Recently I watched a movie about
Stonewall Jackson and the Civil War. And Jackson was standing,
actually was mounted on his horse as volleys of cannon fire roared
by him. Animals scared, men scared, everybody
running for shelter. And Jackson held the reins of
his horse tight and stood firm. He was hit by a rifle shot in
his hand. And he never turned his face away from the battle.
After the battle was over, one of his underlings came up to
him and said to him, where do you find such bravery? How can you stand in the face
and the heat of such conflict and show no fear? And Jackson
replied, I believe God. Did all men alike believe God? All men were alike be brave. What a statement. I believe God. Now what is the thing that gives
you confidence? Where is your assurance? Both
with regard to things in time and with regard to your eternal
salvation. For most people, They look within. And looking within, if you find
anything at all to give you the least measure of strength or
peace or confidence, I assure you, you find nothing but self-righteousness
within you. And it will wither. It will wither
before any storm. It will not stand. It will not
stand. People look to their feelings.
Well, I feel saved. Most of the time I don't. I'm just as honest as I can be
with you. I wish I could feel something.
Most of the time I feel dead. If your confidence is in your
feelings, I assure you, Your feelings will wither when put
to the trial. Well, I had an experience. Your
experience won't give you any peace. I've watched it many times. Folks lean on their experience. They trust what they experienced.
This is their confidence before God. And when the rubber hits
the road, their experience ain't worth the rubber on the road.
Martin Luther put it this way, feelings come, and feelings go,
and feelings are deceiving. I trust the written word of God,
naught else is worth believing. Our hope, our confidence, our
peace is to be found in the purpose of God Almighty. as revealed
in his word, in the person and work of his son, finished and
accomplished. Now I want us to be convinced
in our souls, contrary to popular opinion, the God of this world,
the God who made and rules this world, the God who reveals himself
on the pages of this book, in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ,
The only true and living God is a God of purpose. Absolute, sovereign, eternal,
unconditional, indestructible, infallible purpose. I read this
to you earlier today when we began our service this morning.
Turn to Isaiah 14. I want you to see it. Isaiah chapter 14. Lucifer is blustering. The old serpent's hissing at
the throne of God. Like the dragon he's described
to be, he's breathing out fire against God Almighty. I'm going
to take over. Shove you off your throne. I'll
be God. You don't know how best to take
care of things. I'll take over. And God Almighty
doesn't even appear to have heard it. I mean by that, he just ignored
it. He just ignored it. I said to
somebody the other day, I said, I just ignore them. I said, I
ignore them in such a way they know they're being ignored, it
doesn't do any good to ignore them. And if folks yak, I just
ignore them. And let them know they're being
ignored. Totally ignored. That's what God does here. Here
in Isaiah 14, after Lucifer gets done with his blustering, the
Lord God speaks about his saving of his people as representing
and delivering his people out of Assyrian bondage. Look at
verse 24. The Lord of hosts hath sworn,
saying, Surely as I have fought, so shall it come to pass. As
I have purposed, so shall it stand. Look at verse 26. This is the purpose that is purposed
upon the whole earth. And this is the hand that is
stretched out upon all nations. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed,
and who shall disannul it? And his hand is stretched out,
and who shall turn it back? This is my confidence. This is
my peace. This is how I face the frowning
world. This is how I face the difficulties
that arise day by day. Everything in this world comes
to pass precisely according to the sovereign, eternal, unalterable
purpose of God's grace to the saving of His people. It is written
in the book, every purpose of the Lord shall be performed. It shall be performed that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. I have confidence in this as
well, as God's purpose is unconditional, infallible, indestructible, so
too is His grace. Oh, thank God for grace that
cannot be destroyed. The grace of God, you see, does
not in any measure depend upon you and me. It doesn't depend
on what we feel, what we experience, what we think, what we are, what
we say, or what we do. The grace of God is free and
unconditional. It is not brought to us by our
will, but by His will. It is not brought to us by our
work, but His work. It is not something that we have
control over, but that which He gives freely and boundlessly. Look in Romans chapter 9. I know
folks say, well, where does the will of man come into play? It
doesn't. It just doesn't. Well, what part does man have
in salvation? None. None. What's man going
to do? Nothing. Nothing. Salvation is
all together by the will and purpose of God Almighty who has
