Good morning.
For the sake of time, I would like to read one verse. It is a verse you are all familiar with: Romans 8:31. Reading from the Darby Translation, it says:
What shall we then say to these things?
If God be for us, who against us?
Lord, we come and bow down in Your holy presence. There is nothing like You. We rejoice that we have our living hope in Christ. We rejoice that we are part of that family of God. We rejoice that we can come before You and pray, and ask that You would open Your Word, because it is something we cannot do.
I always think of Peter on that day when so many of Your own turned back because they were offended. You turned to Your disciples and said, “Will you also go?”
And he said, “To whom shall we go?” Not, “To what shall we go?” but, “To whom shall we go?” And he said, “Lord, You alone have the words of eternal life.”
This is the One we come to. Release Your Word; speak to us. We wait upon You. We are dependent upon You for speaking, for hearing, and certainly for the working out of Your Word. All those things You promise as we come to You together today, in the mighty, mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
Well, we will press on with the burden that I have been sharing from the Word concerning three phrases in the Bible that have deeply impressed me. These phrases, I think you know by now: first, God with us. I am deeply, deeply impressed with that thought.
Then, as I meditated more upon it, I thought of that wonderful phrase, God for us. Now, that is what we will be sharing on today. Then, sometime in the future, whenever it is right and appropriate, I will share on God in us.
These three phrases seem to give the highest assurance. They communicate to us the trilogy of God’s great assurance to us. Can you imagine God with us? How wonderful that is. Where would we be? Can you imagine God for us? If that were not true, how could we live? And can you imagine, beyond all of that, God in us? How unspeakably wonderful and unimaginable that assurance is.
This divine assurance is something we may not be able to fully comprehend in this life, but it is surely something we can know and should know.
The three parts are:
All of that is made available to us in Christ Jesus—unspeakable assurance beyond anything we could imagine or ask.
Today, on this part, God for us, the assurance of His unlimited provision, I would like us to think about three things:
The assurance that God is for us is a wonderful thing. We ought to understand it. We ought to meditate on it. We ought to consider it. It will make such a difference in your Christian life and in our life together as the church.
But secondly, why do you believe this? Throughout the Word of God, there is abundant proof that God is for us. You may doubt it in difficult circumstances, but it is inarguable when you look at the Scripture.
Thirdly, there is the absolute answer of why God is for us. I think you will know where we are going. The goal in my heart is, if I can by the Spirit of God communicate some of this deep assurance, to answer some of our questions when we go through difficulties and trials.
If the Spirit of God can do this, I believe He is able to erase all doubt. I think of doubt as a cancer—a malignant cancer. It eats at your very life. It destroys your very being from the inside out. It works upon your heart, stifles your spirit, and keeps you from being able to rise to that height with the assurance of knowing God for us.
Let us first consider the assurance that God is for us. There is no doubt, by the way, that God is with us. We have already covered that ground. It is a theme that runs from the beginning of the Word of God to the end of the Word of God: God with us, the assurance of His unfailing presence.
Even in His last words to His disciples, the Lord said, “I will be with you even until the end of the age.” Thank God for those assurances. But, brothers and sisters, there is more. There is much more.
When I read the book of Hebrews, it puts that whole letter into context. If you have never noticed it, you should notice it. Go back and read it. It is that phrase, “more,” and that extended phrase, “much more.” When it comes to God’s assurance to us, there is so much more.
Not only is God with us, but God is for us. I know sometimes we doubt that. Not only is His presence unfailing, but His provision is unlimited. You need to think about these things.
Remember what Paul said in Colossians 1:19:
For in Him all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell.
This is exhaustless resource.
I remember when I took my two classes in college in economics—or economics, whichever you prefer. I believe economics is right, but I often get them confused. Forgive me, all you economic majors, or whatever you are.
I forgot everything else—something about macro and micro—but I never forgot one thing the professor said. He said that the study of economics is the study of how nations deal with limited resources.
