SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've noticed it like I have, but there has been something that has become more and more obvious as we've gone through the study of the book of Romans together.
SPEAKER_00: And that one great thing is that God truly does care when we fail and when we falter and when we sin.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that really matters to him.
SPEAKER_00: And it's something that he is grieved over.
SPEAKER_00: It's something that he cares deeply about.
SPEAKER_00: We should too.
SPEAKER_00: It should make a difference to us as well.
SPEAKER_00: And these two things are prominent within the book, and Paul has addressed them in various ways throughout our study of the book.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, as we looked at this morning, God cares so much that he took the punishment for our sin on himself in death.
SPEAKER_00: And then tonight we're going to see how Paul will also teach us if God has the power to raise himself from the dead, then he certainly cares enough about forgiveness of sins to give us forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: He cares about our failures, he cares about our falter, faltering, he cares about sin in our life so much that he'll die for it.
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty obvious.
SPEAKER_00: But consider this fact that Paul brings out tonight, and that is that he raised himself from the dead, and that proves he can do what he wants to with regard to our sin.
SPEAKER_00: He has the power to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Any sin, any amount of times in our life.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we may underestimate the power of God to forgive.
SPEAKER_00: How many sins can you commit?
SPEAKER_00: The same sin before God says, I'm no longer going to forgive that.
SPEAKER_00: What Paul has been teaching us is that there is no amount of forgiveness that he will not give.
SPEAKER_00: He went all the way to the cross to prove it.
SPEAKER_00: He's willing to give forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: I love this about the book of Romans.
SPEAKER_00: It gives us various reasons and gives us great encouragement in understanding basic principles that for some reason, sometimes as we get older as a Christian, we no longer tend to believe in.
SPEAKER_00: Like forgiveness, for example.
SPEAKER_00: God still has the power to forgive sin, just like he did when you and I became Christians.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe we've been Christians for a long, long time.
SPEAKER_00: And we've overcome many types of sins.
SPEAKER_00: And we think to ourselves, God probably wouldn't forgive that in my life anymore.
SPEAKER_00: But the fact of the matter is, he died on the cross to prove how far he would go to continually forgive sins.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we're back here in Romans chapter 8 this evening.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope my voice is going to last through the whole sermon.
SPEAKER_00: We'll see.
SPEAKER_00: If it doesn't, one of you guys will have to get up here and finish it out, okay?
SPEAKER_00: No, I think it'll be fine.
SPEAKER_00: But that's page 1122 if you're using the church uh Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And as Sam said this morning, Brother Sam said this morning, if you don't have a Bible, then take one of those with you.
SPEAKER_00: We believe everybody should have a Bible and be able to read from what God has to say.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and that would be our gift uh to you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's really good to see our spiritual family members returning tonight.
SPEAKER_00: I don't get to speak on Sunday evenings very often, and it's a privilege.
SPEAKER_00: It's an honor to get to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I enjoy speaking uh on Sunday evenings as well.
SPEAKER_00: But one of the things that it always reminds me of on Sunday night worship services is that we're getting, as God's family, we're getting to end the day the way that we began the day.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a special privilege, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's a real honor to be able to end the day in worship to God the way that we began the day in worship to God.
SPEAKER_00: I think a lot about that.
SPEAKER_00: I hope that you do as well.
SPEAKER_00: And you obviously do, or you would not be here this evening.
SPEAKER_00: But I appreciate that so much as God's family members to be able to be here tonight together and worship and study once again and to end out the day the way that we started it.
SPEAKER_00: It's good to have all guests with us, obviously.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we appreciate your presence as well.
SPEAKER_00: Hope that it becomes a regular thing if you've not already made it that way in order to come and worship and be with God's people on his day.
SPEAKER_00: As we continue thinking about Romans chapter 8, we're looking at verses 31 through 39 that we had for our scripture reading uh this this evening, verses 31 through 39.
