turn there. Hopefully they still just naturally open there, you know, since we last time we met. We're getting toward the end of the chapter, soon approaching that 9th chapter, and Dave's been preparing. But you're about ready, aren't you? You are ready. He said, just get there. He says, get there because he's going to get up and he's going to recite from memory the whole 9th chapter for us. I want to get to that chapter 9. But today, we're in chapter 8, starting in verse 31. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charges against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is it to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who is raised? Who is the right hand of God? Who indeed is interceding for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, Sword, as it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor tribulation nor things present nor things to come nor powers, nor heights, nor depths, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Oh, Father, what a passage. God, I pray that You would cause us to see the the depth and the wonder of all that You've done, Lord, on our behalf. We need to fear no one or nothing. And Father, I also pray that not only do we know those truths, but feel them in our hearts. Remember them at time of need. And may You use those to bless and strengthen Your people in Christ's name. Amen. So now we come to one of the most glorious conclusions, really, of chapter 8, the triumph of God's saving grace. You know, it seems like, and I apologize, as we've been going through chapter 8, oh, I would read verse 1 and say, man, this is the greatest verse in all the Bible. And then, you know, therefore there's no condemnation, right? I mean, that's a great, great verse. And then I have to stand up, you know, a week or two later and say, well, here's one that's even better. How about this one is the greatest verse? Romans 8.28, the promise that, as we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. And I apologize as we got down closer to the end of the chapter and we came to the five links, the five golden links of salvation. I said, hold your horses. Here's one that's even better. And we went through that over several weeks. Those of you who are new, predestined. Those whom He predestined, He called. Those He called, He justified. Those whom He justified, He also glorified. How great is that? So, you might think they can't get any better than that. Well, I'm going to have to eat my words, I think, today and come back and say, because it's going to get much better, much bigger, more glorious than all that we've seen already in the book of Romans chapter 8. So I thought maybe a crescendo would be the right description for this passage at the very end. It kind of bursts forth in a crescendo. And then as I wrote crescendo down in my notes in preparation for this message, I said, that's not loud enough. Crescendo doesn't quite communicate enough. So I got my thesaurus out and I looked up crescendo. How about apex? No, not apex. This is the apex of Romans 8, the peak, the pinnacle, or some of the other words, terms. The other one was critical mass. This is the critical mass of Romans 8. And what I came up with my own mind, I was trying to find words to describe these last few verses. There's an explosive chain reaction here at the end. And if you would think of Romans 8 all the way up to verse 31, in other words, 1 through 30, as a wonderful 4th of July display of all the fireworks. I mean, they're glorious, right? I mean, fireworks are glorious. We've seen that in the first opening verses. But now we're down to the point where we've come to the finale of the fireworks display. That's when they all go off and they make all kinds of noise and you know it's all over with at that point. This is the finale. This is the grand finale of Romans 8. Nothing will ever separate you from the love of God. Nothing can cause you to ever forfeit your salvation. All things in Christ and all who are in Christ are saved and are saved not only today, but will be saved for what? All eternity. Now there's no greater news than that. These verses are full of assurance and hope and confidence. And so my prayer is that you might leave here today, having looked at these first two verses, having some of your doubts cast out. some of your worries distilled and dismayed and put aside. I'm confident that nothing, and hopefully you'll leave here confident, that nothing, nothing, no one, no thing, nada, will ever separate you from the love of God, that that will be emblazoned in your mind and understanding in your heart, that you'll never be tempted to think that you'll be separated from God. I mean, look at your Bible and look how explosive this glorious chain reaction begins, the first salvo in this final 4th of July finale. Look at verse 31 in your Bible, I'm sure it's true of every translation that's here, and what's the ending punctuation? It's a question mark. And isn't that interesting? It opens with a question. In fact, if you look down through almost to the end of that passage, you're going to see a lot of question marks. In fact, you're going to see six question marks if you're going to count them. One here, 31 all the way down to the end. And what Paul is doing is he's shifting gears as a teacher. And he's going from didactically teaching and lecturing us about the great and glorious doctrine of justification by faith, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, what it means to be in Christ, the fact is, you know, the security of the believer, those who may be justified will be glorified. And now he's going to ask questions. And this is a good way to teach. Do you realize that asking questions is a good way to teach? When I went to law school, I was introduced to the Socratic method of learning. My brother over here is smiling. We'll talk afterwards. But anyway, the Socratic way of learning. And basically, welcome to three years of us asking you questions. And you're going to learn the law through questions. following