I thought that was a profound thing. Then I thought of the Lord Jesus. What we are dealing with when we come to the Lord Jesus is unlimited resources. Thank God for that—unlimited provision.
Paul wrote in Colossians 2:9-10:
For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,
and ye are complete in Him.
How wonderful. Think of it. In that unlimited resource, in that bountiful supply, in that unlimited provision, we have everything we need in Christ Jesus to live out a full and victorious Christian life.
Darby said, when explaining these verses, that the fulness—the completeness—of the Godhead is in Christ. I do not think you would doubt that. But he said it was as toward us; and we, as toward God, are complete in Him.
That is what we want to deal with today: to cause us to appreciate deeply this assurance God has given us.
People come to you sometimes and say, “I am with you.” You have heard people say that, and you wonder where they disappeared to when the going gets tough and the tough cannot get going. We wonder.
But God says He is with us and He will never leave us. Yet He doubles down on this. Not only does He say, “I am with you,” He says something further. Paul spoke of it in Romans 8:31. He says, “I am for you.”
Brothers and sisters, that is a whole different level. He is for us to the end. Being for us, to prove He is for us and to show us He is for us, He has given all of His unlimited resources and provision so that we can live a full Christian life, both as individuals and together.
Peter spoke of that assurance in 2 Peter 1:3:
His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.
That is the emphasis: His divine power has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness.
Can you imagine if Peter were telling those dispersed ones, “Well, I hope you make it to the end. Just hold on”? He did not say that. He said to those persecuted and discouraged saints in the Dispersion, “By His divine power, He has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness.”
Now, that is an unlimited supply. That is an unlimited provision.
Throughout the Word of God, you see how others discovered this great secret, and it made a difference in their lives. David said in Psalm 56:9:
Then shall mine enemies turn back in the day that I call:
this I know, that God is for me.
That was his secret: “This I know, that God is for me.”
I think of Psalm 118:6-7:
The Lord is on my side; I will not fear:
what can man do unto me?
The Lord is on my side among them that help me:
therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me.
This was the assurance given to the children of Israel, and this is the assurance God gives us as His New Testament people: God is for us.
It was a specific word of assurance given to the children of Israel in their darkest hour, when they were in captivity. In Ezekiel 36:9-11, the Lord said:
For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown:
and I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it:
and the cities shall be inhabited, and the waste places shall be builded:
and I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring forth fruit:
and I will cause you to be inhabited after your old estates,
and will do better unto you than at your beginnings:
and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
“For behold, I am for you.” Is that not wonderful? I love that verse. They were in captivity. The testimony of God was gone. Yet the Lord said, “I will do better unto you than at your beginnings.” What assurance.
How will you know that I am the Lord? Because I am for you. That is how you know.
I remember reading a story about the Latin phrase pro nobis. Lin is Italian; maybe he can straighten me out. Pro nobis means “for us.” There were two brothers riding in a car, and one fellow picked up his friend’s phone. He noticed that he had this strange password: pro nobis.
He asked his friend what it meant, and his friend broke into tears. He explained the dark, devastating moment he had gone through in his life. Like Peter, he thought he had turned back on God. He thought he had lost the presence of God.
Then one day, in that darkness, the light of the glory of God appeared to him and transformed him. His testimony was that day he experienced real healing. His password was simply, “God for us”—pro nobis. Just make sure you do not forget the first part: God for us.
He was forever changed when he discovered this single secret.
In Ezekiel 36:9-11, after saying, “For behold, I am for you,” the Lord says, “I will” five times. Five times. It is like Jeremiah 31, where the new covenant is spoken of. Over and over, the secret of the new covenant—and the difference between the new covenant and the old covenant—is, “I will.”
“I will turn unto you. I will multiply upon you man and beast. I will cause you to be inhabited as in your former times. Yea, I will make it better than at your beginning. And ye shall know that I am the Lord.” What wonderful words. This is the assurance that God is for us.
