Blessed Assurance: It's All Good! - Romans 8:31-39
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
Well, I'm excited this morning to jump back into our Roman series. We, I think we kicked off the first year with this and we went all the way until I think it was the end of May. And then we took a break in our impossible moments series for the summer. And now we're gonna jump back in and we're gonna finish out the rest of the book of Romans and finish just before Thanksgiving. So I'm excited about this. It's gonna be a great time. Maybe some of us have been around this. You're familiar with Romans. Maybe this is first time you're hearing of our series in this, but I just wanna say welcome. So glad that you are here. And so we left off just before the end of chapter eight. And Paul up to this point had been writing to the church in Rome, this letter. So this is a standalone letter that would have been written in its entirety to the church in Rome. And we kind of have a disservice in that and that we only see bits and pieces of it week in and week out. And so we, as a whole, the book of Romans is all about the power of the gospel. And Paul here in his very much lawyer analytical mind has broken down each and every piece of the power of the gospel. Some to a point where you think he's arguing with someone where he just keeps coming back. And then what about this? And then what about this? And what about that? We're gonna have a little bit of that today in our chapter, the end of chapter eight. but Paul here is making the most solid concrete with absolutely lock down power of the argument, of the power of gospel, where it comes from, what it's about and how it changes our lives. And so this has been our heart in this series to really dive into this letter and try to take it chunk by chunk and try to piece together what Paul here is saying. 'Cause sometimes you just, you get lost. you're just feel like you're either lost because he's saying all this stuff, or you feel like you've just been handed, you just been a dump truck of information on you that you're just in information overload. And you try to be, where do we even begin with this? And so we are here coming to a point, some scholars would say that is like the pinnacle of the book of Romans.
Paul here has been since verse one in chapter one, building this entire argument about the power of the gospel, and Paul's gonna cap it here, and then we're gonna hit this downward slide on the other side, and basically what this means to our lives. And so this is kind of a turning point in this series, a perfect time to jump back in in this book, but we're gonna be in Romans chapter eight, starting in verse 31. And so just a quick recap on chapter eight itself, so you can get some context and background. Paul here has been talking about this idea of how amazing this Christ is. He says in verse one in chapter eight, "Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." This is this beautiful picture in this passage of all about the gospel of Jesus. And then in verse 15, he says, "The Spirit that you received," the Holy Spirit that comes on us when we accept Christ, "The Spirit that you received does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again." because we were slaves to our sin before we came under Jesus. He doesn't make us slaves again, rather the spirit you see brought you to a place of adoption to sonship in Christ Jesus. And by him that we can cry out to God, Abba Father. When we come into this relationship with Jesus and we accept his salvation, his love and his grace and his mercy, it changes us. It changes our last name. It changes our inheritance. It changes who we are, and we are given a completely new identity, which is under the umbrella of Jesus Christ. And this is amazing here that Paul Key continues on in verse 18, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." Paul here is saying that when we are adopted, we were brought into this new family, that our present sufferings aren't important. Our present sufferings don't matter. We're gonna dig in a little bit more on this this morning, but compared to the glory, our inheritors that we receive, what is that glory? That's salvation, that's eternal life in heaven with Jesus for then and forevermore. And then Paul, just before this, in verses 28 to 30, it says, "And we know that all things God works for the good of those who love Him and who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he called. And those he called, he also justified. And those he justified, he also glorified." Paul takes us through the steps of when we accept this salvation piece from Jesus, this happens, and then this happens, and this happens, and this happens. And today we're gonna dig into Paul talking about this incredible assurance that we have been given in our gift of Jesus that he gave to us. And so before we dive in, I'd like to pray real quick. And then we're gonna take this little section by section and learn about God's assurance today.
