Kept Forever

Kept Forever By Rev. Res Spears Before we get far into things this morning, I want to take a minute or two to apologize for something. And this apology is specifically from me to Earl Smith. Earl, I am sorry. Several weeks ago, Earl told my wife that he enjoys putting puzzles together. And why not? It's as good a way to frustrate yourself as any other, I suppose. Well, when we got home from church that day, Annette told me about their conversation, and she suggested that when we finish the 2,000-piece puzzle that occupies the entire top of our dining room table, we should give it to Earl. Now, I thought that was a swell idea, but the catch is that we are committed to completing this puzzle, and we've been working on it for about 27 years. Well, maybe not that long, but it has truly been on the dining room table since August. Annette will sit down to work on it for a while every now and then, and I'll join her for an hour or two once or twice a week, sifting through what is certainly more than a thousand pieces remaining to be placed. Sometimes, our daughter, Desiree, will come and spend a Saturday afternoon helping with this beast of a puzzle. And yet, we still have more than a thousand pieces to fit together. And so, Earl, I am sorry for the delay, but you'll get that puzzle one day, even if I have to hire someone to come and finish it. I wish I could show y'all the picture. It's a scene from an old general store. At first glance, the scene is just what you would expect. The proprietor stands behind a counter that's stacked with everything from meats and cheeses to batteries and film. He apparently sells housewares and firewood and furniture and tools and just about everything else you would expect in one of those general stores of times long gone. But as you look more closely, it soon becomes evident that nothing is quite what it seems. Everything's more complex than you had imagined. The vacuum cleaners are fingernail clippers and disposable razors. The pot-belled stove is and hand grenade with a black magic marker for a stovepipe. The firewood bundle is actually cinnamon sticks wrapped with a rubber band. A display table is an hourglass from a board game. A fire extinguisher is, in reality, an old, red Eveready battery. And all of this sits beneath a line of tub-stopper light fixtures hanging from a ceiling whose tiles are the backs of playing cards. When I first saw the photo on the box top, I thought, "Oh, what a happy little scene this is. There's so much going on with all the merchandise for sale, I'll bet you could look at it for an hour and not notice everything." But then I looked closer, and I saw that hand-grenade wood stove and I glanced over and saw the floor was a checkerboard and the fireplace rug a dollar bill, and I realized there was much more to this picture than what immediately met the eye. It was even more lovely when I began to recognize the creativity - and, really, the love - that it took to imagine this scene and then create it. And then, as I was putting this sermon together, I found the artist's name on the box. Her name is Joan Steiner, and it turns out she produced four books of such wonderful art before she passed away in 2010. Several of her pieces have been turned into puzzles, but from what I can tell, only ours is so diabolically complex. But it's also beautiful in its creativity, and the beauty just grows the more you look at it. And as we continue to pore over the Book of Romans in our study of God's grace, I hope you have had a similar experience. If you ever read this book in one or two sittings - and that's something I would heartily encourage you to do - you cannot help but be stunned by the beauty of this jewel of Scripture. You cannot help but be amazed by the Apostle Paul's description of God's grace. But once you've taken in the big picture, if you'll take the time to focus in on little sections the way we have done for the past several weeks, I think you'll find this jewel is even more magnificent than it first seemed. The details are not just unexpected; they overturn all our expectations about God - they shine with an unexpected glory, they are more beautiful than we could have imagined. Here, at the end of chapter 8 of the Book of Romans, we see Paul bring His argument of grace to a crescendo, and, frankly, it leaves me breathless in the wonder of God. Perhaps you will have a sense of this wonder, too, by the time we are finished with this chapter today. So turn, now, if you haven't already, to Romans, chapter 8, and we're going to pick up where we left off last week, with verse 26. Now, you may recall that last week, studying the previous section, we heard Paul proclaim the hope that Christians have because of the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us as a downpayment of glory to come. And remember that it's not just we who will be transformed by God's glory in Christ. All of creation awaits - it groans with anticipation of being set free from corruption and death, the result of mankind's sins. But we who have followed Jesus Christ in faith can be people of hope - people who wait in confidence for our promise-keeping God to keep His promise of restoration and renewal - because we have been marked out as His own by the Holy Spirit within us. And just as the Spirit gives us hope, Paul writes in verse 26: Romans 8:26-27 NASB95 