Romans 8 (Part 2) • More than conquerors

We're in Romans chapter 8, so open your Bibles please to Romans 8. We're going to do the second half of the chapter. By the way, this half of Romans 8 is absolutely chock full of just incredible and very popular and very well-known verses. I'm willing to bet that you probably have several memory verses that are here in this latter part of Romans chapter 8. And so I'm going to do, usually when I start off doing a teaching, we'll read through the verses that we're going to be covering, and then we'll go back and kind of unpack them. Tonight I'm going to just get right into it after we pray, before we pre-read, and I just felt like it might work a little better. So anyway, let's pray as we get into this tonight. Father, thank you so much for the opportunity to gather here this evening. And we thank you, Father, for your Word that we can study, that you've preserved it for us, Lord, these many years. And we thank you, Lord, also for the work of your Holy Spirit among us to bring light and understanding to the wisdom and revelation of your Word, so as to allow our hearts to take it in and to really benefit from the things that we read here in the Scripture. And I know, Lord God, that there are verses here in this latter part of Romans 8 that are just so critical to our walk with you. And we just really pray that you'd speak to our hearts, and we want to tune into you and really open our hearts to all that you have to say. So use this time, anoint our ears to hear, our hearts to receive, our eyes to see, Lord God, and give me the grace to share. We lift up all of these things in the authority granted us through Jesus our Savior. Amen. Amen. You know, I would say without a doubt, one of the most popular questions that I get as a pastor has to do or have to do with essentially suffering. People want to know, suffering creates a natural issue in people's lives, and you know, I would say more often in the lives and hearts of unbelievers, but certainly in the minds even of believers, we go through issues in life where we suffer, we struggle, and we kind of wonder, how can I reconcile this with this God who keeps telling me over and over again in the Bible that he loves me, that he has good, you know, in store for me, that he's for me, and so on and so on and so on. And yet, when we deal with all kinds of issues, and I'll just grant you, it's hard. It's hard, you know. But the Apostle Paul begins the section that we're looking at here tonight, which by the way begins in verse 18, and I want you to notice here how he begins by giving you and me some eternal perspective on the subject of suffering as it relates to God's will, God's kingdom in our lives, and he says in verse 18, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth even comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. There you go. That's it. You know, I can't say it any more eloquently than the Apostle Paul did. He's laying it out in the clearest and best way that he can, and he says the sufferings of this present time, and by that he's talking about, you know, obviously life on earth. The lives that you and I live, and specifically living in a fallen and broken world, and sometimes I have to say to people when they say, why does this happen? Pastor Paul, why does this happen? And I have to say, this isn't heaven. Far from it. This is fallen planet earth, sin-soaked earth. This is the place where tragedies happen. Tragedies abound, and hardships are plenty, and we have to remember that, and all of us know. You don't need me to remind you that this life can be, you know, pretty tragic. So for Paul, the Apostle to say, to come out and just say that what you and I have endured, and what many people before us have endured, sometimes even much worse than us, for him to be able to say, you can't even compare. It doesn't even compare with the glory to be revealed. That's saying something, right? I mean, that's saying something pretty bold. I mean, people could probably take issue with it and say, well, Apostle Paul, you don't know what I've been through. Yeah, well, we do know what he's been through. Good grief. Shipwrecks, attempts on his life on numerous occasions, beatings, scourgings. Paul was scourged three times with a whipping that some people didn't survive. Even one scourging, he endured three, and all the things that went along with it, you know, snake bites, and all those things, goodness gracious, and he says it's not even worth comparing with the glory that's going to be revealed in us. And that is the next phrase I want to look at, the glory that will be revealed, he says, to us. And he's obviously thinking about various things that we've looked at even so far in our study of Romans, such as the fact that we're going to receive an incorruptible body one day. You have a corruptible one now, you know that. But you're going to receive a body one day that isn't going to need Tylenol anymore. It's not going to, you know, wake up in the morning and need 15 minutes to stretch out. You know, it's not going to get sick anymore. You're not even going to need to sleep. Can you imagine? We spend half our lives sleeping now. He's talking about the fact that we're going to receive a new heaven and a new earth. That's some of the, these are some of the glories that are going to be revealed to us. And then there's something else that Paul's thinking about, which frankly, he ended the last section of our study with. And that is the fact that being children of God, we are heirs of God. And we talked about this last time. We talked about the fact that this is kind of a mind-blowing reality from the standpoint that we really can't even relate to it. You know, God says, you know, in the word, you know, by the way, you're my children and you're heirs and joint heirs with my son, Jesus. And we're kind of like, okay, what does that mean? Well, we really don't even know. You know, but it's what Paul considers to be