SPEAKER_00: And it's here that Paul continues his encouraging teaching to us as he has uh been our uh, for lack of a better way of saying it, it's almost like he's been our divine guide.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, appointed by divinity to guide us through an understanding up these uh or down these dark places, up these high hills that we've that we have trekked along with him in his teaching.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and tonight, here, even to a higher level.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know that that could be possible.
SPEAKER_00: What about you when you began reading, especially from chapter six to chapter eight, but especially when you get to chapter eight and you begin to read just the first verse in chapter eight?
SPEAKER_00: Can it get any better than that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't know if it can get any better, but it sure does deepen our understanding of how good it really is.
SPEAKER_00: That's for certain.
SPEAKER_00: As we look here in our text this evening, I think Paul's letter to the Christian readers does everything that any Christian could ever want in their walk with Christ, in their walk in the Spirit, as we looked at a little bit last week with Brother George.
SPEAKER_00: It reaches out to the fallen and it quiets a troubled heart.
SPEAKER_00: And we all have these moments in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: It comes our nagging fears.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: It defeats our doubts, and it inspires the upright who are living as uh maybe in a great part of their life right now, where there doesn't seem to be any plaguing sins, there doesn't seem to be any downside to life.
SPEAKER_00: We all live in those moments sometimes as well, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: And it brings greater thanks to those who are made righteous before God through Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It truly does restore the soul, as the Psalms often talk about.
SPEAKER_00: The message continues to speak clearly to us, as it did to our spiritual ancestors who were reading the same words that you and I are.
SPEAKER_00: No doubt they gained the same thing that we gained when we look at this text in our scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Joy comes from what Paul writes at this part of the scripture, at this part of his letter.
SPEAKER_00: And reassurance and confidence come from reading Romans chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not sure that there's another place in scripture that quite reaches the pinnacle, the apex that we see from Paul in this section of this letter in all the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It's a terrific piece of text.
SPEAKER_00: If you're unfamiliar with Romans chapter 8, I would highly suggest that you take a moment and just kind of skim through it there so that you can understand a little better.
SPEAKER_00: We've read it together already.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but let's uh let if you would just take a minute there and just as I'm speaking, just look through some of that text again, especially the verses we're looking at tonight, verses 31 through 39.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to notice how many times God and Christ, for example, are mentioned in this text.
SPEAKER_00: There's a reason behind that.
SPEAKER_00: We'll see what it is as we move forward together.
SPEAKER_00: There's also another word that we see down in verse 37 of the text, and that's the word we.
SPEAKER_00: We are more than just conquerors.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll talk about that a little bit as well.
SPEAKER_00: But there's also another word that we might notice that is of great importance in verse 39 toward the end of this text, and that is the words love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll talk about that as well.
SPEAKER_00: Just some highlights to think about as we move through this text together.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to notice again this chart that Brother Sam threw up this morning, brother Brother Wyatt threw up this morning, and and uh and looking at all of those things that re that we read just in chapter eight, and then ask ourselves the question that Paul asks in verse 31.
SPEAKER_00: What then shall we say to these things?
SPEAKER_00: Now he could be referring, I understand this, to all that we see here on this illustrative chart, all of chapter 8, from verse 1 all the way down to where we're gonna end this evening in verse 39.
SPEAKER_00: He could be referring to all of that, but my thought is that perhaps he's referring more directly, at least in part, to what we saw this morning in verse 28.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to notice that verse with me just for a second as it brings us into verse 31 and following.
SPEAKER_00: That for those who love God, all things work together for good to those who are called according to his purpose for those whom he foreknew.
SPEAKER_00: That group that he has just described who love him, love God, and respond to his call, to his purpose for their life.
SPEAKER_00: These he said he also predestined.
SPEAKER_00: If you love God and you respond to his call, your destiny is predetermined.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is this is true in a broad sense.
SPEAKER_00: There is no human being who is born into this world that does not have a predestination already determined.
