[0:00] It's my delight to be with you again this morning. It's been a while, as Mark said, and so I appreciate the opportunity.
[0:10] I was telling John at the beginning that my wife and I actually moved to Florida a number of years ago. I remained president of the New Geneva Seminary here, so I go back and forth doing administrative work as well as teaching.
[0:24] And so Pastor Bill called and said, we're going to have our retreat. And I think almost every time there was when I was living here, the weekend camping, I was speaking.
[0:39] So I guess that's sort of my niche, right? And that's good. And so it's always a delight to be here and worship with you and to have the opportunity to share the good news of the word that God has given to us.
[0:52] Okay, our scripture is found in Romans chapter 8, Romans chapter 8, beginning at verse 28 and reading through the end, which is verse 39. As you remember here in this church and the evangelical church of the world that we believe that the scripture is God's word given by his God breath activity so that it is his authoritative word.
[1:17] So as we listen to it, may it pierce our hearts and cause us to love him more. Romans 8, beginning at verse 28. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose.
[1:34] For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called.
[1:47] Whom he called, these he also justified. And whom he justified, these he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
[2:02] He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect?
[2:17] It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died. And furthermore, is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
[2:33] Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
[2:46] As it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet, in all of these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
[3:00] For I am persuaded that neither life nor death, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
[3:21] And thus far, the reading of God's word to us. One of the things as a long-term pastor that I have found in my own life, as well as in the lives of other believers, is the question of assurance of salvation.
[3:38] We're pelted with all sorts of questions. We have things that happen. And it sort of shakes our foundation a little bit, maybe a lot. And so we begin to question whether or not we really are in Christ.
[3:54] And whether or not God really cares about us, whether he loves us or not. It's a reality that we all have to face. And so it's good to come back to the scripture to that because the scripture deals with it so frequently because it is so common.
[4:11] So if you are going through it or if you have been or you are, remember that if you're even asking the question, that means there is a relationship with God.
[4:21] But for the moment, you're questioning. And that's okay because God has you in the hollow of his hand and he will take care of you. Now, this whole chapter of Romans chapter 8 is one of the sort of the victorious pictures because God gives us the whole panorama of his redeeming care for us.
[4:45] Going all the way back to the beginning when we fell in Adam and Eve, so that when Adam and Eve sinned, we all sinned. And so we're born in and with sin. And we have that problem of sin.
[4:57] Now, sometimes people don't want you to talk about sin. They just want to talk about the happy things about life. But we can't get to the happy things until we deal with the real reality of that sin is something that we face.
[5:10] But here it says, here's what God did. He didn't leave us alone. He didn't leave us in our degradation and sin. He really came and worked to give us joy in himself.
[5:21] And so from the very beginning where it says, And now, therefore, there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus all the way to the end, that nothing can separate from the love of God in Christ Jesus, that we have our assurance.
[5:36] And in between all of that, God lays out this beautiful panorama of his design for us. Now, there's plenty here. And this is one of these rich texts that if you really can spend a whole lot of time just looking at each verse, sometimes each word, because it's so heavy, because Paul packed it in together, which is one of the reasons that we turn to it a lot, especially verse 28, when we're going through problems.
[6:02] Well, God does cause all things to work together for good. And I just need to believe that about him. So what I want to do is really focus on verses 37 to 39. But before you can do that, I need to set the context.
[6:16] And so one of that context, I'm going to go 10,000 feet and look at the big picture of 28 through 39. And then we'll come back down to verses 37 and 39, because then it will really help to make some sense.
[6:31] There are many other ways we can look at this passage, but that's one that I found helpful for myself. So 10,000 foot, beginning at verse 28, I want to point out some things that lead to this thing.
[6:43] Notice that in verse 37, yet in all these things. Yet what? Because of all the things that God has done.
[6:55] Or because of all these things. Or since God has done all these things, then it makes sense in that category. Because look at what he has already done. So what has he done?
[7:05] As we begin here, very simply, and being the good Presbyterian preacher that I am, I will use alliteration so that you can maybe remember and you can write it down. The first is that God's purpose is set.
[7:19] He gives confidence. And we know that all things work together for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. See, there's your purpose. And in this purpose, it's defined for us in verses 28, 29, and 30.
[7:36] For those who we foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image or the likeness of his son. By the way, the word image there or likeness in there gives us our English word icon.
