Please take your Bible and turn to Romans chapter 8 along with me as we look at the last paragraph in this beloved chapter of God's Word. This paragraph not only concludes this chapter, but it concludes the section of Romans that we've been dealing with. You may recall that the theme of the whole book is the righteousness of God. In the first three chapters or so we learn that we are sinners and need righteousness. There is nothing about us to commend us to God.
We are in need of righteousness if we are going to be right with God. In chapters 4 and 5 we learn that God has provided that righteousness for us. Jesus Christ has become the propitiation, that is, the satisfaction for our sins. And just as our sins were laid upon Him, so when we trusted Him as Savior, His righteousness was given to us. And now we are justified before God, that is, we are declared right with God. As God sees us, we are legally without blame.
Chapters 6, 7, and 8 then deal with how to get that righteousness in our legal position into our daily lives. It's called sanctification. We learn how to gain victory over sin that still indwells us. In chapter 8 we come to the real pinnacle, not only of this section but of the book, because here the secret is given to us, and that is the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. We have seen through this chapter a number of His works in the life of the believer.
He concludes His exposition of what God has done for us by reminding us that God has guaranteed His purpose in our lives by five actions He has taken, those we have studied for the last three weeks in verses 29 and 30. And now He says, what shall we say to these things? It is not only to those five actions that God has taken on our behalf, but also to all that we have talked about in the book. He says, what shall we say to these things? You see, He is left almost speechless, almost.
Like most preachers, almost speechless. He says, if God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies, and who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
From tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, for thy sake we are being put to death all day long, we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created things shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Perhaps the theme to that whole paragraph is found in verse 31 when the apostle says God is for us, the if at the beginning of that question does not communicate a doubt, but rather it's better translated, since God is for us, or because God is for us, who can be against us? You see the truth is God is for us. A week ago Thursday, a 29-year-old man in Ottawa, Kansas was at his place of employment.
Somehow a stack of metal sheeting, each sheet being a quarter of an inch thick but 12 feet wide and 30 feet long and weighing 60 tons was knocked over onto him. He was not killed instantly, but for 25 minutes he pled for his co-workers to get him out from underneath that load which was crushing the very life out of him. His co-workers frantically grabbed the metal sheets with their machinery and began to remove them as best they could one by one. There were 52 of them.
It took them 45 minutes to get to his body and by that time he was dead. Four days after that he was to have had a seventh anniversary as an employee of that firm. On that day his plan was to go in and to draw out his retirement and to leave this week for Bible College to study for the ministry. Instead, last Monday his wife and two little kids stood beside his casket. You say how does that illustrate that God is for us?
There are two possible ways that we can respond to that and to some of the situations that some of us find ourselves in today, serious though they be perhaps not as heart-rending as the one I have used as an illustration. We can respond to our circumstances like Jacob did in Genesis chapter 42 when most of his sons came back from Egypt after having encountered Joseph though they didn't know it.
They asked their father for permission to take Benjamin, the youngest son, back with them so that they could ransom Simeon who had been kept. When Jacob heard that he was in great distress and he said first I lose Joseph and now Simeon has been kidnapped and you want me to give up Benjamin? All of these things are against me. Do you ever feel that way? David was wrong but that was his perception at that point. On the other hand, we can respond like David.
One occasion he fled from Saul, went down into Philistia to the city of Gath and when he was there hoping to be unrecognized, there were those who did know who he was. They began to whisper about that this was David, the one who had killed the ten thousands while Saul had slain his thousands. David knew that his life was in jeopardy though God did deliver him. While he was there, his life being threatened, he wrote Psalm 56.
In that Psalm he recounts his wonderings to God, the tears that he had shed, the loneliness that he had known. He speaks about those who were lurking in the street watching his steps ready to assassinate him. As he explains to God how he feels in the middle of that Psalm, he makes this amazing statement. He said, this I know, God is for me. Though everyone else was against him, this he knew, God was for him.