better, incomparably better than anything you or I may be suffering in this present life. That's the point. And all of this is, of course, going to take place when Jesus returns to set things right. But not only are we looking forward to that, and by the way, that's one of the reasons we do look forward to the coming of the Lord. I had a guy write to me recently, a young man who was talking. He says, you know, I hear these Christians all the time going, come Lord Jesus. And he's like, I don't want him to come right now because I haven't lived my life yet. You know, he wants to, and I remember that feeling. I remember being like 15 and thinking, I want to get my driver's license and I want to drive cars really fast. And I did that, by the way. And I want to get married and I want to have children. And this is some of what this guy was kind of saying. And I get it, you know, I know that it sounds sometimes like if Jesus comes before you've done all those things, that it's kind of raining on your parade somehow and maybe keeping you from living the life that you're dreaming of living. But here's what we forget. We forget about how much better things are going to be when Jesus returns and that new life comes. That's why we're kind of going, oh, I would rather he not come right now because we just can't relate. We can't relate to how it's going to be. And we don't know how good it, here's the thing. If you could know how good it's going to be, you'd go, come Lord Jesus. I mean, that happens just as you get older anyway, because your body's falling apart and you're just like, I'm ready to turn this one in for a new one. But when you're young and healthy and strong and your life is ahead of you, I get it. But we do cry, come Lord Jesus. But do you know that it's not just us? Look what it goes on to say in verse 19 and following. The apostle Paul writes for the, he says, the creation waits. This is not just us, the rest of creation. Notice his wording. It waits with eager longing. I'm reading from the ESV for the revealing of the sons of God. And then he explains why he says the creation, you know, was subjected to futility, not willingly. It didn't want to go that direction, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. And what Paul is saying here is that when Adam sinned in the garden along with his wife, it affected more than just them. It actually subjected all of creation to what Paul says, futility, and not only was death and dying brought into the human experience, but it became part of the creation as well, which it was never intended to do. You know, it's interesting. Scientists mark, they recognize these things. They recognize things like the fact that creation is disappearing, and that sounds really strange, but they call it the second law of thermodynamics. If you went to science class and you learned any of those things, you know that the second law of thermodynamics means that all matter is in a constant state of breaking down. We know that in our own bodies, you know, but it pertains to all matter, and this is what began to take place when the creation was subjected to this futility. You know, it all began to break down, and life just got hard, and so the whole creation has been affected. We were enslaved to sin and death. The creation was enslaved as well to corruption and decay, but when Jesus returns, and the children of God are revealed, it's all gonna change. Notice, did you notice that Paul said there in that one day the children of God will be revealed, right? For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God in verse 19. That's an important word. Did you notice it doesn't say that the sons of God are gonna be created? They've already been created. They're sitting here in this room, some of them, but there's going to come a day when they're gonna be revealed. They're really not revealed now. The world looks at you and me, and they're kinda like, get out of me, get out of my face, you know? They don't get it. They don't understand, and they can't understand that we are children of God, but we're going to be revealed one day, and that's what Paul is talking about. You're gonna be seen as to who you really are. Verse 22 goes on, and it says, for we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now, and not only the creation, he says, but us too, we ourselves. We who have the first fruits of the Spirit, he says, we groan inwardly. Some of us groan outwardly too, by the way, right? Yeah. As we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies, and so he says there's a whole lot of groaning going on. The world is groaning. We are groaning inwardly because we long to be changed. We know there's something better coming, and we want it to be here, but it's not here yet, and so we groan. And by the way, this shows this interrelationship that we've been talking about between mankind and all of creation. It's kind of interesting, isn't it? When you go back to Genesis chapter three and you read about the fall of man and the curse that came as a result of mankind's sin, God did more than just curse man and the woman and the serpent. He cursed the earth and said that it was gonna, it's just gonna be difficult. It's gonna be hard. It's gonna produce food now, but it's gonna be hard to get it out of the ground. You're gonna have to work hard, and by the sweat of your brow, you're gonna have to work, and it's gonna be difficult, and I personally believe that this curse that has extended to the creation is the reason that we experience things like hurricanes and tornadoes and earthquakes and floods and droughts, famines. None of those were part of God's original creation. Do you really think a tornado ripping through, you know, somebody's home was something that God looked at at one point and thought, no, that's good, that's a good thing. No, that's a bad thing. That is creation out of order. You know, Sue and I were raised in Tornado Alley. We were raised in southern Minnesota, which