Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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I'd like to turn tonight to the 8th chapter of Romans. Romans and the 8th chapter.
Beginning at the 15th verse.
Romans 8, verse 15.
Or ye have not received the spirit of ******* again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry ABBA. Father, the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
For I reckon that the suffering.
Because of this, present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the ******* of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
God, For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit. Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, whiteth he yet hope for. But if we hope for that we.
See not then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for, as we ought. But the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with drownings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession 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 foreknow, He 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, and whom He called them He also justified, and whom He justified them He also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God before 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?
Who shall lay?
Anything to the charge of God's elect. It is God that justifies us. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yeah, rather that is 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? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, as it is written for thy.
We are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither 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.
Most of us are well acquainted with the Epistle to the Romans. I believe it's the answer to the question that was asked in the book of Job. How should man be just with God? And so in the first part of Romans we see how that were brought in all in one common platform, Jew and Gentile, guilty before God, that every mouth might be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God.
So if we're going to be just before him, it can't be on the ground.
Of anything that we have done, because in God's holy court, if I can speak that way, he's condemned us all. He says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. He says there's none righteous, no, not one. So if there's going to be any blessing for us, it can't be through what we have done. It must be and it is through what Christ has done. If you're in a courtroom.
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And the convict is found guilty while you wait to.
Have the judge pronounce the sentence, don't you? But as soon as that that word is given out in the 3rd chapter and the judgment is pronounced, so to speak, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The next verse says, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So God instead of condemning, He becomes the one who justifies, and then He shows us.
How this is done on a righteous basis because God does not Passover sin. God punishes sin. And so isn't it a blessed thing for us to know that our sins were punished upon the head of our substitute? It says He was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. In the same chapter it says to him that worketh is a reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
If you were to try and pay a debt, all you're doing is acknowledging that the debt is a just one. And so when a person is trying to pay his own debt of sin, he's simply saying, well, I know I have a debt before God. And God says that we're all guilty before him, says by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. But then isn't it wonderful that God himself, I say, becomes the one who justifies?
Because Christ was delivered for our offenses.
So I can say the judgment of my sins took place at Calvary. The Lord Jesus bore the judgment that I deserve, and then he was raised again for our justification. That is Christ at the right hand of God is the proof that God has accepted the work that He has done. And the first epistle of John and the 4th chapter says as he is.
So are we in this world? It is not a marvelous.
Verse As he is, where is he now? At the right hand of God, with the judgment of sin behind him, forever settled. And as he is up there, so are we. When so are we in this world? There are people who say, Oh, you have to wait till the judgment day to find out. But not so as Christ is, so are we in this world, the righteousness of God in him.
And then God takes up the question too, of the nature that produced those sins. What about that fallen nature that produced them? Well, he says our old man was crucified with him. That as far as our standing before God is concerned, and this is wonderful news, we're not only forgiven, but God doesn't any longer see us in our sinful condition before him, but sees us in an entirely new position.
In Christ, the righteousness of God.
God in him, not in that fallen nature with which I was born, because not only were my sins born by the Lord Jesus, but he died unto sin. He put an end before God to my old position and brought me into a new position. Then he brings up the question of the law. What does the law have to say to a dead man? What do the laws of this city have to say to those who were lying out in the cemetery? Oh, you say nothing. They're dead men of God says.
We've become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that we should be married to another, even to him that is raised from the dead. Some people will say, well, when did God set aside the law? Well, the laws are still in effect here, but they have nothing to say to dead man. And so we've died to the law. I quote it again, the 7th of Romans. Ye are become dead to the law by the body of Christ.
And so how wonderful to see that God has taken care of the whole question of the law.
And now he begins to unfold to us in this chapter that He has blessed us so abundantly. And I just like to go over a little bit of what we have here. Because once God has set us at peace in his presence about the whole question of our sins, about the nature that produced those sins, and about the claims of the law, then he begins to unfold to us how richly we're blessed, just as if in that courtroom.