A second point is the abundant proof that God is for us. Think about this very carefully: how do you know God is for you? Have you ever thought about that? Has that question ever come to you?
I remember thinking and meditating about these messages. Maybe it is my lack of faith, but that question kept arising in my heart: How do I know God is for me? How do you know God is for you?
Well, it is true: it is in the Word of God. In the Word of God, there is abundant proof that God is for us. It is proof that is so full it can no longer be doubted. It is so full that there is no longer any question left at the end of it that God is for you and God is for me.
I think of Acts 1:3. Before the Lord was raised in His ascension, this explains what He did. I want to read from the Amplified Bible. Sometimes it may have too many words, but in this case I think it is perfectly appropriate:
To them also He showed Himself alive after His passion,
by a series of many convincing demonstrations,
unquestionable evidence,
and infallible proofs,
appearing to them during forty days and talking to them about the things of the kingdom of God.
Many convincing demonstrations, unquestionable evidence, infallible proofs—this is how we can know that God is for us. At the end, there is no question.
The King James Version, which I am awfully fond of—as you know, my second favorite version—says, “many infallible proofs.” That is how we know.
The Bible is a judicial book. I do not know if you look at it like that, but I think it is a judicial book. It is about the Supreme Being and the Supreme Judge, and His eternal case about man, even against man, and in the end, for man.
It is a supreme, eternal court case, if you will, with a Supreme Judge upon the throne right to the end. And I think of several things that are this unquestionable evidence, these many convincing demonstrations, these infallible proofs.
First of all, the love of God. It is an infallible proof that God is for us. Remember Romans 5:8:
But God commendeth His own love toward us,
in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Notice the emphasis in this verse. God demonstrates His love for us. I could come up to you after the meeting and say, “You know, brother, I love you. You know that, do you not?” And you would say, “Well, where is the proof? I have never seen it in you. You are all words.”
God is not all words. The emphasis, without doubt in the Scripture, is that He demonstrates His love for us in that while we were yet sinners—we were not His friends at that point—Christ died for us.
I think that is one of those many convincing demonstrations.
Jeremiah 31:3 says:
Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love:
therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
He did not just love us for a momentary time when He saved us. He loves us with an everlasting love. Brothers and sisters, I am going to define that for you: everlasting. You get it? There is no end to it.
We sang a while ago, “O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless, free.” I will never forget Brother Akeroy. How many of you knew Brother Akeroy? There are a few left in the room.
He was a very straight man. I do not think he was an admiral; I think he was a captain or something in the Navy. But I will never forget: he stood up here one Sunday before he spoke and said, “We must sing this hymn, ‘O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus.’ We must sing it.”
He thought it was the best hymn there was. It goes into a description of the love of God that is almost unparalleled in Christian song. He would say, “Now you have to slow down. You have to concentrate on it: ‘O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless, free.’”
Do you think that is a convincing proof? Do you think that is unquestionable evidence? Do you think it is an infallible proof? It is indeed: the love of God.
Ephesians 2:4 takes it further:
But God, being rich in mercy,
because of His great love wherewith He loved us.
Not only was it everlasting love; it was His great love wherewith He loved us. You cannot even use the word great casually. Unfortunately, we use it about everything. We use it about pizza: “That was a great pizza, Jerry.” We use it about the Super Bowl. We use it about walking in the park.
But great should be reserved for God. Great should be reserved for His great love wherewith He loved us.
My English professor got on me about a paper I wrote one time that had far too many greats in it. She said, “Mr. Pittman, you use ‘great’ too much. It becomes meaningless if you use ‘great’ that much.”
It is never meaningless when it comes to our great High Priest, the great Bishop of our souls, or the great love of God, which is inexhaustible. It never becomes old.
I think of Ephesians 3:19:
And to know the love of Christ,
which passeth knowledge.
I do not know if you have seen all these words in Ephesians when you read it, but Ephesians is Paul taking it always to a higher level with superlatives. That is why commentators who have written about Ephesians say it is the high watermark of spiritual revelation. It is always taken one step further.
