I would ask you to turn with me, if you would please, to Romans chapter 8. You will find the text in verses 31 and 32. Romans 8 at verse 31. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 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? I would like to say what a great privilege I know this to be that I have been invited to address you here today. And I would like immediately to bring with me to you all the greetings of the congregation that we serve in Inverness in the north east part of Scotland, the capital of the Highlands and to say that I know all my colleagues in the continuing church in Scotland would wish me to convey their love in Christ to you. You and we in our various nations do I think stand at a critical moment in history just now. Reference was made to that earlier in this service. We have on two notable occasions in world wars stood shoulder to shoulder with you beloved friends over here. And we may be finding ourselves doing so again soon. We love you greatly. We regard you as our cousins, our beloved friends and brethren in Christ and I cannot say what affection we have for you. Whenever we come over here we receive nothing but the height of kindness and Christian love. My wish is that God will bless you all and multiply the fruits of your righteousness and increase you in every way. Now I have announced my text in verse 31, if God be for us who can be against us? Romans chapter 8 is a chapter about Christian assurance here the Apostle Paul reaches the climax of his great epistle in which he shows how God has solved the problems which men of old could never solve. The problems of sin and evil, the problems of death and of judgment. What the wise and the great of this world could never find an answer to, God has solved in the gospel of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And here in Romans 8 he gives us an array of arguments whereby as those who believe in Christ we are to be assured and reassured that we are in a good standing with God. You recall the opening words of this chapter there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." And beginning with that mighty assertion that all is well with us before the justice and law of God, the Apostle develops this marvellous chapter until he reaches a crescendo here right at the very end in which he says that we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us it would have been something surely to have been a conqueror but to be more than a conqueror is something indeed so we come then to these exact words in verse 31 if God before us who can be against us I must begin by pointing out that the word if here is not like the if of the devil. The devil used the word if in tempting Christ. If thou be the son of God, then turn these stones into bread. If thou be the son of God, cast thyself down from the pinnacle of the temple and so forth. that was the devil's crafty way of insinuating a doubt and of course if you are a believer you are well familiar with the devil's methods of bringing doubts and fears into your mind now this word if here is not an if of doubt it is an if of inference it is not a condition But it is equivalent to an assumption in view of the fact, he means, that God is for us. Therefore, no man, no power can be against us. I would like to suggest to the young people that one of the best things you can do is to learn this whole chapter, Romans 8, by heart. The Puritans used to teach their children to do just that. And I have some children back home in Scotland and one of these girls, about the age of 12, is doing just that. She is learning Romans 8 and recites a couple of verses to me every week. Well, that's a good exercise. If I'm spared to come back in some year's time, I'll have all of you, I'm sure, rushing to tell me you've learnt the chapter. but I hope you will because it's a marvelous statement of gospel truth, full of assurance. I have three things that I wish to say about these words in the text. First, I want to say to you that here we have a wonderful gospel truth. Second, I wish to say to you, we also have here a clear proof of the reality of this gospel truth. And thirdly, as we shall have time, I want to speak of some of the consequences which flow from this gospel truth. Those three things. The truth, here stated, the proof of it, and the consequences and applications which flow from it to you and me if we are believers in Christ in that order. Now first of all then I have to say to you here we have a great gospel truth and it is in these words that God is for the Christian. God is on the side of the Christian. God is not only with us which he is but he is also at all times on the side of the believer. He stands for us to defend us and he stands with us to vindicate us. Now we have seen in the previous verses, which you would have noticed in the reading, that the Apostle Paul is here talking about a great purpose. Whom he did foreknow, them he also predestinated. and whom he predestinated, them he also called. And whom he called, says Paul here, them he justified. And whom he justified, them he also glorified. So, we here have intimation of God's great purpose. The God of heaven has formed a purpose for the history and destiny of this world before the world began. And these are the stages and the elements within it, foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification and glorification. And this is why the great John Calvin put it like this. He said, here we see the love of