Welcome to Truth for Life, where we are studying Romans chapter 8. This is a New Testament chapter that summarizes what it means to be in Christ and have the power of God in your life. If you follow Jesus, but sometimes doubt that you'll be able to finish the Christian race, Alastair Begg has some reassuring words for you today. Romans chapter eight. And verse thirty one What then shall we say in response to this?
If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for his all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns?
Christ Jesus, who died more than that who was raised to life. Is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall trouble, or hardship, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword, As it is written. For your sake we face death all day long.
We are considered as sheep, to be slaughtered. No. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. for I am convinced that neither death nor life Either angels nor demons. Neither the present nor the future.
Not any powers. Either height No depth. nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God. that is in Christ Jesus, Our Lord. Thanks be to God for His word.
We pray before we turn to the scriptures together. We thank you, Lord, for the privilege of gathering in freedom. for being able to open our Bibles. And we pray now that you will grant to us the grace needed to think aright, to understand to believe to obey To apply your word as we look out on the prospect of the week that is before us. Hear us, O God, as we come to you in your Son's name.
and for his sake. Amen. I don't watch very much television at all. Because I don't like most of it and I don't like commercials. And also because many of the programs.
Have such a lack of resolution to them That I don't know where I am. I am a simple soul. And I confess this morning to a certain nostalgia. When I think, for example, of Perry Mason.
Now there was a program, the longest-running TV detective series in the 1950s and 60s. Concerning this fictional character, who was successful every single week. in defending his client. I don't ever remember watching a program when his client was not set free. The individual had usually been put on trial for murder.
And if you ever watch those programs, Uh you will recall that they led always to the closing argument. Which inevitably brought resolution and brought freedom. And you could go to your bed quite contentedly after that. Because after all, right had triumphed over wrong, light had shone into the darkness, and so on. unlike so many of the perplexing things that are offered up to us today.
whereby Uh Confusion reigns. I begin in that way because, in some senses, these concluding verses of Paul in Romans 8. represent his closing argument. in a masterful way. Unlike Perry Mason, Paul isn't establishing the innocence.
of the believer. But rather he is demonstrating that the believer is set free Because another has borne the punishment that we deserve. That is a vital distinction. In Perry Mason, the attorney was able to secure a verdict of not guilty. In the case of the Christian, The verdict is guilty.
How then may the guilty go free? Answer. Because another has borne the punishment that we, the guilty, deserve. And Paul, with an impressive logic that is akin to his legal background, establishes this truth for us as he draws things to a close. He has pointed out That in Christ we have a new identity.
Verse 1 of the chapter: there is therefore now no condemnation. For those who are in Christ. He is not writing. Or suggesting that we are set free from condemnation willy-nilly. That everybody has now been set free because Jesus existed and died on the cross.
Everybody is automatically forgiven. That's not what he's saying. He's saying that the identity of the believer is in Christ. That new identity reveals itself in a new mentality. And back in verse five, for example, he points out that those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
In other words, that's their mentality. Prior to that, before becoming a Christian, our minds were set on what our nature desires. New identity. New mentality. New mentality.
New destiny. And that is why this chapter is framed on the outset by no condemnation. And in the conclusion, With no separation. And the glory of it is in this that God Purposes to complete the work which His grace begins. When a person becomes a Christian, a new Christian will almost inevitably ask, sooner rather than later, I understand what Jesus has accomplished for me on the cross, and I realize that I have begun, if you like, the race of the Christian life.
But I'm not sure that I'm ever going to be able to run this marathon all the way through to the finishing tape. And it is then that we want to turn that young believer, he or she, to the Bible. And perhaps even to Romans chapter 8. Or maybe to Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6. Where Paul affirms the same truth in writing to the Christians in Philippi.
You remember that verse, being confident of this? That he who began a good work in you. will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. And so, what he's doing here is encouraging his readers to think. By the time he gets to chapter twelve, he is encouraging them to be transformed by the renewing of their minds.
In other words, this whole new way of thinking about things must characterize the life of the Christian. And contrary to the suggestion that is fairly routine. that a Christian is somebody who has lost their mind. Or a Christian is someone who can only embrace these truths if they're prepared to sacrifice their mind. The New Testament is saying, no, the Christian is the one who is making use of their mind.
And so he is arguing on the strength of what he's already said. Verse thirty-one, What then shall we say in response to this? In response to what? in response to all that has preceded him. He has just gone through this glorious section that we saw last time concerning the electing love of God, the call of God, the foreknowledge of God, the work of predestination, justifying his people and glorifying them in Christ.
