Romans 8:26-39

Romans 8:26-39

Tape #8127

Pastor Chuck Smith

Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought,  You look at all of the horrible things that are happening in our nation today.  The corruption of our youth and all of this stuff, you realize, yes, we deserve the judgment of God.  Is God wanting to give Clinton four more years to judge America?  Now, I don’t know!  And thus how to pray.  There are a lot of things that I really don’t know how to pray.  I don’t know what the will of God is.  There is a friend.  He is in big trouble.  He’s gotten away from the Lord and that relationship that he once had.  And now he’s in a real mess.  He’s facing jail time.  Does God want to just really use this to draw him back fully to a commitment to Jesus Christ?  Is this God's wake up call to him?  Shall I pray, oh God, you know, give him favor in the courts?  Help him Lord and keep him out of prison.  Or does God want him to be in prison so that he’ll have to start listening to the voice of God.  How to pray?  It’s often times a real problem for us to know just how to pray as we ought.  Now this is a weakness.  We don’t always know what God's will is.  We want to pray according to God's will.  Here’s where the Spirit comes along and assists us.  Assistance in our prayer life when we are faced with this enigma of not knowing how to pray as we ought.  So He  helps in our weaknesses, for we don not know what we should pray for as we ought. 

but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.  Now he helps our infirmities or our weaknesses, in that He will help us in our prayer life as we’re faced with situations where we don’t know how to pray.  The Spirit will make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.  I’ve been groaning an awful lot lately as I read the newspapers and the news magazines. Time magazine, just lately in this article in which they sought to totally denigrate the account in Genesis.  It’s sad that, you know, they are taking every chance they can to really strike at the Bible.  Back at Easter time, that’s when I canceled my magazine, but someone brought me a Time magazine today.  They were sitting in the hospital, waiting.  There was a Time magazine there.  They read this article on Genesis.  It was so horrible, they decided I don’t want other people to be corrupted by this, so they stole the magazine.  They brought it to me this morning.  They asked me to read this blasphemous article that they have on Genesis.  So I didn’t buy it.  I quit buying Time, but I have a free copy that was given to me today.  But when I read these things and I realize how many people read it and it sort of bolsters their unbelief in God.  They find solace and comfort in believing that God doesn’t exist or that the Bible’s accounts are rather corrupted.  And that these stories are just myths of the Hebrew people.  But I groan in my spirit when I see this kind of influence and the corrupting of the minds of the American people.  I find myself groaning in the Spirit.  I don’t know how to pray as I should, but I groan so often in my spirit over the conditions of our land and our nation.  But that groaning is the help of the Holy Spirit in making intercession according to the will of God. 

27Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.  It’s a wonderful thing to know that you are praying according to the will of God.  For when you know you are praying according to the will of God, then we have this confidence that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us then we know that we have received those petitions that we have desired of Him.  So it’s awfully good to know that I am praying according to God's will.  I can’t always know that when I just pray from my intellect.  But when the Spirit guides my prayer, I can know that my prayer is according to the will of God.  Another assist that we have of the Holy Spirit.  Helping us in our prayer life.  Making intercession for us with these groanings which we really often just can’t utter.  It’s just a deep groaning within our spirit and that is God's help.  He who searches the heart. God said that He does search the heart.  David said, Thou hast searched me and known me.  He prayed, “Search me, oh God.  Know my heart.”  He who searches the heart knows what is the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