Room, the judge says, well, now you're guilty, but someone else has paid your fine for you. And more than this, I want to tell you that you're going to be brought into a position as though you had never done that crime. The law will have nothing to say to you. And now I want to tell you that you're going to be brought into our family. And I want to tell you how richly you're going to be blessed in our family. Oh, brother, isn't it wonderful what God has done?
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Oh, it just seems.
To overwhelm us when we stop to think of it. But he's unfolding this to us and as someone has said, this 8th chapter of Romans begins with no condemnation and ends with no separation. It's wonderful to start out and know that we're not condemned and it's also wonderful to know that we can never be separated from his love because there are some people who say, well I know I'm saved and God is not going to condemn me but if.
I don't live the way I should. I might lose it again, but this chapter shows us no condemnation, no separation. But then here where we began, it says in the 15th verse, For ye have not received the spirit of ******* again to fear. That is, we're not placed under the law at all, because God has given to us a new life that delights in pleasing Him.
7th of Romans says, I delight in the law of God.
God after the inward man, it's not ******* to be asked to do something that you want to do, is it? Oh, you said it's a pleasure. That's just what I wanted to do. I'm glad you want to give a gift to a friend, and a friend says, well, here's a few things that I'd like very much. Oh, you say, I'm so glad you told me I wanted to give you something you liked. You wanted to do it. Now they've told you what would please them. And God has given to you as a believer a life that wants to please him.
And he's given you his precious word to tell you how you can please him. Isn't that very blessed is that *******? The Lord Jesus said the good pleasure of thy word is thy will is my delight. And you and I possess the very life of Christ, a life that delights in obedience. He have not received the spirit of ******* again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we.
Cry ABBA, father, someone might say, well, I don't know much about the Bible and about those things. Well, do you think a child knows much about how much his father possesses when he starts to say he doesn't know that, but he's in that relationship whether he understands it or not. And he's he's, that's the first lisp of a child. And that's just what God is telling us here. He says you have been brought into the family. You mightn't even be able to say father.
Clearly, because you're not in the full intelligence of it. But those first Lisp things, how precious they are to us. Those of us in this room who are fathers, we remember when our children first began to talk in that way and know how it delighted us. And then afterwards we were able to tell them something of what they had and what we wanted to do for them.
As our children. And isn't this lovely here?
We cry ABBA, Father, the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit. Perhaps I could just put that simply by saying the Spirit of God who indwells our body brings us into the intelligence that we are the children of God and it says he bears witness with our spirit. That's the intelligent God conscious part of our being.
Every believer is entitled to know that he is a child of God.
That the Spirit of God within you, who sheds abroad God's love in your heart, wants you and I to be in the intelligent enjoyment of this relationship. And so it's not just a fact that we don't know, but it's something that we are entitled to know and enjoy. And how wonderful the Spirit bears witness with our spirit so that it's something that we can.
Enter into and enjoy by.
Faith and then he goes on to say, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joined heirs with Christ, isn't this precious too? Heirs of God, we sang in our opening hymn. It said, trembling. We had hoped for mercy, some low place within his door. But the crown, the throne, the mansion, all were ready long before and in past.
Distant ages in those courts so bright and fair.
Here we were. Was he rejoicing all he won with us to share? Oh, you and I could not be more richly blessed than we are in Christ. And so we are heirs of God. Sometimes, as I've sometimes said in a family, there might be jealousy between the heirs because one got more than the other. But how could there be when we're joined heirs with Christ?
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Joint heirs now that is, He's sharing with us that which is the result of his toil and victory, and his heart will not be satisfied until he has all his own supremely blessed. But he wants us to know it now. And so the Spirit of God has been sent to indwell us to shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, just like Abraham sent the servant down to get.
Bride for Isaac in the 24th of Genesis. And when he went down, he told that girl how much Abraham had given into the hand of Isaac, and that he was the one who would be her husband if she would receive him. And so he was unfolding to her something of the riches that Isaac had. And that's what the Spirit is doing. He's the servant sent down into this world to unfold to your heart and mind.
How richly we are blessed in Christ, and that's why it says that he bears witness with our spirit and that we're heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Oh, how wonderful to think that we're going to share these things with Christ. That's what it makes us really contented because, you know, if we thought that all we had to possess was what we could gather in this world, and we might.
