I invite you to turn in your
Bibles to the book of Romans, chapter 8. Our brother is so
kind to read to us this morning, and I'd like to begin our reading
with verse 28, and read down through the 34th verse. Verses 28 through 34. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called,
them he also justified, and whom he justified them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. Yea, rather, that is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. I want this morning, God helping
me, to speak to you a little on verse 31, where it says, What
shall we then say to these things, if God be for us? If God be for
us, who can be against us?" Now, at the outset of the Persian
Gulf War, there was considerable speculation as to which side
God was conducted by Evangelist Billy
Graham. They were all praying, of course,
that God would be on our side. Now, President Bush, before the
National Religious Broadcasters Association on January the 28th,
quoted Abraham Lincoln, who was asked during the Civil War whether
he thought God was on his side. And Lincoln said, my concern
is not whether God is on our side, but whether we, are on
God's side. And President Bush went on to
say, My fellow Americans, I firmly believe in my heart of hearts
that times will soon be on the side of peace because the world
is overwhelmingly on the side of God. Well, when did that happen? When did that happen? in 1 John 5 and 19 says, and
we know that we're of God, but the whole world lieth in wickedness. Now, the truth that is asserted
here in this text is indisputable. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Now, this text, it seems to me,
protects itself from ill usage by, if you will observe that
the text is guarded with this little word, if, here as a sentinel,
this little word, if. If God be for us, who can be
against us? No man, therefore, has any right
to the treasure of this verse of scripture or this text unless
he can give the password, unless he can answer the question. The
question is, if God be for us, how is it that God is for us,
if God be for us? Now, beloved, unless a man has
been reconciled to God by the death of his son, unless a man
has been regenerated by the Divine Spirit and brought out of a state
of nature, unless the Spirit of God has been implanted in
him, then a man has no right to lay claim to God being for
him unless he has been reconciled unto God. We read in 2 Corinthians
5, verses 17 and 18 and verses following that, Therefore, if
any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. All things are passed
away, and behold, all things have become new, and all things
are of God. who hath reconciled us unto himself
by Jesus Christ, and to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, and hath given unto us the ministry of
reconciliation. And now we are ambassadors for
Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you, in Christ's
stead, be you reconciled unto God, because God hath made him
to be sin for us. He knew no sin, but that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. And what these verses
tell me is that there is a desperate need for our hearts and lives
to be reconciled unto God, our souls to be reconciled unto Him. It is not every man who can say,
God is on my side. It's not every man who can say,
God is for me. There's not ever a man that can
say, I'm reconciled unto God. On the contrary, I believe that
most men, and certainly all men by nature, are fighting against
God. They're against the God of the
Bible. They're in a state of rebellion.
They're unregenerate. Now, this is our bit by nature,
beloved, as that we are much of the friends
of sin, and God is against us. God is angry, the Bible says,
with the wicked every day. And the wicked shall be turned
into hell with all the nations that forget God. Now God is my
friend, against men with all the power of his inflexible justice
for their destruction unless they turn, unless they repent. God is against men by nature
because they're lovers of sin and they're haters of that which
is holy, and especially haters of God's own Son. Well, is God
for us? Can we say this morning, is there
anybody here in this group that can say, well I know that God
is for me, that God is for us. Now beloved, if he has been Made
real to your heart by the Holy Spirit if you've been reconciled
unto him by the death of his son Then beloved you can say
God is for me if you're his child I mean if God has done a work
of grace in your heart a real work of grace and if you've been
converted and brought into the living family of God then you
can say God is for me, but an absolute God is Let me point
this out, must be in arms against us for our God is a consuming
fire if we be outside the Lord Jesus Christ. If we be not in
Christ, then God must be against us. The hope and joy that is
received from a text of scripture such as the one that we're talking
about here this morning can begin only in our souls when we are
enlightened by the Spirit of God to see the deity incarnate,
when we see God surrendering the glories of His throne to
become man, and His stooping to that shameful death of the
cross, it is then that we see Emmanuel, God with us, and perceiving
Him, we can feel that He is on our side. Has this revelation
been made known to your heart? I mean, have you been able to
see Emmanuel, God, with us? And when God is with you, then
you can be sure that God is for you. And if He lives in your