28And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.  Now, there are certain things that we know and need to know.  Certain basic foundational truths.  I need to know this.  Because in life we are going to be faced with many things that we don’t know.  Many circumstances that seem to be very adverse.  I don’t know why God allowed this.  I don’t know what God is doing or seeking to do through this.  If God really loves me, why would He allow this to happen to me?  And there are a lot of things that we don’t know and won’t know.   So it’s important that there are things that we do know.  This is one of those basic, important, foundational, truths that we need to know, so that when we face things that we don’t know, we have something to stand on.  We fall back on it.  And this is one of those Scriptures in which I have fallen back on this Scripture so many times!  I know that all things are working together for good to those who love God and are the called according to His purpose.  I know that.  Now, I can’t always tell you what good is going to come out of a situation that seems to be so tragic.  The problem is that as God is working in our lives, He is always working according to an eternal purpose and plan that He has for us.  As I live my life on a day by day kind of a basis, I’m always concerned with today’s needs.  How things affect me today in this day by day existence.  And I can’t always see the long term.  As Peter said we can only see that which is near.  We don’t see that which is far off.  And that is a problem.  And so as I am looking at things from my narrow perspective of how it is affecting me today, I’m often quite disturbed over the tragedies or the situations that I am facing because of how they affect me now.  Many of the things of the past, things that were difficult and hard as I was going through them, wondering where is God in all of this?  Why does God allow this to happen?  And many times crying out to God, weeping over the condition.  Later on, when it went full cycle and God, in time, revealed the purpose, some of those things over which I was weeping, I began to rejoice!  Oh yes, Lord, I see now!  How marvelous!  Oh, Your love for me is so great!  Now I see the full cycle.  I see what You had in mind.  Lord, if You had only told me!  I wouldn’t have been griping like I was.  If I only knew, Lord.  Now the Lord doesn’t always reveal to us the purpose of the trials, or the sufferings that we go through.  I think of that song, “If we could see beyond today as God does see.  Then all our tears we would wipe away.  Our sorrows would flee.  O’er these present griefs we would not fret.  Each sorrow we would soon forget.  For many joys are waiting yet for you and me.  If we could see, we could know we often say, but God in love avails us throe across our way.  We cannot see what lies before.  The results are so we cling to Him the more.”   And that’s the whole purpose.  God wants us to just trust in Him.  To cling to Him.  And during these times when I don’t understand the purpose of God.  I fall back on what I do understand.  I know that all things are working together for good because I love God.  And somehow God, You are going to bring good out of this.  You are going to accomplish a good purpose in my life through these things, but I just cling by faith to what I know.  It’s working and will work together for good.  The ultimate result is going to be good for me as God is working His eternal purpose in my life.  It’s important that we have these basic foundational truths to fall back on.  I know God loves me!  I know I love God!  I know that God has called me.  I know that God is good!  And I know that all things are working together for good, because I love God and He has called me according to His purpose.  It’s important that I have those foundations!  Things that I know for sure. 

Now when you come up against those things that you don’t know.  Then just fall back on what you do know.  God is working.  He is going to work out His plan.  It’s going to be good.  The results are going to be good.  When He is finished the results are going to be good.  Never give up what you know for what you don’t know!  That’s a mistake that many people make.   Coming up against these things they don’t understand, they don’t know.  They are prone sometimes to give up what they don’t know.  And they begin to make charges against God.  Foolish charges against God.  I don’t think God loves me anymore.  I don’t think God cares.  I wonder if there is a God.  And they begin to make these foolish charges because of what they don’t know.  Now all of us will face things in life that look like tragedy.  And we don’t know what God is doing.  Fall back on what you do know.  It’s going to work out for good.  All things.  Not some things.  All things are working together.  There is a plan.  God is putting everything together.  Sometimes it looks like our life is confused.  It’s just a maze.  We don’t know what is going on.  Where  to turn.  And it seems like there is just much confusion.  But they are all working together for good if you love God and you have been called according to His purpose.  Now, notice this isn’t a Scripture for everybody.  It’s not for the sinner.  It’s not for the man outside of Christ.  He can’t have that assurance.  He can’t have that confidence.  And thus so many times, without that assurance and confidence, people just lose it because of the difficulties that they face.  And they can’t see any way out.  They just lose it.  But as a child of God, the Spirit of God dwelling in you, bearing witness that you a child of God.  Now you can know and have confidence, that God is going to work good out of this situation.