Set out to get a great deal of possessions in this world. But when we know that we're joined heirs with Christ, that when he takes the Kingdom, which he's going to take another day, he's going to come with his bride. He'll come to be, it says he'll come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe he'll common as it were, say to the world. But these are the people who are going to share this all with me.
Oh, how wonderful a place then that we have been brought into. And so he says, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. Our present lot is suffering. We don't have the inheritance now, because it says we see not yet all things put under Him, but we see Jesus.
Who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned.
With glory and honor, that is. He hasn't taken his place of headship yet, and we will not have it until we have it with him. It's ours by possession. Of course it belongs to us, but we haven't actually possessed it and will not until he takes his rightful place. And you know he's not going to take it until he has his bride with him. That's what it means in Ephesians when it says.
His inheritance in his Saints.
That is, it doesn't mean that the church is Christ's inheritance, but he's not going to take the inheritance until he takes it in company with his Saints. He's going to have them. Just like if a man build a beautiful house and someone said, when are you going to live in it? Well, he says when I get married, my bride and I are going to have this home together. He doesn't go in and possess it. He's waiting for something and the Lord Jesus is going to take possession of what is rightfully his when he has.
On with him, and then we'll be glorified together. And doesn't this make suffering in the present so much easier when we think of it in this way, When we think, well, we may be deprived a little bit now, but oh, what a future awaits us, glorified together.
So Paul then begins to reckon, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be, which shall be revealed in US. Someone might have said, Paul, you gave up, you gave up so much. Why, you could have been a very prominent Pharisee, you could have been accepted by your nation and by your family, and you gave up all that.
Well, he said I I did a little bit of reckoning, he said.
That and I felt that what I gave up was nothing compared with what I receive, he said. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. This is another instance. I think we mentioned one on the end of this chapter on Lord's Day.
Our New Year's Day, I should say. But notice this is another instance which is rather rare in Scripture. This 18th verse, it begins in the singular and ends in the plural. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. If you're a child of God, you're going to be there. You're going to be in that glory, you're going to share it with Christ.
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But I ask myself, and you can ask yourself.
Am I reckoning on it? Am I living as if I really believed this? Am I counting upon it so much that as things perhaps are difficult down here, I say, oh, but when I think of what's ahead of me, a little bit of suffering here isn't anything compared to what awaits me. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared. And so he ends with us, because all the Saints will be there.
But Paul was reckoning on it like a father, he tells his two sons. He said, well, I'm going to give you a new bicycle.
And one boy tells all his friends and he's just reckoning on the day that he's going to get that bicycle. And the other one, he doesn't enjoy it beforehand at all. He doesn't talk about it. He doesn't seem to really feel his father means what he says. But the other one, he's in the enjoyment of it ahead of time. And you know, God wants us to be enjoyed.
In heaven, before we get there, He wants us to be reckoning on it. I used to wonder about that expression that when the children of Israel paid the redemption money, it said after the shekel of the sanctuary. He used to think, Why does it say that? Because I thought money was filthy lucre. Why is it called the shekel of the sanctuary? And you know why I have this thought, brethren and I it searches my heart. We only know the true.
Value of money as we measure it in the sanctuary, not as it compares on world markets. The dollar may be going up or down, but if you want to know the true value of a dollar, it's in the presence of God that we learn it. It's in the presence of God we can put an awful lot of money upon it, as the world says, the mighty dollar and they think of it as something that's so important, but for us.
Why? God gives us these things we thank him we seek.
To use what he gives us for him. But it's after the shekel of the sanctuary. So may the Lord give us to know how to reckon. Reckon according to his mind.
And then he goes on here to speak because he's talking about the results of the work of Christ. And this is rather interesting, what is brought in in these next three verses.
The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
We've been speaking about how we have been so richly blessed through the work of Christ, and now he starts to speak about the lower creation.
Did you ever stop to think that when the head of creation, who was Adam fell, the whole Lord creation had to suffer because of Adam's sin?
Every sick cow, every sick horse, every sick dog is suffering because the head of creation fell.