heart in the person of the Son, the Lord Jesus, by the Spirit
of God, then you can be sure that God is for you. So you question
yourself as we speak this morning whether you be in Christ. Whether
you be for Christ, whether you be against Christ, whether God
is for you or against you. Now, he who is not with Christ
is not with God. If you're without Christ, you're
a stranger to God and you're under the wrath of God. Now,
there is a fountain, the old song says. There is a fountain
filled with blood. Drawn from Emmanuel's veins and
sinners plunged beneath that flood, they lose all their guilty
stains. Now if that be the case with
you this morning, then you can take this text and you can feed
upon it and be blessed, because if God be for us, Who can be
against us? If God be for us, what good would
it do anybody to be against us? Well, in order for me to speak
this morning to you on this text in a profitable way, and I trust
that the Spirit of God will make it profitable to our hearts,
I want to ask and answer a question. And that is, how is God for us? Now, we'll attempt to stay within
the chapter as much as we can here that's before us to try
to answer this question, how is God for us? If he is for us,
then how is he for us? Augustine, in his notes upon
the verses that precede our text here that we read to you this
morning, said that God is for us in four senses. And now if
you look back to verse 29 and 30, you'll find that the Lord
is for us because he has predestinated us. And then further, you will
see that he is for us because he has called us. And you'll
see that he is for us because he has justified us. And he is for us because he has
virtually glorified us and will actually do so. So the Lord is
for us in these four senses. And to the people of God, these
four, these here are, I think, four very prolific subjects of
thought. And I believe if we would meditate
upon these four things this morning, that the Lord would be pleased
to show us exactly how it is that he is for us. So number
one, God is for us because according to the words of the Apostle Paul
here, he has predestinated his people to be conformed to the
image of his own dear son. God has predestinated his people
to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, his beloved
son. Now if God has predestinated
us to eternal life, who can be against us. If God has purposed
our salvation, if God has decreed and predetermined and preordained
that we be his and that we be his children for time and eternity,
then what good would it do anybody to oppose that, resist that,
or to find fault with that? Charles Spurgeon made this comment
one time on the doctrine of election. He said, I believe the doctrine
of election because I'm quite sure that if God had not chosen
me, I would have never chosen him. And I'm sure that he chose
me before I was born or else he never would have chosen me
afterwards. Beloved, we believe that in the
decree of election that God predetermined, predestinated that we be His
and that we be conformed finally to the image of His Son. That
is the horizon which the Lord has set. Now if God has predestinated
us, then who can be against us? Ephesians 1 and 11 says, in whom
also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who has, according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. According to his own purpose,
we have been predestinated to obtain an inheritance. Now must
not the predestinating decree of God take effect? If God has
determined it, who shall disavow it? Who is it that's going to
disannul what God has purposed? If God has said that it shall
be, who is he that shall stay his hand or resist the omnipotent
arm of the Most High God? Who is it that shall interfere?
He said, let there be life, and there was life. He framed the
world by his own word out of nothing. God says, come forth,
and the world came forth. Yes, all things obey Him. Heaven adores him, hell trembles
at him, and no creature can resist him. If God is for his people
by predestination, then, beloved, who can be against him? As the
potter molds the clay according to his own will, while it revolves
upon the wheel, even so, the Almighty God does according to
his good pleasure in the arms of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the world. It is he that sitteth upon the
circle of the earth, and the inhabitants there are as grasshoppers. He taketh up the isle, the Bible
says, as a very little thing. Now who, then, out of these little
things can stand against the predetermining or predestinating
decree of God and resist that? I'm telling you this morning
that God is for us in predestination. The soothsayers of long ago said
to Haman, If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews before whom
thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him,
but shalt surely fall before him. And so, if any be of the
company of God's elect, If any be, if any belong to that living
family that God chose in old eternity and gave as a love gift
to his son, if he be of one of those whose names have been penned
down in the book of life before the world began, his enemies
may contend, but they shall never prevail against him. Because
God is for him, and he must come forth out of sin's death. into
life, and he must come out of sin's darkness into the light
of the gospel, and he must come home to the Lord Jesus Christ. He must stand whom the Lord ordains
to stand, because if God makes him to stand, he will stand.