[7:48] So that Jesus is this picture, this icon. Now, that doesn't mean that he's made a stone or it's just a picture. But it just means that he sets the pattern for us as we're looking at what God's purpose is.
[8:03] So what is God's purpose? It's that we are to be conformed to the likeness or the image of Jesus Christ. And he just tells us that look at all that God did to help us be shaped like Jesus.
[8:16] And by being shaped like Jesus, basically, we're taking on Jesus' characteristics. Similar to what Paul talks about with the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit, basically, are verbal, adjectival, that is the adjectives that are descriptive, of the character of Christ that we are reflective.
[8:35] It's not something that we make up. It's something that is in us because of Christ being ours. So there's purpose that he gives here. Well, then, not only is there purpose, but notice beginning of verse 31, there's protection.
[8:48] What shall we say to these things? That is to what is in verses 28 through 30. Okay, what shall we say? If God is for us, then who can be against us?
[9:00] There is God's protection. That the foes of this world, basically the demonic forces, basically we could have to say the world of flesh and the devil.
[9:12] The world is the world system that doesn't have any, doesn't give us guidance at all. In fact, I appreciate Mark reading from Psalm 92 because noted it says the stupid cannot understand what is taking place in the world.
[9:27] They don't have the wisdom of God. They can assess things on a human level, but they really, really don't understand the big picture. So who's against us? The world, this world system.
[9:40] So we live basically in the belly of the beast as believers. Just know that, that we would like to live a perfect world and our tendency as human beings to want a utopia.
[9:51] Oh Lord, if you just get rid of all this crime and the mayhem and all the distrust that's in the world, it would be so wonderful. Well, it's not going to happen. The world system is contrary to everything that God has created.
[10:03] The flesh is our own. The world flesh, our own being. So even though we're in Christ, we still have the fighting of remaining sin. Sin no longer reigns.
[10:13] It's been dead. And I'll see you make comment about that in a moment. And we now have remaining sin, so we're in the body of this flesh. And Paul deals with this at the very beginning of Romans 8.
[10:24] All right? The world, the flesh, and then the devil. Who is the devil? We're told that he is the one who accuses the people of God. It's sort of like he did with Job.
[10:35] He went out before God in Job 1. And he says, I bet you, if you, you have a hedge around Job. If you took that hedge away, you watched old Job will just curse your name and die.
[10:47] That's what he'd do. He accused him of that. And, of course, God said, okay, have at it. I'm going to keep a hedge there, but you can do some dastardly things against him. Did Job do it?
[10:57] No. Because he knew that he was being accused by the accuser of the people of God. And so at times the bony finger of Satan says, I saw you do that.
[11:08] And then we as Christians, you know, we know we did wrong. And he comes and accuses you. You're a hypocrite. We all are that. Okay?
[11:19] We're not perfect yet. We're in remaining sin. So who could be against us? For God is for us. Okay? So there's the protection that God gives against the world, the flesh, and the devil.
[11:30] Well, let's go on to verse 32. Provision. This is a beautiful passage here. He, they're referring to God the Father, who did not spare his own son, of course, the Lord Jesus.
[11:43] He delivered him up for us. The word delivered up in the original basically is used in places where he gave Jesus up to the cross. Jesus came to die for sin.
[11:55] Remember what was told to Joseph? What should you call this little boy when he's born? You will call his name Jesus because he will save his people from their sin. That's why he came.
[12:06] So you can't get away from that sin issue. And if you have a problem with that, then you have to stop reading the Bible because that's what it is. So he, God, gave, delivered up Jesus to death.
[12:17] Now, he gave us that. But notice how it ends here. And this is the provision that God gave. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
[12:28] Here's how I like to put it. If the only thing, the only thing that God gave us was Jesus, he would have already given us the best if he didn't give us anything else.
[12:43] But here's what he says. Along with that, which is the best, he also gives us all things, the provision. So we're not left out. There is the daily bread.
[12:54] Every morning the manna is there. In the evening the quail is there. He makes provision. So he is not abandoning us. So we have the provision of God. A beautiful passage for us to look at.
[13:06] Well, verse 33 gives us another one. There's pardon. Who shall bring a charge against God's people? His elect. It is God who justifies. And if you know your theology a little bit, that justification is an act of God where he declares those who trust Jesus to be free from the guilt and power of sin.