When Adam Sandy brought ruin to the whole creation. And that's what he means when he says that. What is the creature waiting for? He doesn't know himself. Of course. Animals don't know what they're waiting for. Is there a time of deliverance coming for the lower creation? Yes. It tells us that in the millennial Kingdom. It says the lion will lie down with the lamb. It says they shall not hurt nor destroy.
And all my holy mountain.
The child will put his hand on the cockatrice den and what a lovely time it will be when the whole creation will see the results of the second man and last Adam at the head of creation.
All this and this tells us that the whole creation, and that's why the 20th verse says the creature was made subject to vanity or to a vain life, not willingly, that is, not by an act of its own will.
A man sinned by an act of his own will. He was told not to partake of that tree, and he did. He sinned by an act of his own will. But the dogs didn't. The animals didn't, But they had to suffer. And God is going to bring them into blessing in the millennial day. And God interprets the groan of creation as waiting for the time when there will be that manifestation of the sons of God.
What a time of blessing is ahead for this world. Now, as people often say, we're just about sitting on a volcano. We don't know what's going to happen. But in that day when Christ has his rightful place, wars will cease into the ends of the earth. There won't be some Mohammedans and some Hindus and some Confucianists. Now it says the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
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It says they won't teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother.
Saying no, the Lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. There's a wonderful time coming for this world, and God is going to display the results of the work of Christ. Adam as the head of the first creation, brought in ruin to mankind, to the whole Lord creation. But Christ is going to bring blessing as He brought blessing to you. Is there anybody here that's not saved? And you don't know Him? You're still.
Under the headship of fallen Adam, still in a world that's doomed to judgment because of their sin and rejection of Christ. Or will you tonight take your place under the second man and last Adam? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Accept him as your Savior, and there's blessing for you, untold blessing. I can't tell you how richly you'll be blessed if you'll only receive him.
And so.
He's talking, as I say, about the results of the work of Christ, and he brings in this blessing that will flow out to the creation. And then he tells us why he has spoken in this way in the 23rd verse. And well, I'll read the 22nd, for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but.
Themselves also, which have the first fruits of the spirit. Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit the redemption of our body. I think you can see why he brings this in, because there are some who think, well now we're saved, should we not escape the groan of creation now? He said we have to wait.
For the time when Christ has his rightful place.
We have to wait until he gives the shout and calls us home. Because when you took the Lord as your Savior, you received the salvation of your soul. When the Lord Jesus comes again, he'll receive the salvation of your body. That's why it says later in this epistle. Now, is our salvation nearer than when we believed?
When you accepted the Lord, as I say, your sins were forgiven.
You were made a new creature in Christ Jesus. You're blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ, but you still have a body that links you with this groaning creation. And you don't misunderstanding this has made a lot of people think, well, now we're saved. We should have our bodies healed and we should be all well again. But this is what this verse says, is it? It says not only the the whole creation groans, unbelievers, animals, everything.
Is part of the groaning creation, He says. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit. Is there anybody here that never grown and felt pain? Why, every one of us, headaches, toothaches, all kinds of aches and pains we're suffering as being part of this groaning creation. But if we belong to the Lord, there is a day.
Of full deliverance coming. God wants us to enjoy our portion now.
But He would show us why we have to bear the aches and pains and groans of a groaning creation. We are part of it. And He tells us when we're going to see the deliverance from it. And that's when the Lord Jesus returns. And it says in Philippians 3 Who shall change our vile bodies, that they may be fashioned like unto His?
Glorious body where according to the working whereby he is.
Able even to subdue all things unto himself.
And so that's what we're waiting for, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why does he yet hope for? Here we find that hope is brought in as a fact that we are hoping for this time when we're going to have the redemption of our bodies. Now, I might say that when we use the word hope, we often think of uncertainty.
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But when it's associated with what we have in Christ, it doesn't have the thought of uncertainty connected with it at all, Romans chapter 5 says.
And hope make us not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. Hebrews chapter 4 says, 6 Rather says, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil, so that there's no element of uncertainty connected with what we have in Christ. The only thought is that.