SPEAKER_00: God wants you to go be with him eternally.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't create you in order to destroy you.
SPEAKER_00: That's gonna be seen in chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: He created you for great and grand purposes, and his desire has always been that every human experiences a life in Christ and ends with him in eternity.
SPEAKER_00: But in the more restrictive sense, we could also see here that he's talking about those who are conformed to the image of his son, they're also predestined.
SPEAKER_00: This is a more sure determination by God that there will be no one who is in his son who is conformed to the image of his son who is lost, already been predetermined.
SPEAKER_00: That's already a law of God.
SPEAKER_00: What do we say about all these things, Paul says?
SPEAKER_00: And then he asks, if God is for us, who can be against us?
SPEAKER_00: I want you to look at those words.
SPEAKER_00: If God is for us, who can be against us?
SPEAKER_00: The good Bible student that you are, I know you already have that underlined or highlighted in your Bible, don't you?
SPEAKER_00: If God is for us, who can be against us?
SPEAKER_00: The Greek sentence construction is not really understood well, right there.
SPEAKER_00: It isn't really if, as in maybe he is for us.
SPEAKER_00: But it would have been much better to interpret that word sense, because that is the construction of the sentence that's determined.
SPEAKER_00: Since God is for us, who in the world could stand against us?
SPEAKER_00: That's that's the sentiment in which Paul is speaking here.
SPEAKER_00: And for those among us tonight who might be living their life under guilt and crippling shame, who who may be wallowing in their memory of past sins that they just can't seem to overcome, to let go of, to put behind them and forgive themselves for, maybe even doubting that God would forgive them.
SPEAKER_00: For those who are in this valley that is hindering and crippling their future stance with God, their future assurance.
SPEAKER_00: I just want you to, you just need to especially listen to that sentence and take it to heart.
SPEAKER_00: How do we know that?
SPEAKER_00: How can we be sure of that fact?
SPEAKER_00: God is for us.
SPEAKER_00: Well, he says down in verse 32, what does it mean to you that he didn't spare his own son?
SPEAKER_00: But gave him for you.
SPEAKER_00: Gave him for you.
SPEAKER_00: How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
SPEAKER_00: God didn't spare his own son.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't spare, he gave him up to what?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's a great question that we should be asking.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, even if you know the answer, it goes it should go through your mind.
SPEAKER_00: Gave him up for what?
SPEAKER_00: To what?
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 1, verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 2, verse 5, Romans chapter 2, verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: And there are even some other places that it's said, but not directly the way it is in those verses that I just cited.
SPEAKER_00: God's wrath against those who do evil.
SPEAKER_00: That is what he gave him up to.
SPEAKER_00: For our benefit, on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: To put it the way that we read it in Isaiah chapter 53 and in verse 10, it was the Lord's will to crush him.
SPEAKER_00: He has put him to grief.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he gave him up to.
SPEAKER_00: For us, on our behalf, Paul is saying.
SPEAKER_00: And why would God do this?
SPEAKER_00: Because it was the way, the only way, in the sight of God, to make his soul an offering for our guilt.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to notice Paul's logic here.
SPEAKER_00: If God gave his greatest gift, his most precious thing to the Godhead, then with complete certainty we can know, not hope, not guess, we can know he will provide every lesser thing necessary on our behalf that we might connect with him.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, isn't that Paul's point?
SPEAKER_00: If he's willing to do that, what would he what would he what would he not do?
SPEAKER_00: The cross, therefore, becomes God's clear evidence.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is making this case of his great love and his answer to every doubt that a child of God may have.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that we never doubt, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: It's that we land on our feet again because we understand this about our God.
SPEAKER_00: Our doubt is overcome through this very thing that Paul is pointing out.
SPEAKER_00: Through Christ, God opens the door that would have otherwise stayed shut.
SPEAKER_00: And he asks, if he's willing to do that, how will he not also, through Jesus, graciously give us all things?
