They're coming. Right here. Well, it's good to see everybody out this morning. For those who requested to be up here, we've got this updated. James Alvarez's pro-life guitar player. Delicious. I don't know where that came from. Debbie's brother's doing about the same, not much change. He's feeling some better, but still awfully weak. The baby in the last throes of this thing, we don't know, but continue to remember him in your prayers if you will. And the others who requested prayer also. Let's begin our worship. 42. All hail the power of Jesus' name. All hail the power of Jesus' name. Let angels prosper and fall. Bring forth the royal diadem and crown Bring forth the royal diamond, and crown him Lord of all! He chose the seed of Israel's grace, he ransomed from the fall, and here, enslaved by his grace, Hail! Hail! Let every kindred, every tribe, on this terrestrial farm, to Him all majesty assign! Give all majesty a spite, and crown Him Lord of all And with yonder sacred throng He at His feet may fall We'll join the everlasting song And crown Him Lord of all We'll join the everlasting song Reverend, let's sing hymn number 39. This is my Father's Word. Have your Bibles turned with me to the eighth chapter of Romans. Beginning with verse 28. 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, then be also glorified. What shall we say then 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 freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. that died, yea, rather than is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day. We are counted as sheep for slaughter. And they, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Our Father, we delight to read such words, and so we're all so thankful because of your grace and mercy that we can apply these words to ourselves. Not all men can say this. Not all men can read these words with the assurance of faith. And we are thankful that you have opened our eyes and our minds to receive these things. Help us, Lord, to believe and help our unbelief. Father, we pray for those who are sick and going through trials, those who've lost loved ones. God knowest every case. We ask, Lord, your mercy for them and that these things that are transpiring in their lives might be employed by you to turn their eyes to Jesus Christ. Help us this day as we gather here, as we sing, as we pray, preach and hear the gospel as we spend time around the table. Let us do so with thanksgiving in our hearts and our lips full of praise. We know as you left us to ourselves, we could not read the words since it all came to work together for good. or had you not called us into yourself, had you not saved us by your grace, redeemed us by your blood, nothing would be working for our good. Help us to ever appreciate what you've done for us. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. In number 39, this is my Father's Word. This is my Father's world, and to my lips he hears. All nature sings and round me rings, the music of the spheres. This is my Father's world, I rest me in the thought of rocks and fields, of skies and seas, these heavenly wonders, Lord. This is my Father's Word. my father's my father's He's a ruler, yeah This is my Father's world The battle is not done Jesus, who died, shall be satisfied In earth and heaven Father, we're approaching the name and the perfect righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have just read in your word, which is infallible and true, that you've freely given him to us all, and with him you've freely given us all things. All things that pertain to godliness in life and life. We thank you, Father. And as we return unto Thee, that which is You would let us do so with thanksgiving. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. so and assurance for those who know the Lord Jesus Christ. And it seems I have heard this passage or part of it quoted more in the last several years than ever before. Now myself, I found myself driving down the road or listening to TV or reading Often I find myself saying, well, all things work together for good at the end of the love of God. Assuring myself, at least in my own mind, by repetition, that this is so. Because in the face of what's going on in this world, you think, my goodness, things are out of control. But they're not. Particularly, they're happening for our good and for the glory of God. I think needs to be repeated in our mind and ought to become a kind of motto in our thoughts and hearts. In Isaiah chapter 3 when the Lord told Judah that he was taking everything from them because of their idolatry. He's going to take their wise people. He's going to take their elders. He's going to remove everything they hope in and lean on He ends that treatise of warning and threat with these words, it shall tell the righteous, Mr. Isaiah, the prophet of God is called. Tell the righteous, it shall be well with them. It shall be well with them. This eighth chapter of the book of Romans is a passage that has so much in it that you could spend your life, I think, just studying line by line and word by word, everything in it. It begins after Paul asserts in chapter 7 that he can't seem to do anything right. In fact, he says, sometimes I can't do anything at all. And when I would endeavor to do good, I find I can't. When I would never do evil, I often find I can't, but it seems that everything I do has evil in it. It's a principle in me that I can't shake, and I can't undo, and I can't get rid of. And when I would do good, evil is present with me. The will to do good is there, but the power to perform thereof I find not, and you think And he cries from the heart, a sinner saved by grace, who struggles every day with his own self. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ. And the next words out of his mouth after seeing how wretched he was and how weak and frail and unable to perform. As an apostle called mightily on the road to Damascus, he says, can't seem to do anything right. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ took the sin that we had and laid it upon Himself and suffered in our room instead. And He describes it this way, for the law of the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ has made us free from the law of sin and death. And the law of sin and death is what he was talking about in chapter seven. That law within me, that principle within me, that when I would do good, evil is present with me. That law, I'm free from that law. What does that mean? It means that law has no right to rule over me. Doesn't mean I don't have trouble by it. or sometimes even apply to it, sadly. But it has no right to rule over me. The right to rule has been removed. You see, I was born in this world, and so were you, under a sovereign. We were all born under the sovereign God, but there was another sovereign until we met Christ who ruled our lives. And that sovereign was sin. Sin hath reigned. unto death, even upon those who have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. There is therefore now, that's what we said we was talking before, how you doing this morning? I'm doing all right now, Malcolm see, but that's all we got. We got now, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Jesus Christ. No condemnation. In verse 32 it says, He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, and how shall He not with Him freely give us all things? We have everything. That's the title of the message this morning, Everything. So there's no condemnation and here he says there's no deprivation. We're not hurting for anything. We are complete in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has held nothing back from us. We have all things. He said all things are yours and you are Christ's and Christ's is God's. Then in verse 33 it says this. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? So you have no condemnation, no deprivation, and no accusation. If you're being accused, God is not doing it. It's your conscience which works under the law or the law itself. Satan is the great accuser of the brethren. God's not accusing you. He said it. Who shall lay anything to the charge Who shall charge anyone of God's children with sin? It is God that justifies. It is God who has declared them to be without sin. It is God who has cleared their record. It is God who says of His children, it's just as though they never sinned. They're justified in the bar of holiness before the righteous judge who always does right. Before the judge of all the earth, the children of God, God looks at His children and will never lay an accusation against them. Never lay. So you have no accusation. Then in verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, and stress, and persecution, and famine, and nakedness, and no separation. We suffer separation in this life from loved ones, from kinfolk, from friends sometimes. But if you're a child of God, you are never separated from Christ. You may, because of your own self-interest and ego, Like we all have. Love self a little too much. And forget what we have in Christ. And not enjoy what we have in Christ. But that's us, that ain't Him. He is never far from us. He said, I am with you always, even to the end of the earth. So you have no condemnation, no deprivation, no accusation, and no separation from Jesus Christ. From the love of God. which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's all because of what God has done for his people. This is the gospel, this is the good news. It's not good news if I get up there and tell you, you've got to do something. You have to do this or you have to do that in order to be found in favor with God. If I tell you that, that's not good news. Unless you are so self-righteous, you think you can actually accomplish it. But the fact is, upon this face of the earth, In this world, there is no righteousness save for Jesus Christ. There is no righteousness anywhere. There is no holiness in this world. In this world, all over this planet, anywhere there's no righteousness, there's no holiness. In all of this world, in all of this universe, there's not one person that's good in and of themselves. Not one. So what do we have to tell people? Be good? They can't. Be righteous? They can't. Be holy? They can't. What do we tell people? God has done something. God Almighty, the sovereign of this universe, who doeth all things well, He's done something for His people, for His elect, for His church, for His sheep, for His bride, for His chosen ones, for those He's severed from the rest of the world. He's done something for them. That's the good