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General Meetings Wheaton, August 1973. Third reading meeting.
Romans chapter 8.
Verse 26.
Likewise, the Spirit also help with our infirmities.
Or we know not what we should pray for as we are.
Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groaning, which cannot be uttered.
Neither search of the hearts nor what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intersection for the Saints according to the will of God.
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?
For whom he did, for no.
Also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the first born among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate.
Them he also called. Who he called them, he also justified.
And whom he justified, them he also glorified.
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What shall we then say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us?
Either spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all.
Partially not with him, also freely give us all things.
Who shall lay in it into the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he to condemn it? It is Christ that died here rather than has risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Job tribulation.
Or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword.
As it is written, for thy sake, we are killed all the day long.
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Laying all these things, we are more than conquerors who in that loved us.
More iron persuaded than either death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come.
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.
The God looks down and.
The Holy Spirit is there making entertainment.
It's according to God that is what is fitness is where the design.
Flash.
Next, everyone of his children.
Back to.
Earlier parts of the chapter where the Spirit has the power within us causes us to cry out the Father in the first place.
And then?
We noticed that.
We have the first fruits of the spirit.
But now likewise.
The Spirit helpeth our infirmity. There's a number of things here, are there not that.
Refer back to the.
Fact that the Spirit of God is a person indwelling the believer and the power of light in the believer.
Very clear. That doesn't it, To realize that it's the personal presence of the Holy Ghost in us here, isn't it?
I was thinking of his brother, our brother till we were speaking.
On our way to the luncheon today, and you mentioned a very nice thought in this chapter that we were having here this verse.
26 It says likewise the Spirit also help with our infirmities.
And the other translation says, for we do not know what we should pray for, as is fitting. But then in the 28th verse he says. But we do know that all things work together for good.
Well, we don't always know what to pray for, and it's we have to get on our knees before God to seek guidance from Him. But whatever the result, we we do know that all things work together for good.
I thought that was very blessing.
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Things sometimes we We don't even know what to say.
Next, this groanings which cannot be uttered.
With the Lord groaning at the grave of Lazarus.
Remember how Martha goes and secretly says to her sister the master is come and call up for thee.
Martha went before she was called. Mary waits until she is sent for and really meets the Lord in her deep peace.
But all the answer the Lord could have for Mary.
Was that he'd grown.
And with trouble. I believe that if you read in the mark and it says he troubled himself.
In other words, he made himself feel.
Just as those sisters felt.
And their deep sorrow and loss.
Indeed, the Lord and Spirit was going through.
The deep power can ruin.
That sin has brought into this feed.
The sorrows of death that have been the result a man's disobedience to the Word of God.
And what is there that can remedy?
That state of things that we see on every hand.
Well.
We may be in circumstances like the present Lord where.
The only real answer to it all.
Has have grown.
A deep entering into the sorrows.
Where words would not be sitting or the occasion.
And Mary really meets the Lord.
And.
The Lord goes on then, as we know.
To all matters out of the grave. But in going through the story that he went through with her, the Lord was really in spirit entering into.
All that sin has brought in through this, this ruined world.
Brother Mary, and what they included in that Scripture, in all their affliction, He was afflicted.
How pressure it is to know that the Lord enters in all the sorrows of His people?
We know that.
He is a he is our captain, made perfect through suffering.
And.
We don't come to one who doesn't know what we experienced. He knows at all.
Notice farther on, we don't want to get ahead of our subject.
But we find that in the.
24th or the 34th verse, It says Christ that died ye rather than has risen again, was even at the right hand of God, who also make an interstation for us.
So we have two intercessors.
We have the Holy Spirit down here within us.
And we have Christ glorified, interceding for us on time.
So our position.
Our our blessings are superb.
And that in connection.
Where the deep trials?
And sorrows of this scene.
I'm sure we've all felt this after having passed through a very deep sorrow.
And how was the how we've been sustained through the sorrow?
That there has been an intercessory work going on in our behalf.
That has kept us from being completely overwhelmed.
By the sadness.
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Oh, that we have been so depressed and overcome.
That we were made useless by.
