God Is for Us
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Introduction
Picture this newspaper headline—a box, with a check in it and your name beside it, then the word “elected.” It’s not like a presidential election, with hundreds of thousands of people who think they would like the position, hundreds of aspirants, dozens of candidates, two or three who slug it out, and one who wins. In this election everyone on earth is a nominee, and anyone who accepts the vote that counts is elected. God casts a vote for each of us. Jesus, His Son, is the form of the vote. If we trust Him to save us, and honor His loving lordship, we are promised the victory. Called! Elected!
How safe do you feel in Christ? We would not want to give comfort to any who are outside Christ. God’s promise does not cover unbelievers. But we need to let God’s word entirely change the perspective of worried Christians and worried churches.
I. First—A note of reminder ().
I. First—A note of reminder ().
Each element of the good news affirms our assurance.
A. Christ died and was buried, dragging sin under with Him.
A. Christ died and was buried, dragging sin under with Him.
B. He has been raised, overwhelming death.
B. He has been raised, overwhelming death.
C. He is ascended, to be our ready friend and representative.
C. He is ascended, to be our ready friend and representative.
II. Second—A note of assurance ().
II. Second—A note of assurance ().
A. God is for us, so who is against us that counts?
A. God is for us, so who is against us that counts?
B. His love is as great as He is.
B. His love is as great as He is.
C. If He justifies us, who will have any success in charging us?
C. If He justifies us, who will have any success in charging us?
III. Third—a note about our equipment ().
III. Third—a note about our equipment ().
A. We have puny pressures against us (trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword)—puny by comparison with our Equipper and equipment.
A. We have puny pressures against us (trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword)—puny by comparison with our Equipper and equipment.
B. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ—not death’s crush or life’s pressures—nothing from the world of spirits—neither present difficulties nor anything that can come along later. No created thing can interfere with our rescue by God, the uncreated.
B. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ—not death’s crush or life’s pressures—nothing from the world of spirits—neither present difficulties nor anything that can come along later. No created thing can interfere with our rescue by God, the uncreated.
Conclusion
So, what place does worry have in this life of a Christian? “I’m sick from worry,” some say. And they are. “The most disintegrating enemy of the human personality,” another calls it.
“I know that worry is wicked,” a lady said to Marshall Hayden one evening after the message. “But is apprehension the same?” They looked up the word in the dictionary—fear, dread, the expectation of evil, was the definition. “It sounds every bit as bad,” he said.
Worries fall into three categories, according to a case study done by some physicians, who determined that it was the number one cause of illness. Forty percent of our worries are about the past. Fifty percent are about the future. Only ten percent are about the present.
• Ninety percent of those that relate to the future will not happen.
• About the past, chant with Paul, “forgetting what is behind.…” ().
• In the present, remember: “God is for us.”