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing more special than the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: I would pray that we never forget, brothers and sisters, Jesus stands as an irrefutable proof that what Paul says is correct when he says God is for us.
SPEAKER_00: Who could stand against us with him being for us?
SPEAKER_00: This is when we remind ourselves, when we're working through repentance, God is for me.
SPEAKER_00: God is for me.
SPEAKER_00: Who could be against me as I struggle through these decisions?
SPEAKER_00: Who could be against me when God is for me?
SPEAKER_00: It's what we remind ourselves of when we feel weak.
SPEAKER_00: It's what we remind ourselves of when life is hectic and unpleasant and we're in the valleys.
SPEAKER_00: God is for me.
SPEAKER_00: It is not your strength that causes you to go on in these moments.
SPEAKER_00: It is God's strength that works in you.
SPEAKER_00: His provisions are working for our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: That we'll connect and stay connected, and that we'll grow in strength through those connections.
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking about 2 Corinthians chapter 9, and down in verse 9, 9, uh 2 Corinthians 12, sorry, down in verse 9 of that text, Paul says that God's power was made perfect in him.
SPEAKER_00: Not in his strength, but in his weaknesses.
SPEAKER_00: And I ask you, is there anything different about Paul's weakness that we read in chapter 7?
SPEAKER_00: That's different from ours?
SPEAKER_00: I understand some of the situations may be different.
SPEAKER_00: I get that.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm just talking about the highs and lows, the difficulties and the problems that come sometimes with being Christian.
SPEAKER_00: I think we can also say that power is made perfect, not in our own strength, but in our weakness, and therefore we boast as well.
SPEAKER_00: Gladly we boast in our weaknesses, not in our strength.
SPEAKER_00: So that the power of Christ may be something that rests upon us, he says in 2 Corinthians 12.
SPEAKER_00: We're blessed, brethren, because God is for us.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll say to you, there's no other reason that we're blessed, except that God is for us.
SPEAKER_00: And he keeps on showing it, he keeps on proving it.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's going to talk about some of those things as we continue on through this text.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul asked some questions for us here, which make us think of a courtroom scene, or at least it does me.
SPEAKER_00: And it probably does you as you read it, that they can only be answered by not by saying, now, ladies and gentlemen, or maybe it's the great judge, our father, let me present a case before you as to why it is my accuser is so wrong in his conclusions.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of that, the only way we derive at an answer for these accusations that are sometimes made against us is to look at Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Asking him to be our advocate.
SPEAKER_00: Except for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know our adversary has the power and capability and knowledge to do that very thing?
SPEAKER_00: Who is to condemn?
SPEAKER_00: Paul says.
SPEAKER_00: Who does well in his job?
SPEAKER_00: All our anxieties, all our fears, however, Paul is saying here in this text is what we all love so much about it, are dominated by the evidence that now is presented on the contrary of these things.
SPEAKER_00: It is God who justifies.
SPEAKER_00: Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who interceded, uh, who is interceding for us.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 34.
SPEAKER_00: Notice how Paul seems to stack up some things here that we can have great confidence in, even though our accuser is pointing the finger and making the case.
SPEAKER_00: First, he says, Christ died.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that for a minute.
SPEAKER_00: It's not you that died for your sin, it's not me that died for my sin.
SPEAKER_00: It is the Son of God who died for his sin, for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: So it's Christ who died.
SPEAKER_00: That's our first defense.
SPEAKER_00: Given to us by the grace of God, favor that is on our buttons.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, he says Christ was raised.
SPEAKER_00: That may seem confusing at first, but I just want to say to you, the resurrection serves as God's declaration that Christ's sacrifice was not in vain.
SPEAKER_00: It meant something to God for that to stand in our place.
SPEAKER_00: He sees this as something that is sufficient, accepted by Him.
SPEAKER_00: The empty tomb testifies that the debt has been canceled and payment accepted, or that tomb would still have bones of our Lord in.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, Christ is at the right hand of God, the text says.