The sorrow that we went through.
And taken upon himself that work.
Of interceding for his people in regard to their infirmities.
Weaknesses here.
And there's something very sweet about that and that is that he himself is our brothers, already mentioned he has been through these things himself.
Now, infirmities.
That is weaknesses.
That we have. Of course, we mustn't connect that with.
Sin and disobedience. He's never experienced anything like that.
But in our infirmities.
He has passed through the trials and testings of the Way.
And he has been weary.
He's been tried.
And he knows how his people feel, but then also he's up there to.
To engage us.
With the proper.
Mind as to what God would have us ever into because he keeps us in communion with heaven.
That's one of the things he's doing now. He's occupying us with those things that would keep us.
In communion with heaven and that we might be true worshippers.
I believe that's what we get in the book of Hebrews.
And all things work together for good.
For them, that love God.
The gallery is just like a machine.
Say the works of a clock, every wheel, every cop has an important place.
Otherwise the clock would stop.
So God is working out a plan.
In connection with the lives of his children.
And everything is ordered.
And view that designer fan that God has with you.
All things work together for good.
I remember illustration that Brother Ruston Gill gave us one time. Quite simple but.
As young people especially enjoy.
He likened this to a mother that is making a cake.
And she has the various ingredients spread out on the cup, on the counter, covered.
And the children come around to see what's going on.
And they they taste this all the letters and maybe the baking powder and the extract is too strong and the flour is too insipid.
All about a were set up it is.
But he said another pours all these different things into the mixing path.
And spurs it all up.
And pour it into the cake pan and then outcomes this beautiful cake.
Well, the things that were unpleasant in separate and.
That would speak of trial when they're all brought together.
By the wisdom of the cake maker, the mother who was landed for her family, well, I hear something that the whole family relishes.
Well, it's nice maybe to think of it that way. All things are just working together.
Bringing about this wonderful purpose of God.
For our eternal happiness.
Because God always has eternity in you. Life is so short.
That it's just a short training place down here, but our real existence is ahead.
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That's nice.
Of the other.
Get the work of the spirit corner believer and leave their seven. We might just not agree to get the 1St and the 4th team first. Those things are led by the Spirit of God. They are the tons of God.
And we might notice.
This is the second, says we have not received the spirit of bodies against us here.
We have received a spiritual adoption whereby we try and a father.
That's the third verse 6C. The spirit itself bears with our spirit that we are the killers of God.
That's the 4th and 17th 1St and it's killer that air here, the gloss or there's a flight. It will be that we suffer with him that we may be awful glory high together.
And might not verse 26 fifth.
Likewise a spirit also helping our liberties.
Well, we know not what we should pray for we are, but the Spirit itself makes an intersection.
Of the others, and we get the 727th version he even purchased. The heart knows what is the mind of the spirit.
Because the mega intersect for the state according to the welfare of the verses 28 through 39 we have gone for us.
And that is why we know that all things work together for good for them.
God is for God is for communion.
27 First the end is gone.
And perhaps not so much the thought, the will of God. But it's it's according to God, isn't it? And that connects with the next verse, so that we say because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to God, and we know that all things work together for good to them that are that love God.
To them are called according to his purpose, and then the apostle launches into that subject which is so taken his heart.
The truth of the mystery Christ of the Church, but He just simply touches on it. Because this this epistle does not take up the subject of the mystery, but he refers to it twice here and in the last chapter, but makes the connection. And this is more of a foundation if it's not enrollment for Christmas for the Christian, proof that success for us before us later in these other.
Prison officials.
But he does give us in these following verses, enough to show what our hope is and our blessings.
That it's all according to God and it's connected with those that love God.
As to them who are called according to his purpose, it might make us wonder, Well, do I love God? Do I have a writer? A friend, this purpose?
The rest of it shows were called according to his purpose. Well, that surely takes in every child of God. You couldn't be.
A child of God without being one of the son that has been chosen and called according to his purpose.
No elite can be certain that we're included in the number of those for whom God is working out His preferences for our blessing and for His glory.
We can't apply this verse to acts of self will.