is the top of Tornado Alley, and tornado season usually begins in the south and works its way up the alley during the summer months, and we experienced and saw the result of a lot of tornadoes over the course of our lives and so forth, and I really truly believe that's part of the curse. I don't believe that was God's original intention for the, you know, the earth to do that. I think the earth, this is the groaning that's going on, you know, and you'll notice that the groaning is described as the pains of childbirth. Isn't that an interesting sort of a description? You know, the picture here that the apostle is painting for us is one of expectation, but painful expectation, because you remember that was one of, that was unfortunately one of the curses that was extended to mankind, specifically to the woman. Your pains will be increased in childbirth, and so we know what that is about, and the earth is going through that same process, but it's interesting that these aren't the pains of death. They're the pains of birth, and that gives us hope, because with birth, something is born, and we know that this something is gonna be good, ultimately, you know, but right now, it's painful, so if somebody comes up to you and says, why is there so much pain and trouble and difficulty in this world? Just say, well, we're getting ready to have a baby, and God is doing this whole thing, you know, in both people and in the world, and it's a groaning, and that's what you're hearing when people talk about these things. It's kind of their own groaning, but that, again, it's a groaning of expectation, and that's the hope that Paul talks about when he says, look in verse 24 with me in your Bible. He says, for in this hope, we were saved, and in other words, he's saying our salvation is largely about the expectation of what is to come. Have you ever thought about that? When you think about your salvation, there's things that have already happened, there are things that are presently happening, and then there are things that are going to happen, but the things that are going to happen are way more than what has already happened and what is happening right now. What has already happened is Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross for you and for me, and he paid the penalty of our sin. What is happening right now is that you and I were walking out this life in Christ, and we're having to patiently endure, right, as we do, but what is going to happen is the big part. We haven't seen it yet, and so we wait in hope, and Paul says it's in this very hope that you were saved. This is really what your salvation is all about. It's about hoping for what hasn't happened yet, okay? We like to talk about the fact that we're saved, but the Bible also talks about the fact that we're being saved and that what we've received right now is really just a small down payment of what we're going to receive, just a small down payment. Paul actually talks about this in his letter to the Ephesians. I'll put this on the screen for you from Ephesians chapter one, verses 13 to 14. Look at this. It says, in him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it. We have not yet acquired possession of it, he says, to the praise of his glory. Now, instead of the words, the promise, the guarantee, the NIV calls this a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. So what you have now is a down payment. I'm sure most of you have gone through purchasing something, home, car, whatever, and you made a down payment. You know what that means. It's an earnest agreement, and God has given you an earnest agreement, but it's a teeny tiny part of what you're going to receive and what is yet to be received. Everything yet to come is still referred to as the hope in which we were saved, okay? Because whenever the word hope is used, it's talking about something you don't have, okay? And that's frankly one of the things that can be kind of confusing about our salvation, because as I've said, the Bible speaks of our salvation as completed and not yet completed. It talks about both, because this is that. paradox in the Bible between the now and the not yet and you see this in many areas in the scripture and if you don't reconcile those as this paradox of the now and the not yet you read things and you're kind of like well am I saved or not because here it says I'm saved and over here you know it says I'm being saved what's that all about let me show you this is actually mentioned in 1st Corinthians chapter 1 up on the screen verse 18 Paul says for the word of the cross is foolishness that's what folly means to those who are perishing but to us who are look at this being saved it is the power of God you notice he didn't say for those of us who are saved I mean it would have been correct because that's even though that's the total not yet we talk about it like it's a done deal you know why because it's a done deal you know we sang about it here tonight it is finished I believe that it is finished and it is and so we can talk about something that's finished as if it's done but guess what it's not done because there's more to come and that's why we hope because that's what hope is all about we're still in the middle of verse 24 this is where Paul says it look here in also in verse 24 where he says now hope that is seen and that means hope that you have is not hope in other words the thing that you're hoping for he said and he asked the question for who hopes for what he sees in other words nobody hopes for what they already have they always hope for things that they don't have you know and you hope I hope for what I don't have I have a promise of salvation and the down payment of the Holy Spirit whom I love who has written his word on my heart and is there with me to guide me direct me and and so forth protect me guide me you know all those things and that's what I have but I hope in what I don't yet have and there's a great deal that I don't yet