God from everlasting to everlasting. And the links within this chain of the divine purpose. Each chain, each link unbreakable. So the loving kindness of the Lord here, indicated by what the apostles said, shows us how it is that God is for his people. Now what do these five terms mean? It is very easy to misunderstand the meaning of this term for no. It doesn't simply mean that God sees into tomorrow. Of course he does. God remembers yesterday as though it were still happening and God sees into tomorrow as though it had already taken place. Nothing surprises God, you understand. And that was always true. It was true in the very beginning of history. If you go back to before Genesis chapter 1, as God looked down the corridors of future time, He knew what would take place. And He foreknew a people, which is equivalent to saying He set his affection upon them. He chose them out of this world. He decided he would bring these people to himself. And having taken that marvellous loving decision, he then instituted all the means and methods whereby his love for them would be experienced by them, not only in time, but much more in eternity to come when we should be out of this world and all its dark sorrows so foreknowledge is equivalent to his loving his people before the world began Jesus put it like this you remember to his own disciples you have not chosen me but I have chosen you and ordained you so it was from time before the world began. And having done that, the next element within this divine purpose, Paul, is this. It is to predestinate them. Now, what is this? Well, it means that before the world began, God set in motion, in His purpose, all those agencies and powers of His grace and of His Spirit, whereby those upon whom He set His love, would have their footsteps turned from the ways of sin and of the world into the paths of truth and gospel righteousness. We see this working out every time someone is converted. There are so many famous examples I can only touch very briefly on two. Take the great Augustine of North Africa. Saint Augustine, as some people called him. We call him Augustine of Hippo in North Africa. There was a brilliant genius, restless for much of his early life, seeking here and seeking there and finding nothing. Until he came to Milan in Northern Italy and there he heard the famous preacher Ambrose of Milan and came under conviction of his sin. And one day as he was in a park with a friend, groaning over his sins, he said this, forever and forever, tomorrow, why not today? Why should not God bless me with light today? And he heard words of a child or something floating over the parkway where he was. And the words were these in Latin, tolle legge, take up and read. and thinking of the very words of God, he took up his New Testament and read in Romans 13, just a few verses, a few chapters on from this. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill it in the lusts thereof. And immediately the light of God shone in his soul and he knew the God of heaven for himself. He was born again. He was converted He came to the knowledge of salvation. Well that's the purpose of God being worked out in his life. God with his eternal plan and purpose now revealed himself to that great man who was an immense help to the whole Christian church from that moment on until his death. He wasn't perfect, he made some mistakes undoubtedly and didn't see everything but he saw so much of the truth that you and I hold dear. The total depravity of man, the need of supernatural grace and so on. Now take another case of how God's purpose touches the life of man. Take Martin Luther. There he was, a monk in Germany, groping for gospel light. He had no idea how to get peace with God. Maybe some of you are like that today for all I know. So in the monastery he prayed, then he prayed some more, And he fasted and fasted some more, did without sleep, lashed himself with a whip, confessed his sins to his father confessor, none of that brought him peace. And then whilst reading the Word of God, an old Latin Bible you found in the tower at the Wittenberg building where he was, he came to see that the just shall live by faith. Now I say these things because they illustrate this very point the apostle makes that what God does is this from eternity past he sets his love upon those who are to be his and he puts in their way and in their pathway influences maybe a bible here or a book there or a minister there or maybe a church He brings them in. He brings them under the sound of the gospel by one means or another. And that's the next point in this eternal purpose. Those whom He predestinated, them He calls. They hear His voice. Not simply the voice of a preacher sounding in their ear. That's important enough in its own way, but what is still more important is to hear the voice of God. So that when they hear that sermon or that preacher, They forget the preacher because they hear God himself challenging their conscience and saying to them, you are the one I am speaking to here today. Now we call that the effectual call of God and it is all part of this purpose. Poor knowledge, predestination, calling, What happens next? Well, says Paul, the way God shows his love for his people and the way he is for them is this. He then justifies them. Now, there is the great word. Justification. The article of a standing or falling church. The most important doctrine in all the world, you could say, so far as the salvation of man is concerned. The