It connects back to the infirmities, the weaknesses, the body, the things that the Lord allows in His ways with us. They might go to visit someone who's on a sick bed, and we can know with absolute assurance that all things work together for good to them that love God or a similar trial might come into our own lives and we have this absolute promise.
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But for instance, if someone wants to say, well I'm going to marry someone who is unsafe, but I have a promise from God that all things work together for good to them that love God. This would be resting the scriptures, as it were, to their own destruction. To try to lay hold of something that God gives us an encouragement to use it, to encourage in a path of disobedience would never be of God at all.
Is that right?
This is really looking at the normal Christian life. It's not looking at the abnormal.
Life that you describe with one acting in disobedience, I know it's been used wrongly that way as one commits to sin and say, well, that's all going to work out for good, you know, things we don't ever want to interpret the scripture in last week.
The normal Christian life is what gifts are supposes. Anything outside of that is not what God considers a Christian life at all.
Something apart from.
What God had has marked out as the password of a believer.
It's based upon, isn't it? The what we have in those the 14th, 2 and the 15th verses.
The facts of the truth in the 14th verse. For as many as are LED by the Spirit of God. They are the sons of God.
Well, if we're not led by the Spirit of God.
Then I'm afraid we're not the sons of God be led by the Spirit of God. There's a, there's a leading there and that's position, isn't it? That's our position, sons of God. And that's true of every believer. If he's truly a child of God, he is a son of God and led by the by the Spirit of God. Well, that's the position. And then there's the in the 16 verse, I should say.
The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Well, here's relationship. So there's position and relationship and the the spirit of God and.
Expects that the believer will go on in the normal course as one who has brought into this marvelous position before God.
And also a son of God. And I believe it's more in connection with God here because of.
It when we have God, it brings in holiness. God is our Father. That's very true and very lovely. But our Father is God, and God is holy.
So I I, I agree with what you said, Brother John. It's very important to see that, isn't it the spirit of God will if we're going on in a path of disobedience.
The spirit of God can only cause it to judge it, to bring it down, bring it, judge, judge it. He can't fill our souls with Christ. He can't fill our souls with joy. If we're going on in a path of disobedience, there must be obedience to that path that we've been called to, or we've brought into our position as sons of God and children of God in relationships.
He did or no, He also did predestinate.
To be conformed to the image of his son.
That he might be the first born among many brothers.
What a wonderful truth that is that even before this world came into existence, God had chosen you and me in His beloved Son.
Came in and the sad course things have taken in this scene, but it always marked us out.
For a face of high privilege and blessings, which was to be eternal in his character.
And it's whom he did for no, this isn't what he's for. Knew. It's boomy. It's for no.
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Each individual believer.
Was a definite object of the.
What God was planning for happiness for his own glory?
The whole subject, doesn't it? It goes beyond election, doesn't it?
One might be elected, but here we have 3 destinations.
The election occurred long ago.
Could have occurred yesterday.
It's just election, but here it's free and it's in view of a definite destiny. So we have the whole thing in this one word, don't we and.
It's also immediately brought before us that Christ has the first place in it. All that's first born, isn't it? The first place?
That's very precious. We had a class of people were in 30 years in school. They were called a hard shell Baptist.
And they were older, cultural, Calvinistic in their views. And the one doctrine they lived in Harpedon.
Has Aqua occupied with a predestination you couldn't talk to them? A minute to watch? You'd hear that.
Remember one of the old gentleman that held this doctrine talking to a brother in our meeting? So he started to write in with this verse about predestinations. Well, the brothers talked to him, he said, But you forgot this. But we're praying, destinated for to be conformed to the image of God's beloved son.
All that.
Liberates the soul from any DRY and cipher doctrine.
As to predestination and coordination, to think of the marvelous, precious, wonderful fact that.
Four creatures of Earth.
Were predestinated to be conformed to the image of God's beloved Son.
Well, the Spirit of God wasn't limited. He used the word beloved, but he does use it because it has the importance and the meaning that makes the subject.
Exceptionally precious to our souls.
