Is this the greatest chapter in the Bible?

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Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.
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My name is Keith Foskey, and I am a Calvinist.
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Is there such a thing as the greatest chapter in all the Bible? Well, there are some who say that the chapter we have arrived at today is the greatest chapter in the Bible.
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Today we're going to be looking at Romans chapter 8.
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Now why would someone say that this chapter is the greatest in all the Bible? Certainly we have the Gospels, which have the very words of Jesus Christ in them.
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Certainly we have passages like John chapter 3, which have changed many, many lives.
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And so why would someone say that Romans chapter 8 is the highest? Well, I'll give you an example of one theologian who said that when we consider the fact that this is Paul's magnum opus, the book of Romans, is Paul's theological magnum opus.
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It is his great work of theology, and it really is the closest thing in the New Testament to a truly systematic theological outline that we have.
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And if you think of then as Romans as being the greatest work, and then the greatest chapter of Romans, then of course we could at least say if this is not the greatest chapter in the Bible, it's certainly the greatest that was penned by the apostle Paul.
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One theologian said it like this, what more could you ask for? The Romans chapter 8 begins with no condemnation, and it ends with no separation.
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And in the middle you have this great promise of adoption, and predestination, and election, and God's work in our salvation, and the Spirit living within us.
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And so there's so much in this passage that is wonderful and powerful, and so certainly to consider it to be the greatest among some of the greatest of the scriptures is certainly reasonable.
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As one theologian put it, if you consider the whole of scripture to be like a wedding ring, and the book of Romans to be like the gemstone of that wedding ring, then chapter 8 would be like the glimmering point of that gemstone.
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And it is again, it is a wonderful, wonderful passage.
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And what I want to do with you today is just sort of spend a few minutes looking at a few of the sections of Romans 8 that are so remarkable.
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Again the first, very first verse in Romans 8, there is there for now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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As we looked at yesterday, we were in Romans chapter 7 where the apostle Paul is lamenting the fact that his flesh desires sin.
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We talked about whether or not that was before or after his conversion, but then we looked at Galatians 5, and even in Galatians 5 he talks about the fact that the flesh desires sin, and it's opposed to the things of the Spirit.
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And there's this sort of constant struggle between the Spirit and the flesh.
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And so that can cause people to sometimes live in doubt, because they struggle with the flesh.
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And the Bible says we have three great enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil.
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And so the reality is we live in this struggle.
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We live having to take up the full armor of God every day to stand against the world that's trying to get us to sin, the flesh that craves the sin, and the devil who of course is the father of sin, and the one who tries to tempt us.
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And so it's easy to sometimes feel defeated in the Christian life.
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It's easy to sometimes feel like we are just living under a weight of constant condemnation.
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And then we come to Romans chapter 8, and it says there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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Not for future, but now.
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There's now no condemnation.
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Now we can look forward to the future when we will face God, and we will face Him at judgment, and we know we won't be condemned, but we don't have to wait until that day to be confirmed that we are in fact, we have been declared righteous.
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And because we have been declared righteous, there's no condemnation for us in Christ Jesus.
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We live right now having been forgiven.
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As we go back to Romans 5, it says having been justified by faith, having been declared righteous by faith.
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We have peace with God.
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There is no condemnation.
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We have a Savior who forever lives to make intercession for us.
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This is the great wonder of wonders, and this is the great wonderful promise of what it means to be a child of God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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And that's the next part I want to look at.
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And again, if you're a, I want to encourage you, read this chapter.
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Read it multiple times.
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Spend some time with it.
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But I want you to consider the next verse would be beginning in verse 15.
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It says, well, actually, let's look at verse 14.
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It says, for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
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For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father.
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This speaks to the fact that because of our relationship with Jesus Christ, we have been adopted into the family of God.
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Adoption is such a wonderfully powerful message for the Christian because we are born into this world dead spiritually, and we are not all children of God simply because we're created by God.
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That's a great confusion for a lot of people.
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People think, well, because we're created by God, then we're His children.
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But that's not what the Bible says.
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The Bible says we become children of God by faith in Jesus Christ.
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And because it's through that that we receive the adoption as sons.
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John 1 says Jesus came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
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But to those who did receive them, He gave the power to become the children of God.
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And so becoming a child of God is something that happens by virtue of adoption.
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And so when we think about the fact that we were not natural born children of God, but we are adopted, it reminds us of the choosing.