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Now, the Greek word for "helps" here is a tongue twister: sunantilamBAnomai. It means "to lay hold along with; to strive to obtain with others." It has the idea of helping someone carry a heavy load, and Paul intensifies the effect here by saying that the Spirit groans while helping us. Sometimes, praying is hard to do. Sometimes we don't know how to pray or even what to pray for. How do we pray for someone who is suffering from the ravages of advanced cancer? How do we pray for someone with advanced dementia? We might pray for God's will to be done, but often we're not very good at knowing God's will. In our weakness, we sometimes don't know either the right manner of prayer or the right content of our prayers. These verses tell us that in our weakness, the Spirit comes alongside and helps carry the burden to God. And we can be confident in the prayers of the Holy Spirit, because He knows God's will, and He will intercede for us according to the will of God. We can also be encouraged, because - verse 28: Romans 8:28 NASB95 [W]e know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Now, this doesn't mean that God causes all things. God does not cause evil; God does not cause sin. What this means is that God redeems evil and suffering and even sin in the life of those who are steadfast in loving Him and who are called according to His purpose. We will see in a moment that being called according to His purpose means being conformed into the image of Christ - being made to be more like our Savior. But for now, what I want you to see from this verse is that our omniscient and omnipotent God uses even our suffering, even our tragedies, to make us more like Christ. "God has not deserted us but is at work in every circumstance of life." [Robert H. Mounce, Romans, vol. 27, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 187.] He doesn't always work all things to the good that we might like. He doesn't even take away the suffering in all cases. Think about the thorn in Paul's flesh, the "messenger of Satan" that he prayed three times for God to take away. We don't know what that thorn was, but we do know that God allowed Paul to continue to suffer from it, telling him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness." Paul said that God allowed him to continue suffering to keep Paul from becoming conceited. God used that suffering to make Paul more like Jesus Christ. Sometimes, that's what God does with us, as well. Now, I've tipped my hand on the next verses, but let's take a look at them now. Romans 8:29-30 NASB95 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. Here is the core of Paul's argument in this passage. Here, he answers the question: Why have I been saved? If you have followed Jesus Christ in faith that only His sacrifice on the cross could pay the debt you owe for your sins and give you eternal life with Him and with the Father, then you might think that all this happened simply because God loves you. And that's not untrue. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. But there is more going on here than giving you eternal life. If you have been saved, you have been saved to be conformed to the image of Jesus. You have been saved so that the glory of Jesus Christ will be seen in you. R.C. Sproul puts it this way: "The only reason why God has saved me is for the sake of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the reason for the universe. The goal of creation is that Christ might have the pre-eminence." [R. C. Sproul, The Gospel of God: An Exposition of Romans (Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 1994), 152.] God knew from before the beginning whom He would choose, and those whom He had chosen He set aside to be conformed to the image of His son. And those whom He set aside for this transformation, he called to salvation. And those whom He called, He justified - he declared them righteous in Christ. And those whom He justified He will glorify - in the life to come after our physical death, He will eradicate the ravages of sin in us and give us bodies that are no longer subject to decay or death. And He does all this for the sake of bringing glory to His Son. What God has started in you as a believer, God will finish. God's plan is not to make you happy or wealthy or famous; God's plan is to make you more like His perfect and holy Son, and He will use all the hard things, the sad things and the painful things to do it, perhaps even more than He uses the easy things, the happy things and the comfortable things. And make note here: all of these actions - foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification and glorification - all these are the activities of God working in His grace. These are not our actions, but God's. So if God will do all these things for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, then, verse 31: Romans 8:31-32 NASB95 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 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? Now, we all have experienced the feeling that people are against us. That's part of being a Christian. What Paul is saying here is, "Who can prevail against us?" Then he makes an argument from greater to lesser to make the point. This is a common feature of logic in Hebrew writing. If God gave His very own Son to die for we sinners - that's the greater - then why