SPEAKER_00 0:00

Thank you. I've enjoyed the services since we've been here. I trust what I bring before you this afternoon when I talk in the council. I've enjoyed the singing, I've enjoyed the preaching, and uh I've got a subject and I trust I learned a long time ago to try to preach on what's on my mind and not get something that I don't know anything about. But I I don't really know just exactly how to begin. But I'm gonna get try to address my thoughts this afternoon from the eighth chapter of Romans. But I wanna in order just to sort of get what I'm getting at, I remember when David came up against a Philistine giant and he was to fight that giant and he David went down to the brook and he picked out five little stones. And he took those little stones and he met the giant and he took one of those, just one of those stones is all that he needed. But he had half of them. He took that stone, put it in his lane, slung it, and threw that giant. You know where he hit that giant at? In the forehead. That's where his religion was. So I want to look at these and and Romans, and I believe these represent just as much as those five through the storm. We can take one of these five things in the eighth chapter of Romans, and it'll cut down every false religious way. I want to begin with the 28th verse. Paul says, We know. I remember that from time to time we find places where they say, We know. I remember the wise man Solomon, back over in the third uh the third chapter of Ecclesiastes in the 14th verse, said, For we know. And whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever, ever, nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it, and God do it doeth it for that men would fear before him. That which is now hath already been, that which is to be is now, and he requireth that which is past. What he does, he does it forever, and he don't have to back up and do it over. Here he's Paul, the apostle Paul says, and we know all things work together for good to them that love God. I want you to know we got to do some rightly applying. For there are all things in the all things don't work together. I remember that God and Satan do not work together. Good and evil do not work together. And Paul says over in Galatians 5, 17, the flesh lust us against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. These are contrary one to another, so that you cannot do the things that you would. So all things don't work together. But these things that we noticed this afternoon is that they they all work together. But but uh Paul did not mean when he started out in this verse and the verses that follow, that he was talking about everything that comes to happen, everything that comes to pass works together for our good. He don't do it. But I have found things that would come upon us at a time and I couldn't see any good out of it. But later on I find out it worked together for our good. But that's not what's under consideration today. What's under consideration today is the five things that assure us a home in heaven and immortal glory. And they're all what God did and nothing what you did. You you we were passive, we're passive in our eternal salvation. All right, he says they know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are thee. And by the way, he's not saying these things will work together if you love God, if you will love God. But this is a characteristic of the things, these things. He says, to them who are thee called according to his purpose. Uh I hear people sometimes say God had a plan. I don't believe God had a plan. I believe he had a purpose. And he does according to that purpose in his own will and his own mind and what he doeth, what he doeth whatsoever is a he doeth, he doeth because he has all power. Then I want to notice something. The next verse, he names the first thing that works together for our good. For whom, and I want you to notice the word whom. It's not what. God foreknows all things. He knew all things. He knew all his works from beginning to end. But this is not what he for what he knew, but this is whom he did foreknow. And the word foreknowledge embraces those, uh, the very elect of God. Those that were God chose in Christ before the foundation of the world, whom he did foreknow, whom he did choose. And I find over in Romans 3, Romans 3, Romans, uh, no, Ephesians 1 and 3. He says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. I want you to know if you've ever enjoyed a spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus, it's evidence that you're one of his. You're one that he has chosen you. And when did he choose us? He chose us here in Ephesians 1, he tells us, Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he has chosen us in him. I hear people saying, Well, I believe in the doctrine of election, but I believe God just looked down from eternal heaven and saw those who would do good and those that would not do good, and those that he knew would do good the ones he chose. I don't believe that. Paul didn't believe it either. But he said, according, as he has chosen us in him, in Christ Jesus, when uh before the foundation of the world, uh there was no world, or there was no people, uh, uh God looked down uh and he saw that. Let me go over, I believe, to uh Psalms 139 uh and about the 15th verse, and I hear him saying here, uh, my substance uh was not hid from thee when I was made and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. He said, My thine eyes uh did see my substance. I believe uh the Lord looked down uh before the world began, before the foundation of the earth were ever laid. Uh I believe he looked down there and he saw a people, but I believe, and uh, this is what I believe, and I