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I have adopted children myself, and I often remind them, always remember this, your mom and I chose you because we loved you.
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And if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you can know that it is because God chose you, because He loves you.
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And that adoption reminds us of that relationship.
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We can call Him Abba, Father.
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That is to refer to Him in the most intimate form of the idea of the Father.
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And then we go on, and Paul makes this great pronouncement in verse 18.
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He says, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth to be compared with the glory that will be revealed to us.
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There is something about this world that often overwhelms us, the pains of this world, the sufferings of this world, the struggles, and it's easy to become overwhelmed with what happens in this world.
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And this passage reminds us that the sufferings that we're going through now are not to be compared with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.
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When we see Christ and we hear Him say, well done, my good and faithful servant.
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When we see our Master and we receive from Him that final well done, that final approval where He is receiving us into His kingdom because of what He has done, not because of what we have done.
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And anything that we have done that is well done in the flesh, it's because of the work of the Spirit within us.
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And that will make all of the sufferings of this world pale.
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It will make them all fade away.
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The book of Revelations compares it to having every tear wiped away.
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All of the sufferings of this world will be over and we will get to enjoy ever increasing joy in the presence of our Savior.
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And so it goes on to talk about how the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
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Verse 26, how we often don't know how to pray.
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And this passage reminds us that the Spirit is interceding for us and that He is actually within us helping us to pray and even praying for us, interceding with groanings too deep for words.
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And so there's just so much wonderful truth in this passage.
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And then of course that great and wonderful truth in verse 28 that so many people misunderstand.
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Because so many people quote verse 28 as saying that all things work together for good.
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But that's not what it says.
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It says that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
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There's a very real sense in which all things do not work together for the good of unbelievers.
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That in the end the unbeliever is going to go from the suffering of this life to the suffering of hell and eternity because they don't have Jesus Christ.
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Jesus Christ is the only one who can make everything in this life matter.
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Even our suffering can have a purpose and can be made right if we are in Christ.
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When it says all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose, that means everything.
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That means the problems.
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That means the suffering.
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That means the hurts, the pains.
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That means the good things and the bad things are all working together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose.
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I'm reminded of a story.
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I've mentioned this in a sermon at least a couple of times in the past, but it's just such a good example.
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A man went with his wife to a store.
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In the store they sold expensive and ornate rugs.
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He was looking around the rugs.
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The rugs were hanging from the ceiling.
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As he was looking at the rugs, he was surprised at how beautiful they were.
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But he came to one and it was not beautiful.
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It was very ugly.
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While it had beautiful threads, the threads were not interlinked in any way that made sense to him.
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The designs were not cogent or cohesive.
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The whole design looked like a complete mess.
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As he looked at it, he just said, I can't believe anyone would think that this is beautiful.
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I can't believe anyone would spend money on this.
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Finally, he just had to ask.
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He asked the proprietor of the business.
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He said, listen, I'm looking at this rug and it's compared to all the other ones.
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It just doesn't make sense to me.
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He said, ultimately, I have to ask.
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Why is this rug here? It's not like the rest.
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The owner of the store said, well, sir, you're looking at the back of the rug.
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He walked him around and showed him the front.
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Of course, the front was just as beautiful as all the rest.
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But because he had looked at it from the wrong vantage point, he couldn't see the beauty in it.
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I think this is a wonderful example of the reality of how we often look at life and how we often look at the struggles and the problems of our life.
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We're looking at them from our perspective.
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We don't have a truly divine perspective and we can't see the world through God's eyes.
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But one day, I think we will.
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One day, I think we'll understand what all of this life was about.
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At that time, we'll be reminded that God has worked all things together for our good and that these present sufferings are not to be compared to the glory that will be revealed to us.
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Now, the passage ends with the wonderful reminder that in Christ, there is no separation, that neither death nor life nor angels nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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And that is the words I leave you with today.
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A reminder that if you are in Christ, your salvation, your glory in heaven is secured.
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For whom he predestined, he called.
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Whom he called, he justified.
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And whom he justified, he glorified.
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What a wonderful passage.
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What a wonderful passage to spend some time in.
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I pray that you will spend some time in Romans chapter 8 today.
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I hope this has been an encouragement to you.
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Please take the time to do all the things I ask you to do every day.
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And we thank you again for listening.
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My name is Keith Foskey and I've been your Calvinist.