The love of God surpasses knowledge. Thank God we can know it, but how wonderful it is. This is one of the infallible proofs, one of the many demonstrations, the unquestionable evidence. This is how you know God is for you.
Secondly, God chose us. Now, you may have a little trouble with that, but apparently He did not. You remember what it says in Ephesians: that He has chosen us before the foundation of the world.
When I think of choosing, I think God should have chosen the best. But it looks like He chose the worst. I remember growing up as a little boy. We used to play baseball twice a day in the summer. I looked forward to summer because I was out of school and could play baseball morning and afternoon—sandlot baseball, real baseball.
My mother used to collect S&H Green Stamps. Only the old people in here know what S&H Green Stamps are. She had them all in a drawer in our dining room, overflowing with stamps, and she was going to get something very special for herself.
One summer day, mischievous boy that I was, I took all those S&H Green Stamps, put them in the books, cashed them in, and got a bat, a ball, and a glove. Mom wondered, “Where did my S&H Green Stamps go?”
When we would go play ball twice a day, the two captains would throw the bat. You would grab the bat and go hand over hand. The one who got to the knob had the first choice. Oh, he was happy. He had the first choice, and he chose the superstar.
Then little Johnny was left to the end, waving his hand: “Pick me! Pick me!”
But God did not choose the best. Think of it. God chose the worst.
We were dead in our trespasses and sins. We were without hope. We were without God in this world. There was nothing in us that spoke of righteousness, and yet God’s first choice was us. Is that not wonderful? Is that not absolute proof that God is for us?
He chose us. Not only did He come to a point where He said, “Okay, everybody else is gone. I will choose them.” It says it was in His heart from the beginning—from the foundation of the world. He chose us.
I often think of Hebrews. It says, I think in Hebrews 2, that He did not take hold of angels—the fallen angels, by the way—but He took hold of the seed of Abraham. I wonder, in eternity, are we going to have a bunch of offended angels and a bunch of happy Christians?
He chose you. That is a convincing demonstration. He chose you not because of you, but He chose you because of Him. It is infallible proof that God is for us.
He did not just choose us to save us. He chose us to be the most precious gift to His Son. It is almost too good to be true. He chose us to be the body of Christ. When you think of your body, it is the closest thing to you.
He chose us to be the house of God, which is a most precious thing. God chose us to be that special gift. And He chose us—just think about it—to be the bride of the Lamb. How much more wonderful can the assurance get than that? It is hard for me to imagine. Praise the Lord.
I think of salvation. The Lord saving us is one of the many infallible proofs. I think of the children of Israel. They were saved from Egypt, which represents the world. They were saved from bondage, which represents Satan’s control over our lives. They were saved from the death angel, which is the destiny of mankind.
They were saved into the promised land, which was God’s unlimited provision—that land flowing with milk and honey, inexhaustible resources. That is how much He is for us.
The land of Israel was just a shadow, a type. The real inexhaustible resource is Christ Himself. In Him is everything we need and will ever want. It is God’s absolute proof that He is for us.
Hebrews 9:27-28 says:
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many;
and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time
without sin unto salvation.
This verse, along with other verses, makes it clear that salvation is not just a one-time experience. Salvation is a lifelong experience. It has a beginning—thank God for that—when we are saved, and forever saved, by the way.
Let me be clear. I am not one of the holiness group, although when I was first saved in the charismatic movement, I hung out with the holiness group. They believed you could lose your salvation again and again. Some fundamental Baptists were going to have to come up for an altar call again and again when they got right.
But you can never lose your salvation. You never can. We believe once saved, always saved. Thank God for that assurance. Never forget it.
But we believe, as many Christians do not understand, that salvation is a process. It begins with that initial salvation, but it goes all the way until you appear before the Lord. That salvation is actually a making process.
This is what Peter meant when he said:
Receiving the end of your faith,
even the salvation of your souls.