Heavenly Father Jesus, thank you for this morning, God. Thank you for our worship through singing, God, as we worship through your word now, Jesus, I pray that you would use this moment to transform us. Maybe in this moment, we could be given a little more of a boldness, maybe God, that we can live out our life knowing that it's all taken care of. And then we don't have to worry about what might be around this corner or that corner, or think of the stressors that may try to derail us off of the focus that you want for our lives. And so Jesus, I pray that your servant Paul and his words would transform our hearts this morning through the power of the Holy Spirit. We thank you, Jesus. Amen.
Well, Paul here is gonna jump right in and basically just throw out this argument. He starts here, verse 31. He says, "So what then shall we say in response to these things?" What shall we say to all this argument that Paul has started from verse one, all the way to this point, eight chapters later. So what do we say then? If God is for us, who can be against us? If God is for us, who can be against us? Did he not spare his own son, but gave him up for all of us? How will we heed not also along with Him graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one, Jesus Christ who died. Not more than that, who was raised to life is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. These verses here, Paul says, so now that we have this basis understanding of this power of the gospel in Jesus Christ, but from God the father through Jesus Christ into the Holy spirit, into our lives, what do we say then? So Paul's basically saying, so what now? Where do we go from here? What do we do with all this information that we have now? And Paul here in these is gonna out lie this idea of these promises and these good and wonderful blessings that when we belong to Jesus, we are given ourselves. In these blessings, I'm not talking about the perfect paycheck. I'm not talking about the perfect house, the car, the shoes, the phone, the health. I'm not talking about any of that stuff. I'm not talking about the newest gadget, the newest gizmo, whatever that you have been lately chasing or focused on or thinking about. I'm not talking about those blessings. Paul here is talking about this new life, this new affections, this new home in the heaven that we have been given that has prepared for us by Jesus. God himself, and Paul wrote this, God himself gave the gift of his son so that each of us might be able to experience this great depth of love for us. This is a good blessing. But let's just think about that. He gave Jesus, God gave Jesus And Paul here is making an argument of, if he is gonna give us Jesus, which is the greatest thing that we need, won't he also give us the things that he has promised? Wouldn't he also give that to, if he was able to figure out and solve our biggest problem of death, don't you think he can take care of all the little things too? Don't you think he has a power to be able to take care of that? Don't you think that he is faithful, that he is loving, that he is full of good blessings for us? Paul here is saying, what's more about this is that we don't have to worry about what others might say about us or do to us because we know that God is for us. That God is doing everything that he possibly can, more than what enough that we need to be able to solve all the problems, all the things that we're struggling with, we're walking through, we're dealing with, we're facing every single day, every single moment. And he says right there, "And if God is for us, who can be against us?”
Church, I wanna tell you today that it's all good. I want you to say that with me. We're gonna, I'm gonna start this and we're throughout this sermon, I'm gonna kind of point out and I'm gonna say, church, what does this mean? And you're gonna respond back to me and you say, it's all good. All right? So I wanna practice saying that together. Ready, ready? On the count of three, one, two, three. Oh yes, I love it. That's it, okay? I'm not doing like quiet church today, okay? We're gonna have a little talk back here with this, all right? So it's all good. And then what is in this is the idea of God's justification in Christ, that we are justified. A simple way to break this word down is just if I had never sinned. That is how Christ or God views us because of Christ's gift for us. Is that we not only, it's not like just like Jesus did a repair job on us. Like, you know, you got the phone and you like break the screen and you gotta take it somewhere to get it fixed And you don't go to Apple because, or any name brand, 'cause it's like $500. You find some guy on Yelp or a friend of a friend, you order a screen off eBay and have it shipped from China, and then you follow the YouTube video and try to fix yourself, right? Anybody else? No, that's just me, I'm the weirdo, okay. But when you get that screen back on, your phone just never the same, right? The button never clicks just right, the camera, the front facing camera just has a weird color to it. Like your phone is never the same as it was when you opened that box that first day and pulled it out and set it up. I love tech, I'm a nerd, okay? So this is, just stick with me on this one, all right? Jesus doesn't just fix our broken screen. Jesus takes us and gives us a brand new life. Just if I, it's like getting that phone repaired and just if you had never cracked the screen, just if you had never used it, just if it was a brand new life. That's what Paul here is talking about. And because of that church. Yeah, okay, I know some of you are slow with that, but we'll get there, okay? By the end of this room, be on it. But Paul here is saying, so if that is truly the case, who can condemn us? Who can put us down? Who can push us to the side? Who can say you're not good enough? Who can say you don't have it all together? Anybody? Nobody.