That one that was so dear to the heart of God the Father, the one in whom he found all His delight to think that you and I are worthy creatures, are going to be conformed to the very image of the one that has done all the will of the Baller down here, and is now glorifying Him.
In the place where he is now seated himself on high.
Take a place from the maternity.
I think that's very nice, brother. I don't believe the Beloved is here. It's the first born, isn't it?
To be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the first born among many brothers.
His first the predestination of verse 29 with the first chapter of Ephesians.
Where it says, He has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame, before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.
It seems to one's own soul in connecting these two verses to verses together.
It's as if God says I have a plan, and that plan is that I'm going to have a family.
And then he says, the family that I have predestinated, the adoption of children unto himself, that that plan is that all the children should be just like the son he already had. So his plan is to have a family, and he already has the model on which he's fashioning the whole family. So the result is when he writes in the eighth of Romans, he says predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son.
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I was really thinking of that first that you just read there in Ephesians 1.
Where it says he hath made us accepted in the beloved, I was thinking of the word beloved and brought this into the apes of Romans.
Of course, it's the same thought.
And again I could repeat it.
That the Spirit of God wasn't limited to the word beloved, but He used it without in view. So we might.
Have a little.
Understanding.
What God's purposes are?
To have us accepted in the one who is of all the light of his heart.
And that's one of my brother, John has said in Ephesians 1.
In verse 11.
In whom we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who work at all things after the Council of his own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory.
How wonderful it is that God has marked us out to pay for the praise of his glory.
He's going to display in the church and all the redeemed as those who are added to add to his glory that is in Christ.
This is the work of Christ that has taken 4 centers.
And they've made them the errors of glory. This is the inheritance.
Just there.
So notice in every place where.
Believers are associated with Christ.
He must have the preeminence.
Oh, you get it here that he might be the first born among many presidents. You get the same thoughts in the first chapter of Hebrews.
Where we read and expressed in this way.
The line First thou has loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows above.
Although he associates us with himself as his fellows, yet he is above them all.
So in the second chapter, we read about those that are sanctified, but he's the sanctifier.
Well, brother London, wouldn't you see? And what you brought before us yesterday afternoon about David being anointed in the midst of his brother in a picture of Christ.
Being anointed or given a place of honor.
In the midst of his brother.
Yeah. Don't. Wait. Is that what David means?
Is that right? Is that what David means? I don't remember.
You know, brother rule, is that the meaning of David?
I couldn't see. I don't know.
Back in my Bible.
I think, brother.
Harrington was bringing before.
Us how the Spirit of God links to eternities together.
In the 30th 1St.
Who needed predestinate there? You're back in a fast eternity. There we also called how we're in time only called them. He also justified.
And whom he justified, them he also glorified.
That in the coming eternity.
So it's like a golden chain.
Each drink connects with the next link.
So that you link 1 eternity with the coming eternity.
And the Spirit of God is giving us to realize that our connection with this wonderful.
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A chain of blessings is it just dips down?
And we're brought in as the cold one he calls us for. Then he justifies us. Then the next thing we're connected.
With the glory that lies ahead.
And yet it's a race that's really higher. Perhaps shouldn't say race, but a people that are higher than man.
And he didn't call, and he passed by angels.
About those who were the lowest, shall we say, those who?
Slew their creator.
Those are the ones he called.
And this is what magnifies.
The grace of God is it not?
It shows his character out in a way that.
Only the cross could display it when he gave his only begotten son who died for his enemy.
And Spirit of God speaks.
Of this coming eternity is all as though it.
Had already taken place.
As though we were already in the glory.
For in the purposes of God.
We're already seen as glorified up there.
Word is an eternal now, isn't it?
Doesn't speak of things.
As we do.
As things that are take place.
As something that are not sure, something so certain.
That God can speak of it as though it had already taken place.
God can speak of things that are not as though they be.
The gospel could be brought out quite clearly.
Because when God calls.
And the soul answers.
And receives.
Forgiveness on the ground of the jet blood of the Lord Jesus. Simple faith.
As we often hear in the gospel.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death and delight.
And then we have the next point. Having done so, the believer is seen now.
