Sermon Tone Analysis

I Am Not Ashamed: More Than a Conqueror

Text: Romans 8:31-39

Theme: If God is for us, who can be against us.

The Scriptures promise triumph to all believers in spite of suffering and difficult circumstances.

Date: 10/02/2016 File name: Romans_2016_26.wpd

ID Number: 221

This morning we will conclude prolonged stop in Romans chapter 8.

I think you’ll agree with me that it is an amazingly rich chapter in the things it teaches us about the Christian life and eternity.

As a passage, the verses before us are probably the most well-known of this chapter and the most loved, having brought comfort to the lives of countless Christians throughout the millennia.

“What, then, shall we say in response to this?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?

It is God who justifies.

34 Who is he that condemns?

Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

(Romans 8:31–39, NIV84)

John MacArthur, one of my favorite Baptist preachers, calls this passage “The Christian’s Hymn of Security.”

You would think after vs. 28-30 that there is little left to be said about the believer’s eternal security.

But in the closing verses of this passage the apostle reaches a spiritual crescendo of praise and thanksgiving to the God who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all.

The Apostle Paul wants his reader to know that nothing can separate the believer from the love of God.

I. WE CAN BE SECURE IN OUR FAITH BECAUSE IF GOD IS FOR US WHO CAN BE AGAINST US? (vs.

31)

“What then shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31, ESV)

1. the Apostle Paul loved rhetorical questions — we find them throughout his letters

a. a rhetorical question is a oratorical device used to persuade or subtly influence the audience to arrive at the “correct” answer

1) it's a question asked not for the answer, because the answer is obvious — it’s a question asked for the dramatic effect

2. the Apostle begins this section with the rhetorical question

a. What, then, shall we say in response to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

A. GOD’S GRACE AND GOODNESS LEAVE THE BELIEVER NEARLY SPEECHLESS

1. what then shall we say to these things?

a. what are the these things the Apostle refers to? — it’s everything he’s mentioned since the beginning of chapter 8

• how do we respond — what do we say about a God who no longer condemns us, but has set us free from the law of sin and death?

(vs.

2)

• how do we respond — what do we say about a God who sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering (vs. 3)

• how do we respond — what do we say about a God who has given us the mind of Christ, and a new nature that seeks to please Him? (vs.

5-8)

• how do we respond — what do we say about a God who gives us His Spirit and makes us righteous in His sight (vs.

9)

• how do we respond — what do we say about a God who has adopted us, and given us a Spirit of sonship, that lets us cry ‘Abba, Father’?

(vs.

14-15)

• how do we respond — what do we say about a God who gives us His Spirit to pray for us when we don’t know how we ought to pray? (vs.

26-27)

• how do we respond — what do we say about a God who has foreknown us and predestined us since before the foundation of the world?

(vs.

29)

• how do we respond — what do we say about a God who has called us, and justified us, and glorified us? (vs.

30)

2. what do we say about — how do we respond to these things?

a. we confess with glorious assurance If God has done all these things for me who can be against me?

B. GOD HAS CLEARLY PROVED THAT HE IS FOR US

1.

He has proved it by all He has accomplished for us, and in us by His grace and for His glory

2. when Paul says, “If God is for us,” he is not calling into doubt God’s protecting care, love, and promises

a. on the contrary, this “if” means, “because … and refers to the certainty of God’s providential watch care over His children

“What then shall we say to these things?

BECAUSE God is for us, who can be against us?"

b. to that question the Apostle responds, and we must respond with an emphatic, “We have nothing to fear.

The victory is certainly ours.

We are more than conqurers.”

3. these verses forcefully speak of our heavenly assurance!

a. Christianity is a "know so" religion

1) we don't have to guess if we're saved

2) we don't have to hope that we're saved

3) we don't have to work hard to try to be saved

b. we're saved because God is constantly working on our behalf to keep us saved

4. many forces align themselves against God and against God’s purposes, and many forces align themselves against those who believe in God, and in his Christ, and against those who try to obey and follow him

a. but none of those forces will win, none of those forces can prevail, none of those forces is to be regarded as ultimate, and none of those forces is to be taken too seriously

5. We Can Be Secure in Our Faith Because If God Is for Us Who Can Be Against Us? ... But There’s More ...

II.

WE CAN BE SECURE IN OUR FAITH BECAUSE OF THE HEAVENLY INVESTMENT THAT GOD HAS MADE ON OUR BEHALF vs. 32

“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”

(Romans 8:32, NASB95)

1. think of what the Apostle has just told us — God the Father delivered over His only- begotten, and fathomlessly beloved Son for us all — that is for those who call upon his name

A. GOD SPARED NOT HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON

1. Paul points us backward to the cross of Calvary and reminds us that God spared no expense so that we might have eternal life, and a real assurance that our eternity is secure

2. God the Father, the final Judge of all things, has a Son, an only Son, very precious to him

a. that Son never committed any sin

1) in all he did he was ever pleasing his Father (John 8:29)

b. on the other hand — “We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way” (Isa.

53:6) “We’ve all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory”

c. yet, on this precious and beloved Son God now pronounces the sentence we deserved

1) God did not spare his Son, did not mitigate the severity of the sentence in any way whatever, the Son himself agreeing with the Father and the Spirit in all this

d. the Son then fully bore that horrendous curse

1) he drank the cup of unspeakable agony to the very last drop

2) he was handed over, or surrendered into the hands of sinful men who then crucified the very one who became the ultimate sacrifice for sinful men

3. so deeply, so intensely, so completely did God love the world that his Son, the only-begotten, willingly gave up his preincarnate glory, and then his life, in order that everyone who believes on him should not perish but have life everlasting

B. GOD SPARED NOT HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON SO TO GRACIOUSLY GIVE US ALL THINGS

“ ... how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?"

1. these “all things” are what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard

a. in the end, there is no good thing that the Father will with hold from His children

b. everything He gave to the only begotten Son, He gives to us

2. it is hard to imagine that the apostle does not have in the back of his mind the story of Abraham as the model for Paul’s argument (Gen.

22:1–19)

a. because Abraham did not withhold his son, his only son, Isaac, God blessed him with everything else that he could be blessed with

3. because God has given us His most treasured possession — his only Son — to secure the salvation of sinners, will he not also give all else that is necessary to bring that salvation to completion?

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,” (Ephesians 1:3, NASB95)

4. We Can Be Secure in Our Faith Because of the Heavenly Investment That God Has Made on Our Behalf ... But There’s More ...

III.

WE CAN BE SECURE IN OUR FAITH BECAUSE OF GOD'S ACQUITTAL AND CHRIST'S CONTINUING INTERCESSION vv.

33-34

“Who will bring a charge against God’s elect?