Now, does that not mess your doctrine up if you believe salvation is only at the beginning and once saved, always saved? The end of our faith, the salvation of our soul. God is doing a work in you throughout your Christian life. He is conforming you to His image, the image of His Son.
He is transforming you—a true spiritual metamorphosis—so that, in the end, when you see Him, you shall be like Him, because you shall see Him as He is. This is the process of salvation. It goes from the beginning to the end.
Hebrews 7:25 says:
Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost
that come unto God by Him,
seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Not partial salvation—full salvation. Save you to the uttermost.
That is wonderful assurance. That is infallible proof. Those are convincing demonstrations that God is for us.
We are saved from the world. We are saved from death. We are saved for eternity. But that is only the beginning. Then we come into this process of being delivered from self, delivered from being dominated by sin, and being united to Christ in such a way that He becomes our life and we are able to overcome as He overcame.
In the end, we are completely delivered from this body of death. We are completely delivered from the presence of sin.
Paul understood this ongoing process. In 2 Corinthians 1:9-10, he says:
But we ourselves had the sentence of death within ourselves,
that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:
who delivered us out of so great a death,
and doth deliver:
in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us.
Brothers and sisters, that is how you know God is for you. He delivered you. You will live for eternity. If you do not do another thing, when you believed in Him, you will live for eternity.
You will not get to experience the millennial kingdom if you stay in that state. But if you allow Him to continue to work on you, to continue to mold you, continue to transform you, and deliver you from the tyranny of self, and make you one of His sons, then your reward will not only be eternity, but it will be the kingdom for a thousand years.
How marvelous. What assurance that is. This is the full salvation.
I think of blessings. Some people, all we talk about is the blessings. I remember years ago, Llewellyn Miller beat it into my thick head, and I will never forget it. She talked about knowing the Blesser and not just the blessings. That changed the course of this assembly. That was the difference.
Remember that tract by A. B. Simpson:
Once it was the blessing,
now it is the Lord.
How wonderful. What a difference it made.
But I think of the blessings. I think of Ephesians 1:3. Right at the beginning, when the Apostle Paul opened that letter with that introduction, he said:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing
in the heavenly places in Christ.
Not just one, not just many, but every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, that is absolute proof that God is for you.
I think of that old hymn. I am stuck on old hymns today, by the way:
Count your many blessings, name them one by one;
count your blessings, see what God hath done.
Count your blessings, name them one by one;
count your many blessings, see what God hath done.
What assurance that is. Brothers and sisters, it is not just many blessings. When Paul shared that height of Christianity to the Ephesians, he said every blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
I think of another story. Dear old Ray Walker changed my life. Here was a lady who was a paraplegic. She would never forgive me for telling you this, but she was beautiful. Let me emphasize it a little more: she was beautiful.
She was the Tallheimer’s and Miller & Rhoads model for this area. That was a big deal. I grew up going downtown to Tallheimer’s and Miller & Rhoads. Ray Walker was a model, and she was in a car crash. She became a paraplegic.
But she discovered the depths of the Lord Jesus, and it changed her life. She used to always pray and quote Psalm 40:5:
Many, O Lord my God, are Thy wonderful works which Thou hast done,
and Thy thoughts which are to us-ward:
they cannot be reckoned up in order unto Thee:
if I would declare and speak of them,
they are more than can be numbered.
I will never forget that. It made a deep impression. That sister, if you were ever around her—even around her wheelchair—was full of joy. We used to carry her up the stairs, and poor Ray, we thought we would drop her at times. She did not care. She was full of joy—radiant joy.
What an awesome assurance that is.
I think of the promises of God as well. God’s unlimited provision causes me to think of the promises. Think of Peter again, 2 Peter 1:3-4:
According as His divine power hath given unto us all things
that pertain unto life and godliness,
through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises:
that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.
How wonderful the promises are. How inexplicably wonderful they are. How much proof? That is how you know God is for you: because of these exceeding great and precious promises.
