But this morning, turn to Romans Chapter 8.
Would you go there? Obviously, this is one of those texts of Scripture that we could spend many, many, many, many weeks preaching through, but I'm not going to do that. We're going to briefly overview it this morning. And the verse we're going to center everything on is Romans 8, verse 31. Romans 8, verse 31, as we get prepared to share in the Lord's table together at the conclusion of the message.
Paul writes to the church at Rome, Romans 8, 31, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? If God is for us, who, you could say, then who could possibly be against us? Now, the truths in this section of Scripture are such that they clearly exceed the capacities of human vocabulary and expression. We can't get to the bottom of it, if you will. It's a glorious verse here that we have, 8, 31, and basically it's proclaiming just how much God loves us, his elect children. See, just as God is unfathomable, so his love for us is incomparable.
We can't wrap ourselves around it, if you will. Though we can't grasp it all, though we can't comprehend it all, we can, if you will, immerse ourselves in these truths, lose ourselves in a way, and joy in things beyond our comprehension and beyond certainly our vocabulary or expression. Now, just how much God loves his children. I want us to think about the statements preceding this verse, and then the questions following this verse. So there are five amazing statements before you get to 8, 31, that express to us just how deep God's love is for us. And then there are five marvelous questions after verse 31 that show us a fresh, also how deep God's love is for us. All right, now first of all, the five amazing statements preceding 8, 31 that show us God's great love for us, and we begin in verse 29, where he simply says there, let us not teach that God simply knew beforehand those who of their supposed, I guess, own sovereignty would choose to trust in Christ.
That's not what this is saying. It's not saying that God looked forward, added to the corridors of time, and saw who would have enough virtue, if you will, to choose Jesus. That gives man too much honor, too much glory, and too much credit, does it not? It does mean that God knew us personally, and he knew everything about us, all of our thoughts, all of our words, all of our deeds before the world began. He knew our sinful condition, our sinful contemplations, and all of our sinful conduct even before we were born. But more particularly, it's the idea that he knew us as his beloved one. He knew us all as his particular unique people. In eternity past, he knew us as his own, and he knew us as those he would call to his own and special purposes. There was a previous intimacy, if you will, in the eternal mind of God before time even began with those who were his.
Pastor, I can't comprehend that. How could we ever think we can enter into the realms of the infinite mind of God and grasp all he is capable of? So that's the first statement that proves how much he loves us. He foreknew us in an intimate, personal way as his own before the world began. Now, the second thing here, as we see there in the verse, verse 29, those who he foreknew, he also predestined.
Predestined is the idea to decide beforehand, to predetermine something. Now, this flows out of those whom he foreknew. This means he had a fixed and definite purpose marked out for all of those he foreknew that no one and no thing can possibly thwart. So when we think about God foreknew us, there was a sense in which the eternal God knew us intimately as his own before the world began. He marked out a predetermined plan for you before you ever were. Now, what specifically is this predetermined, predestined plan for us? Well, he makes it very clear in the last part of verse 29.
Look down there. I marked you out beforehand that you would become like my son, my one and only true son, Jesus Christ, who is holy before me, who is righteous before me, who is glorified with me, and forever will be mine. And God, look, God far from just being concerned about saving individuals, God's always purpose to have for himself a people.
A people. And in time and space history, his people today are his local churches. We're his people. And he said, I marked you out to be one of my people. He said, Jesus will be the firstborn among many brethren.
What a powerful truth. What Jesus is naturally holy and just and glorified, we are by adoption. We are through the merits and works of Jesus on the cross, on our behalf, become like him. Not that we become little gods as the Mormon cult church would teach. Not that we become little Jesus.
That's not what I mean. But we will share his holiness. We will share his righteousness. We will share his eternal nature. And we will be glorified like him and with him and with the Father for all eternity. He said, I've predestined you for that outcome.
Marvelous thing. That's the third truth. The third statement that shows how much he loved us. He foreknew us. He predestined us.
I'm sorry, here's the third one. The third one is that he called us. Look at there in verse 30. In these whom he predestined, he also called. So in the flow, he knew us in an intimate way in the eternity past. He marked out an eventuality, if you will, for all of us to be his children, just like Jesus is the leader of this band of God's people, God's children.
And now he's called us. And this idea here, doesn't mean just some sort of broad universal call that's taught in the Bible, but not in this context. This is what we call the effectual call.
Effectual means it perfectly accomplishes what it set out to perform. Now you and I set out to perform things and do things, and we may do pretty good at it. We may get it partially right. Every now and then we may think, I got that just right. But you know, God can't do anything unless he does it effectually.
He fulfills perfectly everything he sets out to perform. So God said, I foreknew you. And then I marked you out for a specific purpose and plan.
And then in time and space history, I called you to myself. Of course, that's evidenced by your repentance about your sin and your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, every single one that I foreknew and every single one that I predestined, I will call to myself.
Effectually call. And so he works in our hearts through the preaching of the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit to bring us to that effectual end. If God was not perfectly effectual and fully perfectly saving those he purport to save, then God is no longer God.
He can't kind of make a shot at it. God is not sitting up in heaven wringing his hands saying, I sent my precious son to die for people. Will anybody please accept him? Now Jesus said, of all that the Father gives me, I lose not one.
Not one. Every single one that is of God's purposes will come to Christ. God himself is the initiator of this call.
He puts his entire will and his entire power into bringing those he foreknew and predestined to become believers in Jesus Christ and to live like believers throughout the work and purposes of local churches to be his many people, if you will, in the earth. Well, the next one, the fourth one, I foreknew you. That shows you how much I loved you. I predestined you. That shows you how much I loved you. I called you to myself.