have and so the conclusion to this is in verse 25 look in your Bible it says but if we hope for what we do not see in other words what we don't yet have we wait for it with patience now you need to stop there for just a moment because when the Bible uses the word hope it's important for you to know that the biblical definition is not like the worldly definition because we you know we often use the word hope to just simply describe wishful thinking I might say I really hope the weather is going to be nice this weekend you know for our baseball game or something like that I hope I hope the weather is going to be good well I can't control it I don't know if it's going to actually be good I'm just it's wishful thinking on my part that the weather is going to be good but biblically speaking the word hope you guys is completely different it speaks of a confident assurance so when you see that word hope in the Bible you know what it means it means confident assurance that's why Paul says are this is the hope on which you were saved this is the confident assurance on which you were saved that the death of Jesus Christ was enough right and that there is great things coming your way and and that's what the Apostle means when he says in verse 25 but if we hope for what we do not see we wait for it with patience and this is what and see there's patience going on in our lives don't you hate that word patience you know and there's also endurance you know when when John was writing the book of Revelation he wrote it to the churches and he talked about those who were with him walking out the kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Christ Jesus because John knew that not only do we need to be patient but while we're being patient we have to endure and we endure all kinds of things that we just don't like I don't like this I've gone through lots of things in my life where I've said Lord I don't like this at all but we endure and he helps us to endure he strengthens us in the midst of that but we walk in patient endurance now in the latter part of this section of Romans 8 verses 26 and following Paul is going to begin to speak about the workings of the Holy Spirit in our lives and this is something that I know that Christians are very interested in Christians want to know how the Holy Spirit works in our lives and this is where Paul gives great insight into that and he begins in verse 26 we'll read verses 26 and 27 together and then we'll look at those verses it says likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray for as we ought but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words and he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the Saints according to the will of God and I want to talk to you about these verses but I want to tell you at the outset there's a great deal of mystery here and you know it's important as you're reading through the Bible to leave room for mystery because there's a lot of things that we just don't know many many things in fact the more you know your Bible the more you know that you don't know that's just the simple fact of the matter and there and so there's a lot of and people will often ask questions and they want answers to the mysteries you know Pastor Paul explained to me how you can we can have one God who is revealed in three persons can you explain that to me I go no of course I can't nobody can and if somebody says they can they're wrong because it's beyond our human comprehension you know it's a mystery how can you can you can you explain to me how Jesus can be both God fully God and fully man no I can't so I would call it the mystery of the incarnation you know well there's a lot of mystery here too but what we learn in these two verses first of all and I like this is that God understands that most of the time we're clueless about his will do you know again that's a very very popular set of questions that people want to ask what is God's will how do I know God's will and how do I know if it's God's will or my desire that's another big one and so this is one of the biggest challenges facing believers but all you know what what Paul isn't here to tell you that exactly everything that is about God's will for your life here's what he wants you to know he wants you to know the Holy Spirit is helping you in that area and that's important he says the Spirit helps us okay I just want you to know that and he particularly helps us in that in the sense that there are many times that we face issues and circumstances in life for which we have no clue how to respond or even pray have you ever done that have you ever gotten in a situation you're like and you started praying and use the words wouldn't come I don't know what to say I don't even know how to pray I don't know I can't begin to articulate what's going on in my heart well he says the Spirit helps us because often we don't know what to pray and so what he will do is he will intercede for us isn't that a blessing have you ever had someone intercede for you I'm sure you have it is one of the coolest things in the world when you're going through a rough season and somebody says to you hey by the way I'm praying for you just wanted you to know I'm praying for you wow thank you what a what a blessing that is well guess what the Holy Spirit of the Living God who knows all things is praying for you he's interceding for you in those specific circumstances and situations that you just don't have a clue how to even articulate to God in prayer that's a that's a tremendous comfort you know he's actually interceding on your behalf and you can be confident that his intercession is effective you know why because Paul told us that the Spirit intercedes for the Saints this is important according to the will of God and and so he always prays according to God's will when he intercedes for you when he speaks to the Father on your behalf he speaks according to the perfect will of the Father and we know that that's