mercy on whom he will have mercy. Let's see if God says that. Romans
9, 15. He saith to Moses, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. So then, it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. You see, grace is not God's response
to us. Grace is not God's response even
to our need. Grace anticipated our need, and
grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And that grace that God gave
to us from eternity, he will not take from us in time. And
nobody can cause him to take it away. No one. Now were I to
choose to do so, to select one chapter in the Bible that identifies
and defines the grace of God most clearly, most distinctly,
most plainly, it would be Romans the 8th chapter. Turn with me
to that passage and just hold your Bibles open there. Here the Apostle Paul identifies
and defines God's sovereign purpose. He identifies and defines God's
work of grace for us. He plainly declares what God
has done for chosen sinners in Christ. He has freed us from
all condemnation, we're told in the first four verses. When
Christ Jesus died as our sin-bearing substitute to take away the sins
of his people, when he died in the place of sinners upon Mount
Calvary, bearing all the wrath of God, he fully satisfied all
the justice of God, took all our condemnation away. And there's
therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ. In
verses 15 through 16, Paul speaks about God the Holy Spirit being
given us. He described in the earlier verses
our life in the Spirit. He says the Spirit of God is
given to us as the Spirit of adoption. And then in verse 17,
he tells us that being the sons of God, we are heirs of God and
joint heirs with Christ. In verses 23, 24, and 25, the
grace of God that we have experienced gives us hope of the resurrection
so that while we're in this tabernacle, we grow. He says the whole creation
groans and travails. Groans. Ever been in the woods
when the wind blows and there are huge trees and the trees
just kind of crack and pop? I hear that and I think, the
creation is groaning under the burden of sin. God's going to
make it all new. Everything in here is just cracking
and popping. Groaning under the burden of
sin. But groaning with anticipation. God's going to make it all new.
But I have hope of the resurrection. And then in verse 28, God has
given us the blessed knowledge and assurance of his wise and
good providence. Shown us that all these blessings
that we have in Christ have been brought to us by God's gracious
operation in providence of all things in time. Tells us how
that God by his mighty hand does all things valiantly for us.
And he tells us in verses 29 and 30 that all these things
are ours. And all that we hope for shall
be ours because of God's purpose of grace in which he predestined
us unto the adoption of children, called us, justified us, and
glorified us in his purpose before the world began. Now that's where
I left off this morning. I want to pick up right where
I left off. Look at verse 31. What shall we then say to these
things? That's the title of my message.
I want to talk to you about assurance arising from and based upon the
purpose of God. What shall we then say to these
things? What shall we say to the fact
that there is no condemnation to our souls? What shall we say
to the fact that we are the sons of God? What shall we say to
the fact that God Almighty works all things together for our good
according to His purpose? What shall we say to the fact,
now listen, what shall we say to the fact, the fact that God
has saved us from eternity in His sovereign purpose? that God
Almighty called us, justified us, glorified us, made us accepted
and beloved in Jesus Christ before the world began. In answering that question, Paul
raises five questions. And these five questions will
form my message to you this evening. Let's look at them together.
Here are five bold, confident challenges issued by a man who
believed God. I don't know whether you do this
or not, I try to picture When I read either ordinary books
or when I read this book, I try to picture what must be going
on in the writer's mind, in his heart, as he's writing. And as
I read this 8th chapter of Romans, when I get down to the end of
verse 30 and come to read verses 31 through 39, I look at that
and I think, Paul having just described the things he's described,
man, his heart must have just been bouncing. He just, oh, God's
grace, God's goodness, God's purpose, God's absolute goodness
to me, just floods his soul. And he sings with his piano in
hand now to be waving palm branches of victory, saying, listen, saints
of God, let me tell you what to say to these things. I'll
say this. If God be for us, who can be
against us? This is what the psalmist said.
He said, when I cry unto the Lord, my enemies shall be silent,
for God is for me. God is for me. If God be for
us, in His everlasting purpose, in his mighty provisions and
providence, in his saving goodness, if God be for us, if God Almighty
is for us, who can be against us? Now that doesn't mean nobody's
going to oppose us. If you've I've been a believer
for just a few minutes, you know better than that. We have opposition
all the time. Meet with opposition every day.