As mentioned in Romans 3 and 4 justified.
That's in a position.
That we never could have gained for ourselves.
But it's only because we're seen in Christ that we're seen as justified, and that's the way God wants his children to be seen as they are in Christ.
And this doesn't leave any room.
For anyone to brag does it. It's all the work of God.
And it's a work that's finished, that takes us all the way into the glory. So the believer is glorified too.
In God's counsels is complete if not.
Christ is the door. Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden with all their sins, and I will give you rest.
And then when we take that step, we get on the inside of the door and we look up. We see written over the door, chosen in him before the foundation of the world. We didn't know it before.
We only knew we were sinners and we needed a savior. But all when we get inside the door, we find we were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.
What a glorious position. We've been brought into it and enjoy it now and glory ahead.
You wouldn't take the line of things with your brother, Little Little, and you were bridging to a crowd of unsaved people, no?
No, this was a family secrets.
You were heard in another meeting.
To the end of the Philippians 3 the words He is able even to do all the things according to his.
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Subdue all things to himself.
I was thinking the connection with this All things work together for good to them to love God who were the call according to his purpose.
Then he's versed we've just been considering. We see the purpose of God and it all, and God can speak of these things as already accomplished.
God is able to carry out his purpose.
There are some of us who have had the responsibility in the years past.
Still, we're set up certain projects.
In industry.
And we would set up what do we call a five year plan.
Well, if we accomplished 110th of those purposes, those plans, we were doing good.
God purposes will all be carried out.
Nothing will ever fail in what God is perfect.
What we've been considering is in the 31St verse. What shall we then say to these things?
If God before us, who can be against us?
And hasn't he proven that?
I haven't chosen.
In Christ before the foundation of the world.
But he goes on. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him, also really give us, give, really give us all things.
I have heard some misuse.
This bring this word freely in the first part of the verse. I think I've done it myself. That is, he that spared not his own son, but freely delivered him up, for his own doesn't belong there, but it does belong in the last part of the verse. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
It wouldn't be right to say that God really gave his son.
It was an awful sound thing, any more than we can think of Abraham freely taking Isaac up the mountain and building that altar and taking the nice wave.
Couldn't think of freely and that connection there.
But since God has not spared his only Son, he can.
Freely give us all things.
What a wonderful subject this totally is, that God is for the believer.
Under all circumstances.
There's never a time in our life down here where God is not forced.
With a long time learning that.
You also was taken.
Rather.
It went back and said that the man and even one that didn't be brought down, we could say all these things are getting.
It was all going but.
That's good, her brother.
And isn't that interesting too, that at the very time when God was about to give his favorite son Joseph back to us?
The time when he said all these things are against me.
When things seem the darkness.
When the flood light of God's blessings were going to flow upon it.
Rather, we're going to be satisfied when we get to the glory.
Will be satisfied.
That's one of the promises that.
Fully satisfied.
We may be passing through difficulties and trials and disappointments here, but there will be fully satisfied.
Because all our blessings are in Christ, and it couldn't be otherwise.
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I should be satisfied when I awakened his life, so I'll be perfect satisfaction both ways, don't they?
So your fingers are not turning out the way we?
Would desire and the way we expect it, and God hasn't answered the prayers we have often sent up to Him. We know that it must not be released for the time present.
The job.
Is giving us what he sees is best for us.
Really gives us all things and that gives confidence and peace and soul.
I think that if God has not spared the nearest object of his marks affection his beloved Son, what is there that God will withhold from us that for our highest good?
First means when it says if God before us, who can be against us.
As not supposing for one minute that they're not, that there are not great forces that are arrayed against us, but it's as if we're looking at a scale, and if God be on one side, then the forces that are arrayed against it on the other side become a nothing. Is that the thought when it says if God before us?
If we read in Ephesians chapter six, we find that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. There are all sorts of forces arrayed against us, but if God before us, that puts them in their right perspective.
Is that correct?
First John 4:00 and 4:00.
It says greater is he that is in you.
Than he that is in the world.
Suppose the expression girl embarrassing the surgeon. It was also a challenge. It's gone before and who can be against the challenge has gone out.