Do you know that wherever you are today, that if you are a Christian that God is for you, He's not against you? And if God is for you, who would dare be against you? You say, well there are times when I wonder if God is really for me or not. The Apostle Paul gives us in our text today five proofs that God is for us, who are His children. Five evidences, five proofs that God is for you and for me. He's on our side. Proof number one, verse 32, he delivered up his son.
He who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things? The son was the very special possession of God the Father, His own Son. It is hard for us to understand perhaps the dearness of that unless we try to get a hold of it through the relationship that we have with our family. God the Father dearly loved God the Son. He found complete enjoyment in Him.
He was delighted with His Son but He did not spare Him as one might spare something which is precious, but rather He delivered Him up or delivered Him over to crucifixion, to suffering, to sacrifice for us all. That does not mean that God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, was victimized by God the Father. Jesus Himself said that He came to give His life as a ransom for many.
The very verb that says here that the Father delivered Him up is used in Galatians 2.20 of Jesus Christ giving Himself for us. So it's not that He's a victim, for He gave Himself. That's the other side of the truth. And here the apostle is saying, look, God is for you because on His part He delivered up His most prized, precious possession for the sake of you. And having done that, He argues, will He not with Him also give you all things? He argues from the lesser to the greater.
He says, if God has given His Son in sacrifice for your sins, now that you are His, is He suddenly going to turn against you? Is He going to change His mind about you and withhold anything that you need? Is God going to be against you now? No, no. He says, God is for you, and the proof of it is what He did for you through Jesus Christ. And having done that, now He will give you all things. He says later to the Corinthians, all things belong to you. Peter put it this way.
He has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Every spiritual blessing is ours in the heavenly places in Jesus Christ. Along with our basic salvation comes all things in Christ. It's ours already. God is for you. He has proved it that way by delivering up His Son. The second proof is found in verse 33, who will bring a charge against God's elect? Who would dare call in one of God's chosen ones to give an account for something?
Who would press a charge or an indictment against one that God has chosen? Would the sinners of the world? Well, they might try, but they are in no position to. Would Satan? Yes, and there is indication that he does accuse us before God. Revelation 12, 10 says he is the accuser of the brethren. But he has no legal basis on which to challenge us. Now why is that? Well, he tells us. He says, God is the one who justifies.
You see, my friend, there is only one in the whole universe who is capable of bringing a charge against you as one of God's elect. And that is God Himself. Only He can bring a charge against you. Only He can haul you into court before the bench and press an indictment against your soul. And that is because all sin is ultimately directed against whom?
That is right, against God. After David had sinned so grievously with Bathsheba, after he had killed her husband, after he had lied about it, when he confessed it by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in Psalm 51 he said, against thee, the only have I sinned. You see, David recognized and reveals to us a great truth there. Though we may in fact sin against other people, ultimately all sin is against God. And God is the one who can bring a charge against us if He wishes.
But the fact is, He doesn't wish to do it. You see, He has already made His declaration about us. And He has said about us, since we've trusted Christ, you are therefore now without condemnation. God says there is no basis for accusation. There is no reason to bring a legal charge against you. He has justified you in His sight. Turn with me to Colossians chapter 2 and let's get another word that gives us further insight into this blessed truth.
Colossians chapter 2 verse 13 says, When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Christ, having forgiven us all our transgressions, past, present, or future. Someone went to Dr. Harry Ironside one time who was a great Bible teacher and pastored the Moody Church in Chicago for a number of years.
This lady said, Pastor Ironside, I thank God for forgiving me all of my sins that are in the past, but what about all of my sins of the future? He turned her to this verse and showed her that God has forgiven us all of our transgressions. And he said, Lady, consider how many of your sins were in the past when Christ died for you. She recognized that they were all in the future then.