Nobody can say that God has already justified us and he is now moving on to the next piece, which is a sanctification piece and ultimately glorification with the face of Jesus in heaven is where we're headed. And so when we have this thing, Jesus, God has made us holy. He is making us holy and he will one day make us fully holy. So when life hits you, remind yourself that God is for you. When people say that you're not good enough, remind you that Jesus says you're good enough. When someone decides that you're no longer worth loving, you can remind yourself that God loves you. When you're hurt by someone who's supposed to be your friend you remind yourself that God is for you. And when Satan tries to tempt you or throw you off your tracks or remind you that you can't do this, you're not good enough, you're not worthy, you're not even worth an ounce of anything that God is for you. And so again, who can be against you? There is no commendation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Jesus took all of that, took it to the grave on the cross, and then now is taking care of that for you. And because of that, we can live a celebrated life, right? It's all good, I love it. That you know what I'm saying here, church, right? Yes, there we go. That Jesus, when he died, he was raised again, and he's sitting at the right hand of God, interceding for us saying, "Hey, that's my kid right there. That's my son, that's my daughter. They're mine. That adoption piece, they're mine. They have my last name. They're part of my family. That's who they are. And now we can see these great blessings, good blessings. And we can remind ourselves. Yes, I'm gonna keep doing this. So either you can be a part of it or you can just be there and not be a part of it.
Paul continues on. He says in verse 35, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness, or danger or sword? For it is written for your sake, we face death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." Paul reminds us, who can separate us from the love of God? Nothing. Paul here, he's talking about these amazing blessings and time and time again, He's saying why life matters now. 'Cause before, if we think about life before, it didn't always matter, right? Life didn't always matter before Christ, but life because of Christ matters to each and every one of us. But what if somehow we could lose these blessings? I don't know about you, I might be a little skeptical. And I might think, how can we know for sure? We might lose it. 'Cause the reality is there's other blessings that we can lose, right? There's other things in life that we can lose. One day you can have great health and the next day you wake up and you can get news that you got your terminal illness, you got cancer, you got something that is going to change your life forever. Life's fragile. You can have the nice retirement plan set up, the 401k, the investments, the Roth IRA, You can have everything set. And one day you wake up and the market does that. Just like that. And it's gone. I'll pay you later, dad, for that. That was perfect timing. But that's true, right? You can wake up one day and the person who's supposed to be the lover of your life will tell you, I don't love you anymore. You can have your church betray you. It happens. You can have your pastor betray you. That new car you got that still got that new shiny car smell on the inside could get hit on the way home this afternoon, it'd be over, it's gone. Blessings in life disappear. And so I think for us, it's hard to wrestle with this, to go like, God, how do you say that this is for sure, for sure? How can we know that we know that we know? And Paul here, he's breaking this down and reminding us that nothing can separate us from the love of Jesus. The greatest thing that nobody could ever overcome death, Jesus overcame it and he gave that to us. And so we may die here on earth, real possibility, everybody faces it, but our biggest problem of eternal death has been flipped upside down because the power of Christ that we can live in eternity with Jesus in heaven. And nothing can separate us from the love that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Why? (congregation murmurs) Yes, Joseph was early, I love it. He's locked in. Notice though that Paul doesn't say here that we won't encounter things that will try to hurt us, will try to destroy us or try to separate us from the love of God. See the most of them time we have, we can't go a single day without the enemy trying to come at us, right? We can't go sometimes in even an hour without something trying to come at us to knock us off our groove and to try to pull us into despair and darkness.