[13:28] He makes a judgment, a declaration. You are no longer under the reign and the power of sin. And the guilt that is associated with it is gone.
[13:38] So then who can bring this charge and the pardon, verse 33, against God, against his people, against you?
[13:49] Because we do have sins that could be raised up. But he doesn't do it. So it is God who is justified. And there's our security as we walk with the Lord. So we're questioning whether or not we're in Christ.
[14:02] That assures us. 34, the power of God. Now, who is he who condemns? Well, Satan does.
[14:12] And we sometimes can condemn ourselves. But it is Christ who died. And furthermore, he's also risen. There's that power. Now, who is even at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.
[14:24] So the power of God is made certain in Christ. And then the last one here, verse 35, is a perseverance. He preserves us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
[14:37] Who can do that? And then he gives us a list of things that are part of the present reality, especially in the day that Paul wrote this. He was writing it to the Romans. The Romans were living in the belly of the belly of the beast.
[14:50] I mean, they were in the internal part because that's where Rome was. That's where the powerhouse was. That's where Caesar's were. And Caesar put himself on a pedestal to say he was the Lord.
[15:02] And so the soldiers had to say, Hail, Lord Caesar. And that was a word that was reserved for God, for Jesus. He was the Lord of all. And he was assuming it to himself. So there was persecution.
[15:13] So he lists some of those things that they went through and that we go through in different ways. Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril sword. Okay.
[15:24] He could have listed other kinds of things, but that's what he does. And what does he say? Who can separate us from that love of Christ? Can all these things do it?
[15:36] And then he quotes from Psalm 44, verse 22, as his passage to give verification of this. For your sake, that is, for your sake, Lord, we are being killed.
[15:50] That is, we're being persecuted all day long because we belong to you. And in this world, we will have tribulation. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. In other words, the prophecy of Psalm 44 comes true every time we go through some kind of anguish.
[16:05] It may not be death. It may just be some other peril that creates all sorts of tension in us. Oh, I can't handle this. It's so much, you know. And we turn into little merry martyrs, you know.
[16:15] Oh, I can't handle it. And so we have to be careful. What's happening here? Who can bring a charge or separate us from the love of Christ?
[16:26] See, the word separate here, it's an interesting word. And you know that where it is, it's used in the wedding services, where Jesus speaks about in Matthew 19 about marriage and divorce.
[16:38] He says, whom God has joined together, he's put them together, let no one separate. And it means to cut us under. Can anything come and break the relationship that we have with God?
[16:49] It's going to come up three times, verse 35, who can separate in love of Christ? It's going to be mentioned, verse 37, the he loves us. I'll make some more comments about that in a moment. And at the very end of 39, who shall be able to separate us from the love of God?
[17:04] So you get after a while, as you know, in reading scripture, when it's mentioned three times, that's an important thing. Does anything, is anything able to separate us from the strong grip of God's love for us?
[17:18] And again, I'll say something about that in just a second. All right, now, going through all that, the purpose, protection, provision, pardon, power, and perseverance.
[17:30] All of that belongs to the believers of Christ. That's yours. Now, how can we ever go around doubting the assurance of salvation? You know, well, because we're human beings, we're fallible.
[17:42] And the things that are most immediate to us, you know, create that problem for us. And so, now we come to verse 37. Here's the first point now, that is the main point of the two that I'll mention.
[17:55] That we are able to prevail in victory through Christ's redemptive love. We are able to prevail. That's the verb that you want to underscore.
[18:06] In victory through the redemptive love of Christ. That's verse 37. Yet, that is, or in spite of, or regardless of, all of these things that he has just mentioned about the peril, the tribulation, the sword, all of that.
[18:23] And no matter what it is, yet, regardless of these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Hmm. So, don't let the immediate remove the long distance.
[18:38] So, the present is real. We have to live through it. But make sure that you put that present in light of eternity that is to come. And look at the big picture. 10,000 foot.
[18:49] Look and pay attention. So, now it comes down to us. So, you see all of this, and you say, how can I handle it? Now, the word conqueror can be also translated victor.
[19:02] We are more than victors through him who loved us. So, there's victory that God gives to us in Christ. Sometimes we don't feel that victorious, but we are.
[19:12] It's a present tense. It's a reality that we have. So, you know what's interesting is that you know what the Greek word, normally I don't, you know, bring up all those words. But when something is associated, it's good to look at it.