You see, when Jesus Christ died for our sins, when we were forgiven for our sins, it was for the whole package of them. We stand before God in a permanent state of having been forgiven, period. That's great news. But it goes on to say verse 14, this is how it happened, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us. And he's taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
The apostle Paul is drawing here upon an image familiar to his writers, rather to those who are reading, his readers. And that was the image of one who was being crucified. For as one was led out to the place of his execution, he was given a placard. And on that placard was written his crimes so that all might know why he was being led to execution. And then when he was nailed or tied, as was the case sometimes, to his cross, that placard of decrees against him was nailed to his cross.
That happened to Jesus, didn't it? There was a placard put on his cross by Pilate that said he said he was the king of the Jews. What is said here is that that placard listing the reasons for our condemnation, the writings of condemnation against us containing our transgressions, that placard was nailed to a cross already. And that is the cross of Jesus Christ. So that no longer do we have this placard with condemnation written on it. It's already been nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ.
It's been removed and taken out of the way so that we stand before God with our penalty already having been paid by Jesus Christ. That's why he can declare us righteous. Prollways against us has been destroyed by the very one who alone has the power to accuse us. In your case and in mine, we who have trusted Christ, the Judge has already ruled, and he has said case dismissed. And there is no double jeopardy with God. Is God for you?
My friend, and he has proved that because he has already declared you righteous before his sight." There's a third proof, verse 34, and that is that he has received our advocate into heaven. Who is the one who condemns or judges? Do you remember who it is that Jesus said, the Father has committed all judgment to? Who is it? To Jesus himself. Back in John chapter 5, Jesus says, and the Father has committed all judgment to the Son.
So now the apostle says, who is the one who will judge us, who condemns us? He says, Christ Jesus, is he who died? Yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. You see, Jesus Christ is no longer our judge. We shall stand before him someday to be examined and rewarded, and yet in our essential relationship to him, he is no longer our judge, but rather he is our advocate. He stands before God on behalf of his people.
For him to condemn us now would be for him to renounce and to deny his own saving work on the cross. Skevington Wood, in his book on Romans 8, shares with us an illustration about Frank Crosley, a British Christian industrialist who, on an occasion, was performing a service as a magistrate or as a judge in Manchester, England. This was many years ago, at the time when the Salvation Army had just begun under General William Booth.
Before him that day in court came a young lady who was a member of the Salvation Army. She had been arrested by some policemen. The charge against her was that she was disrupting traffic. She was actually holding a street meeting telling people how to get saved. They're in the streets of Manchester. She used that occasion to explain exactly what she had been doing and to tell all of her listeners there in the courtroom why they too needed to be right with God.
Frank Crosley, this Christian industrialist and that day magistrate, did something very unusual. He got up from behind the bench of the judge and he walked out around it over to where the young gal was and he stood beside her. That day the judge served as her advocate, her lawyer, before the court. You see, that's what Jesus Christ has done for us.
He to whom all judgment has been committed has left his judgment thrown in our case and now comes and stands before the God of the universe to intercede on our behalf. He is our advocate before God. His cross work of death, his resurrection is a basis for his present ministry at the right hand of God. It says in Hebrews 3, 1, when he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
Here in the book Hebrews 7, verse 25 it says, He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. You and I do sin, don't we? Having been justified legally before God, we nonetheless recognize that we do fail and we do sin. And Jesus Christ is there as a permanent advocate before the Father, pleading our case.
And though Satan may come and accuse us before God, Jesus Christ is there to show that he has paid the price and that Satan has no legal basis upon which to bring accusation against any of us. That's what John says in 1 John chapter 2, he says, My little children, these things I write unto you, that you stop sinning, but if any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one, and he is the propitiation for our sins. He's the satisfaction.
That's why Charles Wesley wrote the words to that hymn, Arise, my soul, arise. Shake off thy guilty fears. The bleeding sacrifice on thy behalf appears. Before the throne my surety stands, my name is written on his hands. So you have one who stands before God, but there's another truth that's intertwined here and it's this, that when God received your advocate, he received you.
