Title: Four Questions Answered
Text: Romans 8: 28-39
Date: April 4, 2010
Place: SGBC, Princeton, NJ
Salvation is of the Lord. You who believe by God's grace know that. But you find yourself in dark valleys and much tribulation. I want you to see this morning just how fully salvation is of the Lord.
The title of my message is: Four Questions Answered.
Proposition: Lay hold of the answers to these four questions and you will find assurance the only place assurance is to be had--in God our Father and his Son the Lord Jesus Christ.
I. FIRST QUESTION: WHAT SHALL WE SAY TO THESE THINGS?
Let's see what things Paul is talking about.
Romans 8: 28: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Do you love God? Has he called you according to his purpose? Then let's see how fully God works all things together for you.
God fore-ordained, fore-appointed, all who he saves.
Romans 8: 29: For whom he did foreknow,
It is not fore-seeing things his people would do, it is ordaining, appointing, beforehand all those who he saves by his grace. The same word is used of Christ in:
I Peter 1: 20: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.
Acts 14: 48:…and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
2 Thessalonians 2: 13: But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: 14: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 1: 3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
God predestinated all whom he saves.
Romans 8: 29: For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
God left nothing unsettled. Just as he continues to work all things together for the good of those that love him, he works all things together to bring his children into this blessed union with his Son, leaving nothing to the whims of sinful man. The predestination of his elect is for the glory and honor of his Son.
Ephesians 1: 5: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6: To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved
God called all whom he saves.
Romans 8: 30: Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called:
In eternity God called--made his elect to bear his name--sons of God. In time he calls each of his elect irresistibly into this union with Christ.
Galatians 1: 15: But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, 16: To reveal his Son in me….
2 Timothy 1:9-10: Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, 10: But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
God justified all whom he saves.
Romans 8: 30:…and whom he called, them he also justified:
Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. In Christ our Surety, God's elect were blessed with this spiritual blessing in Christ when he blessed us with all these other spiritual blessings in Christ. Because his elect were in Christ, when we sinned in Adam, his Surety Word--the word of his power upheld all things--God's elect were accepted in the beloved who would come forth and justify us--and has--in time. In the appointed time, each of those he justified shall be made to receive this free justification through faith.
God glorified all whom he saved.
Romans 8: 30: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
God's elect were glorified when he put them in Christ in eternity with the glory which Christ had with the Father before the world was. God's elect are right now glorified in Christ has he is seated in glory.
Ephesians 2: 6: And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Christ glorified his disciple when he gave them the word of God (Jn 17: 22.) God's elect shall be glorified together with Christ in final glory.
Romans 8: 16: The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Notice: did you see anything in these things which God left in the uncertainty of your hands? Salvation is of the Lord. This is God who declares the end from the beginning.
Isaiah 46: 9: Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 10: Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: 11: Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.
Romans 8: 31: What shall we then say to these things? [Paul answers the question with a question] If God be for us, who can be against us? No one!
II. SECOND QUESTION: Romans 8: 32: He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Some of you are without jobs right now. You wonder if you should take this job or wait, move your family or stay put. Listen to this:
God did not spare his own Son.
Giving his Son meant his Son would have to be made in the likeness of sinful flesh like the children he came to save--God did not spare him. He would have to be tempted of the Devil--God did not spare his own Son. He would have to endure the slander of sinful men--God did not spare his own Son. He would have to endure betrayal of his own friend--God did not spare his own Son. He would have to endure the soul agonies in the garden of Gethsemane--God did not spare his own Son. He would have to endure the horrible tortue at the hands of wicked men--God did not spare his own Son. He would have to endure being made sin for his people--God did not spare his own Son. He would have to endure the death of the cross--God did not spare his own Son. For all those God fore-ordained to eternal life--he spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.
Can any begin to imagine that he shall not, along with his own Son, freely give us all lesser things which we need?
Our assurance is not in us but in God who changes not: his love is unchanging, his mercy is unchanging, his grace is unchanging, his provisions are unchanging. If he spared not his own Son he will FREELY give us all lesser things we need.
Application: Wait on the Lord! Let this be the unwavering resolution of your soul--I will do nothing that might jeopardize or interfere with me and my family attending God's worship and the benefit of his people--nothing! Wait on the Lord!
III. THIRD QUESTION: Romans 8: 33: Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect?...34: Who is he that condemeth?
Let's cut right to where it matters: can God condemn us?
No! It is God that justifieth! It is Christ that died! God is satisfied--propitiation has been made by God in his Son--he is both Just and the Justifer of all who believe. The tense used here is "present tense"--meaning God's elect are perfectly righteous in Christ continually. God will not charge his elect with sin--Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin!
What about the sin I see in myself?
Romans 8: 34:…It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Christ is at the right hand of God. He maketh intercession for us.
1 John 2:1-2: My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous
He is satisfaction for his elect whether they be Jew or Gentile, male or female, wherever they are in this world.
Romans 8: 1: There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2: For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3: For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Romans 11: 29: For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
Payment can not twice demand
First at my bleeding surety's hand
Then again at mine
IV. FOURTH QUESTION. Romans 8: 35: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36: As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
We see how helpless we are in ourselves, like helpless, defenseless sheep. Here is the answer. Listen to it. Settle your mind upon it.
Romans 8: 37: Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38: For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39: Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Joh 10:11: I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep….14: I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine….27: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29: My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. 30: I and my Father are one.
Application: This is the gospel--the truth--by which God separates his people, settles our hearts and makes us willing to serve him rather than this world.
I John 3: 1: Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 2: Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 3: And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
2 Thessalonians 2: 16: Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, 17: Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.