important because you know the Bible tells us that when we pray we know we have the confidence of knowing that God hears us when we pray according to him his will. Well the Spirit is never out of sync with the heart of the Father. And if that doesn't, you know, give us a sense of confidence and peace, you know, and I hope it does. I hope that if you're going through a time of endurance right now, patient endurance, I hope that you are coming away from even hearing these words with a greater sense of confidence and peace. But Paul isn't done blessing you. He says in verse 28, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose. And by the way, don't get messed up over the phrase for those who are called. That just speaks of, you know, the calling that you responded to when you accepted Jesus as your Savior. We're not talking about the calling to be a pastor or an elder or something like that. It's just the calling that is upon your life to walk with God. And you are called if you are in Christ today. And so the promise, and this is one of the most incredible promises, and that's why I dare say this is probably one of the verses that you've memorized in the past. You know, Paul says, this is God's promise that he will work whatever's going on in your life together, bring all those things together and work them for good. Because you are the called according to his purpose. But here's the deal. Laying hold of that promise requires faith. And it requires faith because sometimes the good that God is working in our lives is obscured by our present sufferings. And because when we're suffering, when we're going through a rough time, that's all we can see. That's the only thing in front of our face. You know, at least that's the way it is with me. When I've got a rough season going on, that's all I can see. And if somebody were to say to me, God's going to work all this together for good, I'd say, well, yippee. Right now, all I'm experiencing is this hurt, this pain, this difficulty, and so forth. And so it requires faith. Because here's this promise that says God's going to work all these things for good. And what do you do with that when you can't see any good? There's no good in your visual, you know, area of life. You can't see anything good going on. And guys, that's when faith goes before you. That's when faith takes over. You know, faith takes over at that point. It's kind of like in marriage, you know. By the way, Sue and I just yesterday celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary. 48 years! My dad used to say with the same woman. My parents were married, I think, for like 68 years. And in, you know, in 48 years of marriage, everybody knows who goes through marriage that your emotions, you know, do this, you know. And you don't wake up every single day of your life just with this harlequin romance, you know, warm fuzzy hallmark, you know, oh honey, sort of a feeling. Sometimes you're like, wow, and you're a pain to live with. And, and you know, so what takes over in that case? Commitment, right? Yeah, commitment. I wish somebody would have explained that to me 48 years ago. It's like, hey, Paul, just want you to know, there's going to come times where just commitment is going to take over. Well, it's the same thing with our faith in the promises of God. There are times when faith just has to take over and see you through. And you have to say, I have, I choose to believe what God promised, even though I don't see it in front of me right now. And I certainly don't feel it. But I choose to embrace it and to take hold of it, you know. Faith knows that God is true to his word. Faith knows that. And faith doesn't let go. Faith hangs on. Verse 29, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. Notice these all, all these past tense words that speak of something that's already taken place. I don't know if you feel like you've been glorified yet. I don't. But it says here in the past tense that it's happened. But this is, by the way, these, these two verses, 29 and 30, this is where the Apostle Paul kind of dips his toes into the waters of predestination. And we're not going to delve deeply into that tonight, because we're going to really get into it deeply in the next chapter. Romans chapter 9 is a more thorough treatment of this whole idea of predestination. But since we're taking, we're about to take a month off, I hate to leave you in just, you know, with with nothing to go on. So let me take a moment to maybe clear up some common misconceptions about predestination. And I'm going to just lay out four things for you. And we're going to put each one of these on the screen so we can look at them together. The first misconception, actually, they're not all misconceptions, some of them just plain out statements. The first one is predestination does not mean that we have no part or decision in coming to faith in Jesus. All right. That's really important for you to know. There are people who teach that it does. And I'm sorry to say they're wrong. But there are people who will tell you that it has nothing to do with you. It was all God's choosing. Well, that just doesn't square with the Word of God. The fact of the matter is the Bible does teach the idea of predestination. And the idea of predestination is that God chose you. But it also talks about the fact that we choose him. And the exhortations that are replete in the New Testament to people, encouraging them to turn from their sin to repent and come to God, all speak of the necessity of making that personal choice of coming to the Lord. And even Jesus at times would say, whosoever will, let him come and drink from the waters of life. He didn't say whosoever is already chosen and you really have nothing to do with it. And you're just here because everything's fixed. He didn't say that. He just said whosoever will. Whoever, whoever believes has eternal life. So that's the first thing you need to understand about predestination. And by the