There was a day some 2,000 years ago when the Son of God left his disciples, his followers on the earth, and was taken up into glory. He was received into heaven, and I can't imagine what heaven must have been like when he came back. When he was received by God and welcomed home, when he took his place at the right hand of God the Father, you were there too. You were received with Jesus Christ, your advocate, when he was accepted by God the Father. Is God for you? There's no question about it.
He's already received you in Jesus Christ, the very one who stands on your behalf to plead your case before God. The fourth proof that we have the joy of knowing that God is for us is found in these following verses where it says that he assures us victory. We are not guaranteed trial-free lives of happiness. Indeed, suffering is to be expected by the child of God. It says here from this verse in the Old Testament, verse 33, for thy sake we are being put to death all day long.
We are counted like sheep to be slaughtered. That is the position of the child of God in this world because we stand now in the place of Jesus Christ. Our lives will be lives of suffering as his life was. And there are some of us who get troubled by that. And we think that somehow when we suffer we're separated from God. Or we may wonder as we pass through the various trials, how do I know I'm not going to fail?
Paul mentions a number of things, he says, what shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation, testing, shall distress, pressure, anxiety, persecution, famine, the nakedness, dangers. What about the sword of the executioner? Have you ever wondered how you would respond if you were stood up against a wall and there were some men with machine guns and they said you either now renounce your faith in Jesus Christ and get in line with the rest of us in this world or you're going to die.
Have you ever wondered how you would respond? I have. And I've wondered frankly what I would say in that moment. Would I have the faith, would I have the courage not to deny my Lord but to profess my faith in him to that degree? Let's think of lesser cases. What about in case of a famine? You say well we have a lot of food in this land. We do now. Did you know that our federal government is quite concerned about credit card and debit card thievery and forgery?
Billions of dollars every year are lost in the economy and to the government because of this. I think that visas coming out very shortly with a new card, which will be very difficult they say to duplicate, to forge. But the government is concerned so much so that they are trying to find a way to make that foolproof.
A friend of mine who works for the Department of Labor that I talked with yesterday said that right now the government is considering this option of having each person who's a citizen of our nation tattooed with a laser beam, it would be painless, it would be invisible.
But it would be a tattoo which would be apparent to a computer scanner so that you would have a number like a social security number and that number could not be duplicated by anybody else because it would be tattooed right onto your body in a particular place and you alone then would be identified that way. You can see if something like that should come to pass how perfectly that fits with what is prophesied will happen under Antichrist during the tribulation.
I am convinced the teaching of scripture is we will not enter into the tribulation as the Church of Jesus Christ. We've been delivered from the wrath of God. But I do believe that we will enter into tribulation and there may come a day, my friend, when in our own society that to have that mark upon you, you will have to meet certain standards or compromise certain things and fit a certain way into our culture, our society.
What will you do if you cannot buy food for your children, if you cannot gain employment without a certain mark on you? My wife and I have commented a number of times how grateful we are that we have food to buy for our children. They eat us out of house and home but nonetheless we are grateful that we can buy that food and feed them.
Can you imagine the kind of pain that millions of parents experience in our world right now who have to listen to their children cry and beg for food and they have nothing to give them? Talk about distress, talk about heartache. What have we got in a situation like that? Would your faith fail? Look what he says in verse 37. He says, in all these things, whether famine or persecution or execution, whatever, in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
You and I won't conquer ourselves but whatever life may bring, whatever the stress or the test may be, we are super conquerors through Jesus Christ. He enables us to have victory. He assures us victory. Is God on your side? Is God for you? My friend, He is so much for you that in advance He has committed Himself to your victory through Jesus Christ. It doesn't mean that you will have food, that you won't hear your children cry out.
It doesn't mean that you're going to be saved from execution any more than it meant that that man in Ottawa, Kansas was spared from death under that load of metal last week. My friend, Jesus Christ has already promised us that we are going to be super conquerors. Our faith will not fail and that the ultimate victory is already ours. That's how much He is for us. That brings us quickly to the last of the proofs that God is for us. Verses 38 and 39, He secures our position in Jesus Christ.
