The Best Chapter in the Bible (10): If God Is For Us (2)


Sermon by Derek Thomas on August 16, 2009 Romans 8:31-37

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The Lord’s
Day Morning

August 16,
2009


“If God is For Us” (2)

Romans 8:33-34

Dr. Derek
W. H. Thomas

Now turn
with me to the eighth chapter of Romans once again as we continue our study of
what we’ve called The Best Chapter in the Bible. We’re at the peroration
of it, the closing section of it. There will be one more sermon as we finish
off Romans 8, but this morning our attention is to be drawn to verses 33 and 34
— Romans 8, 33 and 34.

As we said
last time, Paul asks four questions at the end of Romans 8. All of these
questions are designed to cultivate assurance in the heart and soul of the
believer. The first question is in verse 31: “If God is for us, who can
be against us?” Paul was probably thinking of Psalm 56 — “This I know: God is
for me; and if God is for me, who can be against me?” And the second
question
as we pondered it last week in verse 32: “He who did not spare His
own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, with Him, graciously
give us all things?” Our Father did not spare His own Son, and if He gave us
what was most dear and what was most precious to Him, what is there then that He
will not give us? And this morning we come to a third question as we
find it in verses 33 and 34. Before we read the passage, let’s look to God in
prayer.

Father
we thank You for the Scriptures. We thank You that they’re always able to make
us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. We ask
now for Your blessing. We need Your help and we need Your benediction even as
we read the Scripture. We pray O Lord for insight. We pray especially that
this Word might be applied to the hearts and lives of all Your children and we
ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

This is
God’s holy and inerrant Word:

“Who shall
bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to
condemn? Christ Jesus is the One who died – more than that, who was raised –
who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”

Amen. May
God bless to us the reading of His Word.

There is a
dramatic moment in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Christian has lost his
burden. He has come to Mount Calvary. His burden has rolled off his back, down
the hill, into the tomb, and disappeared. And he goes on as you’ll recall,
through Hill Difficulty, through Palace Beautiful, and he comes to a place
called The Valley of Humiliation where he meets with Apollyon — Satan. And
Satan has a charge, an accusation. Christian has lost his burden, he is a
Christian, he is forgiven, he is a child of God, he has been justified by faith
alone in Jesus Christ alone. And Satan comes and he has a charge.

Satan is
always here. You know, he visits First Presbyterian Church every Sunday,
especially up in the balcony. (laughter) And he makes this charge: You have
been unfaithful in your service to Him — that’s the charge. And it stings.
Some of you are here this morning and you hear that charge. He’s been telling
you this perhaps all week and especially now. You bounced along as the choir
sang that beautiful song of Mack Wilberg, but now that voice has returned and
it’s saying to you: “How can you, a sinner, possibly be acceptable to God? How
can you, a sinner – and you have sinned in this way and that way — how can you
possibly be acceptable to God?”

In
Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress there is a fight between Apollyon and
Christian. It’s a very dramatic story. If you haven’t read Pilgrim’s
Progress
this year yet, this afternoon would be a good time to do it. Go to
that little section just after he’s lost his burden — the battle with Apollyon
is a very dramatic moment. And the moment when Apollyon receives one of
Christian’s stings, Christian exclaims, quoting from Romans 8: “We are more
than conquerors through Him who loved us.”

I want to
read to you a quotation and it comes from Charles Haddon Spurgeon:

“Christ
did not love you for your good works. They were not the cause of His beginning
to love you. So, He does not love you for your good works even now. They are
not the cause of His continuing to love you. He loves you because He loves
you.”

He loves
you because He loves you. Spurgeon has a point, doesn’t he? Oh, we’re all
convinced, at least we should be — we’re all good Presbyterians here this
morning and we know our Catechism, and if you’ve been listening at all to
the preaching from this pulpit, we all know that we’re not saved by our good
works — we don’t get into the kingdom by our good works. It’s Jesus. It’s His
work. It’s His finished work. But here’s the rub — we tend to think that we
continue in the Christian faith…Jesus and my good works.
This is the accusation that is made.

Who is the
one who accuses? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It’s the
language of the law court. It’s the language of arraignment. You’re being
brought before the judge and you are being charged with a crime, a felony. You
have sinned this week. You have sinned badly this week. And it gnaws at you
like a worm within your mind. John Owen says:

“There
are two great pastoral problems. One is to convince the unconverted that they
are sinners. The other is to convince Christians that they are in union and
communion with Jesus Christ and that their sin is forgiven.”