But nobody shall successfully oppose us. In fact, their opposition
will only do us good. Who can be against us? Who can
be against us if God be for us? The Lord God Almighty being for
us, let all earth and hell Unite against us. Nothing shall hurt
us. Therefore say ye to the righteous,
It is well with the righteous. Turn to Psalm 118. Psalm 118. Hold your hands here in Romans
8. We'll be right back. Listen to how the psalmist speaks of
God being for us. Psalm 118, verse 4. Let them
now that fear the Lord say, His mercy forever. I like the added
word by our translators, endureth, but I like the reading better
without it. His mercy forever. Forever. Forever. I called upon the Lord in distress. The Lord answered me and set
me in a large place. I called on the Lord when I was
pressed tight, and the Lord enlarged my place. Verse 6. The Lord is on my side. The Lord
is on my side. I will not fear what man can
do unto me. The Lord taketh my part. Did
you see how he wrote that? The Lord taketh all the time. The Lord taketh my part. If any
of you, or all of you who have more than one child, I'll guarantee
you sometime or another they come squabbling and they say,
well you're taking her part, you're taking his part. The Lord
always takes my part. He takes my part, look at it.
He takes my part with them that help me. Therefore shall I see
my desire upon them that hate me. It's better to trust in the
Lord than to put confidence in man. Better to trust in the Lord
than to put confidence in you. I put confidence in any other
man. And far better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence
in me. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence
in princes. Verse 14. The Lord is my strength
and my song and has become my salvation. The voice of rejoicing
and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous. The right hand
of the Lord doeth valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is
exalted. The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. Therefore,
here's the conclusion of all this. I shall not die, but live
and declare the works of the Lord. Alright, back to Romans
8. Here's the second challenge. Verse 32. He that spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him freely give us all things. I deliberately try to avoid when
I am studying and when I am preaching any kind of summation of things
logically. We don't want and we must not
allow our faith to stand in logic. That is in our logic. But here's
heavenly logic, and that's the only logic to be trusted. If
God Almighty sacrificed his darling son to redeem our worthless souls, he won't withhold anything from
us. Now that's good logic. That's
good logic. He spared not his own son. He took the darling of heaven,
the darling of his heart, and spared him not the humiliation
of becoming a man. Though he was rich, yet for your
sakes he became poor that you through his poverty might be
made rich. He spared him not the temptations of Satan. He spared him not the slander
of men who accused him of being a glutton and a winebibber, as
you just read. He spared him not the slanderous
accusations of men. Even his own brethren, his kinsmen,
saw him one day when everybody turned thumbs down and said,
well, he's gone mad. He belongs in the net house.
He spared Him none of those things. He spared Him not the betrayal
of His friend. He spared Him not the cursing
of His own disciple. He spared Him not the agony of
Gethsemane. And He spared Him not the death
of the cross when He was made to be sin for us. Father, our
Savior said three times, if it be possible, Let this cup pass
from me. But he spared him not. He spared
him not. He spared him not. He made him
to be sin for us and poured out on him all the horror of hell
as our substitute. In one tremendous work of God's
justice, he poured on Christ all the wrath we deserve for
the satisfaction of his justice and the punishment of our sins.