SPEAKER_00: That teaching comes from places like Psalms 110.
SPEAKER_00: And in verse 1, the Lord says to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool.
SPEAKER_00: The scripture, when it talks about the right hand, is the position of supreme acceptance and authority and honor.
SPEAKER_00: Here he is pictured at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_00: Fourth, Christ intercedes for us, the text says.
SPEAKER_00: Our salvation completely rests upon Jesus' sacrifice and resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is teaching it is also upon Christ's present work in all of this.
SPEAKER_00: His intercession is ongoing, not just a one time.
SPEAKER_00: I died for you, I interceded for you, now it's up to you.
SPEAKER_00: That isn't actually what we're seeing in this text.
SPEAKER_00: What we're actually seeing is I died for you, I interceded for you, and I live to continue interceding for you.
SPEAKER_00: That's huge.
SPEAKER_00: At the right hand of God interceding.
SPEAKER_00: So since God is for us in all of these ways, how could we rightly be filled ever with doubt or a lack of confidence?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that our that our adversary doesn't try to put that into our mind.
SPEAKER_00: What I'm saying is that Paul is building our faith here.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is giving us the defense to understand when doubts arise, how to overcome those things.
SPEAKER_00: When sorrows arise, how to overcome those things.
SPEAKER_00: When the valleys of life are deep, how to overcome those things.
SPEAKER_00: How?
SPEAKER_00: Through Christ who strengthens us.
SPEAKER_00: Paul ends this text by quoting in verse 36, Psalm chapter 44, verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: Which says, it is written, For your sake we are being killed all day long.
SPEAKER_00: We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
SPEAKER_00: We are considered by Satan our adversary as nothing but sheep to be slaughtered.
SPEAKER_00: It is striking to me, brothers and sisters, how our adversary looks at us.
SPEAKER_00: Worthless, pitiful, helpless.
SPEAKER_00: Yet, unlike our God, who might see us pitiful and helpless, who would do something for us that we do not deserve, Satan will go ahead and continue to try to slay us.
SPEAKER_00: Because you see, he is without any mercy or goodness.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just making the point to choose to follow him.
SPEAKER_00: Do we even have a word that expresses the ignorance of such a thing?
SPEAKER_00: To choose, to follow one like that compared to one like we're seeing here in Romans 8.
SPEAKER_00: Such an easy choice, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Not difficult for us to do it.
SPEAKER_00: He sees us as easy, helpless prey.
SPEAKER_00: Now, after having said that, I have to say, I agree with him.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you?
SPEAKER_00: Hasn't Paul made the point that we're no match for Satan in the book of Romans?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's presented plenty of evidence about it.
SPEAKER_00: The record of our sin, that's a real thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like Satan's making lies up and presenting them before the great judge come judgment day that really aren't factually true.
SPEAKER_00: It's not factually true information.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, he might do that, but I'm saying, because he's Satan, but I'm just saying he has plenty of fodder.
SPEAKER_00: There's plenty of evidence, actually, truthful evidence.
SPEAKER_00: Our failures are real, our guilt is real.
SPEAKER_00: And we do all become very easy prey on our own against this adversary who sees us as nothing but sheep to get slaughtered.
SPEAKER_00: And I will say to you as well that the Bible teaches God has every right, if he so chooses, to abandon us in that state.
SPEAKER_00: But even in our suffering, when it seems, at least to us, to indicate divine abandonment, Paul in this section of text is making the case that's not victory for the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: God never abandons his sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Only in our weakness are we made strong by the power of God in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so look at what Paul says about all the things that seem to give Satan the upper hand.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 37, and I love this.
SPEAKER_00: It's one word with two letters.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you love that?
SPEAKER_00: Now that's a good response of somebody who has authority, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: What about this, this, this, and this and this?
SPEAKER_00: No, not even those.