And so it is. that he says, because all of this is the case, I want to now bring my closing argument to you. by asking a number of basic questions and by making some bold declarations. We won't get to the bold declarations. Indeed, we'll only get to a couple of the questions this morning.
But I want to say again to you how important it is for us to think. How vitally important it is for us to realize that our minds matter. That our minds matter. From the psalmist, we had read for us this morning that the gods who are no gods at all, they cannot see, they cannot hear, they cannot speak. And those who worship those gods become.
like them. And I don't want to anticipate tonight very much, but I stood on Monday with a friend in this amazing Hindu temple towering over the landscape of Delhi and watched as person after person came and laid hold in little shrines of the monkey god or of the elephant god or of Krishna. Gods that the Bible says cannot see, cannot hear, cannot speak. And that very mindlessness. is in direct contrast to what we find when we read the Bible.
Don't let anybody tell you that the key to the Christian life is somehow in disengaging your mind. It is faith seeking understanding. And we may come to the scriptures rigorously and continuously and with our questions. And we may discover that God answers them are according to his purposes.
So look then at the second half of verse 31. Here's his first great question: if God is for us, Who can be against us? If God is for us, who can be against us? If the God who calls us and justifies us is on our side, Then what can come against us to unsettle us? The psalmist put it in this way: if the Lord had not been on our side, then our enemies would have prevailed against us.
And all the way through the Old Testament, as I'm going to show you in a moment, you have this recurring theme. If God is for us, Then the opposition which inevitably comes against us is ultimately of no account. It is not irrelevant. It is not unreal. But what Paul is arguing for here is a kind of thinking that will give to us, as we seek to follow Jesus and believe the Bible, it will give to us a sense of proportion or a sense of perspective.
We sung again this morning about the fact that the name of the Lord. is a strong tower. and the righteous run into it and are safe. Yesterday morning at our elders' meeting, not because we are here this morning in terms of our study, but somewhat arbitrarily, we read together yesterday morning as a group from Psalm one hundred and forty four. And Psalm 144 begins as follows.
Praise be to the Lord, my rock. Who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle? He is my loving God and my fortress. My stronghold and my deliverer, my shield in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me. You get all those all those nouns.
Of strength and of might and of victory and of power. Then he says, Oh Lord, What is man that you care for him? the Son of Man, that you think of him. Man is like a breath. His days are like a fleeting shadow.
You see what he's doing? Calvin said, we cannot understand ourselves. It is impossible to understand humanity. Without first, we have engaged in a devout musing of the Godhead. That's how he put it.
And after a devout musing upon the Godhead, we may then descend to a consideration of ourselves. You see how counterintuitive that is to 21st century Western culture? 21st West 1st century culture says, no, we must first consider ourselves. And if we have any time left over, then we can give some consideration to God or whatever that might mean. Yeah.
You are. Therefore I am. You are eternal. I am transient. You are the Creator.
I am the Created One. You are king, I am your subject. You are Lord. I bow before you. You see how important it is that we understand that when the Bible speaks in terms of God, it's not speaking of a cosmic principle.
It's not speaking of a notion of spirituality that is inside of us, that we have our own God or that we are somehow God. That is the Hindu greeting to one another, not the one I gave to you. But namaste, namaste. They greet one another as we come and go. And they're saying, I worship the God in you.
I worship the God in you. They're not saying, I worship Yahweh, the creator of the ends of the earth. You have your own little God. He's in you. I worship that.
Well, if you've only got your own little God in you, And you read this verse and you try and make sense of it, you are up a veritable gum tree. If God be for us, who can be against us? No, we're talking about the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it.
and are safe. Let me illustrate this in the Old Testament just for a moment or two, and I hope I won't tax your patience in doing so. This is the way my mind works. As soon as I was thinking about this, it took me back to lots of Sunday school stories. And I'm so grateful for Sunday School.
I'm a big fan of Sunday School teachers. I'm so thankful for all the work they're doing right now with our children, even as I speak. Because I am the beneficiary of the work of others who did things and bore my wriggling nonsense Sunday by Sunday in order to teach me the Bible.
So let me just take you a couple of places. Numbers chapter 13. Numbers 13, the story of the exploration of Canaan. on the part of the spies that were sent up by Moses. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, if you're using a church Bible and you're wondering.
You get to Numbers, you go to chapter 13, it's pretty easy. And when you get there, you discover that God has told Moses that the Israelites are going to possess the land of Canaan. And because they are going to possess the land of Canaan, he would like some people to go up and do a reconnaissance mission. The people go up and do the reconnaissance mission, and at verse 26, they come back and give their report. They came back to Moses.
And Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the desert of Paran. And essentially, this is what they said. The majority report was this. Um it's a very nice place. It has it there's no question that it has some nice stuff.
It's a nice place. But There's a real big problem. And the real big problem is that the people who are there are really big. They are giants. and their cities are fortified.
And frankly, while we were there, we felt like grasshoppers, and indeed in comparison to them, we looked like grasshoppers.
So, the majority report of the committee, of the reconnaissance committee, is nice place, nice idea. We don't think we ought to go. In the midst of that, you've got two characters. One is called Caleb and the other is called Joshua. What's wrong with these characters?
Then Caleb, verse 30, silenced the people before Moses, and he said, We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.
Now why did he say that? Because of Romans chapter 8, verse 31. But he didn't know Romans chapter 8, verse 31.
Well, he knew the principle, he just didn't know the verse because the verse didn't exist. But Caleb understood. If God said he has this place for the Israelites, then he has this place for the Israelites. Therefore, although these people are, as the majority group has reported, We should certainly go up. Because we can certainly possess it, because if God before us, Who can be against us?
See? He gets perspective. He's not saying they're not giants. He's not saying it's now fortified. He says, yes, it is.
They're simply saying One plus God is a majority. And that runs the whole way through the Old Testament. Let's go from Numbers into Joshua. We'll do just another one. Joshua chapter 11.
And you've got the same Kind of idea. We'll ignore Gideon and the walls of Jericho coming down and all the other ones that we love. But Joshua 11 begins with the story of all these people, all the Hittites, Perizzites, Jebuzzites, Hivites. When you read the Old Testament like that and you're reading through the Bible, you say, what? Why do these people why do we have to keep reading about all this?
What is the purpose of This. It is to show the insurmountable challenge that faced the people of God. The writer is not just loading up his essay, as it were. He is bringing to bear upon the mind of the reader the fact that verse 5, all these kings joined forces. Verse 4, they came out with all their troops, and a large number of horses and chariots, and a huge army, as numerous as the sand on the seashore.
In other words, we got a big problem here. A huge problem. You might say. Verse 6. The LORD said to Joshua, Do not be afraid of them.
Because by this time tomorrow, I will hand all of them over to Israel, slain. You are to hamstring their horses. and burn They're chariots.
Now this is just a passing gaze, so we needn't we needn't camp here, we can't camp here. But you will notice the juxtaposition between the sovereignty of God in the fulfillment of His purpose and the activity of man in the fulfillment of His purpose. I Will hand them all over to Israel, slain. It does not then say that Joshua told the people, okay, we're all going to have a siesta and lie down in the grass and wait for this to happen. No.
I will hand them over slain. and you will hamstring their horses. God accomplishing His sovereign purpose and using His people in the accomplishment of that. When you read the Old Testament and follow it through, You find that this comes again and again. You're listening to Bible teacher Alastair Begg, UnTruth for Life.
We'll hear more about our strength and victory in Christ tomorrow. With the Christmas season approaching quickly, we want to encourage you today to request an Advent devotional so you'll have it ready to go when the Advent season arrives. It's a book called A Wondrous Mystery. It presents 30 daily readings that feature Christmas sermons preached by Charles Spurgeon. You are probably familiar with that name if you listen to Alistair regularly.
Alastair said of Spurgeon, He earthed his expositions in the culture of his day, but the principles and the doctrinal framework out of which he was working are as timeless as the book itself. And you'll find that to be the case as you read this Gospel centered devotional. With Charles Spurgeon's insights and stirring words you will experience greater awe for the mystery of Christ's incarnation, the cost of His sacrifice, and the hope we find in His resurrection. Ask for your copy of the book A Wondrous Mystery: Daily Advent Devotions when you donate to Truth for Life Today, either using the mobile app or online at truthforlife. org slash donate.
or you can call us at eight eight eight five eight eight seven eight eight four. Just a reminder that Alistair's Advent devotional titled Let Earth Receive Her King is available for purchase at our cost of just $6. In this collection of readings, Alistair takes a sweep through the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation and explores. Christ, how He was foretold, revealed, Explained and how we anticipate his return. The book makes a great gift.
Or you might begin each day in the Advent season reading a devotion from Spurgeon's A Wondrous Mystery, and then end each day reading from Alistair's Let Earth Receive Her King. Both books offer a great way to prepare your heart for Christmas. You'll find Alister's book in our online store at truthforlife.org slash gifts. Thanks for studying the Bible with us today. Tomorrow, we'll find out why understanding our own wretchedness is vital.
if we want to truly grasp God's grace. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