And then he forsook him, abandoned him, turned his back upon him,
so that the Son of God cries, My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? He spared him not. God the Father,
because of his great love for us, delivered Christ into the
hands of death and justice for the redemption and salvation
of our souls. Now, be assured, my brother,
Be assured, my sister, He will with His Son freely. Isn't that a great word? Freely. You won't have to twist
His arm to get it. Freely. You won't have to bombard
Heaven to get it. Freely. You may not even know
you need it. He will with Him freely give
us all things. You reckon that's true? You reckon
that's true? He gave us his son. All right,
look at the third question. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Well, lots of folks try. Lots
of folks try. how often we charge ourselves,
how quick we are to charge one another. God forgive us. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Satan, you slithering slime ball,
have you considered my servant Job? You haven't been thinking
a lot about him. He serves you because of what
he can get out of you. Let's see. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Now what is it you've been doing
to Job? I told you he serves you what he can get out of you
and the only reason he still serves you is because you've
hedged him about. Let's see. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Let men say what they will. Let
hell say what it will. Let your own experience say what
it will. It is God, now look at this word,
that justifieth. Oh, I like that. I like that. Justifieth. This morning I showed
you the verbs in Romans 8, 29, and 30 were all in the past tense. This is in the present tense. And I don't know how to communicate
this, and forgive me for even referring to it, but in the Greek
language, you have eight verb tenses. In our language, you
just have three. So any time you translate from
eight verb tenses to three verb tenses, you're going to lose
something. In the Greek past, the eros means
much more than just that was done yesterday. And here, when
he speaks of justified, anytime you see that ETH ending on a
verb in our King James translation, it means that it is in the present
linear tense. That is, it is something once
begun that just keeps on and keeps on and keeps on and keeps
on and keeps on being done. Do you mean God's Continuing
to justify his people all the time? Yeah. Not judicially, no. No, that
was done at Calvary. That was done back yonder in
eternity. That was done once and for all.
But in our experience, just as when we first come to believe
on the Son of God, He declares us just. So in our day-by-day
experience, as my conscience torments me at times, as our
hearts torment us at times, as we know the vileness and the
corruption and the depravity of our nature, as we struggle
with our sin, as we just acknowledge, God, this is what I am! Help
me! He says, you're justified. He
declares us just. Let's see if I can make good
on that. Turn over to 1 John 1, verse 9. 1 John 1, verse 9. Sometimes men, with their peanut
brain wisdom, think they get smarter than God, Decide to,
you know, we need to say things just exactly right. We don't
want to say anything wrong. That fellow said to me one time,
he referred to him as a sinner, a preacher. He said, I'm not
a sinner anymore, I'm a saint. I said, you're what? I'm not
a sinner anymore, I'm a saint. God's forgiven me. And then he
took me to task and said, we should never pray for forgiveness.
That was already done. And that's just what I did. Went
on and had lunch. If we confess our sins, He's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Faithful to His
Word, faithful to His Son, just to His law, just to His nature
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Let us ever Confess our sins
to Him. And hear Him declare, justified. Justified. Alright, look at verse
34, Romans 8. Here's the fourth question. Who is He that condemneth? Who is He? Who shall condemn to endless
flames the chosen people of our God? Who is he that condemneth? And the implication is, nobody
can. Nobody can. Nobody can. And there's a reason. It's Christ
that died. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, having died in our room instead, has fully satisfied
all the holy law and justice of God on our behalf. And that
means sin will never be brought up, not by God. It's been put
away. It's been put away. Not only
has he died, yea rather that he's risen again. Our Lord Jesus
died. To show that he really did die,
he was buried in the tomb. Buried as a condemned felon. Buried as a criminal. Buried
as a sinner who died because he deserved to die. Buried in
the tomb. But three days later he rose
again justified in the Spirit as a freed man. The law having
no claim on him because sin had been put away by him. Who is
even at the right hand of God. Our Lord Jesus He said, when the Spirit of God comes
to convince you, he'll convince you of righteousness because
I go to my Father. Larry, he came down here to bring
in everlasting righteousness and to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. That was the mission upon which
he was sent from heaven down to this earth. And he could not
go back to glory and be accepted as a failure. He said, I go to
my Father. He is at the right hand of God. He who was made to be sin for
us. He who is our substitute, our
surety, our mediator. He who is Jehovah's attenu, the
Lord our righteousness. He's at the right hand of the
Father. Who did you say gonna condemn us? Who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea rather
that is risen again, who's even at the right hand of God. Now
watch this. Who also maketh. There it is again. Maketh. Constantly, without fail, intercession