Who Zambia Cancer from God is for.
Different questions asked and answered in these verses that we're considering.
First you get What shall we say to these things if God before us? And the question Who can be against us?
And the 33rd verse, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
And the 34th verse, who is he that condemneth?
And then the 35th verse, who shall separate us?
From the love of Christ.
Perhaps heard it put it this way, where it says God before us, who can be against us, whack me into a man.
That.
There is no policeman, no constable.
Who can be against us? The policeman. There's no policeman there to pick him up, arrest him.
And then who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
There's no prosecuting attorney to bring up an accusation.
And then who is he that condemneth is no judge.
And then the last thing is, who shall separate us?
From the love of Christ, there's no dealer.
Other words, there's no constable, there's no prosecuting attorney, there's no judge and there's no jailer. Then he breaks out into a regular doxology of praise.
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Wonderful how the spirit of God covers every question or any suggestion that would in any way.
Uphold the truth that has been set forth. We can talk about the clearest lawyers getting up a document, but.
It can compare in no way to the way the Spirit of God covers the truth that he is presenting.
For the Blessing of Our Souls covers them from every possible angle and leaves nothing.
That in any way could set aside.
The truth he has for our blessing.
Good to repeat the what has been said already that in the 1St of this chapter.
There's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
And then the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us.
And now we have God, perhaps in the absolute sense.
Floating all.
That is, the whole power of heaven is for the believer.
Well, then, why should we be discouraged?
That's what the Spirit of God would bring before us, I believe here, and the subject of full and complete deliverance for the police.
Lay anything to the charge of God's elect.
Well, that takes us back into.
Until His eternal purposes.
It's predestinated us.
And chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
And now the enemy. If he rises up, what can he bring against those?
That God himself.
Has selected.
In such a divine, eternal way.
And the answer is it is called that justifies.
Lovely sometimes, when you're reading the word, to see the different ways that we're justified.
Here we're justified by God the office.
And the bird of Romans were justified.
By great spring of it.
And this chapter Romans were justified by.
By blood, the ground of it, the end of Romans Four were justified by resurrection. The the proof of it.
And then the first growth of the 5th chapter Romans were justified by faith and principle of it.
And then in the 6th chapter of First Corinthians we are justified by the spirit of power of it. And then in James two we're justified by works, the proving of it.
In Romans 3, God is a source of.
Romans 3 and verse 26.
That he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.
He was said of the preacher, one who had just been converted and started preaching on the street.
That one of his old friends came by who knew him when he was walking in sin.
And he began to point his finger at him.
He said to him, stop. He said, I'll read you the rest of the story. And he read him the third chapter. Romans. Because in Romans we have the history of man as God sees him guilty, do we not?
So this man showed him the whole story as we have in the third chapter.
Where even their throat is an open sepulchre and so on.
And then he brought out justification. Well, God has given us to see, has he not?
That there's nothing but evil connected with the old man. But he has made a full provision, and this is what has brought glory to him, and has manifested his great heart of love, that he would take up such a vile object as man.
01:00:17
Who?
As he is set forth in the third chapter.
Forgiven his sins.
And justified him, and then placed him in a place where he can rejoice in the 5th chapter.
And I don't think we can get any higher than the 5th chapter in that sense. We join God.
Now, it's true that these three verses that we've just noticed give us a truth that belongs to the believer in a very special way today.
Highest truth that's ever given us in that sense. But I don't think we can get any higher than the joy in God, can we?
1St that thrills the First Division of the book of Romans.
That is.
The subject of sins beneath the truth of the fallen nature is taken up in the first part of Romans.
And the conclusion to what is considered as to man's fallen state in the third of Romans?
And leading on.
How to?
His resurrection.
And then are entering into this by faith.
Then he carries a song to that.
Joy in God? Well, he can't go any further. That's that's the very apex, the pinnacle of the whole truth that has to do.
With the God's remedy and mercy upon man in connection with all his failure and all his sins.
Then from from the 12Th 1St of Romans 5, another subject is taken up and that's the.