Let’s look
at this accusation. Who is the one who accuses? Well, it can come from all
sorts of quarters. It can come, first of all, from our conscience. Conscience
will accuse. Conscience will say to a Christian, “You’re not good enough.” You
see, it’s like, it’s like this — we get into the kingdom by the work of Jesus
Christ. It’s like, imagine with me a step ladder, and God puts us on the first
rung of that ladder. It’s not through anything we do — it’s not through our
efforts, it’s not through our works — God does that. This is all entirely God’s
sovereign doing. But the rest of the ladder, it’s up to us. And some weeks we
come, and we are two or three rungs up that ladder, and some weeks we come, and
we are two or three rungs down that ladder. It’s like snakes and ladders
religion. Our conscience will sometimes accuse us. It will say to us — “Who do
you think you are? How can you call yourself a Christian? How can you call
yourself a child of God?”

There was
a Scotsman. His name was David Dickson. He once said – he made a pile of his
sins, a bundle of his sins, and he ran away from it and he ran to Jesus Christ,
and he made a bundle of his good works and he said, “I ran away from them and
ran toward Jesus Christ.” Conscience will sometimes condemn us.

Sometimes
it’s not so much conscience — it’s God who condemns us. At least it’s our
imagination of what God does that condemns us. It’s like the parable of the
prodigal son. You know, the boy who came running up to his father and said,
“Father, I’ve sinned against heaven and against you. I’m no more worthy to be
called your son.” And the father received him, killed the fattened calf, and do
you remember the older son? What did the older son say? “All these years I
have been slaving for you.”

I wonder
this morning, is that how we view God? We’re slaving for Him. We’re
trying to earn His affection. We’re trying to do one or two things to merit His
smile and His approval
.

It’s not
just conscience that condemns, it’s our view of God that condemns. Of course
behind all of this lies the accuser. Zechariah 3 and verse 1 says — his name is
“Satan,” Satan — it means “accuser.” He is called in Revelation 12 “the accuser
of the brethren.” That’s his name. He’s here. He prowls about. He looks for
a little space where he can sit down and whisper in your ear and he accuses. He
makes you think that God is reluctant in His love for you — that He doesn’t love
you as much as you’d like to think He loves you — that God is given to fits of
moodiness. He’s the accuser.

There was
a famous editorial. It was on the front page of a French newspaper 110 years
ago or so. There was an accusation made against the French president. It was a
turning point in French political history. The banner headline on the front
page of Le Monde was J’accuse — “I accuse.”1
It’s a very famous editorial. Satan is accusing. He’s
accusing you, brother, sister. He’s saying you’re not worthy to be a child of
God. You haven’t lived up to your own good intentions, let alone the good
intentions of others.

I want
you to look at the answer and it takes your breath away. It is God who
justifies. It is God who justified. Paul runs from that accusation and he runs
to the gospel. He runs to the source and foundation of our salvation — that we
are justified by the work of God alone, that it is God who puts us in a right
relationship with Himself. This is like Atlas — it holds the universe on its
shoulders. It’s like as Calvin says, “the hinge on which the whole door of
salvation swings.” God justifies. It’s His judicial verdict and I want us to
look at the fourfold aspect by which Paul now explores what this means. What
does justification involve?

First of
all, Christ died. He died. He died for us. He died as our substitute.
He died in our room and stead. He took upon Himself all of the guilt of our
sin. God judged Him. What did we think about last week? He did not
spare Him. He freely delivered Him up for us all. He was made sin — reckoned
sin for us who knew no sin that we might be reckoned the righteousness of God in
Him. He died. He died on the cross of Calvary. The just, spotless Lamb of God
was made sin for us. We sang just now “In Christ Alone.” There is a line in
that hymn that says, “The wrath of God was satisfied.” The wrath of God was
satisfied.

You know,
I’m told there is a famous theologian in the world today who wrote to the author
of that hymn asking the author to remove that line. He didn’t like the
expression, “the wrath of God was satisfied.” He asked that that line be
removed — they did not remove it. I looked around as we sang it this morning.
I saw how meaningful that line was to some of you. The wrath of God, what sin
deserves, has been satisfied. It has been fully met. The unmitigated wrath of
God was poured out upon His Son.

Augustus
Toplady, one of the great hymn writers wrote a hymn – we don’t sing the hymn
anymore — but it contains this extraordinary set of lines. I want you to listen
to it, especially those of you who are lawyers. “Payment God cannot twice
demand – once at my bleeding surety’s hand and then again at mine.” Do you see
what he’s saying? My sin, not just my past sin, my present sin, my future sin —
Jesus died for that sin. He paid the penalty for that sin. He bore the wrath
of God for that sin. That sin cannot be punished again; not now, not tomorrow,
not next week, not on the Day of Judgment. That would be double jeopardy.
“Payment God cannot twice demand — once at my bleeding surety’s hand and then
again at mine.” Christ died. Christ died, and He rose again. He rose from the
grave. It was the vindication of His righteousness. It was God’s approval of
His own Son. It was the Father saying, “Well done, Thou good and faithful
servant.” And He sits — He sits at the right hand of God. It’s a regal term.
It’s the idea of a king sitting on his throne. He sits — you stand in the
presence of majesty — and Jesus sits. He sits because His work is finished.
Because on the cross He uttered those words “It is finished.” The work is
done. It is complete. There is nothing more that can be demanded for sin. It
has been atoned for. And there He sits. And He intercedes.