news. That's good news. If God has done something for me, it's a done deal. Nothing can take away from that. Nothing whatsoever. And this is a declaration in these verses between chapter 28 and verse 39 of what God has done for us. And I can say to you, I can say it to the righteous because you're righteous in Jesus Christ. I can say unto the righteous, no matter what befalls you, no matter what comes your way, it shall be well with you. It shall. Mark it now. It shall be well with you. You say, well, it might be painful. It's going to be good. Because all things according to this, and we know by revelation and even by experience, We know that all things work together for good to them that love God. How does one come to love God? We are not born loving God. The natural mind, the carnal mind, is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of God and neither indeed can be. That's in its very chapter. Neither in the flesh cannot please God. That's how we're born. We can't please Him. We don't love Him. We hate Him. He's our enemy. How do we come to love God? We come to love God when God gives us a new heart and a new mind, and He does that through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He makes Christ to be our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Them that love God, who are they? We hear a lot about loving God and loving Jesus today. It seems to be some type of religious revival. I don't believe it's a true revival, but it's a religious revival. And if it has some effect on the moral compass of this nation, I'm thankful for it. Now I'm glad for it if it creates some kind of moral compass for this nation because it don't seem we have one. At all. How is a person above God? Who are they that love God? Then we are called. Called. How are we called? We understand the concept of a call. We understand the concept of an effectual call. I saw a thing the other day where Debbie was telling about the one, these sheep in a pasture. Just a whole bunch of sheep. And people were calling for them, making sheep sounds and calling for the sheep. And that sheep were just standing, paying no attention. Hundreds of sheep in a pasture. And then the shepherd comes up. And he gives them one call, and they rush. That's an effectual call. A mother hen sees a hawk in the sky. She makes a certain noise, a certain cluck, and spreads her wings, and all of her little bitties come and get up and Back when I was a young boy, I liked to sleep in the morning, especially when we lived upstairs in that old cold house. And it was cold. I mean, it wasn't warm until you registered the floor that was over an old cigarette, or above an old cigarette either. You didn't want to put your feet on the floor. You were afraid they'd stick, freeze to the floor or something. Mom would call me, honey, it's time to get up for breakfast. Breakfast's ready. Get up. Time to get up and get dressed for school. It's time to get up. And I'd just lay there. I didn't want to get up. I just wished up in them covers. She opened that door downstairs and called, honey, come on, get up, get up, it's time to eat. Sweet, my mom was so sweet. And I didn't come down, my dad opened the door and said, boy, get down here right now. I got out of that bed, that was an effectual call. Then we were called. How does that work? It's done through the gospel, through the preaching of the gospel. I was in religion all my life, and I say that honestly. I was on the appraisal roll at Antioch Baptist Church before I was born. I was already a member of the Sunday school class. I heard the gospel from Henry Mahan, my pastor at Rosemount Baptist Church, and other men but didn't believe it. Now I knew it. And after rehearsal, he even preached it. And then one day, one night, a fellow come, W.R. Cruz, came and preached in Winston-Salem. And as I was just sitting there, I heard. I heard her. I don't know how it happened except God did it. He called me. It was an effectual call. Men had called me all these times. In fact, when I was in false religion, they called me to come down front every service. And most of the time I went down there crying because I was guilty of all kinds of stuff. I was just a criminal. Men stood up and gave the gospel call over and over again, and I didn't come and didn't care to come. I thought I was all right, because I had some doctrine under my belt. Then I heard the gospel. God called me. That night he called Moose Parks. We were both in that thing. Daniel Parks, who went on to be a missionary for many places in the Caribbean, has now passed around the Great Falls one time. That night he called us both. Not only called us to salvation, he called us to the ministry. Called. How does a person come to love God? He's called. How is he called? He's called by the gospel. That's what Paul said to the elect in 2 Thessalonians. He said, brethren, we're bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth whereunto He called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And why are we called? Because God has purposed it. And we love God, we're called according to His purpose. God did it on purpose. I remember one time A.D. Mews was talking to a lady who believed his election was my person's choice. And he said, let me just ask you this, did God save you? He