WWUTT 166 If God Is For Us, Who Can Be Against Us?

If God is for us, who can be against us? Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our

Lord. It is an assurance every believer must have when we understand the text.

You are listening to When We Understand The Text, an online Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty.

Find videos and more at our website www .tt .com. Now here's our host,

Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. After Friday's episode, I don't believe that I ever mentioned our email address, whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com,

so if you have any questions about any videos that we've done or something that you've heard on this broadcast, send your email there.

I try to respond to every email that we get, even if I don't use it on the program. I'm behind on a couple of those, so if you've emailed me recently and haven't heard from me yet,

I apologize. I'm getting to that, though. Romans 8, verses 31 -39 is where we are today, which concludes the chapter.

We will get into chapter 9 this week, but get into the nitty -gritty parts of chapter 9, the parts that get really controversial, that we've been arguing about ever since Paul wrote them.

We'll get into that next week. Let's begin here. Romans 8, verse 31.

If you want to open up your Bibles and join with me, I'll read to the end of the chapter and then we'll talk through it today.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

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?

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies, who is to condemn.

Christ Jesus is the one who died. And more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am sure that 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 will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our

Lord. We go back to verse 31. What then shall we say to these things? And this is kind of bringing a summation of everything that we've read in previous chapters.

The whole case that Paul has been unfolding in Romans thus far. It's kind of like he gets to this intermission where he's saying, what then shall we say to these things?

Of everything that I've written so far in this letter, what are we to understand by this? If God is for us, who can be against us?

As the Israelites were being given the promised land, the charge is given to them over and over again to be strong and courageous for the

Lord is with them. We see that charge commonly given, or we think of it most often as given to Joshua in Joshua chapter one.

But all of Israel was told to be strong and courageous because God was with them. We read in numbers 14, nine that they should not fear the people of the land that is being given to them because their protection is removed from them and the

Lord is with us. Do not fear them. We read in Psalm 118, six, the

Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me?

And also in first John four, four little children, you are from God and have overcome them for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

If God is for us, no one can be against us. Nobody can, can bring any charge against God's elect, which is what

Paul says in 33. I'm jumping ahead here a little bit. Let's go back to 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? As I've said to my congregation many times, we are fellow heirs with Christ heirs, which means we get all the stuff the king gets.

We read in Titus three, four, when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our savior appeared, he saved us.

Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the

Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

So in Christ, we have become fellow heirs of the kingdom of God. What we deserve for our sin and rebellion against God is death.

But what we have been given because of the great mercy and love and grace of God is the kingdom of God through Jesus Christ, our

Lord. God did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us.

Jesus Christ, the son of God, who was seated with God in the heavens, left his throne in heaven to come down to earth to die for us.

If God was willing to go that far for us, how will he not also give us with him all things that he has given to the son?

You understand kind of the notion that's been given there in verse 32, verse 33. Now, who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies. Remember back to what we read in the last verses of the previous paragraph, 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.

Verse 30 and those whom he predestined, he also called those whom he called. He also justified and those whom he justified, he also glorified.

This is the description of the elect of God, those that God had predestined before the foundation of the world for glory, for for this, for being fellow heirs with Christ.

So if God has elected us before time began, who can change the plan as he said it from the very beginning?

It is God who justifies. Therefore, nobody can bring any charge against us. Nobody can accuse us of anything that God has justified through Jesus Christ, our

Lord. And do you understand that Satan's name, which from the Latin is Hasatan, means the adversary or the accuser.

What Satan does is constantly accusing us of the things that we have done in rebellion against God. And don't be mistaken.

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But we have received a justification that is not of ourselves.

It is not from any righteous thing that we have done, but because of what Christ has done for us.

We read this back in Romans chapter three, verse 21. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

The Old Testament has been talking about this all the way up to Christ coming and his crucifixion, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

For there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show

God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins.

It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

God is the one who justifies. He is just and he is the justifier to him belongs all glory.

So if God is the person who has initiated this for his elect, how can anyone bring any charge against us?