And God will make all of his people to stand, because he's
given them a most sure standing in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So if God determined your salvation,
Neither mortal nor infernal power shall prevail to destroy you,
because God has predestinated us unto eternal life. So that we may boldly say that
if God be for us in predestination, who can be against us? Now, beloved,
we cannot believe in a disappointed God. I cannot, I cannot believe
in a disappointed God. Now if you can, if you can take
any comfort from the God of the Bible being less than absolutely
sovereign, then my friend, I do not understand how you can get
any comfort from your religion at all. The God of the Bible
must be absolutely sovereign. Now we cannot imagine the imperial
decree from the throne of God, from the throne of heaven being
treated as waste paper. If the Lord has decreed, and
to me it seems to me to be blasphemy to think that there's any power,
known or unknown, that can ever overcome him and his purpose. his purpose, if your soul be
written upon the palms of his hands, and graven upon his heart,
no weapon which is formed against you shall prosper, and every
tongue which riseth against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn,
because your God is for you in predestination." And he said,
that I love my son and I like him and I like everything about
him and I'm going to make all my family just like him. He has predetermined that all
of his children be just like his son and who can resist, who
can be against this, God will most surely accomplish that which
he's decreed to do. Now, number two, then, we go
on here and we see that God is on our side, for he has called
us. He has called us. Now, in the
word of God, much stress is laid upon calling. I suppose that
more than 165 times in the word of God, salvation is attributed
to a call, a call from God. an effectual call. Men and women
do not get saved apart from God calling them, and He calls His
people effectually according to His own purpose. according
to his own purpose. Now then, this is a great comfort
to the poor child of God, to the poor storm-tossed child of
God who's undergoing a great deal of pressure and difficulty
in this world to know that God has called him. and to know that
he's not shut up to a choice, his own choice of Christ, but
he's shut up to the fact that God has laid hold of him from
old eternity and that God purposed his calling and that the voice
of the Lord Jesus Christ was heard in his soul and he was
called effectually out of death into life and the liberty of
the gospel of the grace of God. So he has called us to be his
own. We read in 2 Thessalonians 2
and 13 where it says, But we are bound to give thanks unto
God, brethren beloved of God, because God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit
and the belief of the truth, whereunto he called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory that is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so we've been called by the
gospel unto the glory that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been effectually, irresistibly
called by God's grace. Now where God calls, let me point
this out to you because I believe it's very important for you to
understand this, that where God is pleased to give a call to
the heart, where he's pleased to speak to the heart, listen
to me, God will never desert those that he calls. Never, never,
never. We're told in Hebrews chapter
13 verse 5 and 6 where he said, let your conversation be without
covetousness and be content with such things as you have for he
hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee that you
may boldly say the Lord is my helper and I will not fear what
man shall do unto me. Now listen, if the Lord calls,
he'll not desert. The Lord is not going to abandon
you. The gifts and callings of God, Romans 11 verse 29 says,
are without repentance, meaning that God never goes back on his
calling. If God calls his people, then
he will not go back on that call. He never reverses the call which
he has given, but having once called his children, he remains
faithful to the call that he has given. Now, many of us here
this morning, I trust, have heard the sacred call of the gospel,
the sacred call of Jesus Christ to our souls, and have been enabled
to make our calling and election sure. We were called from darkness
to light. from sin to holiness, from self-righteousness
to spiritual faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the call. God has not called us to uncleanness,
but unto holiness. He's called us out of sin to
life, and out of death to life, and out of sin unto holiness. Now, he who has called you is
faithful. We read in 1 Corinthians 1-9,
God is faithful by whom you were called, unto the fellowship of
his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and he will not forsake the work
of his own hands." Now that's a glorious and blessed promise. He's not called you to finally
put you to shame. He's not laid hold of you to
bring you out like the children of Israel out of the land of
Egypt. God delivered them out of the land of Egypt with a mighty
strong arm, and he didn't call them out there to put them to
shame. Actually, they, I think, at different times felt that
he did, and they murmured and complained, and sometimes you
and I think, well, God's called me out, and He's laid hold of
me, and He's led me out, but what's going to happen now? Am
I going to be put to shame out here? Well, no. God will not
lead you out to put you to shame. He's not quickened you and preserved
you and brought you this far to turn you at last over into
the hand of the enemy. No, this calling of God, the
God that has called us is faithful, He is for us, because He has
called us out unto Himself. So be of good courage, and He
shall strengthen thine heart. Wait upon the Lord, for His call
will yet give you Everlasting comfort the call of the Lord
will give you comfort in your soul now then if God before us
as to Calling us then who can be against us. What good would
it do anybody to be against it? God's going to get His people
out of sin. He's going to get them into life.