a pattern of Socrates, philosopher who was known for teaching his disciples. through entering into discussion and with conversation and asking questions. Now, he believed that the truth was in everybody, so that if you could ask enough questions, you'd be able to get the truth out of them. That's not the biblical perspective, but asking questions is a good way to teach others, especially open-ended questions. They're not yes and no answers, but provoke a thought of the mind to give an answer. And not only did we actually have questions asked us, that's how we learned, but whenever we asked a question, we got another question back as the answer. So the whole thing was a conversation and questions in law school. Now some of you might, this might sound like an absolutely ridiculous way to teach somebody to ask questions. But I believe it's an effective way that we can communicate truth is through asking questions. I try and do that when I'm teaching like a Bible study. You'll notice I'll try and bring questions into a sermon that I'm preaching because I believe what it does, it brings us more engaged into the subject matter. I mean, if a person gets up here and drones on, and drones on lecturing you with all the finer points of theology, you know, your head kind of drops down and pretty soon you're asleep. And pretty soon, you know, if you're trying to really listen hard, you're hearing, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And yet, a Socratic method, I believe, keeps the mind listening. It helps keep the mind engaged because you're trying to think of answers. And then if you don't know the answers, it makes you more eager to hear the teaching that's going to answer the questions. By the way, this was one of the methods that our Lord used in His teaching. Not necessarily Socratic, but He used the asking of questions as a way of teaching others. I was reading where there's over a hundred different examples in the New Testament of Christ asking a question of those who are listening to Him. It's very common. You know, one example is found over in Luke chapter 9. And there it says, verse 18, now it happened that as He was praying alone, here's a teaching opportunity, the disciples were with Him. And he not lectured them, he asked them, who do the crowds think that I am? What a question. Here he was about ready to pray. Who do the crowds think that I am? Now there's the broad overarching question. That's going to get narrower. There's going to be another question to follow the question. Verse 19, and they answered, well, John the Baptist. But others say Elijah, and others that one of the prophets of the old has risen, maybe Moses. So then he narrowed it down to a second question. Rather than give him the right answer, he gave him a second question. Well then, who do you say that I am? See, the first question, who do they say I am? Who does all the world say that I am? But who do you say that I am? Very penetrating question. Now they had to answer for themselves. And Peter answered and said, the Christ of God, the anointed one, the one that was sent by God. And of course, there is the teaching for us. You know, the use of questions is incorporated also into Paul's teachings, as we see here in this passage. I went, you know, it was one of those weeks where I went through and decided to count all the questions in the book of Romans. I had to do it three or four times because every time I counted, I got a different number. Now, I settled on 58. I'm not going to die on this hill, but at least 58 questions in the book of Romans that Paul's asking as a way of teaching those who are reading that letter. So as we come to the end of Romans 8, in verses 31 to 37, there's six questions right there we're going to look at. I mean, the first one's in verse 31. You can see it right there. There's a question mark. What then shall we say to these things? Another one follows right on the heels of that. If God is for us, who's against us? Question mark. Verse 32. How will we not also with Him graciously give us all things? Verse 33. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? Question mark. 34. Who is to condemn? 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Another question. Shall tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, or nakedness, danger, or sword, any These are seven questions, which implied in every question is the answer. You almost know the answer by the question that's being asked. And I pray that each one of these questions, as we look at them, will flood your hearts with a sense of assurance, a sense of confidence, security, and joy for being in Christ. Paul's being the good shepherd. He's being the good teacher. What does a good teacher do? Not only does he ask questions of his students, but he also anticipates their objections. And one of the things I know a preacher needs to do is they're looking out and you know that everything's coming out of the lips and talk and you're wondering, I wonder what they're thinking. I wonder what the congregation is thinking. I wonder what objections they're having to these things that are being said. And so you try and anticipate those objections, and then you try and address those objections as part of your sermon or part of your lesson. So Paul's being a good shepherd, and as he anticipates the objections of the flock or the sheep, I mean, he knows he just wrote Romans 8.28. He wrote that all things work together for good. All things in life are working together for good. He knew that he just wrote 830 and 2930. He talked about that chain of foreknowledge and predestination and calling and justification, and they will all be glorified. And I'm sure what went through his mind was this. There is someone who's going to be reading this letter that's going to say, yeah, but I've had chains break. I've had links fall out. You know, just because you start with foreknowledge, is it really sure that maybe I'll be that one exception that's going to fall away and not make it to glorification? The objection might