way, like I said, we'll get into this much more thoroughly in the next chapter. But the next thing I want to bring out here is the predestination does not mean that God chooses some to be saved and some to be lost. That is a blasphemous teaching. I'll just say I do not believe that at all, that God just created people to send them to hell. My Bible says God is not willing that any should be lost, but that all would come to repentance. And all does not mean just those he chose. The Bible tells us in no uncertain terms that Jesus Christ died for our sins and not our sins only, but also the sins of the whole world. And that means there is no one who is out of luck from the possibility of coming to know Jesus as Savior and taking advantage of the work that he did on the cross. That's what my Bible says. And those things run contrary to the whole idea that God created some people to be lost. Predestination is not applied to lost people. It's applied to saved people. And the Bible says very clearly that those whom God foreknew, Paul says in these verses, he also predestined. And what that means is, well, this is our third point. Let me go ahead and put it up. Predestination is based on God's foreknowledge. You do know that God wasn't sitting around tapping, you know, his fingers on the table waiting for you to come to faith. He knew. He knows everything. God knows the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end. He knows who's going to come. So according to that foreknowledge, he predestined those that he knew would come to faith in the end. in Jesus Christ. That's what Paul says in these verses. It was according to foreknowledge. Again, that's so important that we understand that. And so what that means is, and this is our fourth point up on the list, predestination is a view of our salvation from God's eternal perspective. Do you understand that? The Bible gives a view of our salvation from God's perspective and from our perspective. And from God's perspective, it says, you've been chosen since the foundations of the world. You are the chosen, you know? And God knew all along. But from our perspective, it's whosoever will, you know? Will you come to Jesus? That's why we give invitations at church and so forth and other places. It's why we go out and evangelize. We want to give people an opportunity to come to the Lord. That's, you know, what if we just walked around saying, well, I don't know if you're chosen or not. And oh dear, I've had people who've been under that, the teaching, that radical predestination position, who've written me and just say, how do I know if I'm chosen or not? Maybe I wasn't chosen. Maybe I was chosen for hell. And I'm like, oh, mercy. God loves you. And again, he is not willing that any should be saved or lost, but that all would be saved. And so, you know, come to him in faith. Trust him, trust his love. So these are four important things that I want to leave you with as it relates to predestination. But we will, we will get much deeper into this subject. Let's take the last 10 verses here of the chapter. It begins in verse 31 to say, what then shall we say to these things? And this is Paul's way of saying, okay, what's our conclusion for everything we've been saying thus far? He says, well, and so here's, you know, what he's going to do here in these last verses. He's going to, he's going to give you all kinds of reasons. He's going to enumerate several reasons as to why you can trust God and why you ought to have hope. Okay, you ready? Here's why you should walk out of this room today, just brimming with hope. First, if God is for us, who can be against us, right? You know, this is the way the apostles lived their lives. They were kind of like, yeah, whatever. You want to kill me? Fine, yeah, bring it on. You know, it's like, you know, you can't kill me. You can't kill me. You know, I'm just going to go be with the Lord. You know, that's all. And they were so convinced of that. And they were so convinced that God was guiding and directing and they really, you know, think about it. Think about how many times people tried to take Paul's life until the time it actually happened. But you think, you know, he should have died lots of times. Okay, I'm going to go out on a limb here. You remember when Paul was stoned? I think it was Lystra, when he was outside of Lystra. And it tells about in the book of Acts, they hauled him outside the city limits and they started throwing stones at him. And by the way, that's the way they often executed people. And they knew how to do it. And they were good at it. And they were pretty good at figuring out if the person was dead. I believe Paul died. Because the Bible says that when the brothers gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. You don't just get up after someone has thrown rocks at you. Until they know that you're dead, you know. That could even be the time, we don't know. It could even be the time when Paul says that he was taken up into the third heaven. We don't know, we have no idea. The point is, it wasn't his time. You know, King David wrote that all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. And so David tells us there that we'll have this allotted time on earth. And the disciples, they believed it. They were like, hey, if it isn't my time, it isn't my time. And you know, all the 12 apostles died a martyr's death except John, and that wasn't because they didn't try. They tried lots of times to kill him, it just didn't take. And from what we know from church history, he eventually died of just old age. But you know, it just, all those times they tried to take his life. Why didn't he die? It wasn't his time, you know? So if God is for us, who can be against us? Verse 32, he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Isn't that an interesting statement? How will he not give us all things? Good grief, he, you see what he's saying here? He's already given you the most precious thing he could give you, his son. He already gave that to you. Everything else is just topping. I don't know how else to say it. It's like gravy, all the rest of the stuff. He's already given you the most precious thing he could give you. Verse 33, here's another reason. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? Who's gonna bring an accusation or a charge against you? Is it gonna be God? No, it's God, he says, who justifies. You've already been justified. And you remember, we've talked about this. Justified means acquitted, declared not guilty. And so he asked the question in verse 34, well, who's left to condemn then? Well, Jesus, is he gonna condemn? No, he's the one who died to bring about your justification. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us, right? So here's this whole thing where he says, who's gonna bring any accusation? Here's the point of what he's saying. It's kind of like when the Supreme Court makes a decision, all the rest of the courts that are underneath them, they have to kind of go, well, there you go, that's law. And of course, here in the United States, the Supreme Court can change its mind as we've seen it happen. And they can go back on a ruling, but that's not gonna ever happen with God. And if he comes and gives a ruling concerning your life, and he says, justified, acquitted, not guilty, who's gonna come along and say, that one's guilty? God's gonna go, who are you? I'm the highest court in the land. You can't overturn my ruling. There is no higher ruling than me, right? So God has already justified you and declared you not guilty because of his son. And so this is what Paul is saying. Not only is he not condemning you, he's interceding for you. Verse 35, here's another reason that you should have hope. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, that word just means trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? Should those things, could those things separate us from the love of Jesus? He says, as it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all day long. We're regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. And that's a reference in the Psalms to kind of just say, this is what our life is like. We're constantly in danger. We're constantly going through rough times, but none of it can separate us from him. We're constantly, we're like sheep being led to the slaughter most of the time. Doesn't matter. It can't separate you from the love of Jesus. He says, no, no, verse 37. Those things won't separate you. In fact, he says, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Not just conquerors, more than conquerors. And then verse 38, for I am sure. And that's just his way of saying, I have absolute confidence that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor even things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, in case I've left anything out, I'll just throw that one out there. Anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Isn't that incredible? You see, because God is sovereign, and that simply means there's nobody above him, nothing can get in between his love and you. And that's quite a list there, you gotta admit. Death, death isn't gonna do a thing to separate you from God's love. Not a single thing. Death has been conquered. Life, sometimes we're more afraid of life than death. But even that's not gonna do it. Rulers are. starts off by saying angels, and I suppose that would even include Satan, who's a fallen angel, and all of the demons that went with him. Nothing they can do to separate you from God's love. Rulers, and that probably refers to principalities in the spirit realm, nor things present, things to come, you know, powers. Oh, we spend so much time worrying about the future, and Paul says that's under things to come, and I don't want you to worry about things to come because that can't do anything to separate you from God's love. God's love will always be there. It will never, ever leave you. Never. And that's the beautiful thing, and this is all about, and you'll notice that this list of things that Paul gave here in verse 38 and 39, they're all these outside forces. These are the things that we typically worry about, but he says he is determined that no outside force is going to impact your relationship with him and bring about any sort of a separation between you and God's love. Isn't that good news? I love this latter half of Romans chapter 8. In fact, this is really a good way to kind of, you know, go into our break, isn't it? It'd be one thing if we kind of went into a break with, you're all gonna die, you know, or something like that, but it's just nice, you know. Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Let's pray. Oh, Father, we are so thankful. You know, we've spent so many Wednesday evenings going through these early chapters of Romans, talking about the wages of sin, the curse of sin, the death that it brought, the fact that we cannot attain to the righteousness of God or any sort of right standing in and of ourselves, and it's all been a lot, but Lord, thank you that we come to Romans chapter 8, and we begin to just view these beautiful promises that speak to us of the blessings that are ours through Jesus and the hope that we have in him, that confident assurance that is ours in Christ Jesus. Lord, let that hope guide us, and let that faith take over when life gets hard. Help us to remember, Lord, that you are and have promised to continue to work all things together for good, and I know, Lord, sometimes our definition of good is different from your definition of good, but we need to trust you that whatever your definition of good is, that's the true good, and we need to just believe that you are working in our lives to bring about the purpose of your will. We thank you. We praise you. We worship you in the authority granted to us through the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and our King, and all God's people said together, amen. you