Here's what we mean. Here's what I mean for you to understand by this. No one can take away your salvation in Christ Jesus.

It is secure. Here's another thing about this. You can't bring any charge against yourself like you can't do anything that would cause you to lose the salvation that you have in Christ.

Paul said to Timothy in Second Timothy to 13, if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

That is such an assurance that we have. If you could lose eternal life, then it wasn't eternal.

All right. So once we were given eternal life through Jesus Christ, that's it. We have it.

We are eternally secure in Christ Jesus, our Lord, Jesus said in John chapter 10, no one will snatch them out of my hand.

My father who gives them to me is greater than all, and no one will snatch them out of my father's hand.

And I and the father are one. No one can take your salvation from you.

You can't do anything that would cause you to lose your salvation. We are secure in Christ. Now, if we stumble and if we falter,

God will discipline us. It talks about that in Hebrews chapter 12. What loving father doesn't discipline his sons?

So we will undergo this discipline process. It is part of that growth of sanctification of being shaped more into the image of Christ as we read about in Romans 8, 29.

But just because you have sinned and just because you have stumbled does not mean that you will lose your salvation.

If you are truly in Christ Jesus, you will be deeply convicted of your sin. You will hate what it is that you have done in rebellion against your loving father and seeking his forgiveness.

He will give it to you. First John 1, 9. If we ask forgiveness for our sins, he is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

That is a regular process that we go through as believers. You didn't just ask forgiveness one time, but you are continually coming before the

Lord with a repentant heart. It's part of the Lord's prayer where Jesus said for us to pray, forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors.

And the way that that's phrased there in the Lord's prayers, we have forgiven our debtors means that before we have come to the

Lord to ask forgiveness, we have forgiven in our hearts those who have wronged us.

We're not carrying any bitterness before the Lord when we are coming and seeking forgiveness.

For if we want forgiveness from God, we must have been able to forgive those who have done us wrong as well.

And so I'm kind of rabbit trailed a little bit here, but ultimately we come to understand this continual process of being shaped in the image of Christ means that we will continue to stumble in this flesh and we must go to the

Lord and seek forgiveness. That is not permission to sin, but rather it is an assurance

I give to you that nothing that you do will cause you to lose your salvation. Now understand also,

I quoted 2nd Timothy 2, 13 a little bit ago. Well, verse 12, right before it says that if we deny him, he will also deny us.

Jesus said, if you deny me before men, I will deny you before my father. But what we understand from this is this, that if we deny

God as our savior, as our Lord, if we deny him before men, the reality is that he was never our savior to begin with.

And we were never truly his followers. So this is the evidence of our heart that it was never really with God.

If we are willing to give him up before men to save face or be popular or not get made fun of, you know, whatever reason we would have for denying

Christ. If that's the attitude that is in our hearts, then we were never one of his followers to begin with.

Now, the thing that happened with Peter, when he denied Christ, he realized what it was that he had done.

And he went out and wept bitter bitterly is what we read in the scriptures. And then at the end of the book of John, Jesus reinstated

Peter by asking him three times, Peter, do you love me? So there was a serious remorse that was in Peter's heart, and he was not cut off from the kingdom.

As a matter of fact, he would become sort of the spokesperson for the apostles, one of the leading figures in the foundation of the church, with Christ being the cornerstone.

We read about the foundation built on the apostles and the prophets in Ephesians chapter two.

Again, I'm rabbit trailing here. But understanding once again, as we are said in as we are told in Romans chapter eight, there is nothing that can be brought against God's elect.

God will graciously give us all things with his son, with whom we have become fellow heirs.

Verse 34, who is to condemn Christ, Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

And as we read this in verse 34, that Christ is interceding for us. It means that this intervention is active and ongoing.

God is working even now in our lives, though he had called his elect before the foundation of the world.

God was still active in the course of our lives, even all the way up to Christ's death on the cross.

And that event didn't stop God's interaction with his elect. It is ongoing that God is interceding for us even now before the father.

And we read previously about the spirit who is interceding for us with groanings that are too deep for words.