29For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.  This subject of predestination.  It is a difficult subject because here is where our human intellect comes up against the infinite mind and purposes of God.  And we just cannot in our minds, reconcile what seemed to be logically, irreconcilable, truth.  That is, the truth of divine election, predestination, and sovereignty of God, which we believe.  Jesus said to His disciples.  You’ve not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.  But on the other hand, Jesus said for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him.  The Bible tells us to chose this day, whom we will serve.  And so it speaks about the responsibility of us, on  us, to chose.   To respond to God's love.  To respond to His grace.  And yet it speaks about whom He foreknew, He also predestined.  The foreknowledge of God is where the whole thing comes together.  But it where we lose our comprehension.  God is omniscient.  That is one of His attributes.  As James, said, known unto Him are all things from the beginning.  Being omniscient or all knowing, it means that God cannot learn anything.  If God could ever learn something, then He didn’t know everything.  He wasn’t omniscient.  So it means that God cannot learn anything new.   Anything that is to be known and can be known, God knows.  The end from the beginning.  In fact in Isaiah, God said, you know, there is no god like Me.  I can declare to you the end from the beginning.  And He then prophesied through Isaiah, many things that would happen to the nation of Israel, which in time did happen because He said, I am God.  I can do this because I know everything.  What is it like do you suppose?  And here’s where the breakdown is.  What is it like to know everything?  Do you have to think if you know everything?  You see, it’s a mystery to me.  I can’t imagine what it would be like to know everything.  To know everything that was going to happen.  How is was going to happen.  When it was going to happen.  What would that be like?  I don’t know.  I know that if you had that kind of knowledge, you could surely clean up at Santa Anita.  And in many other areas too.  But I can’t even comprehend what it would be like to know everything.  But God does.  Now, when you know everything, if you have to have choices because you know everything, you would never make a wrong choice!  You would never make a wrong decision.  Now is there anyone here tonight who has never made a wrong choice or never made a wrong decision?  We sort of laugh at that because, oh man, a lot of wrong choices.  A lot of wrong decisions.  Because I didn’t know.  Oh, if I only would have known!  But I didn’t know, so making a decision on the limited facts that I had, I made a wrong decision.  One that I rued because, oh, if I had only known.   But God never says, Ooops!  He doesn’t make wrong choices because He has all the facts and He knows how things are going to turn out. 

Now will God ever know who is going to be saved?  Well, you say, of course, when we get to heaven all around the throne of God, He’ll know all that are going to be saved.  But wait a minute!  Is that when He is going to find out?  You see if God is ever going to know who is going to be saved, He’s always known who was going to be saved!  Now, you see, if you’d always known who the winners are.  It’s just one of those things.  You’d make your choices then according to your knowledge.  You don’t choose losers!  That’s what blesses me about God choosing me!  Because He doesn’t choose losers!  And thus the fact that He has chosen me automatically puts me in the winner’s circle!  Chosen in Him, Paul said, before the foundations of the earth!  But now, let’s not jump to wrong conclusions, unscriptural conclusions.  The fact that God has chosen me from the foundations of the earth, does not negate my necessity to receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.  To surrender my life to Him!  But you say, how can you reconcile that?  I can’t!  I tried to.  For years, especially going through college until finally one day in exasperation, reading a book that was on one side of the truth, I got so upset I threw the book across the room.  I said, God, I can’t reconcile it.  And I felt the Lord speaking to my heart, saying, who asked you to reconcile it?  I only asked you to believe it.  You see if you only believe what you understand, then where is faith?  Faith is believing what I don’t understand.  Thus I believe that God is sovereign.  That He has chosen me from the foundation of the earth.  That He has predestined that I should be His child and dwell with Him forever. I believe that but I also believe that, that day the Spirit of God called my heart to surrender my life to Jesus Christ, that it was important that I yield my heart to the obedience to the Holy Spirit’s ministry.  And to receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior.  That God requires men to exercise that capacity of choice that He has given to us.  And to chose whom we are going to serve.  So, I can’t reconcile it.  But I surely do believe it! 

So it is attached to His foreknowledge.  For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.  Now, a lot of these things that are happening to us.  The purpose of God through these things is to conform us into the image of Jesus Christ.  There are a lot of rough edges in our lives.  And so God allows trials.   He allowed these things to rub against us.  But it’s all a part of God's plan that He conforms us into the image of Jesus Christ.  And that is God's intent and purpose.  That’s His predetermined purposes that I should be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ.  And again, here is where the help of the Holy Spirit.  We with open faces, or unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord are being changed from glory to glory into the same image by His Spirit that dwells within us.  This is the purpose of the church.  For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the Body of Christ until we all come into the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God, into the mature man.  Into the measure of the stature of the image of Christ.  And so this work of God's Spirit, molding me, shaping me, allowing things to happen that I don’t understand, but causing me to grasp on and to hold on to Him, ever tighter.  Because I don’t know where this is leading.  I don’t know where I am going, but Lord, I’m just trusting You.  I’m holding onto You.  And through these things, God is working in me.  In all of these things for His good purpose of bringing me into the conformity of the image of His Son, Jesus Christ.  That Jesus might be the first born among many brethren.  The first in this new creation that God is making.  You see if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.  The old things have passed away, everything has become new.  Christ, the firstfruits of this whole new creation that God is making up.  Sons of God, He is the firstborn among many brethren.       

30Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.  Now, again, because God has foreknowledge, He knows all things.  Because God is eternal.  Attributes of God, characteristics that we cannot comprehend with our finite mind, but because He knows all things, He knows what is going to be.  He can speak of that which is going to be as though it already was.  He can speak of the future in the past tense.  Or in the present tense because He knows that is what’s going to be.  Who can speak of things as existing though they do not yet exist.  Because he knows that they are going to exist.  And so often times in the Scripture, God speaks of things as though they already were though we haven’t yet arrived.  But God is already there.  And thus He can speak of them as being.  Now, being glorified, these he also glorified.  I’m not yet glorified.  You see I’m in this time zone.  God is outside of the time zone.  So He speaks of the future as though it already was.  And thus He speaks of me as being glorified.  With faith, I look forward to that day when I have my glorified body and you know, I’m glorified together with Jesus.  But He speaks of it as a past fact.  As it already is, because He knows it’s going to be.  And that is sort of comforting, when God speaks of me, being glorified, that’s sort of comforting because I know that He which has begun a good work in me is going to continue to perform it until He has completed it.  God hasn’t started and brought me this far to dump me!  He is going to carry me all the way!  He called me unto Himself and then He justified me.  And He said, He has glorified me.  And so I look forward to that finished product that God has declared concerning me.  So as Paul brings to us these wonderful truths, God's Spirit bearing witness with my spirit that I am a child of God.  Pruning as I wait for this redemption of my body, the glorified state.  In the meantime, the Spirit dwelling in me, helping my weaknesses.  Helping me in my prayer life.  Knowing that all things that are taking place and happening in my life are happening for good because I love God and He has called me according to His purpose.  By His foreknowledge He predestined that I should be conformed into the image of His Son.  He is working out that process now by His Holy Spirit in my life.  He called me.  Justified me. Glorified me. 

Paul says, 31What then shall we say to these things?  Oooh!  Wow!  You know, what can you say!  Glory!  What can you say to these things?  It’s marvelous!  It’s wonderful!   

If God is for us, who can be against us?  God is working out His purposes, His plans in your life.  God's for you!  If God be for us, who can be against us?  In the Old Testament, we have to story of King Asa, as he was going out to face that huge army of Ethiopians and Nubians who had invaded the land, he said, Lord, it’s nothing for You to help with, many or those who have no power.  Help us oh, Lord!  In Your name we’re going to go out against this enemy.  Don’t let man prevail against You.  And as he went out and as God fought with him and for him, as he was coming back with the spoils of war, victory over this huge army, the prophet came out and said the Lord is with you while you will be with Him.  God is for you, when you are for Him.  If you seek Him, you will find Him.  But if you forsake Him, He’ll forsake you. 

When Jonathan the son of Saul had come to that critical point in the history of the nation of Israel, when the Philistines were overrunning the land.  It looked like it was all over.  They had multitudes of chariots.  Saul and Jonathan were the only ones who had iron, weapons, spears, swords.  The rest of them had sticks.  The Philistines had already come into the iron age.  They had iron spears, swords, chariots.  They were such a formidable force.  It was a war to exterminate Israel.  And the men of Saul’s army seeing the Philistines and this great host of Philistines, who had moved through and conquered the land all the way to the middle of the country.  The men of Saul’s army deserted.  They fled to the other side of the Jordan River.  Just a brave few were left.  Jonathan said to his armorbearer, if God wants to deliver the Philistines to Israel, He doesn’t need a whole army.  They’ve left.  But He doesn’t need them.  If God's going to work, all He needs is one man.  Let’s go over to the camp of the Philistines and see if God wants to wipe them out today.   Oooh, I love that!  You talk about a venture in faith.  You see if God is for you, who can be against you.  The host of the Philistines?  That’s nothing for God!  The host of the Ethiopians and Nubians?  That’s nothing for God.  Millions strong, three hundred chariots, nothing for God!  If God is for us, who can be against us?  It’s wonderful to know that God is for us.  David said, the Lord is on my side.  I will not fear.  What can man do unto me?  I love that!  If God is for me who can be against me? 