He's going to get them into His Son, the Lord Jesus, because
of God are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. This is all God's
work. And so God is for us in predestination,
and He's for us in calling. And so, my friend, this morning,
if you be here and you say, well, I don't know whether I'm the
Lord's or not, well, has he called you? This is something that takes
place in time through the preaching of the gospel. God is pleased
to speak to your heart and to draw you unto himself. I remember a little story, and
I think I've told it before, but there was a young fellow,
about 12, 13 years old, that used to sit in the Metropolitan
Tabernacle in England in the days of Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
He'd come to church with his grandmother and he would sit
out very far out on the seat listening to Mr. Spurgeon preach. And his grandmother would say,
well, why don't you sit back in the pew because Mr. Spurgeon speaks quite loudly
and sure you can hear him. And he said, well, but Mr. Spurgeon
says that when the gospel is preached, that Christ is pleased
to call sinners unto himself. And I want to make sure that
if he calls me, then I'll hear. then I'll hear his voice. And
I'll tell you this, if you be one of God's elect, you will
hear his voice in the gospel. You'll hear his voice, and he
will speak to you, and he will call you out to himself. So I
say to you, be of good courage, and wait upon the Lord, and God
will say to your soul that your soul belongs to him, that he's
yours, and that you belong to him. Now then, the number three
thing was that God proves that he's for us by not only predestinating
and calling us, but by also justifying us. By justifying us. Now, I always love to talk about
the subject of justification. God making a sinner, a poor sinner,
to be just as if he had never committed a sin. God making us
righteous before him, justifying us, if you please. Now this shows
how God is for us. All the people of God, in the
language of an old preacher, is wrapped about with the righteousness
of Christ. We read in Romans 5 and 19 where
it says, For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners,
and so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. by the obedience of one, not
by the obedience of many, not by the obedience of you and Jesus,
but by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. The people of God are made righteous
by the obedience of Jesus Christ, by his obedience. Now, then,
and wearing that glorious robe, the eye of God sees no fault
in his people. Christ is seen and not the sinner. He can find no sin in Jacob nor
iniquity in Israel. The people of God are justified. They're justified. Christ being
perfection. The believer is seen as perfect. in Him. When God looks upon you,
if you be in Christ, He sees the perfection of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He doesn't see you. He doesn't
see your faults and frailties because we're without spot and
blemish before Him. He chose us according to Ephesians
1 and 4, according as ye have chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. And so God has fixed it up so
all of his people are accepted and perfect in the Beloved, the
Lord Jesus. God regards his people the same,
with the same, the very same affection as that wherewith he
loves his only begotten Son. God's affection is the same toward
his people as it is toward the Lord Jesus Christ. The poet said,
So near, so very near to God, near I cannot be, for in the
person of his Son I am as near as he. Now then in verse 33 here
of our text you read where it says, Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Now
Satan is the accuser of the brethren, and many times he accuses you. I'm quite certain that you're
not able partly to get through a day or a week at the very most
that Satan does not accuse you and throw in your face all that
you've ever done and all the wickedness and sinfulness of
inbred corruption. I'm sure that we all are accused
by Satan. But I want you to understand
this. It is God that justifies. Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It is God that justifies. And what that means to me is
that if God has pronounced us clean, then clean we are. Let Satan say what he wants to
say, clean we are. Now if he proclaimed us just,
If we're covered with the righteousness of Christ, then just we are. Justified we truly are before
God. Satan can lay a thousand things
to my charge. Who is he that condemneth, verse
34 says. If Jesus pronounces our acquittal,
then we are acquitted. We are indeed acquitted, being
justified by faith. Romans 5 and 1 says we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. If God be at peace with
you, then it doesn't matter who is at war with you. If your master
has acquitted you, then it little matters who condemns you, who
it is that would condemn you. If the Lord absolves, If the
Lord forgives, if the Lord casts your sins behind His back as