Its future. If you hope for something and it doesn't come, that's a hope that makes a shame, doesn't it? Oh, you say, I hope it wouldn't have turned out that way. But we have a hope that won't make a shame because God has said it and therefore it's sure. And so there's no element of uncertainty, but it's future. And so it tells us we, with patience, wait for it.
And now he goes on to tell us in the 26th verse. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. As I said, there are people who think that they should expect the healing of their body. Now they're saved. Now Scripture does show us that God answers prayer and he often does come in when we're sick and raise us up. But.
We're not to expect to be delivered altogether.
From the groans of creation, as long as we're here.
We wait for that, but we do have help in our infirmities. And you know Paul, he had an infirmity and he asked the Lord three times to take it away. But the Lord said, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness to me. It's as though the Lord said, no, Paul, I'm not going to take it away. You're going to have it the rest of your life.
Buddy said.
I'll give you the grace to bear it, and I'll make it a blessing in your life. And he proved that, he said in that passage, he said most gladly, rather I glory in mine infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. He said this, this infirmity has made me dependent on the Lord, and instead of being a strong.
Personality because I have such perfect health, he said. This has made me constantly depend.
The Lord And so I have to draw upon the resources that I have in him. And he said, I can see that that was a blessing that's good for me. And so it tells us the Spirit helps our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought. Perhaps Paul was thinking of himself here when he said that, because as I said, he had asked the Lord three times to take away the infirmity. And now he says.
We don't know what we should pray for.
As we ought. But he said, the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. I'm glad those words are there. We know not what we should pray for, as we ought. Because very often we might say, Well, why is it that we don't seem to know what and how we should pray? Well, as long as we're here in the flesh, we have the old nature within us. We're not all.
Always in full enjoyment of Christ. And so we don't always know what is best for us. Children sometimes don't know what's best for them, and their parents try to order what is best for them. And God our Father knows what's best for us. And some of the sweetest hymns that we sing were written by those who were under terrible pressure and infirmity.
Blind and all kinds of hardships. And they wrote the most beautiful hymns, which we all enjoy saying.
And because out of the broken vessel came forth the light that God has put shining for him. And so we don't always know what is best, but God our Father does. God our Father does. And so he tells us here that in these things we have sympathy. Now we like to have sympathy, don't we, As I have said before.
Every human heart craves 2 Things.
Sympathy and love, and we do have sympathy and we do have love in perfection. There's one who enters into all that we pass through.
And sort of helpful when you're going through some deep trial and someone you feel really understands and enters into it takes hold of your hand. Perhaps a tear runs down their cheek. You feel they're sharing it. Isn't it marvelous, brethren, to think that the Spirit of God who indwells our body?
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It says he makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus. Tears ran down his blessed, holy cheeks as he entered into the sorrow that that family was passing through and the results of sin here in this world. Oh, how wonderful. That's the Savior that we have and the Spirit helps us. We're not without understanding. We're not without sympathy.
We often sing the Great Physician.
Now is near the sympathizing Jesus, the one who enters into everything that we can possibly pass through.
But it says, he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God.
Now you know when we pray we might not always be close enough to the Lord to discern His will. Paul said in two one Corinthians, Pardon me, yeah, First Corinthians chapter 4. He said, I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby justified? But he, the judgeth me is the Lord. Sometimes you hear people say.
But the Lord told me to do this, and the Lord told me to do that.
Well, if you've got a scripture for it, he did tell you. But if you don't have a scripture, it's better to say, well, I hope I have the Lord's mind. I prayed about it because, you know, I remember remarked that Mister Darby made, he said.
Statements about special spiritual guidance are never humble, and I believe it's important for us that we realize that when we say the Lord told us to do this, what we're really telling people is I'm so near the Lord that I couldn't possibly miss his mind. Now that was true with the Lord Jesus. It was true. He always was in perfect communion with his Father. He always had his mind. If you have a scripture for it, then you can say.
I know that's what the Lord wants me to do. My father used to say I never need to ask the Lord whether he wants me to remember him in his death, because his word says this do in remembrance of me. But he said it was a question of going down to visit the Saints in Montreal. He said I have to ask the Lord, and I don't tell the brethren when I go there that the Lord sent me. I hope he did, but I don't tell them that because that would be boasting and so.