Then the declaration.  How do I know that God is for me?  32He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?  God is for me!  He demonstrated it!  He gave His only begotten Son for me!  He delivered Him up for us all!  Here in His love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  For God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.  He delivered Him up for us all.  Now if God has given us His Son, how much more shall He freely give us all things?  That’s a good thing to remember when you pray.  When you bring your requests to God.  It’s a good thing to remember that God loves you so much that He gave His Son for you.   Now whatever you might need.  Your needs are much less that what God has already demonstrated His willingness to give.  He gave His Son for us all.  How much more then shall He freely give us all things? 

33Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.  In other words, Paul is saying God isn’t laying charges against His people.  David said, oh the blessedness of the man to whom God does not impute iniquity.  The book of charges.  Now we do know that in heaven, one day, men are going to stand before the judgment seat of God, to be judged according to the things that are in the books, written in the books.  Records are being kept!  And God will bring out the books.  They will be judged according to the things that are in the books.  And whoever’s name is not found written in the Book of Life will be cast into the lake that is burning with fire.  This is the second death.  But the book that is being kept on me was destroyed.  There is no book of wrong doing.  God is not imputing iniquity.  That blessed man in Christ Jesus.  That blessed man walking in the Spirit.  There is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus.  Oooh, blessed is the man.  That word blessed literally means how happy is the man to whom God does not impute iniquity.  And I can bear witness.  Yes!  That’s true!  I’m so happy that God has forgiven my transgressions, covered my sins.  That he is not imputing iniquity against me.  Who shall bring a charge against God's elect?  It’s not God!  He’s justifying.  We do know however that Satan is laying charges against God's elect.  In Revelation chapter 11, when Satan is cast out of heaven.  The voice from heaven declares, woe to the inhabitants of the earth for Satan has been cast out.  He who accuses the brethren before God day and night continually.  He is the accuser.  He was laying charges against Job.  Job serves you for profit.  Job will do anything to hang onto his life.  Making accusation.   Laying charges.  But God has justified.  God has declared us innocent.   

34Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.   Now, Paul said the gospel that I preached unto you, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.  He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.  The resurrection of Jesus Christ.  But where is He now?  Mark 16:19.  Mark tell us “So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, (That is at the Mount of Olives when He ascended into heaven.)  He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.”

Acts 7:56, As Stephen was being stoned to death, he said, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God!”

In Colossians 3:1, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.”

Hebrews 1:3, “Who being the brightness of His glory (speaking of Christ, the brightness of God's glory), the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the work of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.”

Hebrews 7:25, “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”

Hebrews 8:1, “Now this is the main point of the things, we are saying.   We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.” 

Hebrews 9:24, “For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.”

Hebrews 12:2, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

1 Peter 3:22, “who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.”

So, He is there!  Interceding on our behalf.  Who is he who condemns?  Not Jesus.  Jesus said God didn’t send Me into the world to condemn the world.  He sent Me into the world to save the world.  So the opposite of condemning, Jesus is in the business of saving.  So if you feel under condemnation, know that it isn’t coming from the Lord.  The Holy Spirit does convict us when we do wrong things.  But there is a vast difference between the Holy Spirit and that  condemnation that Satan seeks to put us under.  So when Satan begins to condemn us because of our failures and our flaws, our failings, the net effect of Satan’s condemnation is to drive me away from Jesus Christ.  To feel that I am undeserving.  I’m unworthy.  I should not even be here in church tonight with all of these righteous people here, who look at me.  I am so guilty.  Man, I can’t wait to get our of here.  I want to get away from the things of God.  I feel totally undeserving and unworthy.  The effect is to push you away and keep you from coming to the Lord.

When the Holy Spirit is convicting you.  And it can be over the very same issue, Satan can be condemning you.  But then the Holy Spirit comes along to convict you of this sin.  But the effect of the Holy Spirit is that I can’t wait to get to Jesus!  I can’t wait to get on my knees and get this thing cleared up.  Let’s get it over with.  Let’s get is washed.  Let’s get rid of it!  And He draws me to the Lord in order to free me from the guilt of my sin.  So who is he who condemns?  It isn’t Jesus!  He died!  He rather has risen again.  He is at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. 