That shows you how much I loved you. I believed on Jesus Christ through the sovereign work of a holy God. Then God says, I've changed now your standing place.
I've changed your position before me. You were standing before me as a condemned one. And now by my doing, through the merits of my son, you now stand beside me and before me as a justified one, a cleansed one, a pure one. Actually, just as if you had never, ever sinned.
Four statements so far where God says, let me tell you how much I love you. I foreknew you. I predestined you. I've called you. I've changed your position. I've justified you.
Now, lastly, I've glorified you. You say, now Pastor, I'm looking around this room. I don't see many glorified looking beings. Well, it's settled in the eternal mind of God, though it's still working out in time. But it's settled in the eternal mind of God. Notice how he words it there, verse 30. These whom he predestined, he also called. And these whom he called, he also justified. And these whom he justified, he also glorified.
It's a past tense verse. It means in God's mind, it's already done. He's already accepted the perfect work of the son Jesus on our behalf and already deemed in the infinite, if you will, decree of the Godhead that these are mine and they are glorified. In my eternal mind and heart. Jesus did all of this on our behalf.
And we have to remind ourselves. You see, you come to church to kick your logical thinking sometimes out of gear because God is beyond human logic. And so in God's mind, here we are understanding or trying to grasp that God is not confined to time. God is not controlled by time. Matter of fact, God dictates to time. He dictates to time and he performs his immutable, sovereign will. And he says, in my purposes, for those I foreknew and those I've called and those I've justified, you are already glorified as if you'd already actually experienced it in time. Our Baptist forefathers got the idea of the perseverance of the saints or the eternal security of the believer.
How can you be more secure than that? These folks that want to throw away the sovereignty of God in salvation, but yet hold to once saved, always saved, you have no foundation for it. If you do not have a sovereign God who keeps it and keeps you. Let's go to now to the five amazing questions that illustrate to us. On the other side of verse 31, that illustrate to us how much God loves us. Now the first question is in verse 31.
We'll go rather quick here. What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? No one, nowhere at any time can successfully be against us and prosper and be successful. No one can come against us in the sense of us having our salvation, our eternal life through Jesus Christ. So the answer to the question is, if God is for us, who can be against us? The answer is this. No one. No one can be.
All right. Question number two that illustrates how much God loves us. How will he not also with him freely give us all things? That's in verse 32. How will he not also freely with him give us all things? The Bible says we are joint heirs with Jesus Christ.
Here's the point. If God the Father is going to honor and bless Jesus the Son, then he has to honor and bless us because we're one with him. We get in on it because we're in him. We're in the sphere of Christ. Not that God would not want to, not that God is resistant to it, but there's a sense in which God the Father is totally bound to bless all of those for whom Jesus died and sealed.
You cannot move on. You cannot get all things that God has planned for you, that God has purposed for you. The glory of it all, again, we're not going to be little lords or little Jesuses in heaven, but we're joint heirs with Jesus Christ. The glory that he has is the glory we will have. He has done for all eternity. Well, the answer to that question is, of course he will.
Of course he will. Now, he says the third thing here, the third question that proves how much God loves us. Who will bring a charge against God's elect? Verse 33. Who will bring a charge against God's elect? The point is, who can now say in a just sense that they have any credible grounds to bring a charge against the believer in Jesus Christ?
A charge against the believer in Jesus Christ concerning that they deserve wrath and condemnation. Who can do that now? The answer, no one can. You see, here's the point, folks. If God saves you, you're as saved as you can be. Now, if you've been taught that you've got some sort of deal that you and God have worked out together, you do so much and God does so much, then you're in trouble. There's no security in that. There's no safety in that. And here's what I'm going to tell you. If you could do that now, if you could lose your salvation, you would.
If you could lose it, you would. But in this context of the total sovereignty of God involved in the security of our salvation, then there's no way anyone can bring a charge against God's elect. In reality and in limitation, we can't grasp the eternal glories of what's here.
So it's as if God puts it into human language best we can understand it, but in heaven, we'll understand it all more and more and better and better. It's as if God sits in heaven, and we know the book of Job tells us that Satan comes in the presence of God. He accused Job, so maybe he's accusing us. But every time there's an accusation, the father looks to his right side, and there his son is with the nail on his tail prints in his hands.
He turns back, he says, not guilty, every time. Who could bring the charge? The answer is no one. Number four, if you will, verse 34. Who is the one who condemns?
Christ Jesus, who died? Yes, rather, who was raised, who's at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who could possibly condemn us? No one, but he's given all judgment to the son. Now the son Jesus is the only one who has any authority whatsoever to condemn anyone, and yet he's given his life and more so that we would not be condemned. So the point is, who's left then to condemn us? If the one who has the authority to condemn is the one who gives us all to keep us from condemnation, there's nobody left. And the answer to that is no one, no one left who can possibly bring us into condemnation. And then the fifth question that shows us how much God loves us, verse 35. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Well, this one he answers quite exhaustively.
Let's just follow it there. Beginning in verse 35. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Well, tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, just as it is written, for your sake we're being put to death all the day long and considered as sheep to be slaughtered. That can happen for the child of God.
And by the way, folks, if this world crucified him, why do we think we're gonna get along so good down here on this earth? There's seasons when those who bear the name of Christ are considered as sheep to be slaughtered by this world. Verse 37. But, glorious conjunctive word there, connects us to a glorious truth. But in all these things, even if that happens, 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 thing will be able to separate us from the love of God. Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So for the final question, who, what can separate us from the love of Christ? No one. And no thing can possibly do that.