SPEAKER_00: In all these things, we are more than conquerors.
SPEAKER_00: Key words, through him who loves us.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is teaching none of these things hold judgment against us.
SPEAKER_00: How could that be?
SPEAKER_00: Even suffering.
SPEAKER_00: What about suffering, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Paul, since he's the one teaching us here.
SPEAKER_00: What about suffering?
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't that prove that sometimes God is willing to abandon us?
SPEAKER_00: Why am I in this suffering?
SPEAKER_00: I think suffering might be one of the most outward pieces of evidence used by Satan to make us doubt God is for us.
SPEAKER_00: And the promises will be kept.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul says, not even suffering is adequate to prove God's left us to fend for ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: How do we know that?
SPEAKER_00: Because of what he teaches, we're given through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the phrase that we see here more than the word conquerors, more than conquerors, translated from a single Greek word, hypernachomin.
SPEAKER_00: And you hear the word hyper in there, it's a Greek word that comes from two words that are pushed, kind of shoved together to mean a bigger thing.
SPEAKER_00: Hyper means beyond or above, exceedingly.
SPEAKER_00: Someone who is hyperactive is exceedingly active.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We get that.
SPEAKER_00: Nykoe means overcome.
SPEAKER_00: Paul literally says, we overwhelmingly, we devastatingly, we crushingly overcome or conquer through him who loved us.
SPEAKER_00: The picture is not merely surviving adversity.
SPEAKER_00: And I will say to you, brothers and sisters, we're not meant to merely survive.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what God did in coming and dying and resurrecting, as Paul has pointed out here in this text.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what he intended the full purpose be behind that for you and me.
SPEAKER_00: We're not meant to just merely survive adversity.
SPEAKER_00: To do this is nothing more than just living through our own experiences and working it out by our own judgment and thought on something.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I survived it.
SPEAKER_00: But it is to transform that adversity into eternal surety and ultimate victory through Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Christians do not conquer because we are self-sustaining until our suffering eases and finally fades away.
SPEAKER_00: We conquer because, like Abraham, we believe and we stand with God who gives us the victory.
SPEAKER_00: That is how our conquering is achieved.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, For I am sure.
SPEAKER_00: The Greek word means I stand convinced of this thing.
SPEAKER_00: I know this is truth.
SPEAKER_00: I am doubtless with regard to this truth, Paul is saying.
SPEAKER_00: That not even the valleys of life, the persecution which sometimes accompanies our faithfulness, even in our own personal family, that can happen.
SPEAKER_00: Not to mention an unbelieving world.
SPEAKER_00: Our deadly accuser himself, and the supernatural entities, which, if you're like me, you don't fully understand, but you rely on God to protect you from them.
SPEAKER_00: Not even those things, none of this, can stand against God's elect.
SPEAKER_00: All these things are not made to stand, but God's elect are made to stand.
SPEAKER_00: And therefore he says, Neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, just in case we're not able to fully comprehend yet what he is actually saying there, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Those of us who are living in Christ, how can we say anything to that except praise be to our God?
SPEAKER_00: Look at where we stand.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what we're part of.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what it took, but look at the effect it had.
SPEAKER_00: If you have distanced yourself from God after becoming a Christian, what are you thinking?
SPEAKER_00: Compare the two.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're a Christian and you're in him in that sense.
SPEAKER_00: You're in the family, but you're living in limbo where you just think you're being able to straddle, living for him and living against him.
SPEAKER_00: Again, I asked this question: what in the world are you thinking?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, who who in their right mind, who in their right mind would forego what we see in chapter 8 about our God through Christ Jesus our Lord, and snuggle up and rest up and feel pretty good about the alternative?
SPEAKER_00: It makes no sense, none, zero.
SPEAKER_00: It's a state of living in absolute deception.
SPEAKER_00: And you need to listen to what Paul's teaching you for those who are living in a place where they are not as close as they know they can be, but they're doing and living in ways that pull them away from Christ, that push away from the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You need to listen to the words of Paul.