It's good for us to remember this. We know not what we should pray for as we ought. The Spirit makes intercession for us and the one who searches our hearts. And it's a good thing when our hearts are searched, because there are sometimes motives and things in our hearts we're not fully aware of. But the Lord sees them, and He makes intercession for the Saints according to the will of God. Oh, how blessed then, that we have such help in our pathway.
But if there's something that we don't know in that 26th verse, we know not what we should pray for as we ought. There is something that we do know in the 28th verse, another translation reads. But we do 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 foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed.
To the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren.
Now we may not, as I say, always know what we should pray for as we ought, but this need never and should never shake our confidence that God makes all things work together for good. Now that is, that He knows what is best for us, that He passes us through those things in our lives according to His own perfect wisdom, because He has searched our hearts and He.
Knows what is good for us, as I've sometimes told a little story I might have repeated at one time before, but I always think it's so applicable. There was this little boy and he was flying a kite and it was a beautiful windy day and the kite was flying so nicely and kept on going higher and higher until last it came to the end of the string that he was holding it by.
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And someone passed by and said, oh.
Sunny. It's such a nice when he did windy day and your kite wants to go up. Why are you holding it down?
Why don't you let go of your string and let it go up higher? Well, he let go of the string and you know what happened? The kite came down, didn't it? Of course you say, of course it would come down. Well, what is the what is the lesson in this? Well, sometimes the things that we think are keeping us down are really keeping us up. That boy's strong hold on that cord, that tug was really what was keeping the kite flying so nicely and our other things in your life.
Mind you say, oh, I just get rid of these things that keep me down. Maybe they're keeping us up. Maybe they're just what God sees is necessary to keep us up, keep us dependent because that is what keeps us up, dependent upon the Lord.
And so we can have and we should have this confidence that God knows what he is doing in our life. And it says to them that love God because, you know, if we're really saved, we were mentioning in Burbank the other day that beautiful verse in first John 4. It says herein is our love. The margin says herein is love with us.
Made perfect, I think that's very beautiful, love with us. Made perfect. You might love somebody and a person doesn't respond and you feel very badly. Don't you? You love them, but you can't do anything. It seems to get a response from their heart, a response of love. But when their heart responds, then there's love with us. There's a heart that responds to the love that has been displayed. And Saul says we have known.
And believed the love that God has to us. And then he says here in his love with us made perfect, here's God looking down and loving the Sinner. And the Sinner doesn't respond. But then the day comes when his heart is touched by that love. He sees himself a Sinner and receives Christ. And now the heart responds. There's love with us. His heart of love told out to us. And he's at last won a response from our hearts. And it says we love.
Of Him because he first loved us so it says here to them that love God that's the saved ones to them who are the called according to his purpose. Perhaps someone says well why did you read the next verse? Well I always feel that these two verses should be read together because it seems to me that the 29th verse helps us to.
Enter into the truth of the 28th verse a little bit better.
Better you notice it begins with the word for for whom he did foreknow. So you can see that it's definitely connected with the verse before, and perhaps a very simple little illustration will help to bring out the thought that I have in mind.
Did you ever start to read a storybook?
And you came to a very, very sad chapter in the story book. Tears ran down your face, it was so sad.
And you just couldn't for bear. And so you looked over to see how the book ended. Perhaps you've done that. And then you went back and you read that sad chapter with confidence and you kept saying to yourself, it's going to be all right. It's going to be all right. I peaked. I know how the story ends. And so that's isn't that gracious of God. He knew just the way we would be that we would just say, how can this ever work for good? He says, I'll tell you the end of the story. He says, I'll tell you how it ends.
And so the next verse says, for whom he did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren. Oh, is this lovely? God is working out a purpose in your life. And mine person who wrote that book was working out a purpose. And you find out what the purpose is when you come to the end. And you know you and I are going to find out God's purpose another day, brethren.