far as the east from the west, if the Lord casts your sins into
the deepest sea, then, beloved, your name may be cast out as
evil, You may be ranked among the vilest of the vile, your
name might be a byword and a proverb only fit to be brought up in
the drunkard's song, but it's God before us in justification
who can be against us. Romans 8 and 1, there is therefore
now no condemnation, no judgment awaiting those that are in Christ
Jesus. because the judgment already
struck on Calvary's mount and the Lord Jesus Christ has paid
our sin debt to the full and there is no judgment awaiting
those who have been justified by God. This proves that God
is for us because he's met every demand of our soul and he's provided
all that he demanded of us. in the person of His Son, and
He's given us a right standing before Him, and we are accepted,
surely accepted, in the Beloved. Now then, we come yet again to
another thing, and that is, according to our text, that God is for
us because He has virtually glorified us, and will actually do so if
God be for us. This is how God is for us. I'm
not going to just get up here and tell you this morning that
God is for you because you pay your debts and God is for you
because you're an outstanding citizen in society. I'm telling
you God is for us because He's dealt with our need and He's
met our need in and through His Son, the Lord Jesus. Now then,
He's glorified us. Now in one sense, God's people
are glorified even now. They're glorified even now for
He raised us up together. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse
6 says He raised us up together and made us sit together with
the Lord Jesus Christ in heavenly places, in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus. Now I want you to get that. It
does not say that we shall sit there in the by and by Now we
will sit there in the by and by, but he hath made us sit there
even now. Positionally in Christ we are
already seated at the right hand of God with the Lord Jesus. Let
me explain. Now we do sit there at this hour
for Christ is the representative. took his seat in heaven representatively. Now that's what the Word of God
teaches. He made us sit in heavenly places. God is for us because we died
in him, we were raised in him, and when he went up to heaven,
we went to heaven in him, and we're seated at the right hand
of God in Christ. Our citizenship is in heaven
and we're looking for Jesus to come back, but our citizenship
is already there because our representative, our head, is
there. Now then, glorification is not
a thing which may be. It's not a thing which may be,
but it's a thing which must be. It must be because we're already
seated in heaven in Christ. Now, come ye blessed of my Father,
Jesus said, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. Did you get that? Prepared for
you, for the chosen people of God. The kingdom is prepared
for you. Now the covenant wisdom of God. Now you listen to me, what I
have to say here, because this is glorious to be able to talk
about this. being sinners as we are, feeling
the weaknesses that we feel, experiencing the difficulties
and the adversities and the ups and downs that we all experience,
and feeling the doubts and the fears that sweep over our souls
from time to time, it's glorious to think on these things that
God has done in being for us. And if God's done all of this
for us, we ought to know about it. My friend, listen, to be
blessed and to have these blessings and then to be ignorant of them,
my friend, is a terrible thing. It's like the old Indian woman
who lived in poverty all of her life. and died in poverty, and
it was discovered among her papers that she had inherited a lot
of money back a number of years before, and she was ignorant
of it, and she lived in poverty all of her life, and was not
conscious of the fact that in reality she was a wealthy person. And so you and I this morning,
we can say, well, the preacher said God's for us. The Word of
God says that if God be for you, who can be against you? And the
Word of God tells you how God is for you. And you ought to
listen up and you ought to pay attention to what the Word of
God says in order that you might, my friend, be able to receive
this truth into your soul to the comfort of your heart. Now listen to me what I have
to say here. The covenant wisdom of God will
never prepare a kingdom for men who will not ultimately get there. We hear all this talk about men
and women coming and being saved and then falling away. My friend,
there is no truth to that. The covenant wisdom of God will
never prepare a kingdom for men who will not ultimately get there. Let me say, would He plan and
arrange how to make His people eternally blessed and yet suffer
them to perish by the way? Would he do that? Absolutely
not. Prepared for you. Remember that
he prepared this kingdom from the foundation of the world. There is a crown, this means
to me in heaven, which no head can fit. but yours. If you're