said, yeah. He said, did He do it on purpose or was it an accident? He said, well he did it on purpose. That's what I've been trying to tell you. He did it on purpose. What was the purpose in doing it? For his glory. The glory of his grace. The honor of his grace. Who did he call? Who are those that love him and are called by him according to purpose? He called those who he knew beforehand. Now God omniscient knows all men, knows the heart of all men and the minds of all men, but He don't know all men lovingly. He don't know all men as His children, as His loved ones. I know today everybody's a child of God. Everybody is. I hear preachers say, we're all God's children. We're not all God's children. God's children, those who are born of God and are adopted in Jesus Christ. And have the spirit of adoption whereby they call God Abba Father, Papa Papa. Those who are born of God. Whom He did foreknow. He knew beforehand. Now He says to some people in Matthew 7, I never knew you. Depart from me ye that work in iniquity. I never knew you. So He couldn't have known them if He had not foreknown them. Those who are called according to His purpose are those whom He has foreknown. And those whom He has foreknown, He predestinated. What a glorious word, predestinated. That means simply this, He determined this to take place before it took place. That's all it means. He predestinated, He determined beforehand that these would be called. He determined beforehand that they would be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Now, I don't have any idea what that means. I'll be honest with you. I heard all my life in church, I want to be Christ-like. Our Lord lived among His own physical brothers for 30 years and they never knew that He was Christ. They never knew that He was righteous. They didn't see anything in Him different from themselves. Is this not my brother? Is this not Joseph's son? Is this not the carpenter's son? They saw nothing in Him. And people talk about, I want them to see Jesus in me. They didn't see Jesus in Jesus. How are they going to see Him in you? Yet, God is determined beforehand to bring something to pass. And that which He's determined beforehand to bring to pass is that you, as a child of God, as a sinner saved by grace, are going to be conformed to Jesus Christ, to His image. I think what Paul Mahan said, God loved His Son and cherished His Son so much that He's going to fill Heaven with people just like Him. conformed to the image of his son. Why? Because he is the firstborn among many brethren. Many brethren. And whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. And whom he did predestinate, then he also called. That word can also mean named. He also named His children. Gave them their name. Gave them His name. We have the name of Christ. Jeremiah 23, 5 says a name by which He shall be called is the Lord our righteousness. Jeremiah 33, 19 says the name by which She shall be called is the Lord our righteousness. We are His bride and we've taken His name. But He called those He predestinated. And those whom He called, He justified. He justified. How is a man justified? By the blood of Jesus Christ. By the grace of God. He's justified by the Christ's resurrection that's raised by our justification. That means that God has declared you, if you're a child of God this morning, you stand before Him without sin. Ponder that. Ponder that. Is it any wonder why He says, all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that call according to His purpose? Whom He justifies, He also glorified. Now that's in the past tense. We know that a glory awaits us, a different kind of glory. When these bodies are dying, we're changed and we are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ fully and we have no more sin to deal with and no flesh to deal with. We'll be changed and there'll be a glorious change. But he says that's already taken place. Glorifying. I'm looking this morning at a bunch of glorious people. glorified in Jesus Christ. You stand before God this moment glorified because of what Christ has done. If that's the case, God has done all this for us, why in the world do we moan and groan? If God has ripped the fetters and chains from us and lifted the yoke of bondage off our back Why do we walk around stooped as if we're handcuffed? He's done all this for us and it's not something that's going to happen in the future. It's not something that we aspire to. It's something that's been done for us. Done for us. If that's the case, what should we say to these things? What can we say about it? God's done all of that. What can we say about that? Well, if God is for us, who can be against us? No one can actually be against us. Oh, they may hate us and they'll want to kill us. They may kill us, but they can't be against us. Why? Because God is for us. They may usher us into heaven. That's all they can do. Said he spared not his own son, but freely gave him up for us all. This is why all things work together for good. How shall I not with Him freely give us all things? All things. 