You and I are not ships left to float out on the sea of life, but we have been anchored. We have been secured to Jesus Christ. The Apostle mentions all kinds of possibilities that might be thought to separate us from Christ. Death, life, sometimes life is rougher than death, isn't it? Angels or principalities, spirits, anything in the present world, the possibilities of the future, whatever powers there are, however high we may go or to whatever depth we may be exposed.
He says there is nothing that is created that can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You and I have an anchor to our souls. That anchor does not go down like most anchors on a ship. Our anchor goes up. And over in Hebrews, the writer says that that anchor goes behind the veil where it is fastened to the very throne of God. We are moored. We are secured by the very omnipotence, the very sovereignty of God Himself. We are secured in Jesus Christ. Is God for you?
You better believe it. If He weren't, He wouldn't have anchored you. It's impossible for you to be rejected or overlooked or somehow otherwise miss out on the destiny that God has purposed for you. More likely would it be that Jesus Christ would cease being the Son of God than that you should fail to be with Him one day in glory. It would be necessary for Jesus Christ to enter into the fires of eternal hell and their suffer again for sin.
If you should have to suffer for sin because we are linked with Him and where He is, we will be forever. We are secure in the love of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let me close with these questions. Since God is for you and since He has sacrificed even to the delivering up of His Son, what sacrifice have you made for Him? What have you given up for His sake? Is it too much that we should imitate Him?
Should we think that somehow there should be no cost to us in our service for Him considering the price He paid for our redemption? God is for you. For what have you given for Him? What price have you paid financially? Do you sacrifice financially for the cause of Jesus Christ? What about your children? Are you willing, Mom, Dad, to see your child, your children go to the uttermost parts of the earth if God should call them there? That's a sacrifice for you to only see them every few years.
Are you willing to make that sacrifice? Young person, are you willing to lay aside your aspirations, your dreams, your goals and say, Lord, what do you want me to do? Considering the fact that God is for you, have you forgiven as He has forgiven you? He's completely wiped out all of the debt owed. Have you forgiven others for their offense against you? Are you willing to be trampled upon? Are you willing even to be ridiculed? Are you willing to forgive others as freely as God has forgiven you?
God is for you. You can do that. You should do that. You must do that. Since God is for you, will you appropriate the victory He's provided in Jesus Christ? In that area where you now are failing, where temptations come and you just fall, in those areas of your life where you struggle, are you willing today, since God is for you to claim the victory, you're not in the battle alone?
Remember Elisha, when the enemy came against him and surrounded the camp and his servant said, Elisha, look here, what's going to happen? Elisha said, Lord, just open his eyes. And suddenly he saw the ring of God's angels around that city. He got the victory. My friend, yours is the victory through Jesus Christ. You're a super conqueror. Will you claim that in the battle you face today? Since God is for you, will you today believe and accept the security that He's promised you in Christ?
Will you stop struggling with doubt? Will you no longer allow uncertainty about your continued salvation to rob you of peace and joy? You did me for a number of years when I was younger. You don't have to go through that roller coaster ride, my friend. God wants you to know that you can know that you're saved. Will you today accept that security in Jesus Christ and allow your faith to rest upon it, knowing that you're anchored behind the veil in heaven into the Holy of Holies itself?
My father, thank you that you are for us. And if you're for us, who or what in heaven or hell or the earth can be against us? And if today there are some of your saints here discouraged in the battle, encourage their hearts with this message. If there are some who are doubting, who are wavering, speak to them.
If there are some who need to claim a victory or who need to rededicate themselves and give themselves over unreservedly, sacrificially to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, may they do it today. If there be one without the Savior, may he today trust the Lord and be saved from sin and know the kind of security we've talked about. Thank you for Jesus Christ, in whom our hope is eternally placed. Amen.