a child of God, if you're one of God's elect, if you've been
called by His irresistible grace and spirit, there's a crown in
heaven which no head, I mean, can possibly fit but yours, and
there's a harp which no fingers will ever touch but mine, if
you please, And there is a mansion in heaven which will never be
rightly tenanted if you do not get there, because the kingdom
has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
God has glorified His people. We were called to obtain the
glory in Jesus Christ, and this is His glory. The old song that
Mike led us in, the role shall be called a pionder, and when
the role is called a pionder, not one of the redeemed of the
Lord shall be found absent. Not one of the redeemed of the
Lord shall be found not there. David's chair shall not be empty
in glory. There will be all of God's people
gathered around the throne. All God's people will be there
because we're all in Christ and already represented there by
Him right now. And so we shall be there. The
poet said, Not death, no hell shall e'er divide his chosen
from his breast. In the dear bosom of his love
they must forever rest. This, beloved, is the fourth
reason why God is for us. And it proves, I think, beyond
a shadow of a doubt, that if God were before us, it wouldn't
do anybody, heaven or hell, Satan or all of his angels, his demons,
to be against us if God be for us, what good would it do any
created being to be against us? Now then, I think, beloved, it's
impossible, and I thought some about this too, and it certainly
is impossible for any human, I think, with speech, to bring
out the depth of the meaning of how God is for us. It'd just be impossible. I certainly
don't have the language and I think that anybody who had the tongue
of an orator would also admit that they have not the ability
to fully set forth how God is for His people. Let me just give
you a few things that have been a real blessing to me. Let me
say this, that He was for us And I'm not going to preach on
these things, just some statements that I want to make. He was for
us before the worlds were made. He was for us. He was for us
or else He never would have given us His Son. That 32nd verse there
has been a tremendous blessing. He spared not His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all. How shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? He was for us when He hung Him,
the Lord Jesus, on the tree and laid the full weight of His wrath
upon Him. And he was for us, and you watch
this, you watch this, this is a blessing to me. He was for
us, though he was against him. Think of that. He was for us,
but he was against him when he hung him on the cross because
Jesus had been made what we were, and we had been made what he
was. Imputation. God having reckoned
him to be sin, he was legally constituted sin, and God was
against him. He was against him. And the Lord
Jesus said, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Well,
it's because God was against him, because he was sin, made
to be sin. He was the worst sinner that
had ever lived on that day, because all of our sins were laid on
Him. Don't you see what I'm saying?
So listen to me now. He was for us though He was against
Him. He was for us when we were ruined
in the fall. He loved us notwithstanding all. He was for the elect when we
were against Him. Remember that. And was bidding
Him defiance. Romans 5 and 8 says, But God
commendeth His love toward us. that while we were yet sinners
Christ died for us and so he was for his elect even when they
were against him when we were walking in a state of rebellion
God had already been working for us and his love was already
had been set upon us before the morning stars had sang together
the Lord had loved his people he was for us or else he would
never have brought us to seek his face And beloved, a man does
not seek the Lord until he is moved upon by God's Spirit to
seek the Lord. And so he was forced, or he would
have never brought us to cry out to him and to seek his faith. Now he's been for us in many
struggles and through multitudes of difficulties and we've had
temptations from without and temptations from within. How
could we have held on until now? If God had not been for us, how
would I have ever made it to this hour if God had not been
for me? As I think back, and I don't
want to think too much about it because I tell you it overwhelms
me. If God had not been with me,
I would have not made it under this hour. If God be for us,
who can be against us? Now that He is for us, let me
say, with all the infinity of his heart, with all of the omnipotence
of his love, for us with all his boundless wisdom, for us
eternally and immutably. God is for his people. Now if he's for us, then you
can ask yourself the question, if he's thus for us, if he's
done all of this, then then we can see why it is it wouldn't
do anybody to be against us. God's for us. Now then, in summing
this up and closing out, let me say that there is an opposite. There is an opposite to all this