be like this. Is there anyone that could pull me away from Christ? How about myself? Could I pull myself away from Christ? Is there anything, any event that could pull me away from Christ? anything that could cause me to lose my salvation. And so Paul, taking this objection on the heels of verse 30, opens up with one of those umbrella questions, overarching questions. And he's going to have a bunch of smaller questions that falls underneath it. It's a question that's designed to draw you in. It's a question to make your ears perk up. It's a question designed to make you begin to think while you listen, and then ask yourself more questions, and to anticipate and be eager to hear the answer to the question. You know, most questions are designed to give you a lead into a philosophical or a theological truth. So you ask the question, and then the answer is, well, you're the Christ, the Son of the living God. But I believe these questions are arranged and framed in such a way that not only do they bring us knowledge. about our relationship to Christ and our security in Christ. But I believe they're designed to touch your emotions, your feelings. That not only do you realize, okay, intellectually, yeah, I'm saved. Once saved, always saved. I'll never lose my salvation. Check. No, that you actually feel that in your heart. And it actually impacts you in such a way that it produces joy in your heart. Paul wants you to not only know truth, but he wants you to feel that truth. And that's why one of the proper uses of theology, people say, I don't know about theology. You know what theology does? Theology was designed by God to produce doxology. So it wasn't to give you greater head knowledge so you can go on Jeopardy and pass the Bible quiz. and go to double jeopardy and win all the money. That's not the purpose of it at all. The purpose of theology is not to puff up your head with more facts. The purpose of theology is that you would burst forth with doxology and praise and worship to God for who He is. So these questions should bring in all of our hearts a sense of wonder for what God has done. and this should outpour in the area of worship. Here's the first question, verse 31. Look at it in your own scripture. You know it probably by heart. What then shall we say to these things? There's the question, question mark. What shall we say? In light of all that I've just said, what conclusion can we reach based on all that's gone before? It's a rhetorical question. But we have to ask ourselves a question about the question. What does he mean by these things? What things? When he says, what shall we say about these things? It's interesting, you know, I think we would all agree, and I think most commentators that I have on my shelf agree that it for sure goes back to verses 18 to 30 in chapter 8. these things that are immediately preceding in 18 to 30. You know, the promise that all things are working together for good with the chain of salvation that we saw at the very end. But I think we have license to go back even further before chapter 8. In fact, Some commentators like to go back to chapter 5 verse 1 and start there and say everything between 5.1 and 8.30 is included. Remember, 5.1 is where he really introduces the whole doctrine of justification by faith. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we have also obtained access by faith into the grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And so from there, you take it all the way to the end, all the way through Romans. the union with Christ, the dwelling of the Spirit, and all the promises that come from that relationship of justification and sanctification, all those things. Martin Lloyd-Jones takes even more license. He goes all the way back to Romans 1.17. where we read, "...for in the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as is written, the righteous shall live by faith." And there we have really that one verse that I think is the verse for the whole book of Romans stating the theme of the whole book. And then he would trace that all the way to the end. It doesn't really matter how far you go back because most of it is summarized in chapter 8. But here's the all things. All things are all things pertaining to your godliness and your salvation. All things. What then should we say to these things, all the things that relate to your salvation, all the things that God has done? What should we say about this justification by faith? What should we say about we stand in grace as we saw earlier? What should we say that we have righteousness that's in Christ and our union with Him and the breaking of the power of of reigning sin in our life by the Holy Spirit and the role of the Spirit in sanctifying us and making us more like Christ. What do we say to all those things? Do they require a response? Does it require a conclusion? If God has done all of that for you, these things that God has done to save you. Now, he answers that question with another question. If God is for you then, who can be against you? Who can be against us? If, maybe a better translation would be since, since God is for you, it's not if He's for you, we know He's for us, since God is for us, who can be against you or against us? Even the word for there is an important word because If God is for you, think about that. Think of the pronoun He could have put there instead of for. He could have said, you know, since God is in us, He could have said that. He could have said, if God is, yes, for us, near us, in us, with us. And those are all true, but think about the word for us. Think of the force behind that word that God is for us. That's more than God being with us. That's more than God being in us. See the strength of the preposition here. And God is actively acting in such a way that He's acting for you, for your good, for your salvation. He's saving you. He's defending you. He's keeping you. He's sanctifying you. He will glorify you. He's for you. And here's my question for all of us. Do you see God that way? When you think about