2 Corinthians 5 says, All things are of God. Then he says, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? No charge can be laid against Him because it has been justified by God Himself. He said there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ, who walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh. Who is he to condemn them? It is Christ that died. That's one of the most powerful statements for particular redemption in all of Scripture. Because if Christ died for everyone, anyone can say nobody can die. Every person who ever lived, if Christ died for them, made their sin pay, as religion says. And every human being, born of woman, can stand before God and say, you can't condemn me because Christ died for me. But everybody can't say that. Who can say that? Those for whom he died. Who is he to condemn? Is it Christ that died? Yeah. Not only that, he didn't stay dead. He rose from the grave. He rose, and we're justified in that resurrection, raised for our justification. He's risen again. Where is He? He's at the right hand of the Father. That's the place of honor, and it's the place of accomplishment. That term, at the right hand of God, the right hand of the Father, is used about five or six times in Scripture, and every time it has to do with the successful, effectual work of Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree. When He made His soul an offering for sin, He shall see He's at the right hand of God Paul wrote to the Hebrew Church when he had purged our sins And what is he doing up there? He's making intercession for us. That's the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why did he come down here? Why did he leave heaven and its glory? Why did he lay aside his garments of glory and take upon himself the form of a servant and being found in the fashion of man, was obedient even to the death of the cross? Why in the world did he do that? He did that because he was interceding. From his first step out of glory to his last step here on earth, rising again and sitting at the right hand of the Father, it's all about standing for you, his children. Interceding. John said, when we sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Even Jesus Christ, the righteous, advocates, makes intercession for us. That being the case, What is our future at stake? What's going to happen? What can happen to us in this world? He said, well, all sort of stuff can happen. All sort of stuff can happen. You hear about people talking. I hear them say a lot, I lost my faith for a while. I've regained my faith. Well, it was probably your faith, not the faith that God gave, if you can lose it. The fact is that nothing will ever separate you from God's love. You parents, we know how we feel about our youngins. And our youngins can be just, if you'll pardon the expression, buttheads. They can be that. They can get in all kinds of trouble. It's disappointing to us they can do things that harm themselves. It scares the Lord out of us. All these things can take place. Do you know what happens? We still love them. We love them. We want what's best for them. No matter what you do or don't do in this world, God, if He has ever loved you, He will always love you and you will never be separated from that love. That's what it says. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Is there tribulation? No, we find that at work of patience, and patience hope. Is there distress? I know many feel distress in this man in which we live. Persecution, famine, starvation, nakedness, stripped of all, peril. Trouble everywhere. Threat of death is sore. As it is written, that's what we're here for. We're made for tribulation. We're made for the sore. We're made for peril. We're made for distress. As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We're a canopy sheet for the slaughter. We're canopy sheets of water. But that doesn't change anything. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors. I'm not sure what that means, but it sounds pretty impressive to me. If you're a conqueror, that means you've won. The victory is yours, and somehow you're more than that. More than conquerors? Where? Through Him that loved us. Paul says this, I'm persuaded. In other words, you can't shake me on this. You can come at me any way you want to. You can't shake me right here. I'm grounded right here. Here I stand like old Martin Luther when he nailed those theses to the door of the church at Burns and was called before the council of the Catholic Church and they railed him out and threatened him with death. He says, here I stand. I can do no other. This is what Paul is saying. Here I stand. I can do no other. I am persuaded. I am persuaded. that whatever one of us are going to face, death. Whatever one of us deal with every day, life. I persuade that neither death nor life, nor angels, which are everywhere, though we cannot see them, nor principalities, governments, powers, authorities, nor things present, Things that are happening now or whatever's out in the future for things to come. That sort of just covers everything, doesn't it? What's not covered in that passage? Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God. And where is that love? If you don't have Christ, you don't have God's love. Because that's what God's love is, it's in Jesus Christ. So I can say to you, my brothers and sisters, and I've said it to myself for weeks and maybe months now, it shall be well with thee. Father, bless us through our understanding, pray for Christ. Yeah, no.