If God Be for Us

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This was a sermon that was given on January 1, 2017 to remind us that God is in control.

Written Excerpts:

Romans 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

Introduction:

As we stand on the threshold of a brand new year, each one of us has a choice to face the year with faith or with fear.

Story of Fear (Illustrations Unlimited.) When you fear that the worst will happen, your own thoughts may help to bring it about. Someone once wrote, "Fear is the wrong use of imagination. It is anticipating the worst, not the best that can happen."

A salesman, driving on a lonely country road one dark and rainy night, had a flat. He opened the trunk—no lug wrench. The light from a farmhouse could be seen dimly up the road. He set out on foot through the driving rain. Surely the farmer would have a lug wrench he could borrow, he thought.

Of course, it was late at night—the farmer would be asleep in his warm, dry bed. Maybe he wouldn't answer the door. And even if he did, he'd be angry at being awakened in the middle of the night.

The salesman, picking his way blindly in the dark, stumbled on. By now his shoes and clothing were soaked. Even if the farmer did answer his knock, he would probably shout something like, "What's the big idea waking me up at this hour?" This thought made the salesman angry. What right did that farmer have to refuse him the loan of a lug wrench? After all, here he was stranded in the middle of nowhere, soaked to the skin. The farmer was a selfish clod—no doubt about that!

The salesman finally reached the house and banged loudly on the door. A light went on inside, and a window opened above. A voice called out, "Who is it?" His face white with anger, the salesman called out, "You know darn well who it is. It's me! And you can keep your blasted lug wrench. I wouldn't borrow it now if you had the last one on earth!"

For a little while today I would like to explore some of the lessons that are expressed or implied in the passage I’ve read from Rom. 8:31. The last 9 verses of Romans 8 are all about God seeing to it that every believer is ultimately victorious.

Paul begins this section with a “loaded question.” “What shall we say to these things?” – What is the final conclusion? What does this all mean?

“these things” – probably a reference back to vv. 29-30; the “links” in the chain of redemption.

He then begins to provide the answer to that question by a series of “rhetorical questions.” (Remember, a rhetorical question is one that has a blatantly obvious answer.) Even though the answer to each rhetorical question is already assumed, Paul goes ahead and follows each one up with an answer that is more thorough.

There are a few questions I would like to ask in order to discover the full impact of this question raised by the Apostle.  Those questions would be:

1.  Who is God?

2.  Is He for us?

3.  Who is against us?

I.  WHO IS THIS GOD THAT PAUL SPEAKS OF?

A.  He is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe.

       Isaiah 40:12-17; 21-26 (NKJV) ¹² Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, Measured heaven with a span And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales And the hills in a balance? ¹³ Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, Or as His counselor has taught Him? ¹⁴ With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, And taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, And showed Him the way of understanding? ¹⁵ Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, And are counted as the small dust on the scales; Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing. ¹⁶ And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, Nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering. ¹⁷ All nations before Him are as nothing, And they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless. ²¹ Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? ²²  It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. ²³  He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless. ²⁴ Scarcely shall they be planted, Scarcely shall they be sown, Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth, When He will also blow on them, And they will wither, And the whirlwind will take them away like stubble. ²⁵ “To whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal?" says the Holy One. ²⁶ Lift up your eyes on high, And see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of His might And the strength of His power; Not one is missing.

This is the God that Paul is talking about. What if He is for us? Who can possibly be against us?

B.  He is infinite in knowledge and strength and every other attribute.

II.  IS HE FOR US?

There are a myriad of references in the entire Bible that would indicate God is for us – not in the sense that He promises to give us everything we want, or follow our every desire. But the Bible is clear about the fact that God is for us in the sense that He loves us far more than we can comprehend and He has done everything necessary so we can know Him and follow Him.

The real answer to this question is found in the very next verse (v. 32). He 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? – He will give us all things necessary because He already has!

The fact that God is for us is proven by the sending of His own Son as a substitute sacrifice for each of us.

III.  WHO IS AGAINST US?

It is obvious that Satan is against us and the world is against us. 

See: 1 Pet. 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:  

John 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

These two references alone ought to teach us that we cannot make a decision to trust Christ and then expect to “coast” on in to heaven.

No, we have an enemy that is out to destroy us and if we’re not diligently seeking God’s will, His grace and His strength, we will be overcome before we know it.

However, Paul’s question is not raising the issue of whether anyone is against us, but whether it will do them any good to be against us. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” – The obvious answer is: it doesn’t matter, whoever it is, or whatever it is, they will not defeat us. They cannot undo what God has done and they cannot destroy the work that Christ has accomplished.

This includes every kind of adversity. (See verses 35-37)  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." ³⁷ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

When God is for us, then none of these things mentioned can defeat us or destroy us.

Conclusion:

Someone has said, “If God be for us, everyone else might as well be too!”

That is my conclusion as well.

Face this year with confidence that God is faithful and He will get us safely through by His infinite grace.

Let us sing the closing hymn, Day by Day