Paul here, he's actually quoting Psalm 44:22 and says, "Yet for your sake, we face death all day long. "We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." It's kind of a bit aggressive language here, right? But this verse was written all the way back in the early days of Israel. And Paul here, I think is doing two things. One, he's reminding us that even ever since that verse was written, every single day something has happened. The enemy knows they're gonna lose. And so they will do every single thing that they can to knock us off our game, to mess up our focus, to pull our thoughts away from where they need to be on the cross. Paul is reminding us that long time ago has always been a point of struggle. But not only that, that there's this promise to point us to Jesus, even in the midst of that, that nothing can separate us from God, nothing. Because that verse, year after year after year had been worshiped, prayed over, repeated, And yet God still brought victory. God still took and held the promises that he had given us of life eternal in heaven. That even though that verse, it may be true, that Jesus still wins. The other promise in this is our focus on a good future. That if all of this is true, even a tiny bit, that in the good blessing, the good security and the good future that we have in eternity, Paul finishes out this section in a few verses, he says, no, in all of these things, We are more than conquerors. I love that. We are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are conquerors. It's all good. Where we're not only just barely surviving, we're not just barely scraping by. We're not just a little bit of life left in us. We are conquerors. We are victorious in Christ Jesus. We come through on top by the power of the cross.
And those who are in God, the final outcome will always be good. Whether good on this side of eternity or on there. Last week, we wrapped up our impossible moments series and we had talked through a lot of this stuff. And we spent the summer going story after story after story after story of how God showed up in so many people's lives. And we gave out the bubble gum, you guys remember? Chew. And the idea of the E there is an eternal perspective. Paul here is saying that because of the gift of Jesus that we have in His grace, we're able to have an eternal perspective. Because before that we couldn't, right? Before that we didn't have the ability to fix it ourselves. Every greatest attempt that from any greatest person ever still fell short. But it's in Jesus that we were given the power for Him to transform us, to justify us just if I had never sinned. That gives us the eternal perspective. We know how the story ends, right? We've been singing a song this summer that we know how the story ends. we will be with you again. That's our eternal perspective. We know that these sufferings of this world do not compare with the glory that will be revealed to us. We know that we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. We know that there is no condemnation for us. We know that all things work together for us. We know that the final outcome for the children of God will always be good. and that no affliction, no distress, no persecution, no famine, no nakedness, no danger, no sword, no death, no life, no angels, no rulers, not things present, not things to come, not powers, not height, not death, not COVID-19, not politics, not racism, not school violence, not high fuel prices, not inflation, not hypocrisy by other Christians, not negativity in the church, not nothing ever created will be able to separate us from the love of Christ Jesus that is our Lord. There's nothing. Rest in that promise today. If you're to take away anything today, take away this. I want you to be encouraged. Be encouraged today. Why? It's all good. It's all good.
Paul here is reminding us in the church and in Rome of this very same truth, that no matter what we face, God still has the final word. Even when we think all hope is lost, even when we think everything is falling apart around us, even when we think I don't even know how I'm gonna wake up tomorrow, Jesus is right there. He's still got something to say about it. Even if you and I are done talking about it, Jesus still has a word. It's because of this power, the resurrection of Christ Jesus, we too share in the same blessed assurance that many of us have experienced. Each of you has a story. And I know a lot of some of your stories that you guys have been at the end of your rope. You guys have been there and you thought, I don't know what tomorrow's gonna hold. I don't know what tomorrow's gonna bring. I know some of you and others that have gotten to such the dark place that you thought about taking your lives. And if I was to ever try to tell something to you in those places, in those moments, it's all good. It's all good because we have a blessed assurance in Christ Jesus. So I got a couple of questions for us to take away this morning when we close out. The first question is to think about how God has been good to you. Maybe it was a green light this morning. I took my daughter to some testing this week, just some placement testing for school. And we got a green light and I just in the car, I was like, thank you Jesus. And Addie turned to me, she's like, for what? I was like, that green light, baby. We don't always get those anymore. How has God been good to you? I hope it's something bigger than a green light. Maybe it's just a green light and that's okay. Let's start there. How has God been good to you? Do you remember when maybe you were still a sinner before Jesus? You remember how Jesus reached out to you? Remember when you were walking in death and slavery and God's love still shine through the darkness. How has God given you new life and new freedom? Has God promised you this new home in heaven? How has God given you victory in this life? And then the second one, which I think is even more important, is who needs to know of this goodness of God in your life? Who needs to hear about this blessed assurance because, (congregation murmurs) It's all good.