SPEAKER_00: I think he's being absolutely straightforward in the teaching that he's placing before us, and he's helping everyone who is not where they need to be with the Lord to get there.
SPEAKER_00: But I'll say this: he's also doing something else, and maybe even more so.
SPEAKER_00: He's helping those of us who are in Christ and who struggle against the problems of life and the valleys and all the things we've been talking about, to come to the realization our God is our source of power.
SPEAKER_00: It is through Christ who did all of these things that we live, that we thrive as children of God, even under the worst of circumstances, that our God never forsakes us, he never leaves us, and it is through him that we become more than conquerors.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Paul's case in all of this.
SPEAKER_00: It's not God who wants to separate himself from us, that's what we've learned.
SPEAKER_00: Just consider all that he's done to reconcile himself to us.
SPEAKER_00: God has made counter provisions, even for everything that stands against us, clearing the way for our closeness, our justification, our eternal salvation, our redemption.
SPEAKER_00: To be more than a conqueror over tribulation, brothers and sisters, is to cling to God as he safely leads us through it even in our own weakness.
SPEAKER_00: To be more than conquerors over death is to know the future in Christ is greater than even death in this world.
SPEAKER_00: To be more than a conqueror over anything else, as Paul says, is achieved by keeping our eyes on the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord and knowing there's just nothing better than being there.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing can stand in our way when we have someone like this on our side.
SPEAKER_00: Who can stand against us?
SPEAKER_00: In any of these things, only in Him are we made more than conquerors.
SPEAKER_00: And the outcome?
SPEAKER_00: If only we could say it in words.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, appreciation, glorification of our God, honor.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we really just don't even have words to express it, do we?
SPEAKER_00: Like roots, we grow because of what our Lord does.
SPEAKER_00: Like a tree that's planted aside the streams of water, as the psalmist would teach.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to notice up in the in verse 1 of chapter 8, just that one sentence, there is therefore now no condemnation for those where?
SPEAKER_00: In Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Then look at verse 39, down at the end of the text.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: For those in Christ, there's no condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: For those in Christ, there's no separation.
SPEAKER_00: No one can deny how far God is willing to go for us and what we gain through comfort, true joy, true lasting assurance.
SPEAKER_00: That's not found in anything else except what we read here in chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus Christ, our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And I say, praise God for our certain and complete and crushing victory in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He overcomes it all on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: Though we are weak, in Him, we are made strong.
SPEAKER_00: I say to you this evening, if you're one who separated yourself from God, you don't have to live in that state.
SPEAKER_00: You don't even have to leave this place tonight in that state.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I would say to you, you don't ever have to live in that state ever again.
SPEAKER_00: Unless you just want to do that.
SPEAKER_00: You enjoy it there.
SPEAKER_00: Don't have to live there, though.
SPEAKER_00: God has made a way.
SPEAKER_00: He's opened the door.
SPEAKER_00: And through repentance and baptism, you can step through that door tonight.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you'll allow God to touch your heart in this way.
SPEAKER_00: Look at that text.
SPEAKER_00: It is a pinnacle of scripture.
SPEAKER_00: It means more to the Christian than anything.
SPEAKER_00: It's our whole life wrapped up in one chapter.
SPEAKER_00: You need to come to Him this evening.
SPEAKER_00: We invite you to do that.
SPEAKER_00: You need to talk to us more about it.
SPEAKER_00: Talk to us more about it.
SPEAKER_00: We'll study with you.
SPEAKER_00: We'll pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: Or if it is that you know what you need to do tonight and you just have been putting it off, ask you that question again.
SPEAKER_00: What in the world would you be thinking to do that?
SPEAKER_00: There's no need to live in that state.
SPEAKER_00: God welcomes you to Him tonight, and we can help you in that desire if you'll come forward while together we stand and as we sing.
SPEAKER_00: With us.