believe the Bible bears it out, uh, he saw a people uh who had gone astray. He saw a people that were already uh in a state of death and trespasses and in sins, and had transgressed his law, and he chose uh out of those people, uh, he chose a people and gave them to his darling son. He said, Thine eye did see my substance, yet being unperfect, that unperfect means not yet complete. And and uh in thy book all my memories were written. Uh, I hear people from time to time say, uh, you better get busy, uh, you better live right, uh, you better do it, get right with the Lord, in order that your name uh will get written in that book. Uh I want you to know that's too late. Uh, that's like for me uh running for president. Uh, and they say, why are you running for president? It's already been chosen. Uh, I want you to know these people uh had all been chosen. Uh their books, their names were written uh already in the book of life. And he tells them, all my members were written, which in continuous profession, when as yet uh there was none of them. You weren't there, uh, only in the mind and purpose of God. Now then uh he says uh, according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. Now then, you see, we don't have a choice to where we go when we die. We don't have a choice. Uh Adam fixed that uh in the prayer when he transgressed God's righteous and holy law, and we fell and died in him, fell in a state of death and trespasses and in sins. He fixed our destination there. We deserved uh to spend eternity separated uh uh from God. Uh so he fixed us there. Uh we can't choose uh uh Jesus to go to heaven because he fixed that uh before the foundation of the world. God uh uh fixed our destination uh before the foundation of the world, and it's already fixed. We have no choice in it. All right, now then he says, accordingly, he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. I want you to know uh when our final wind-up of all time comes, uh, when we are resurrected from our graves, meet the Lord in the air, carried home to live with God in heaven and water glory. We won't stand before that judgment throne there. Uh uh we uh Jesus met our judgment uh when he went to the Father and offered the sacrifice for our sins, put him away as far as uh earth is from the east, is from the west. And we were chosen uh that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Uh I want you to know uh uh that we are slated as clean. Uh God beholds us today as he sees us in uh the blood of his darling through the blood of his darling son. He sees us holy and without blame. He sees us uh as if we never had sinned and never will sin anymore. So uh, and I want you to know uh uh we uh we we can never, once we're redeemed, uh brought up from under that state of death and trespasses and in sins, uh no matter how much uh sin we get involved in, uh, how deep our sin is, we can never go back under the lost and of death. Uh, let me get over the first chapter of uh the first verse of the eighth chapter of Roman letter and let's see what Paul says. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. I want you to know we are not under that condemnation anymore. We'll never go back under that condemnation here. I want you to know he's not telling us that you're not condemned if you're condemned if you don't walk right. But I want you to know he's not telling us uh that there's no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. I want you to know that's not conditional. That's uh uh telling us who it is that are not condemned anymore. And how come we're not condemned anymore? And read the next verse. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. We're no longer under that law of sin and death, for what the law could not do, uh was weak through the flesh. God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of God, my righteousness of the law, might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Now then uh go back and go over here in the H and the and uh the let's just uh get uh and let's get to the 29th verse again for whom he did for know, whom he did choose, uh he also did. I want you to know uh a lot of times uh I remember when I was a young young boy at home and my grandpa bass would come to spend the time with us, and he'd get me to sit down and read the Bible to him. Uh I began to read and I'd read and I'd miss a little three-letter word or something. He'd say, wait a minute, you missed a word. So we want to notice the three, the little the little words also. Uh notice the word, three-letter word D I D. That means everything is done in the mind and purpose of God. Uh now we have we don't uh we haven't got uh all of these things yet, uh, but when we reach heaven in the Mortal Glory, all these things will have been fulfilled and will in us as for whom he did pre-foreknow he also uh did predestinate. Uh preacher, I don't like predestination. That means uh God had done predestinated everything that happened. I want you to know that's not Bible either. Uh that's some man's opinion. Uh, but I want you to know the Bible says uh whom he uh foreknew, he also did predestinate, prearrange our destiny uh by an unchangeable purpose. That's the reason we don't have a choice in that either. Uh he already did it uh for us. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. Uh what did he predestinate us to? Uh, be conformed to the image of his son. Uh won't it be wonderful? Won't it be amazing there uh when we get there, we'll be like him, uh, we'll see him as he is, and he and we'll be forever there according to the image that we be conformed, we'll be like him, be conformed to him and be righteous as he is righteous. So he said, all our righteousness that we got right now, if we have our own, is only like filthy rags. So he says that he's conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. He is the firstborn, he is the uh he is the one and only one. Uh, he is the one that we whether we uh have any hope in uh while we live here in the world. And so he says he might be the firstborn among many brethren. So he got poor knowledge and we got predestination. That's two of them, and uh with more. He said, moreover, uh, I love the borovers much more, and the over and the uhovers much more. He said, moreover, whom he did, not what he did. He I want you to know God did not predestinate things, he predestinated people, uh, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called them he also, whom he called, them he also justified. I want you to know uh he not only pre-arranged our destiny by an unchangeable purpose, but then he calls us uh by sovereign grace. 2 Timothy 1.9 says, uh, God who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. He called us. He called us out of that state of death in sin to a life in the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, for whom whom he did predestinate, then he also called, and whom he called, him he also justified. Uh we stand justified in the abiding purpose in the eyes of God today. Uh, as he's looking at us through us through his darling son, we stand to justified uh Romans 3, uh over in the third chapter of Romans said, Be therefore being justified freely by his grace, it's free, it didn't cost us a thing, uh, but it cost our heavenly father lots of things. Caused our heavenly father the death of his only begotten son, uh, whom he just says uh he called him, he justified to be justified in the sight of a just and holy God is to be declared, is to be standing as though you never had sinned and you never will sin again. Uh whom he just whom he uh predestinated, he also did he did justify. Whom he justified, then he also glorified. I want you to notice uh all these are in past tense. Uh well we haven't been glorified yet, uh, but uh some glorious day, and it'll be an amazing day we uh when we uh ark is risen uh out of the grave and our bodies are changed. Uh I hear Paul saying uh to on one occasion over there in uh Philippians uh one, he tells us uh for me to live is Christ, to die is gain. I want to know uh what do we gain when we die? We die, we get immediate peace. We get to see our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We be forever with him, forever and forever. No more sin, no more sad farewells, no more goodbyes, no more aches or pains, no more diseases or anything of that side. But here's the reason that we'll be glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who shall be against us? Nothing can be put against us. Uh for uh he that spared not his own son. I want you to know uh he didn't spare his own son uh from leaving heaven in immortal glory, coming down to this low ground of sin and sorrow to suffer breeding, die in our room, instead that we someday uh by live with him in heaven in immortal glory. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up. Amen. He that delivered him up for us. How shall he with him also freely give us all things? He brought all things, he's given us all things uh that pertain unto life and godliness that we might be partakers of the divine nature, uh, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through less. What then shall we say to these things? If God be for us, what then what shall we say to these things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. It is who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died. I'm glad Paul didn't stop there, but he went further. It is Christ that died. Yea, he rather is risen again, who is even at the right hand of the Father, the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. He's feeding our case. He's standing there before the Father now, saying, Father, look not to them. Look to me, I paid the price that we are freeing and holy and blank without blame before Him in love. Who shall separate us from the love of God? I want you to know from the love of Christ. People have said, you better live your life right. You better follow Christ, you better do all things right. Uh, you might find yourself out of uh the right uh out of uh the love of Christ. I want you to know Paul says, who should be able to separate us from the love of Christ? Then he begins to name a few things. Shell tribulation, it don't matter how much tribulation we get in, never separate us from the love of Christ. Uh our distress. No matter how low down we get and distressed we feel, it'll never separate us uh from the love of Christ, our persecution, our famine, our nakedness, our pearl of sword. I want you to know if a sword can't separate us from the love of Christ, a bullet can't either. So uh he says this, as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter, and all these things, not in some of them, but in all these things, we are more than conquerors. We're not only conquerors, but we're more than conquerors. How we more than conquerors through him that loved us. I am persuaded, uh, Paul wasn't wondering about it. I am persuaded that the neither death nor life, no matter what kind of death, no matter what kind of life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, that about gets all of it, does it not? Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of Christ, which is with the love of God, which is Christ Jesus our Lord. These things are the things that work together, and they work together for our good, and finally one day we'll reap the benefits of it. back to take us home. We live for him forevermore. Thank you for your kind attention.