doctrine that must never ever give up for anyone at any price. And it is simply to state like this that those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the blood of His cross are, as soon as they believe, immediately regarded by God Almighty as not guilty of all the sins that they have done. He imputes to them the whole righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the God, Man, Saviour, all the obedience of His perfect life. all the efficacy of his atoning death all of that is instantly at once the sinners for then and for evermore and that is what happens when a person believes in Christ that is why they get peace being justified by faith we have peace with God nothing else can give it to you you can pray and pray and pray again but until you come to this point in which you are justified by faith in Christ you will never know a true peace of soul. And all of this is because God is for his people. What next? Well, after this justification, says Paul, comes glorification. Glorification takes place in two stages. First of all, the death. The soul leaves the body. The body sinks into the grave. but immediately the soul leaves the body at once it departs to be with Christ in the glory the soul is made perfect in holiness and immediately passes into the presence of the Lord and is at peace and at rest and perfectly happy until the trumpet sounds in the last day and when the trumpet sounds all the dead are raised from their graves, the graves are opened and soul and body come together again though it may be hundreds or thousands of years between their death and the resurrection soul and body come together and they rise again and go to meet the Lord in the earth and that is their glorification they are to be united to Christ in glory, in love, in happiness forever now says Paul all that is because God is for us My very dear friend, you are possibly here today and you have many personal trials. You may have come here today with bereavement or sickness or temptation or troubles that I could know nothing of. But if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, let me remind you, my dear friend, God is for you. in your trials. No matter how grievous your anxiety may be, no matter how deep the sorrow of your soul, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, I can tell you on the authority of this word, God is for you! And He will never stand against you. But then you say to Him, but why, if God is for me, do I have all these troubles? Why do I shed so many tears? If I knew you, perhaps you would say to me, nobody in this church has any idea what I'm going through. I couldn't even tell the person sitting next to me. I hardly slept, you say, last night because of all the troubles of my life, the burdens I go through. Well, I say, if you are a believer, I have the right to tell you God is not against you in these things, but for you. And as a wise father schools his son or daughter in ways of righteousness and discipline, that at the end they may be perfect, so God is doing with you. He is bringing you through fire and water in order to bring you at last into a wealthy place. That is what he says here. If God before us, who can be against us? Now, second, let me give you the proof that God is for his people. It's one thing for a preacher to say something, but you might say to me, how can you prove that God is for me? What is the evidence? Where is the indication of the God of whom you speak is for the Christian always and in all circumstances. But the proof is here in my text. Let me show you where it is. What shall we then say to these things? Verse 31. If God be for us, who can be against us? 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? Now the Apostle undoubtedly says those words in order to prove the reality of this great doctrinal statement that he has made that God is for us. The proof of God's love for his people is in the way The Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has been made to suffer for us. Paul said it in this way, He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. Now then, the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, is the God-man. He is both God and man in two natures and one person forever. He took our human nature to Himself in order to do things for us that He couldn't do if He were not also man. As God, Jesus Christ, could not suffer, God does not suffer. And as God, the Lord Jesus Christ, could not die, because of course, God does not die. So, in order that He might both suffer and die for us, in his marvellous love for us and obedience to his Father our Lord took this human nature given to him through the womb of the Virgin Mary that's why it had to be a virgin birth if he had been born in the ordinary way of birth with two parents you understand his human nature would have been sinful he would have inherited the sin of his parents and the sin of Adam would have been imputed to him which is imputed to the rest of us. It had to be a new beginning, it had to be a miraculous birth, a supernatural coming of a human nature united to the divine nature of the Son of God. Now my very dear friends, God loved his son Jesus Christ with an infinite love. All through his life the Lord Jesus obeyed the Father perfectly. No one was more worthy of being highly honored always than the Lord Jesus Christ. At the baptism, at the transfiguration, the words from heaven you remember, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. But of this