[19:26] You know what the Greek word is for victory? Sometimes you wear it on your feet. Nike. Did you know that? Okay. It's a Nike. Nike was the god in the mythology of victory, of battles, whether you're winning battles.
[19:45] He got his name from that. So, the word Nike is just a Greek word that says victory or conqueror. You've prevailed. But, Paul does, he does this all the time.
[19:57] Or he did all the time. And that is, he always takes another word and he attaches it to the original word, so Nike. And he makes it, he gives it a different emphasis or expands it to make it even more powerful.
[20:13] So, notice, he doesn't say you're just a victor. Doesn't say that you're just a conqueror, but that you are more. Now, that's unfortunate that the English doesn't grasp this as much.
[20:26] Because the word that's used there, and it really becomes one new word. It gives us our word hyper. You know what hyper is, right? When we say someone's hyper, they're all over the place.
[20:37] They're over the top. You know, they're almost unbearable to live with because they appear to be, you know, aggressive and anxious and want to move forward.
[20:47] So, here he gets this word hyper victorious. That is, superlatively victorious. Amazingly victorious. Overwhelmingly victorious.
[20:59] So, he's not saying it's, yeah, a little bit of victory. No, it's big. You know? And so, when we say that something is, we use this now in our language today anyway, that something is, that issue, whatever it is, on steroids.
[21:15] You ever use that phrase? We're just trying to say, it's really something powerful. So, here you have hyper Nike. Now, the way, if you take the Greek sort of sound of it, so I'm going to teach a little Greek here, is huper, nike, nikeos.
[21:32] Huper, nikeos. H-U-P-E-R, and then nikeos, n-I-K-O-S. So, that's more the way it's pronounced. Huper, hyper, nikeos.
[21:43] Isn't that a great word? And so, now you can say, whenever I'm being beat up, when I'm questioning, I have to remember who I am. I am a child of God.
[21:54] And here, he says to me, by the way, this is the only time he uses that phrase of huper, nikeos in all of his writings, Paul does. And he says that we are more, we are huper, nikeos, because we prevail over everything.
[22:08] So, notice again, yet in all these things, despite all of these things, no matter how grandiose these other things may be, because we're in Christ, we are huper, nikeos.
[22:20] We are over the top. We're on steroids victoriously. Okay? That's how you have to think about it, because that's exactly what Paul means here. And notice it's, we are conquerors, not because we are so wonderful or powerful.
[22:35] Look at again how it ends. Through him who loved us. There's that love again that we mentioned, verse 35. And so, let me just mention here that we need to recognize this love is not touched and given to us because we deserve it.
[22:52] It doesn't come because I raise myself up and pull myself up by my own bootstraps. I am not saying God helps those who help themselves. So, if I do a little bit, God will do the rest.
[23:03] That isn't even close to what is here. Because where is it that the love of God actually came upon us as believers? Paul gives us a hint at it in chapter 5 of Romans.
[23:14] And I'll just, there's a few things, but I'm just going to go with verse 8 for right now. Romans 5, 8. But God demonstrates his own love for us. Okay? God demonstrates his love for us.
[23:26] When? When we were perfect? When we deserved it? When we were good? And did we earn it? No. And not at all. When, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
[23:38] That's when he did it. And then if you go on, it just says, Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more will we be saved from God's wrath through him? Because for if when we were God's enemies.
[23:51] So when we, where were we when God loved us? When we were enemies. Because when we're born in this world, we're born in and with sin. We don't become sinners when we commit our first sin.
[24:02] We're born with the sinful attitude and we therefore sin. Okay? And so we're sinners. That means that we're militant against God.
[24:14] And when did God determine to send Jesus? Jesus, while we were sinners, lost. And actually enemies of God. That's what it says here. We were God's enemies and we have now been reconciled through the death of his son.
[24:27] Isn't that amazing? So when he makes us hupernikos, more than conquerors, superlative conquerors, conquerors on steroids. It's because of this love. Now this love, remember it says in verse 35, nothing can separate us from this love.
[24:42] It's going to say it again at the end of verse 39. What it means then, and so this is what I said I was going to hold over. Now I'm saying it. That means that God's love for us is not dependent on our beauty, our sinlessness, our perfection, our ability to earn it.
[25:02] Just eradicate all that. There's no quid pro quo since I came into the public sphere, right? There's no this for that. There's no, no, it's God doing it.