In verse
27 of Romans 8 we read of the intercession of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.
But we have two intercessors — one in our hearts and one at the right hand of
God. Jesus intercedes on our behalf before His Father. Not, you understand,
before a reluctant Father. The Father did not spare His own Son. There is no
reluctance on the part of the Father, but He intercedes. What does He say? Can
you open your ears and listen for a minute? What does He say to His Father in
heaven? He says, “This one whom Satan is accusing is mine. He’s mine. She’s
mine. I died for him. I died for her. I shed My blood for this one.
Atonement has been made for this one.” Payment God cannot twice demand. He
says, “I desire that they also whom You also have given Me be with Me where I
am, that they might behold My glory.” That’s His prayer in John 17. You want
an insight about what Jesus intercedes before the Father about? “I want those
whom You have given Me to be with Me where I am to behold My glory. I want this
one who’s struggling. I want this one whom Satan is accusing. I want this one
to be right here in My presence beholding this glorious vision that I am
beholding.”

That’s how
Paul began this eighth chapter of Romans — “There is now therefore no
condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” If you’re in Christ, there is
no condemnation — not now, not tomorrow, not ever.

Donald
Grey Barnhouse preached a sermon on this text and I want to quote a little bit
of it to you.

“You do
not have a problem too great for the power of Christ. You do not have a problem
too complicated for the wisdom of Christ. You do not have a problem too small
for the love of Christ. You do not have a sin too deep for the atoning blood of
Christ. One of the most wonderful phrases ever spoken about Jesus is that which
is found on several occasions in the gospels — it is that Jesus was ‘moved with
compassion.’ He loved men and women. He loves you. Do you have a problem? He
can meet it. It does not matter what it is. The moment that the problem comes
to you in your life, He knows all about it. If there is a fear in your heart,
it is immediately a sorrow in His heart. If there is a grief in your heart, it
is immediately a grief in His heart. If there is a bereavement in your life or
any other emotion that comes to any child of God, the same sorrow, the same
grief, the same bereavement is immediately written on the heart of Christ. We
find written in the Word of God — ‘In all their afflictions, He was
afflicted.’”

We do not
have a High Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He
knows — brother, sister — He knows what it is to be accused. He has heard the
voice of Satan and He intercedes for you. Do you think for one minute, do you
think for one minute that the Father will refuse a prayer of His own Son? He
will not. He ever lives to intercede for you.”

Some of
you were raised in homes where there was no encouragement. You were never
encouraged as a child. You were never encouraged as a teenager. It’s made you
a little cranky. It’s made you a little bitter. It’s made you a little
critical. It’s made you doubtful. You’re hard-wired for paralysis. I want you
to hear — I want you to hear the sweet, refreshing air that breathes in this
text. You hear the voice of accusation and here’s the answer: it is Jesus. It
is Jesus died; it’s Jesus rose; Jesus sits; Jesus intercedes. I’ve told you
before and I’ll keep on telling you because I think about it almost every day.

I was told
this thirty years ago by a sweet, elderly lady who loved Jesus. And I recognize
those who were raised in homes where there were problems and difficulties — I
know all about it and it’s hard-wired me for paralysis I’m pretty sure — and I
needed to hear this little sweet message she gave to me one day. She said — and
it sounds a little twee, a little mushy — “See no one in the picture but Jesus,”
she said. And she said it in that schoolmistressy, authoritarian sort of way
and I can — she’s in heaven now — but I can still see her saying it to me. It
was meant half as a rebuke and half as an encouragement – more of a rebuke than
an encouragement at the time. See no one in the picture but Jesus when that
voice of condemnation comes. You have been so hard-wired that you are
constantly critical of others. It may be just a camouflage of the fact that
Satan is always accusing you. I want you to hear the sweet notes of the Gospel
in this text this morning. Who is it that accuses? – Because it is God who
justifies. It is God who declares you, sinner, to be as righteous and as holy
as Jesus is. Hear that, Christian, and believe that, Christian.

Some of
you are always looking for approval. Oh, there’s probably an explanation for
it. Hear the approval of God the Father as He looks down upon you and He looks
at you through the lens of His own Son. Because no matter how sinful you may
be, in Jesus Christ, you are as white as snow, and there is no greater approval
than that.

Father,
we thank You for the Scriptures and we thank You especially for the eighth
chapter of Romans. We want these words to live and breathe in our lives that we
might be Gospel focused and Christ-centered for Your glory. Amen.

Grace,
mercy and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

1.
J’accuse
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%27accuse_(letter)

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