The root the nature of sins and that takes up the last part of the 5th of Romans and the 6th, 7th And when we get to the 8th chapter the same word is found that since the 1St.
1St the 5th enrollment, therefore. So here is the conclusion in the 8th chapter to the second subject.
Which has to do with the fallen nature that produced all this, this ruin of the human race.
Mention also.
That the following three chapters.
Show us how God is coming in to fulfill all of His promises that he made to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.
And then the conclusion if you'll read in the end of the 11Th chapter.
The 33rd verse.
All the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom.
And knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways Fast finding out for who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor, or who have first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again.
Now notice for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom the glory forever and ever. Amen. Well, this takes in the complete subject of all of God's purposes.
From the foundation of the world for Israel, and from before the foundation of the world for the Church.
You have noticed that the?
First part of the 34th verse is really a continuation of the last part of the 33rd verse.
You need to read right on as though it was the same verse. It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemneth?
That is, if the judge.
Fears.
Cases before him.
Well, who can raise an objection then, Of course, when this God himself is the judge? Well, God is higher than any, any judge on earth.
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So then who can condemn?
Who is he that condemneth where you'd say the only one that that could condemn?
Here's the judge himself. And who is the judge?
Because God has committed all judgment under the sun.
What does it say about the judge? It is Christ that died.
That is, the judge himself is the one that has died.
For the guilty conference, What if the judge himself has died for the guilty ones?
Well, how can God condemn one that the very judge that he has appointed has gone into death and suffered all the consequences of his guilt for him?
And you see, it goes right on. It is Christ that died, yeah, rather than his risen against. Well, one might say, but.
And what about the judge? If he's died, well, isn't that the end of his?
Of his position, his service.
I know the judge has risen.
Well, but we're for the only things. We make so many mistakes.
We failed so badly even after we're saved. How about our position now?
All that settled you?
Who was even at the right hand of God, There he is at the right hand of power on high.
And the one on the right hand of power is the one who is making interstation force.
Stable.
When when the Lord said He through Balaam, I have not beheld iniquity in Jacob, nor perverse in Israel.
I have fought in connection with that, that the one thing that the Lord did not add there was that while he didn't see iniquity in them, are perverse within them. He never said they were incapable of doing it. But when we come to the New Testament in connection with the truth of justification.
We find it says in the first verse of Romans 8, there is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. So I take it that in connection with justification, what we have is God seeing us in a life that not only did not see him but could not sin, was absolutely incapable of sinning. So it's as if anyone was ever to raise a charge. It's God himself who not only replied, they did not.
They could not. The life that we now have in Christ, John first John three tells us it cannot sing. So it is that when it says it is God to justify it, or as it tells us here who shall lay anything to the charge of God selected his God to justify it. Who is it to condemn us? That justification puts us in Christ Jesus in a life that not only did not sin, but it could not sin.
Fill our hearts with the doxology of the last part of the chapter.
And that's a precious truth that he is there interceding for us ever living to make interstation force.
Glory, the very one who died for us before the guilt of our sins, was living for us now.
He's in the place of power. We're in the place of weakness down here.
That all power in heaven and earth, he says, is delivered unto me.
So how lovely it is to be able to look up.
One who is ever living in the presence of God and living there for our good.
And to help us in times of trouble and difficulty and problems.
Or brother, may we look more to him and not look at circumstances or get occupied with the failures of one another, but look at that glorified one who is there on our behalf.
Interceding Forest.
1St 2:00 we have.
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A reference to a Psalm.
In connection with the tribulation and trials.
That are mentioned here.
And it's in the second book of the Psalm.
The reason I mentioned that is.
I believe I'm right in saying in the second book of the Psalms, it's more God before them.
They're in the presence of God. They've been cast out.
It's a picture of the feelings of God's people in the coming day when they pass through that time of deep trial.
Which?
Is the period of the great tribulation.
And during that time.
They're going to.
Feel these things as they've never felt them before.
Now the picture before us then, is that as you and I are on our way home.
The Spirit of God gives us.
To be exercised along the way.
And we discover what?
God is to us.