would we wonder if He will give us the things that Paul has written about here? If God gave His very own Son to die for our sins, then why would we wonder if He would give us everything He has promised? Why would we ever wonder about our salvation? These two verses - and the rest of this passage - present one of the strongest arguments in Scripture for the assurance of our salvation. If you have made a true confession of faith - if you have heard and understood who Christ is and what He has done for you, and if you have believed in the truth of those facts, and if you have put your trust in Him because of that belief - then your salvation is sealed. But what if I've done something terrible? What if I've sinned in the high-handed fashion for which there was no sacrifice during the Old Testament times? What if I did something that was wrong, knowing it was wrong and I did it anyway? Look at verse 33: Romans 8:33-34 NASB95 Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. You can be sure that someone will bring charges against you. That's what the devil does. He is the accuser. But Jesus died and was raised from the dead and sits at the right hand of God, interceding for us along with the Holy Spirit. If you have followed Jesus in faith, then you have been justified - God in His great grace has declared you righteous. He has forgiven your sins, past, present and future. And Jesus, who died for your sins, has been given the right to condemn, but remember what Paul wrote at the beginning of this chapter: Romans 8:1 NASB95 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So the devil can whisper accusations against you when you are weak, when you have fallen. He can take away your peace in Jesus Christ by making you swim in your guilt. But you are not condemned. Does this mean we should keep on sinning? What did Paul say about that? Of course not, you big dummy. The devil accuses in order to take away your peace. But the Holy Spirit convicts you of your sin to bring you back into a right relationship with God, one that is the very essence of peace. Your sin injures your relationship with God, but it will never break your fellowship with Him. If you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, then nothing will break that fellowship you have with HIm and with the Father and the Spirit. Look at verse 35: Romans 8:35-36 NASB95 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED." All these things - tribulation, distress, persecution and the others - have been the experience of Christians throughout the last 2,000 years. We have been blessed here in the West to avoid most of them. But just as Jesus, the Lamb of God, was led to the cross to be slaughtered, so we must expect that we will face trials here on earth because we are His followers. Remember what He said to His disciples at the Last Supper? John 15:18 NASB95 "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. So trouble and trials and suffering are to be expected in our lives as Christians. But look at the great promise of verse 37: Romans 8:37 NASB95 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. Perhaps your translation reads "more than conquerors." But that doesn't quite get to the meaning of this Greek word, "hupernikomen." The stem of this word, nikao, means conqueror. And the prefix, "huper" is where we get the prefix "hyper." So we are hyper-conquerors. Translating from the Latin text, we are super-conquerors. We have certain victory through the power of Jesus Christ. Not through our power, but through His, according to God's marvelous grace. "Christians are not grim stoics who manage to muddle through somehow. They are victors who have found from experience that God is ever present in their trials and that the love of Christ will empower them to overcome all the obstacles of life." [Robert H. Mounce, Romans, vol. 27, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 191.] Now as we draw to a close, I want you to savor the words of the next two verses. I want you to bask in the glory of a God who loves us this much. I want you to see the stunning beauty of Paul's conclusion here and to rest in the assurance we have in it. Join me in reading, beginning in verse 38, from whatever version you have in front of you. Romans 8:38-39 NASB95 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. "There is absolutely nothing that can ever drive a wedge between the children of God and their Heavenly Father. It is true that life contains its full share of hardships. But God is at work in all the circumstances of life to conform those whom he has chosen into the likeness of his dear Son." [Robert H. Mounce, Romans, vol. 27, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 192.] Life is hard, and we make it harder than it should be when we sin. But God redeems all of it - the pain, the suffering and even your sins. God is at work in you, and He will complete that work. Nothing and nobody - not even yourself - can separate you from His love. Look how beautiful is this picture that Paul has painted for us! Look at the fine details and rejoice with me in these promises. And it's all because of God's marvelous grace. Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace Freely bestowed on all who believe You who are longing to see His face Will you this moment His grace receive? Page . Exported from Logos Bible Software, 1:31 AM October 11, 2020.