35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?   Notice the list of things now.  Jesus said that in this world you will have tribulation.  The early church experienced a lot of tribulation.  Can that separate you from the love of Christ?

What about distress?  Going through stressful situations until you are ready to give up.

How about persecution?  Jesus said blessed are you when men persecute you and revile you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake.  Rejoice, be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven.  Can persecution separate me from the love of Christ?  It is interesting as we look at the early church and as you look at the suffering church even today, Satan has never been able effectively to destroy the church through persecution.  The church only becomes stronger and grows under persecution.  Where Satan has been effective in destroying the church is by joining it and bringing in compromise.  And that’s been his most effective weapon against the church.  The compromise that the church is willing to make in order to gain the favor of the world.  To go ahead and say, yes, I believe that evolution is not a hypothesis, in order to gain the favor of the scientific world.  He chose the wrong issue.  The evolution theory is bankrupt.  The science of genetics and all, they’re having fits as far as it is destroying the evolutionary theory.  Only the diehards are hanging on.  He chose the wrong issue.  Oh sure, the Catholic church was wrong in the treatment of Galilieo and the discoveries that he made.  And they are still smarting from that, but now to say we are reconciled with science and we believe that the creation account of Genesis is probably flawed and God really didn’t create things.  He maybe created the first cell and allowed it to evolve over billions of year into man.  Oh, enough of that.  Persecution.  Jesus said, if they persecuted Me, they are going to persecute you!  Count it all joy, James said, when you fall into various trials.  Can it separate me from the love of Christ?  How about nakedness?  How about peril?  How about sword?

Paul answers, quoting from Isaiah:  36As it is written:

"For Your sake we are killed all day long;

We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."  

37Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  What is it to be more than a conqueror?  We know what it is to be a conqueror.  You go in.  You fight the battle.  You win!  You are a conqueror.  What is it to be more than a conqueror?  That’s to go into the battle victorious.  And as we go into the battle, against the forces of darkness, against the powers of evil, we go in as victors!  We go in the victory of Jesus Christ!  So I go in as a conqueror.  I have conquered in the midst of the battle.  I have victory in the midst of the battle.  I am rejoicing in the midst of the battle.  For I know the outcome!  If God is for me, who can be against me?  I know the outcome and thus I’m more than a conqueror through Him who loves me. 

38For I am persuaded (Paul said) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, Principalities and powers.  They seem to be rankings of angelic beings.  In Ephesians, Paul tells how Christ is seated in the heavenly places, far above all principalities and powers.  In Colossians chapter 2, Paul tells us how that through the cross, Jesus triumphed over the principalities and powers that were against us making an open display of His victory.

Neither these principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come,  39nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.   Inseparable!  He will not let you go.  He’ll hold on to you!  That inseparable love of Christ!  Nothing can separate me!  I’m His child.  He’s chosen me!  He’s called me!  He’s justified me!  He’s actually glorified me.  I’m waiting to see that result, but it’s done in His mind.  And  thus it is an accomplished fact!  And He has control over my life and the circumstances of my life.  And all things are working together for good because I love Him.  And I’ve been called according to His purpose. 

God said to Jeremiah, before you were ever conceived, I knew you!  While you were yet being formed in your mother’s womb, I sanctified you.  And ordained that you should be My witness before kings and all.  God had his life all planned out.  He knew him before he was ever conceived.  Not only is that true of Jeremiah, that’s true of you!  Before you were ever conceived, God knew you!  While you were being formed in the womb, God had His plans for your life.  It’s wonderful to know that God is in control.  And it’s important that we yield unto God in order that He might fulfill His purposes in and through our lives.

Father, we thank You for these marvelous words of strength and hope and comfort through the Word.  Thank You, Lord, that we are Yours.  That Jesus died for us, for our sins.  He rose again and is even now making intercession for us.  Thank You for the Holy Spirit that makes intercession for us.  Thank You, God that You loved us.  So much that You spared not Your own Son but delivered Him up for us all.  Oh Lord, with You for us, we can go out and face any enemy, any foe, as a conqueror.  More than a conqueror, because we know that You’ve loved and chosen us and called us, and justified us, and glorified us.  Oh, Lord, what can we say to these things?  But thank You, Jesus.  We praise Your wonderful name.  Amen.