's talking in Romans chapter 8. This is
the dude that's been cast into the sea, left to be drowned,
He had been beat to death. God had to raise him again from
the dead. He's been thrown in prison. He's been tortured like
I don't know what this the brother that's talking. Do you know what
he's calling all of his trials? A light affliction. Now, why
is Paul talking like this? Because he's crazy. No, not because
he's crazy, because he knows the difference between the qualitative
nature. Of glory on the one side of the
scale and the temporary ethereal, fleeting, substantless trials
that go on for a minute in this life. Now child of God, when
you can see on one side of the scale the eternal weight of glory
that's yours, and on this side of the scale the temporary sufferings
of this life, and realize that according to Romans 8, 17, watch
this, ain't no comparison that's literally the greek word this
don't have any weight compared to that you look at that and
you go this ain't nothing this is what i got coming but it's
even more than that in second corinthians 4 17 what paul is
teaching us is the afflictions that are on the left side of
the scale every time those afflictions are placed on the scale the glory
increases on the right side of the scale it increases this is
crazy This is crazy. Now watch this now. Here's what
he said. Your light trials, brother, the stoning and beating, that's
nothing compared to what your Lord went through. More than
that, every time you suffer for Christ and you endure it well,
it simply adds to the wealth and the worth of the glory of
God that he has for you. It adds to the wealth and worth
of the glory of God. Watch this now. If you really
get this, you will embrace suffering because don't you want more?
Don't you want more? Lord, lay it on! Lay it on! For your glory's sake, add! And
I might say it like this, and I'm done. If God has chosen to
allow you to suffer for Christ's sake, He has been pleased to
honor you. Like we said last week, if you
honor Him, He'll do what? If God has chosen to let you
suffer for Christ's sake, He's honoring you. He's filling up
your bank account. He's making you a gazillion times
richer than Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and all the rest of
the world together. Simply because you're enduring
hardship for Jesus Christ. And every time you and I do it
in faith, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. You
got that? You guys got that? Y'all got
that over there? Hold on to it and ask God to make it plain
to you because as soon as you walk out this door, it's coming.
We're going to have the offering right now and closing the word
of prayer.