We're going to be in his glorious presence and He's going to bring out to our wandering souls the purpose that He had in all He passed us through down here. And oh, how wonderful that will be. And so I'm sure you can see next time you read that 28th verse and you say to yourself, can't see anything good coming out of this, just read the next verse.
And it will help you to see what God's purpose is.
That He is seeking to produce in us that likeness to Christ and how often this is so as a result of trials were drawn nearer and we appreciate Him, we know His love more. Well then the 30th verse seems to take up the subject still a bit further because I might say, oh, but my life story hasn't yet been written.
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Well, isn't this a lovely thing God is really saying?
To us here, well, I knew all about you before you were born, and in my purposes your life is already completed. Notice this 30th verse. It's so wonderful. Moreover, whom he did predestinate. That was a way back in the past eternity says we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Then he also called, and perhaps you say, yes, he called me by his grace.
He saved me.
He brought me to himself. This is in time. And when he called you, what did he do? He justified you. He not only forgave you, He justified you. He put you in a position before him where there's no charge can be laid against you, because we are made the righteousness of God in Christ. And then he goes right to the next statement. Then he also will glorify. No. Why is it in the.
Past tense. Well, because God can speak of things that are not as though they were in God's purposes. Every believer in this room who truly knows the Lord is his Savior is already glorified. There's no question of the work being completed that God has begun. And so he's telling us here that way back in the past eternity, he chose us. He called us in time and he justified us and then.
He has already and His purposes glorified us. I say again, brethren, He knew all about us beforehand. He knows what He's doing in our lives. He has a purpose in view and He is going to accomplish that purpose, and so He can speak of it as something already accomplished. Another verse in Romans 4 says He speaks of things that are not as though they were. God can talk about the future as if it were the present because He knows the.
So well, when some people say, oh, well, I don't believe in predestination, well, I say, you might as well get rid of all your books on prophecy then, because if God doesn't know the future, then there's no use having books on prophecy if he doesn't know the future. But he does know the future. And that's why prophecy means something to us, because he knows the end from the beginning.
And so it goes on to say here, what shall we then say to these things? If God before us, who can be against us? All those precious words, God for us. The devil is always trying to tell us that God is against us. He began that way back in the Garden of Eden, tried to make out to Adam and Eve that God was holding back something that was really for their good. And he's been doing the same with man.
Sense trying to make people think that God is not as good as the Bible says he is, and he's trying to hold something back. And if they get saved, they're going to have to give up so much that it's questionable whether it's worthwhile. The devil is always the father of lies, the scripture says. But here it says if God before 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? It's not only a love that God has told me about. He's proved His love. He's proved it. Sometimes we tell people we love them, but our actions don't always seem to show it. But God has proved it. He's proved it because he gave his Son. He gave the dearest object of his heart. His love could not give more and would not give less. And so He has proven it.
So he said, what can we say? He's he's proved it because he didn't spare his son from that suffering to redeem us, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things, give us all that's good for us. As we said at the beginning, Scripture says here where heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
And then he goes on to say, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemneth?
You know, in a court, if a man is cleared, it might possibly be that it's carried to a higher court and then in a higher court the judgment might be reversed. And so sometimes people are a little afraid if it's taken to a higher court, what the outcome will be. But he says we've been cleared in the highest court. There's no higher court. He says if God has justified us, who can condemn us? Once a man is cleared in the highest court, then he.
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Returned to his accuser and say, well, you can't go any higher. So I'm clear now. And so isn't it wonderful you and I have been cleared in the very highest court. The judge himself is the one who told us there's no judgment. Did you ever notice that in John 5 it says the father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, And then in the next verse after it says.
Verily, verily, I say unto you.
This is the Judge speaking, that's the Lord Jesus. The Father's given all judgment into his hand, and he says, 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 condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. I say, I know, I am clear. The Judge himself has told me, the Father has put all judgment in his hand, and he's cleared me. Who is he that condemneth? Then he says, there's more.
Other than that, the one who died for us lives for us because we need a lot of help along the way.
Life is not easy and we need help to go along in our Christian life, but the savior that.