that we've said, and it belongs, and I certainly wouldn't be so
presumptuous to believe that this opposite does not belong
to somebody here in our service this morning. If God be against
you, then what good would it do anybody to be for you? That's
the opposite. If God be against you. If you
be in a state of sin, if you be unregenerate, if you be outside
the Lord Jesus Christ, what good would it do? Who could be for
you that could help you? If you are an enemy of God this
morning, your very blessings are curses to you. Your pleasures
are only the prelude to your pain, your everlasting pain. Remember, sinner, as long as
God is against you, you can never truly prosper. Never, never truly
prosper. You may be fattened with wealth,
But like one old writer said, you're only being prepared as
the steer for the slaughter. Things might be going real well
with you, and you're just getting along real well, but you're only
being fattened up for the slaughter, my friend. Take the words that
we've said here this morning, take these words, if God be against
me, Who can be for me? You take these words this morning
and take them home with you. What will become of me? Ask yourself,
what will become of me if God is against me? What will become
of me in time? What will become of me in eternity
if God be against me? How will I die? How shall I rise
again? if God be against me? How will I face Him in the day
of judgment if God be against me? And so if you're here this
morning under the sound of our voice and you hear these words,
I hope that they will not escape out of your mind until you deal
with this. If God be against me, who can
be for me? Now this last word I want to
say to believers, if God before you, do you not see how you ought
to be for God? Do you not see that? That's very
simple, isn't it? If you see how God is for you,
can't you see how that you ought to be all out as an individual
in love for this God, motivated by love for this God that's for
you? and that you ought to serve him
with all of your heart. If God has taken up your cause, and
if he's taken up your case, ought you not to espouse his cause
and his case? Is there anything that you wouldn't
do? I remember talking to a brother here a year or two back out east,
and we were talking about doing things for Christ's sake. And
I told him, I said, the Father would do 10 million things for
Jesus' sake. I said, would you? We were talking
about a particular and certain situation. I said, would you,
for Christ's sake, do that? And he hesitated, and I said,
well, now I'm talking about for Christ's sake. I'm not talking
about for this individual's sake. I'm not talking about for somebody
else. I'm talking about for Christ's sake would you do that? Now,
my friend, remember that. There's a war going on, and Christian
soldiers must rise and take their post. There's a war going on,
a great conflict. Every truth of God is under attack.
in our day, and we must rise and take our post. Did the Lord
be God? Follow Him. On one side or the
other, the people of God ought to take their stand. If God has
been for you, then stand up for Him. No compromise. Stand for
the truth. Do you know the truth? If God's
revealed it to you, then stand for the truth. Stand for the
truth. Stand with Jesus Christ. Take your part with Christ. and
his despised people on earth. There are many that look upon
the poor, afflicted, storm-tossed family of God and they say, well,
I'd rather not throw in with them. I'd rather not cash my
lot with those people that believe the doctrines of God's grace
and have no hope outside themselves but in Jesus Christ. I mean,
they're a poor, poverty-stricken bunch, and I just don't know
whether I want to cast my lot with them or not. If you're here
today and you're a child of God, that's exactly what God would
have you to do. If God be for you, then cast
your lot with the poor, afflicted, and storm-tossed family of God. If needs be, then you ought to
ask for a home. in the Lord's Church. If needs
be, you ought to ask for baptism at the hands of the Church. If
God be for you, then should you not be for Him? If He's espoused
your cause, then you espouse His cause, and you stand with
His truth and with His people. I believe that's the practical
side of this, and I hope the Lord will be pleased to bless
those thoughts to your heart. Let's have a word of prayer,
and then we're going to have a hymn in closing. Father, we thank
thee this morning that we've been privileged to preach these
things to your people. We ask that thou be pleased to
overrule any stumbling and any father thing that would hinder
the clear message of the gospel going forth. Be pleased, Lord,
to use this message. Bring forth fruit to the glory
of your name. Move upon the hearts of your
people. that they shall separate themselves unto thee, even as
thou hast separated them from old eternity unto yourself. We pray it in Jesus' name, and
for his sake alone, amen.