See, the reality is the world around us is hurting. Our world is hurting and Jesus brings healing. The world is confused, but Jesus brings clarity. The world is dying and Jesus brings life. The world is in darkness and Jesus brings his light. So who in this world needs to know about Jesus? I love Cheryl even starting this thought this morning of us of different people in our lives that need this assurance, that are struggling through so many things. The exact same thing I'm talking about here. So you already have names on your mind. I'm just here to remind you that it's all good. And people in this world need to know why it's all good and how it's all good. I had three names that came to my mind. My friend, Mike, my barber, Ian, and another buddy of mine, Daniel. And they're all going through stuff right now. Who in your life needs to know the goodness of God? The world needs to know that God offers them love from which nothing in creation can separate them from. 100% guarantee. You don't get those in life anymore. A 100% guarantee. The question for us is, will we tell them? Will we tell them? Or will we just continue to live our lives with God's goodness in us? Show up on Sunday and praise Jesus and get in our car, go have lunch, spend the rest of our Sunday and start our work week over again. Will we tell them, will you share God's goodness with others this week, even now? It doesn't mean you gotta bash them over the head with Jesus immediately. For me right now, God has asked me just to tell these three dudes in my life that I'm praying for them and that the life that they're walking through right now, some hard stuff, is that somebody is in their corner, thinking about them and praying for them. It's where it starts. Somebody did that for your life, right? Somebody did that for your life at some point, and it changed you. Challenge yourself to do that this week, seriously. We got these Oikos cards in the back of the seats, and those cards are there just for you to write names down and to carry with you to be intentional about praying for them, intentional about remembering them, intentional about showing up in their life. That's what those cards are about. So maybe you need to take one, maybe you need a fresh one. We haven't talked about it in a while, but challenge yourself this week to put names before you to start praying over them for you to have an opportunity maybe to invite them to an event, to church, to coffee. It doesn't have to be a church thing you always bring them to. He could just be hanging out and praying the whole time, Jesus, open up a door, Jesus, open up a door, Jesus, open up a door. And it might not happen, but you're there. You're showing up, it's half the battle. So why do we do this? We have blessed assurance. We have great blessings. We have a wonderful, great future. - It's all good.
Pray with me. Jesus, we thank you for this morning. God, we're so grateful for your son, Paul, who took time to write this letter for this church in Rome, that even thousands of years later, we would dig into, we would be reminded of your goodness. So Jesus, I pray that today, as we go from this place, that you would peep those names of those people on our hearts and on our minds, that we would continue to pray for them, we would continue to lift them up to you, we would continue to show up with the presence of Jesus on who we are in their lives, not for us, not for our glory, not for the say, "Hey, look how many more people I saved," but to go, "There are so many hurting people in this world that need you, and this is where I start." So Jesus, I pray that you would put those names heavy on our hearts today and this week and the next week and the next week and the next week to continue to share your goodness with those in our lives. Jesus, we thank you, we love you, we praise you today. Amen. - Thanks for listening. And if you would, please take a moment to subscribe and leave an encouraging review to help others find our podcasts on whatever platform you are listening on. We hope you have a wonderful day. We'll catch you next week.