Died for me lives for me, as though the judge were to say how everything has been settled and if there's any problem arises, just come to me and I'll give you all the help you need. But we have such a high priest, Jesus, the Son of God, the one who died for me. I say lives for me. He makes intercession for me. When a believer has failed, he can come back and be restored.
And So what abundant provision has been made?
As I say, if you connect this with the subject of Romans, it's really most beautiful because he is pouring out to our hearts how richly we have been blessed as the result of the work of Christ.
And so he goes on in this 35th verse, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall 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. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors.
Through him that loved us do the trials of life.
Separate us from His love? No, He said they not only don't separate us from His love, but He says we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. What does it mean to be more than a conqueror? Sometimes, perhaps when we've been in trial, we have said after the trial was over. Well, I'm so thankful the Lord gave me the grace for that.
Problem that difficulty, that sickness, but.
There's something more here. It's not only conquerors, but more than conquerors.
To be gainers by everything that we pass through. Paul will be a gainer for being in prison at Philippi. There'll be a happier entrance into that everlasting Kingdom. What the Scripture speaks of and is an abundant entrance. That is, as his life passes into review, he'll have the Lord's approval that he was faithful and that he was in prison for Christ.
And so his precious for us, brethren.
God not only gives us grace for the trial, but he makes us gainers by the trials. I've sometimes said, I wonder if I said to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego someday, Well, don't you wish the king had never passed that decree that you would have to bow down to that image? Look what you would have escaped. You wouldn't have been thrown into the fire. Oh, they say, they would say. I'm sure. Oh, he wouldn't have missed that experience for anything.
Where they conquered, yes.
They came out without the smell of fire on their clothes. But they're more than conquerors. For all eternity they'll rejoice at the remembrance of that wonderful event, the Lord walking with them in the fire. And brethren, we're not going to forget what we learned of Christ in the trials. We can be gainers by what He passes us through. May help us to take things in that way.
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And then he closes with these lovely verses.
For I am persuaded that neither 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. I have often said, when you get something good, the first thing I suppose that comes into your mind is, oh, I want to put that in some place where I can't lose it. I wouldn't.
Lose that for anything. How often we get something and we, we say we must put this in a secure place. Wouldn't lose it for the world. Well, after telling us how richly we're blessed, isn't this lovely? He says. And you can't lose it. You can't lose it. There's nothing that can happen. I might say, well, I've had it for five years, but I don't know, somebody might get it away from me someday.
No, no, praise his name, He says things present or things to come.
Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So not only are we this richly blessed like we've been talking about, brethren, but we can't lose what we have in Christ. There isn't a thing that can happen that will separate us from His love. We could lose the enjoyment of it in our souls, but His love is an unchanging love.
When I read this, it always makes me think of a little incident that happened.
We were preaching on the street corner in Ottawa a good many years ago, just at the end of World War 2.
And there was a young fellow came up to us who was working in the.
With the Padre and the army and he was a true believer and he had to listen for a little while. And after we were finished he said I have a very interesting story to tell you. He said when we were over at the front lines, he said there was a young man brought in very severely wounded. And he said we were supposed to ask the young man what faith he was so that we could get.
A minister or a priest or whatever for him, because if we didn't think he was going to get better.
Why? We felt that we were supposed to do that. And he said this young man came in and he said we knew he wasn't going to get better. And he said.
The the Padre came by and he said to this young man, what faith are you of? And he said, I'm of Paul's persuasion. He said Paul's persuasion. He said he called me over and he said, I've heard of a lot of different religions, but that's a new one on me. He said, do you know what that young man's talking about?
Paul's persuasion, and the young fellow was so weak he could hardly talk, but he saw the predicament they were in, and in a whispering voice he repeated these lovely verses. I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, Oh, how blessed they are. Brethren, I hope each one of us can say I'm a pulse persuasion that we've laid hold of these precious things, we're rejoicing in them, and then we can say.
That it's ours, it's ours in Christ, and nothing can separate us from His love. Well, may we enjoy these precious things and then remember what Paul said. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us if there's something comes up in life where it means we have to suffer for Christ. Oh, isn't it worthwhile when we think of what a Savior we have, what He's done for us?
May He grant that our hearts will be constrained by His love.