They are His unlimited provision. They are not just words.
When I think of the anonymous and anointed writer of Hebrews, I think of the point he makes in Hebrews 6:13-18 about the promises of God. He makes two profound points.
First, everything is based on the promises of God. Might I add: remember the unfailing promises of God.
Secondly, he makes an equally important point: God, who does not lie, made these promises. Now, that ought to be unshakable assurance.
If I come along to you this afternoon and say, “I promise you something,” be wary. But if God says to you, “I have promised these exceeding great and precious promises,” you can believe it. You should believe it, because it is proof God is for you.
One last thing in this second point: grace. They say something about Rome: “All roads lead to Rome.” Have you wondered about that idiom? What on earth were they talking about?
I believe all roads, in the end, lead to God, but all roads lead to grace and then God. Everything is grace. All is grace. How marvelous that is.
They say that the people who laid out Rome put Rome right in the center of the city, and then made it so that all the roads merged and came to the center of that city. That is where the expression comes from.
But with us, the assurance is that all roads lead to God and to His grace. How marvelous that is.
I think of Paul, who wrote thirteen of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. In all thirteen, if my math is correct, he begins with grace and ends with grace. He had such an appreciation for the grace of God.
Remember the experience he had of the thorn in the flesh. It is unforgettable. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul had these exceeding great revelations. He heard things unmentionable, and he saw things unmentionable. God knew he might get a little puffed up.
God gave him a thorn in the flesh, called a messenger of Satan. And God spoke to him personally and said:
My grace is sufficient for thee.
My grace is sufficient for thee.
I think of Ephesians again. In Ephesians 1:7, Paul talks about the riches of His grace. Then, in Ephesians 2:7, he talks about the surpassing riches of His grace, which shall be displayed in us—demonstrated in us—in the coming ages. God’s proof that He is for us. How marvelous.
Grace, and the place grace is to have in our life, seems to me to be such a key.
In the end, Paul said in his own testimony, in 1 Corinthians 15:10:
But by the grace of God I am what I am:
and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain;
but I laboured more abundantly than they all:
yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Is that your testimony? “By the grace of God I am what I am.” Remember: God for us. His grace toward us has not been in vain.
Well, if you are not convinced yet, you may not be convinced. There may not be sufficient proof for you in the Bible. There may not be more convincing demonstrations. There may not be unquestionable evidence for you.
So God makes it clear. He goes one step farther.
Romans 8 is the closing argument of the book of Romans. It goes into a different section after Romans 8: election with Israel and the Gentiles, and practical expression of living in the body of Christ. But when you come to Romans 8, you come to God’s closing argument of why God is for us.
That is where Romans 8:31 comes from:
If God be for us, who against us?
That is the absolute answer that God is for us. It is one of the monumental closings in Scripture.
The book of Romans is a masterpiece. It begins with man who has no hope, who has no righteousness at all, condemned:
There is none righteous, no, not one.
It shows that God, who is for us, takes that man who has no redeeming value, saves him, and justifies the ungodly. Think about that. That is proof God is for us.
It goes further than that. It takes that justified man in Romans 6 and puts him in Christ Jesus, where he is fully identified with Christ. Then he is able to serve in newness of life. That is how much God is for us.
Then Romans 7 comes, which many people do not understand. What on earth is Romans 7 about? Romans 7 was God’s last chance to convince us, through the Apostle Paul, that we cannot live the Christian life in our own strength or our own capacity.
Paul said:
O wretched man that I am!
who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
God was proving His eternal case. “Okay, I have saved you. I have redeemed you. I chose you.” Then we say, “All right, God, let us get a little further along. I will live for You, Lord.”
Think of Peter: “Though all men shall be offended because of Thee, yet will I never be offended.” And Paul, that great man, came to the end of himself in despair.
Then comes that wonderful closing in Romans 8. The glory of it, the pinnacle of it, is found in those last verses:
If God be for us, who against us?