God is active in the lives of his children. It is not something that he just set in motion, then took his hands off of it and let everything just kind of play out as it was going to go.

But rather, he is always active in our lives, always disciplining, always forgiving, always loving, always shaping us more into the image of Christ.

Our salvation is secure, not because of anything that we have done, but because of what Christ has done.

No one can bring any charge against God's elect. If God is for us, no one can be against us.

Not even Satan can bring these things against us. We read in Colossians 2 that Christ took the record of debt and nailed it to the cross.

There is no charge that can be brought against us. We are secure and confident in Christ Jesus, our

Lord. Let me put some legs underneath this, apply this to something a little bit more interpersonal. There's a pastor here in town, a young guy, just started last year.

In fact, when he first started on at the church that he's pastoring at, I would run into people at the grocery store who would say to me, have you heard this pastor yet?

He is just as passionate about the word as you are. Well, I finally got around to listening to a sermon of his and it was extremely disappointing.

Yeah, he was passionate, but there was nothing in terms of a solid biblical foundation of doctrine.

He was doing a sermon on something like three points that we can draw from the cross and the resurrection and none of those points were that we have been given the forgiveness of sins or been called to repentance or any of those things.

How do you talk about the cross for 45 minutes and not mention that? It's a whole point of the cross. Jesus died on the cross for our sins so that we can have forgiveness.

The wrath of God was poured out upon Christ on the cross. He absorbed God's wrath as a propitiation for our sins, as we just read earlier in Romans chapter three, so that we would have right standing before the father, all those who are in Christ Jesus there.

I just gave you a major point of the cross and the resurrection, and he didn't even talk about that.

You see, I'm getting passionate here now talking about this anyway, in one of the points of his sermon.

I don't remember what point this was, but he gave this really silly illustration. He said, I don't know why my wife loves me.

I'm a former drug addict. I still do stupid things. She's so lovely and beautiful, and I look at her and I wonder why in the world does she love me?

I don't know why my wife loves me. He was like really passionate about this point. It really bothers me when people say that.

It's even more bothersome when it comes from a pastor. I don't know if you've ever thought about this before. It sounds humble to you, but it's really not flattering to your spouse.

Almost sounds like you're saying that you don't trust your spouse. What's going to happen on the day that you and your spouse get into a fight that ends up becoming so intense that the two of you can't talk to one another rationally anymore.

You got to go into separate rooms and cool off. Are you going to go to that other room and go, well, I always thought this day was coming.

I didn't know why my spouse loved me in the first place, so I guess this is it. All right. That's almost seems to be what you're communicating, this lack of trust that you have in your spouse.

My wife and I were talking about this afterward. She actually listened to the sermon before I did and told me about it, and so I pulled it up online.

We were talking about it afterward, and she was also troubled by his weird passion that he had about.

I don't know why my wife loves me, and I just said to my wife, I know why you love me, and I know that you're going to love me as much tomorrow as you love me today.

I don't have any doubt about that. It's because you love Christ and your life is grounded on a foundation that is

Christ Jesus. And because you know that Christ loves you, though you have done nothing to deserve the mercy and love and grace of God, I know that you're going to love me tomorrow, though I've done nothing to deserve your love and grace and mercy.

My wife and I have a relationship that is founded upon Christ Jesus, not founded upon our ability to perform from one day to the next.

And folks, our relationship with God is the same way, secure in Christ Jesus.

All who are in Christ are the church, and the church is described as Christ's bride.

He is going to love you as much tomorrow as he loves you today as he loved you yesterday.

God loves you with the same intense love that he loves his own son.

Remember that we've read here in Romans chapter 8 that we are being conformed to the image of the son so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

We have been adopted into the family of God through Christ Jesus, our Lord, and God loves us with the same intense love and passion that he loves his own son.

As we also read previously in Romans chapter 8, we have the spirit of God that is dwelling within us.

The love that God has for us is not dependent upon anything that we have done, but because of what

Christ has done. And you can rest in hope on that assurance.

Amen. Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find out more online at www .utt