[25:12] Whether you are ready for it or not. Okay? That's the one, it's all from God. That means he says, I'm holding on to you. We sometimes read that as nothing can separate my love for Jesus from him.
[25:29] And we put ourselves as the ones who are grasping and holding on. So there's God and we're holding on for dear life and maybe we're on the edge of a steep cliff and we're trying to climb up and we're fingernails dug into the hard granite rock.
[25:43] And we think that I better hold on because I need to hold on to God's love. If you do that, you're going to slip and slide all the way down to the bottom. No, this is God's grip on you.
[25:59] He puts you in the hollow of his hand. He holds you. And nothing can separate you. Nothing can break God's grip of his love for you.
[26:11] And nothing's able to loosen it. Nothing's able to break it. You can't do that. That's what makes this so wonderful. That's what makes the victory all the more real for us.
[26:21] And so we prevail because in Christ's victory of his resurrection from his death and resurrection, that he has given and granted us that privilege to be called his.
[26:38] And therefore, he says, once I have called you, I'm holding you. And it's a strong grip of grace for which we cannot be let go. Now, at times, like I said, in our daily life, when I don't feel that, that's when I have to come back to the reality.
[26:55] What is it that God said? He who gave his only son is not along with that also gave us all things. You've got to go back to that and grasp onto it.
[27:05] So we are able to prevail because of the promise that God has made in his redemptive love in Christ. And that's what we receive. Or you can't call yourself Christian. A Christian is one who has been called by God.
[27:19] He's embraced him through Christ. And we're empowered to live the life of him. But he puts us in his hand all that time and holds us tightly. That's who you are.
[27:31] Now, if that's not enough, Paul then adds one more thing. He's sort of piling on here, isn't he? Verses 38 and 39, how does he have this confidence?
[27:42] Notice he's not. Paul was a type A person. A type A person is pretty well self-confident. I can do whatever I need to do. You know, give me a job. I'll go do it. And that's basically what we're here.
[27:56] Paul was not operating on his type A personality. He was persuaded. It says, I am persuaded. I am convinced. So here's the point. We are persuaded.
[28:06] Paul was persuaded. And we are to be persuaded with confidence through the sure promise that God has given to us in his word. Okay? We are persuaded with confidence with the sure promises God has made in his word.
[28:21] In other words, if God says it, we need to believe it because he's going to do it. In fact, he's already done it, so we already are secured. So that's why Paul begins verse 38 and 39 to end this with this assuredness, this persuasion, this convinced position.
[28:39] This is what I'm persuaded of because of what God has promised. And then he uses these cosmic pictures. These are things that go from the very beginning to the end, and they're opposite poles.
[28:52] You know, from over here from zero to 100. And then there's everything in between. And so no matter where you are on that spectrum, on any of these things, life or death, okay, we all have a birth and we'll have a death.
[29:08] And in that whole period of time, then he is convinced that whether it's the birth or the death, nothing can separate me from the love of God.
[29:19] And so each one of these is getting down to that. Nothing shall be able to separate us. Remember, nothing can break God's grip of us from the love of God. So what are the pictures?
[29:31] What is he persuaded of? That death in our life, angels or principalities or powers, all of those phrases are phrases that Paul uses, especially in Ephesians, to refer to the demonic world.
[29:45] You know, Satan is now on steroids working against us and doing everything he can to dissuade us from believing the truth or from believing that God is telling us the truth.
[29:56] So we're fighting. That's that spiritual warfare. But it's not just my personal warfare, which Paul talks about in Ephesians 6, where he says that our warfare is against the spiritual powers.
[30:08] There are four different words. Three of them are used here. There's a fourth word that's added. If you go and look at Ephesians 6, verse 12. And those four words all have reference to the demonic powers in the world.
[30:20] So just imagine that here we are on earth and just put a big arc here and we are up in the heavenly realm. There's a battle that's going on. And we're a part of that battle, even on earth, because we belong to Jesus.
[30:36] And so we're there's an interaction here. So I want you to see that the powers in the debate and and the struggles that we have are not just only for me personally.
[30:47] So when you put on the armor of God, it's order to put on the character of Christ in order to fight alongside of him so that we can be who put in equals. All right.
[30:58] So that's so we so all of these demonic forces of the sling of his arrows, the fiery darts. And then he goes on, nor things present nor things to come. And then he uses height or depth to refer to the creation.