relationship between Father and Son, you see the Apostle Paul says, when it came to the cross, Christ was not spared. God did not spare His Son, but delivered Him up for us all. Christ was made sin for us, says the Word of God. That doesn't mean He was made a sinner. To say he was made sin means that the sin of the world was so reckoned to him, so imputed to him, that he was accountable for the sin of all his people from the foundation of the world to the end of time. He was answerable for all your sin, Christian, and mine. And it was in that capacity that he was made sin that our Lord was not spared. It doesn't say he was made a sinner. What's the difference between saying Christ was made sin and Christ was made a sinner? This is the difference. To say he was made a sinner, which is false, would be to say that he was defiled by our sin. And that, thank God, never happened. He came as close to being defiled by sin as it was possible without his actually being defiled. And he had to do so in order to bring the Father's love and forgiveness into your heart and into your experience. He was placed under damnation. He was placed under the curse of God. He wasn't spared the cruelties of men. if you want to know what the world thinks about God then read the Gospels where it tells you what they did to the Lord Jesus Christ when he was being crucified they were not content to nail his hands and feet to the cross but these deeply religious men and women stood round the cross wagging their fingers under his very nose and enjoying his discomfiture and rejoicing in the fact that now at last this man whom they hated was suffering before their very eyes. They did not spare him the indignity and cruelty which they were able to offer to him in word and in deed They heaped upon him every unkindness they can think of. Ah, thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it again, save thyself if thou canst. He saved others, himself he cannot save. Let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him. All of that and other things they said. Yes, you very well know. It was malicious, spiteful, vicious talk. Hell-inspired talk to the Son of God. But my dear friends, we look above the heads of men, we look above the heads of Pontius Pilate and Herod and Annas and Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, we look where Paul looks, to God the Father. It was God the Father who was dealing with his own son in this way, heaping these indignities upon him. He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. Now don't ever say that God hated him when he suffered on the cross. There are some preachers who allow themselves to say such things but it is a gross misrepresentation of the truth. God never hated His Son, never. He never loved Him more than when He smote Him on the cross for you and me. I say He never loved Him more than when He delivered Him up into the hands of wicked men to be crucified and slain. He pleased the Lord to bruise him, to put him to grief. Now, my dear friends, all of this is the proof of the fact that God is for us. The devil would have us believe many a time that God is not for us. How often the believer is tempted to suppose that God is not on his side. How despondent the Christian can become in the face of adversities and trials and tribulations. But the Word of God is given to us here for this reason, to show us that whatever we feel to the contrary, we must always give the devil the lie. We are to believe as believers that God has not only told us in words that He is for us always, But he has proved it in actions. God doesn't simply love in words, as some men do, but also in deeds. And here is the proof, Sir Paul. God has not spared His own Son. The doctrine is this. God is for me. And I know this because He has done something for me. which shows his unspeakable goodness. Christ was crucified for sinners like us. I want to ask you a question or two, dearest friends, here today. It is not my privilege to know you, or many of you, scarcely at all, as you know. But is this your view of God? Or have you got a secret suspicion of God that really He doesn't like me very much? Is that the way you think? Oh, I'm not speaking to unbelievers. If you're an unbeliever, I have to warn you, you're under the wrath and curse of God every moment you live. You had better flee at once to Christ! But I'm speaking to believers who have fled to Him and do trust in Him and are sheltering under His blood and under His death and under the wings of His protection. I say to you, do you have suspicious, mean and unworthy thoughts of God? Do you think that God's love is something like the weather, some days bright, some days cold, some days bright, some days dark and overcast? I say to you now, God's love is perfect towards his people. God is always for you, Christian, and He is for you now, and He'll be for you in temptation, and He'll be with you and for you in the article of death. And when your soul leaves the body and passes into another world, there God will be for you. He will never condemn you. He will never cast you out. He has proved it by what our Lord suffered on the cross. Do you believe that? Is this your God? Is this your view of God? If we really believed that God was for us, why? We could leap over mountains. We could fly over universes. We would cross Atlantics and Pacifics to tell all the heathen about such a God. The reason for our little faith, dearest friends, is that we scarcely believe what we