I have often referred to this as the closing argument of God’s case against man. It is a legal case, remember? This is a great closing argument. And in that closing argument, He concludes that God is for you. That is the final case.
I remember the nation being transfixed by O. J. Simpson’s trial. You remember the closing argument. Johnny Cochran said, “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” It was the key argument. He was acquitted.
But the key argument of God is, “I am for you.” And you are forever acquitted. No one can bring a case against you. It is over. Case closed.
God, who was the Judge, became the Defender. Usually, in closing arguments, you have the prosecution stand up and present their case at the end to seal the deal. Then you have the defense stand up and present their case after the prosecution. Then, to be fair, they let the prosecution present its case again with a rebuttal.
There can be no rebuttal to this assurance. This assurance will forever stand: God for us.
If you read the questions in Romans 8:31-39, they are brilliant—much more brilliant than Johnny Cochran. There are seven questions. Do not get hung up on the fact that they are questions, because those questions answer all the questions.
If God be for us, who against us?
The word be was added. Darby has it in square brackets so that the English reads more smoothly. Literally, it means, “If God for us, who against us?”
These questions erase all doubt. You might get hung up on that word if. You might be a melancholic, one of those people who gets depressed and has a hard time believing God is for us. You may think, “If? Well, certainly that means there is a big question there.”
But if you read the Greek, the word does not mean that there is a possibility that God is not for you. It is a certainty that God is for you. That is the difference. How marvelous.
Then those closing arguments go on. They give the absolute, only, and final proof that God is for you, to dispel all doubt and to cause everyone who wonders whether this great assurance can be true to know that it is, in fact, true.
Romans 8:32 says:
He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all,
how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?
Take it there. That is the absolute proof. There can be no higher proof. There can be no more convincing demonstration. There cannot be more than this.
I have often heard doctors say, “I can do no more.” I have seen patients whose hopes were dashed when they heard those words: “I can do no more.” Such a negative word.
But in this context, it is such a positive word. God is saying, “I can do no more than what I have done. I gave you the crown jewel of the Godhead.”
He who did not spare His own Son,
how shall He not with Him freely give us all things?
That is one of the amazing questions. That is the absolute answer in the end.
When you read Romans 8:34 through the end, you read one word, basically: nothing.
Nothing shall be able to separate us
from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Nothing is the closing argument. Nothing. What part of nothing is something? Have you ever thought about that? There is nothing.
It says, “Neither,” and nine times it says, “nor, nor, nor.” It may not be perfect English—or at least my wife tells me it is not—but it is better doctrine. Nothing. Neither. Nor.
Nee explained it this way: Paul took us to the mountaintops of Christian experience. Upon that mountaintop, upon that peak, he shared the discovery of all truth: that God Himself is for us.
How beautiful. Can you imagine higher assurance than that? It is hard to imagine.
Well, today we have looked at this one phrase: God for us. We have considered the assurance of His unlimited provision.
Today we raised one question: How do you know? The enemy is going to raise that question to you for the rest of your life. “How do you know? Did God say? If You are the Son of God…”
Doubt is a cancer that will destroy.
We have seen the answers to the question: many convincing demonstrations, unquestionable evidence, and infallible proof.
Today we have seen how this closing argument erases all doubt for those to whom the Spirit of God can communicate it. In the end, our testimony should be what the Apostle Paul’s testimony was:
I am persuaded.
Are you persuaded? May the God of glory help us. Your Christian life depends on knowing God for you. Our Christian life together depends on knowing God for us.
This is the secret revealed in Romans 8:31-39.
Lord, we bring words back to You that we know do not communicate the real depth of what is in Your Word. We are asking You, by the Holy Spirit, that You would communicate to us, deep in our spirit, these secrets from Your Word.
Cause us to be a people full of hope and full of assurance: that if God is for us, who can be against us?
We commit all this to You and give You all the glory. In Jesus’ name. Amen.