for us. Five bleeding wounds he bears,
received at Calvary, they pour effectual prayers. They strongly
plead for me. Forgive him. Oh, forgive, they
cry. Don't let that ransom sinner
die. He maketh intercession all the
time. All the time. He pleads our calls
as our advocate in the court of heaven. It is wonderful, it is marvelous
to understand that we have an advocate in heaven who is the
son of God. But our comfort is not to be
derived from the idea that somehow maybe he can bribe the judge to do what's
wrong. No, no, no, no. Our comfort is
derived from the fact that He pleads justice on our behalf. He pleads justice on our behalf. He doesn't plead mercy. He doesn't
plead grace. He pleads justice on our behalf. Let's see. 1 John 2. 1 John 2. John's writing his epistle, and
he says, my little children, these things write I unto you,
that you sin not. Children of God, don't ever look upon sin as a
light thing, neither in word nor in deed, nor in thought,
nor in heart. A man I've known for a long time
said to me the other day, well, our being forgiven of sin, the
best thing for us to do about our sin is just not think about
it, forget about it, and go on. God's forgiven us. And I said, oh no. Oh no. No. No. Sin ought to break our hearts. How I pray that God will somehow
cause the sin that's in here to cause me just somewhere close
to as much pain in here as the sin I see out yonder causes me
anger. These things write unto you that
you sin not. And if any man sin, now you can
write that word if, as big or as little as you want to, this
is what John is saying, when you do sin. When you do sin. What happens when the believer
sins? In us, a lot. In us, David, is pain and sorrow
and grief. The heavens sometimes appear
as brass. It seems that God has forsaken
us. What happens when a believer
says, in us, a great deal, a great deal. But with God in heaven, nothing. Nothing changes. Nothing changes. How come? If any man sin, we
have, not we've lost, we have an advocate. An advocate, one
who stands by our side and pleads our calls. An advocate with the
Father. His name is Jesus, who came to
save sinners. Jesus Christ, the anointed, appointed,
redeemer of his people. Jesus Christ, the righteous. This man, who brought in everlasting
righteousness by his obedience. And He is the propitiation. Do you remember how that publican
prayed? God be merciful to me, the sinner. The word merciful,
that's it right there. He is the propitiation. The justice
satisfying atonement. The propitiation. He is that
by which the anger and wrath and fury and justice of God Almighty
is forever propitiated. He's the propitiation for our
sins. And not for ours only, but also
for the sins of the whole world. That is, for the sins of His
elect, scattered through all the world. Who is He to condemn
us? Nobody can. You remember how
our Lord dealt with that woman in John chapter 8? The Pharisees
set a trap, caught her in adultery, caught her in the very act. Moses
in the law says, killer, what do you say? And the master stooped
down and wrote on the ground. I don't have any idea what he
wrote. Maybe names and places. I don't know. But he wrote on
the ground. And they're gone. They're just gone. Disappeared. Disappeared. And
the Lord Jesus is standing there with that woman alone, standing
in the midst. And he said, woman, where are
those unaccusers? Who now condemns you? No man,
Lord. Neither do I condemn thee. Go
and sin no more. All right, look at the fifth
question. Verse 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? We can separate ourselves from
the love of men We can separate ourselves from
one another's love. But God's love for us, Lindsay
Campbell, isn't anything like our love for one another. His love for us is free, unconditional,
indestructible. Nothing and nobody in heaven,
earth, or hell can separate us from his love. Look at how Paul
describes it. Shall tribulation, troubles in
this world, or distress? Distress. Distress of mind, of
heart. You squeeze tight. A persecution? Persecution for
the gospel's sake. A famine? Lack of food? A nakedness? Lack of sufficient clothing?
A peril? Dangers everywhere? A sword? Men raise the sword against you?
Shall these things separate us from the love of Christ? As it
is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are
counted as sheep for the slaughter. Who pays any attention to sheep
going to the slaughter? Why, they're worthless, brute
beasts. That's the reason they were born, was to go to the slaughter.
That's the reason we raised them, was to take them to the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors. through
him that loved us. More than conquerors. More than
conquerors. It didn't take much for us to
go over there and whip the tar out of those folks in Iraq, did
it? Conquered the land. But we're
going to have to keep on doing it. I promise you. Because they
weren't really conquered. They were just beat down for
a little while. Just beat down for a little while. The Lord
Jesus Christ has conquered death, hell, and the grave. He's conquered
sin and justice on our behalf so thoroughly, so completely
that those who would have destroyed us shall never rise again more
than conquerors, more than conquerors through him that loved us. Read
on. For I am persuaded, I'm absolutely convinced that neither death
nor life Wonder why I put it that way. Cause death won't give us near
as much trouble as life does, I suspect. Nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us.
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord. I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, and for no other reason,
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Amen.