It's in the circumstances that we pass through here that we learn to know our God.
And it has been well said that.
And was brought before us this afternoon.
When our brothers spoke to the young people.
In regard to Peter, it wasn't until Peter discovered that he was a sinful man that he began to discover who the Lord was.
And we have to know something of ourselves to really know our God.
And it's in this period, it's in these verses that are mentioned here.
The tribulation. They won't separate us.
They'll only draw us closer to give us to see what we have in God, but it's through Christ.
For thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
They and all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. We're on the winning side, aren't we?
The more than conquerors.
I was wondering if you.
You consider it in this way?
You take a soldier in battle.
And he's on the winning side.
And his army completely defeats the enemy.
The black general wolf cry in the midst of his 60s, shot down and died from the battlefield. He's won the victory.
But couldn't you say that he's more than a counselor there, as they say over in France, is he's pushing dates. What about the Christian that goes through the crowns and persecutions?
And the enemy brings upon him, he may even lose his life.
What about the famous that's ahead? What about the time when in resurrection he brought into?
The glory pride feed. Well, that's not true that he not only was victorious in his faithfulness, but he's more than a conqueror, because he is now found among the the army of the martyrs.
Wearing, as it were, a Margaret Brown.
I wondered if you could consider it that way.
But it's through him that loved us.
His love sustains us in the trial persecutions.
Yeah, he speaks of an apprentice.
Verse of those things with the enemy would bring against it what you've been saying. Brother Barry is here and the one who is slain in the battle.
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In all these we are more than conquerors of him that loved us.
That even though the enemy may have brought all these things against us yet.
What is it going to bring us into the eternal blessing that awaits us in the glory?
The result here.
First he takes up in the beginning with the 35th verse.
Thing down here, tribulation, stress, persecutions, families taking the peril towards.
And so on. Then in the 38th verse, he takes up the invisible things Ronnie tweeted that neither did.
Her life.
Are things present. Our angels know very little about the principalities, but we know there's a terrible array of Satan power.
All wicked spirits in high places when we think of all the malice of Satan and they all with power that he has in opposing.
The believers down here.
Goes into the invisible world as it was and.
I remember her brother saying it's just as though after.
The five rider has ransacked creation. See if if, if there's anything that could separate us, he finally says. Nor any other creature is to give that as an answer to those who who come out with this doctrine, insisting that you can be saved and lost again.
That tomorrow.
No one could pluck you out of the out of the good Shepherd's hand.
Yet you could pluck yourself out and after all, lose your soul. Well, he says, Aren't you a creature? And after he has looked at everything else, he said, is there any other creature? Certainly your creature, So you can narrow, narrow, separate yourself.
From the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
Of course, as I'm sure all here know that if it's the subject of.
Thinking that one could lock himself out of the hands of the Good Shepherd. By then the Lord's birth would be false.
For he says, my sheep shall never perish. If you could **** yourself out of the shepherd's hand, then you'd perish, wouldn't you? His words would be false.
Never be separated.
From the Lord of God and when it wasn't the thing that is blessed.
They're speaking.
Today.
Repeatedly about the Spirit. In this connection, the 5th John has the love of God and shed abroad by the Holy Ghost given address, and this God that rejoices now can't be separated from it.
That's a blessing and in love and she had abroad. In our hearts it may go to the soul and it makes it really enjoy it.
This last expression of the chapter which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Now this is what we have set before us in the Gospel.
The whole pathway of our Savior.
And it's been said that if we want our hearts warm, to read the gospel.
But then to be added to that the definite instruction of Christianity, we read the Epistles.
And so in the gospel, then we have our hearts warm with the love of Christ.
We read them rightly.
Because every gospel ends, does it not does that sacrifice that he made?
Giving a demonstration of that love that he had. So this love of God is seen in Christ Jesus, and that's the way we learn it, if it not.
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Oh, may the Lord then help us to learn more of it by reading the gospel, because I believe we have neglected the gospel, perhaps.
When we when we could spend more time.
On those Gospels which were set before us, the love of God in Christ Jesus.
We think number 75, the Appendix #75.
The appendix.