[31:13] You almost think of the second day of creation when God separated the vapor from that which was above and that which is below. God always operated in a dual action here.
[31:24] He separates things up and above. Or he creates man first out of the dirt and he also adds and breathes into him the breath of light. There are always two actions that are going on.
[31:36] So the height or depth. So whether we go to the highest heaven or the lowest hell makes no difference. But also Psalm 139, where the where can I run from your spirit?
[31:49] If I go to the highest heaven thinking I can hide from you, I can't get you're there. Why? Because God's omnipresent. If I go to the lowest part of the wherever that may be in the bottom of the earth, in the middle of the earth, wherever I can't hide from you.
[32:05] If I go to where the darkness is dark, there's no place so dark that you can't see because you're light. Psalm 139. Wonderful passage. We can't run from the place of God.
[32:15] We try. There's no hiding place down here as the old spiritual says. And so all of these things that come against us shall not be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
[32:31] And there's that. And he says, I'm persuaded. I'm convinced. I'm absolutely assured because I trust God's promise that he does not say something that he doesn't, isn't able to keep.
[32:46] That's where our hope is. So that gives us a whole view of God, doesn't it? One of the Reformed confessions that came from the continent written by two guys that catechism knows the Heidelberg Catechism.
[33:00] It starts with question one, which is where you should start, I guess, with question one. But it asks this question. What is your only comfort in life and in death?
[33:13] Isn't that a great question? What is your only comfort in life and in death? And he says that I am not my own, but belong body and soul in life and in death to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.
[33:27] That's just how it opens. Let me read the rest. He, this is Jesus now. I belong body and soul to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.
[33:43] Remember, we talked about the devil here. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head, even if you don't have any hair anymore, from your head, without the will of the Father in heaven.
[33:55] In fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Oh, doesn't that sound like Romans 8, 28? Right? Why? Because I belong to him. Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.
[34:15] Now, if that doesn't give you an unction of really expressing the scripture, there's no other zippity-doo-rah that I can give you. Because that's the gospel. Okay?
[34:26] So what is your only hope and comfort in life and in death? It's that you belong body and soul in totality to your faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.
[34:37] One of my favorite hymns opens up with this standard, how firm a foundation. It says, how firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word.
[34:52] Remember the point we're making here. We are persuaded by God's word. And it's a word of promise that he gives to us that I say, I'm holding you and gripping onto you strongly, and nothing will be able to break my grip of you because my love will never be broken.
[35:13] So how firm a foundation. You say, the Lord has laid for your faith in his excellent word. It's not in how faithful you are.
[35:25] We always think, oh, I've got to do it or God won't love me. If we waited for us to love God, we'd never love him. His excellent word is spoken about it.
[35:36] What more can he say than to you he has said, to you, to Jesus, for refuge you fled. He has said it all, and we have it summarized beautifully here in these verses in Romans 8.
[35:51] This is the promise that God makes to every believer, and we need to just appreciate and come to that same persuasion as the Apostle Paul and other faithful believers through the centuries.
[36:05] As we are living now in our day, no matter what we feel pelted with, no matter what we're being assaulted with by the evil one, whatever issues we may be wrestling with, where we for a while seem like we're walking in the darkness so that we don't see that beauty of the God's light for us, what he says to us is, you belong to me all that time, and I will bring you out, and I'll make you hupernikos.
[36:32] And that's the promise that he makes to you. Let's pray. Father, for all the blessings that you provide us, we thank you. We are just frail human beings, and we try and make up things thinking that we're going to make things better with us and you, and we just muddle it.
[36:53] How clear it is if we just come to the word and take it at its face value just as you have given it, and then rest in that so that we find that our only comfort in life and in death is because we're trusting our faithful Lord Jesus Christ and all he's done.
[37:07] Father, you know any struggle that anyone's having even right now, and I pray, Father, that this would be a time where they would reflect and have that prevailing hope based on nothing can break the strong grip of God's love for us, and also persuaded, convinced by the truth of your word that it is right.
[37:30] Therefore, I'm entrusting myself once again to my faithful creator. Thank you, Father, for all the blessings that you do provide and that you have given, that you even took thought of us when you didn't have to.
[37:42] And so may we be encouraged, strengthened as we walk before you now and forevermore. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.