believe and need to believe a tenfold more than we believe that God is for us let me hurry to my last point, thirdly and these are the happy consequences and applications of this fact I have three, first of all if God is for us then the Christian really has no enemies Has he? I mean, put it like this. If God is for us, what sort of enemy could ever do us any harm? However powerful our enemy is, God is more powerful. However crafty and wise they are, God is wiser still. Whatever harm they intend to do to us may be, God will anticipate it. Why did God make the angels anyway? Did you ever ask that question? Why did God make angels? Well, partly to look after you as you go through this world. Oh, there are thousands of angels round about us as we go through this world. We don't see them, but they're there. ministering spirits to usher us safely as believers through this world till we get to the glory which is promised at the end and destiny of all the purposes of God, whom he justified, them he glorified. It is another proof of his love, you see. Make a list of all your enemies, sin, death, sickness, the devil and realize that in the face of God not one of them can do you any harm the worst of them all I suppose you would say is death itself but you know what the believer can say when he comes to his deathbed O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory? Jesus Christ is risen from the dead my hope is in His blood. Depart from me, ye wicked. God is for me. And if God be for me, who can be against me? My friends, lay this truth to heart. You're going to need this truth many times as you go through this world. You're going to need to tell the devil, devil be gone! Because God is for me. I have no fear. You're going to need this when you come to a sick bed and a hospital bed and a death bed. You're going to need to know that God is for you, because the devil is good at tempting those who come to the latter end, even with irrational fears. The second consequence is this. If God be for us, then it proves that there is no good thing in all the universe that he is not able to give to you to enrich you, to bless you and to comfort you both in this life and that which is to come you see the way the apostle puts it he that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give you all things he that spared not his own son How shall they not give you all things? Well, there are young people here, boys and girls, and how wonderful it is to see the young people here. Thrilling and wonderful. May God bless you all. Here's my illustration for the young ones. Supposing, boys and girls, supposing you were in such a situation that you had to have a million dollars to get you out of trouble. What would you do? Well, coming along here's a very rich man and you say to him sir I need a million dollars to get me out of my trouble oh that's alright he says taking out his checkbook one million dollars is right there it's all yours and then you think again but I'm sorry sir I forgot I need another three dollars for the postage well he's not going to say to you you've got a million you're not going to get three more Is he? If he can give you a million, he can give you any amount more. If God has not spared you his own son, is he going to keep anything good back from you? You see the logic, you see the argument. If God has done so much that he has given even the very best to us, no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. It may be you're a young person on the threshold of adult life, perhaps studying, perhaps contemplating marriage or work, I do not know. But I say to you, oh, look to this great God who will give the very best of gifts to those who seek Him with all their heart. Those who desire to live for His glory, He will give them the best of gifts. His word is here. God is for us, to give us everything we need, far more than we could ask or even think. And then third and finally, there is this application here. If God be for us, as the apostle puts it toward the end of this chapter, who can separate us from the love of God? which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You know this is the fear every Christian has. Supposing one day I so sin against God that I become an apostate. Supposing I do something which so irritates God that he turns his back upon me. Every child of God has that fear and it's not a bad thing. provided it doesn't go too far, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And what the Apostle is saying here is this. Who could possibly separate God's children from the love of Christ? He gives a long list. Tribulation, persecution, death, life, things present, things to come, angels, principalities, powers. The Apostle has a very long list of possibilities, and then he says, I am persuaded that nothing shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. My beloved Christian friends, we may never see one another's faces again in this world, but if we belong to Him, we shall all soon meet again in that blessed land above. where there's no more sea, no Atlantic, no Pacific, no separation. There we shall see the blessed God whom we love, the Father that spared not His Son, the Lamb in the midst of the throne. Behold the Lamb of God, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, who gave us new life, new birth, new understanding. As I close, let me say to you all, be faithful to this God and He will most assuredly be with you and for you, not only in time, but in eternity.