God in your life, do you think of a God who is for you as a Christian? Not just on your side, but He's there more than on your side. He's fighting your battles for you. When I went back, you know, we just recently went through A Mighty Fortress is Our God for Reformation Sunday, and I just… God for us, this hymn came to my mind. You know, a mighty fortress is our God. It's a God who's for us. He's battling for us. He's a bulwark that never fails. He's our helper in time of need. We're not the right man on our side, a man of God's own choosing. He's going to win the battle. He's for us. He will win the battle, and the Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him who with us sides us, with us. He's for us. He's siding with us. And it's all for your good, and it's all for your ultimate salvation. You know, when my boys were young, and Matt's here today, I'm glad you're with us, Matt. Remember Little League? Yeah. You know, whenever I went to one of Matt's or any of my other son's Little League games, it was like, you know, I'm rooting for them. I'm for them. I'm for their team, number one. I want their team to win. And I'm going to do everything I can to help their team to win. And all I could do is cheer for them. Be there. I wish you could do more. But then when your son gets up there to bat, Now I'm for my son in a way that I'm not even for the team. I want him to hit a home run. I want him to catch the fly. And I'm going to do everything I can as a father to be for him to do that. But see, your heavenly Father is far greater than that. He's more than your cheerleader. He gives you the strength and the will of Almighty God to be on your side to do whatever He's purposed in your life. I mean, if you take that baseball analogy a little bit further, I mean, He would be not only cheering, He'd be down on the field. And when you're up to bat, His hands would be on your hands. And when the pitch comes, He's there taking your arms. And He's going to swing that bat with all the mighty power of God Himself. And it's going to be a home run. He's for us, actively for us. And when it comes to your salvation, everything that He is, all of His divine attributes, including His wonderful infinite love, is for you. You will win. You will not lose spiritually. God is on your side. He is for you. You will be glorified. You will not be lost. God is for who? He says, for us. Who's the us? That's all of His elect. We saw that in 28 through 30. It's all who love God, all who are called by God, all who are foreknown by God, all who read destiny for the foundation of the world by God, all who are called and justified. They will be glorified. None will be lost because God is for us, His people. And then we see, since God is for His elect, and He is. Since God is for all who trust in Jesus Christ, and He is. God is for all who believe in the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, He is. If you have all the power of Almighty God who spoke the universe into being, who rose up Jesus Christ from the dead, the question he asked, then who could be against you? As a Christian, we know that we have enemies in this life, don't we? We've seen that already in Romans. I mean, if you're a believer here today, I'll tell you right now, you are in the crosshairs of the devil. He's got a bead on you, and he's waiting to shoot his fiery darts at you. That's what Ephesians 6 tells us. And you got a world out there that stands in opposition to you. You're not a friend of the world. It's an enemy to you. It's out there with all its flashing neon lights, luring you to come into itself. But you know, one of the biggest enemies you have to defeat you is yourself. You are your own worst enemy, the flesh within us. If left to ourselves, think about this. If you were left to your fleshly self, do you think you'd be glorified? Absolutely not. You would fall from grace. There's no way you can keep yourself saved in the flesh. And the flesh is doing everything it can to unwind you of the very grace of God that has saved you. It's an enemy. And so what does it want you to do? I'm tired of being a Christian. I'm going to throw the towel in and call it quits." That's the flesh. Now if you're in Christ and God has done all these things for you because He's on your side, Paul is saying what? There's nothing. Who's against us? What's implied in the question? Nothing. No one can be against us. Which of these can defeat your Christian life? Which one of these could take you off the rails and cast you into ultimate destruction? Which of these can defeat the eternal plan of Almighty God in your life? You know, think with me of all the threats that are out there. You know, some of you might have young people that are either in college or going to college. And I think one of the greatest fears of a parent would be, you mean I'm going to send my kids that believe in Jesus to the University of Wyoming, where they're going to be swallowed up by liberal professors who's going to do everything they can, philosophically or whatever the subject matter is, biology, to unwind their faith, and they're going to lose their salvation at the university? I mean, does a verse like this speak to that situation? I mean, it says that if your child is in Christ, who can be against us? Can that professor defeat your faith? No. You might think that they can. They can't. They can't defeat your faith. And so as we go through here, what about the unbelieving spouse? You're married, and you're married to an unbelieving spouse, and can that unbelieving spouse unwind your faith and cause you to turn away from Christ and lose your salvation? Sometimes we think, we talk like, yeah, maybe they could, but they can't. Why not? Because of the question that Paul just asked, who can be against this? The answer is nobody. Then what about yourself? That's the biggest enemy you have of your salvation, is what about yourself? Can you tire out being a Christian and just, I've done it, I've been there, I've done that, I'm out of here? Well, if you're not saved, you could. It's tiring to be a Christian in the flesh. But if you're truly converted by Christ, you will never turn from Christ ultimately because even yourself cannot be against yourself. There have been times in your life where you want to turn back, throw in the towel, give up, stop believing, turn away. I see you're here today. I believe you probably haven't done that. If you didn't do that, the question is, why didn't you do that? It's because you can't do that. You're in Christ. In Christ, we're going to see in a minute, Christ is promised to do everything. He's on your side to see you all the way through to your glorification. So there's no direct answer to the question of, you know, what does it mean that who can be against this? Remember, it's a rhetorical question. Who? Nobody. reading into it. Who? No one. Who? Nothing. Speak Spanish, nada. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. We're going to see more of this as we go through this passage. Paul knew this firsthand. I mean, this guy was brutalized for his faith. I mean, if anyone could have turned away from Christ, it would have been the Apostle Paul. So here you are, you're being faithful to God, you're out there on a missionary journey, and you're planting churches and preaching all over Asia Minor. And then he gets transparent and he says, I just had a lot of opposition along the way. I think every fiery dart that could have been fired at me was. Some of them hit. Three times I was shipwrecked. Five times, think of this, five times I was beaten. on my back with 40 stripes with a whip. Stoned, beaten, robbed, famine. I mean, if anyone could have been discouraged, okay, I'm out of here. I tried, but I'm not going to do this Christian thing anymore. It would have been Paul. It's the same Paul that says, if God's for you, Who can be against you? And the answer is no one or nothing. You have an omnipotent creator and savior who's for you. He's on your side and he will see you all the way through his purpose and plans in your life. And my question to you is, that's the truth. Do you believe it? Do you believe that? I mean, is it something you believe so strongly? Yes, I'm sure of that truth in my life. You might say to yourself, I think I believe that, but how do I know that's true? How is it true of me? Because I don't know about you, there's times in my Christian life where I didn't feel like God was for me. And you might be here today wondering, is God for me? I believe in Him, I trust in Him, but my life doesn't experience a God who's for me. I mean, my life at times seems to be spinning out of control physically, emotionally. I mean, think of the martyrs. You know, I remember a few years back when they were back in the Mideast when the terrorists were actually cutting the throats of believers. You remember those pictures, those images? Can you imagine being on your knees and having one of those guys with those great big knives right at your throat and thinking that, Is this the end of it all? What's next? Heaven. How do I know heaven? How do I know when that knife's against my throat? Because God is for me. The martyrs that were burned at the stake. You see, you don't know what I'm going through in my life. It doesn't seem like God is for me. My prayers aren't being answered. My family's falling apart. My family's shattered, and I'm struggling with my finances. And recently, I lost my job. And on top of that, I went to the doctor, and he wrote out and says, by the way, I got some bad news for you. Let me show you these x-rays. Can you say in those times that God is for me? Yes. We've already seen that life, this side of eternity, is not a bowl of cherries. The Christian life, this side of eternity, is filled with suffering, trials, persecution. Yet we have a God that's in us, and He helps us, He strengthens us, He gives us the strength, the resolve to go through these trials. And oftentimes these trials are the very means that He uses to sanctify us. But here God is being for you, in battling for you, is on a much higher level. It's not about all these earthly struggles of life. It's about your eternal destiny. It's about your salvation. I mean, He who foreknew you is for you from the beginning to the end. He will glorify you. He's for you. And you will enter into His presence in the image of His Son. and you'll be forever saved. You can't lose. You can't lose in the Christian life. God is on your side. You're going to win. I don't want to sound like Joel Osteen. I've got to be careful. You'll be a winner. Then you come to a promise that is amazing, a promise that's another question, verse 32. Here's the question. This is what leads into 32. Well, that promise is amazing. God's for me. He's on my side. And then how do we know that promise is true? Verse 32, he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Now look carefully at verse 32. I want you to see, this is an argument from the greater to the lesser. If the greater is true, it's a no-brainer the what? The lesser is also going to be true. He, it says, God the Father, who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us. Okay? This leads into the question. Our Father in heaven who did not spare His Son, but gave Him up for us, Christians, believers, elect, there's a strong, big statement. There's the greater thing that God did. How do you know God's for us? Because what did He do? He did not spare His own Son, but He gave Himself up for us. God did not hold back on His Son. He poured out His eternal wrath on His Son because He was for us. I don't want to read all this long passage from Isaiah 53, but if you want to see that God doesn't hold back, if you want to see that God is for you, just meditate on Isaiah 53. where it's all foretold by the prophet. And look what the father did to his son because he was for you. He was despised. He was rejected. He was despised. We esteemed him not. He was stricken. He was smitten by God. He was afflicted. He was pierced. He was chastised. The wounds were upon him. He was laid in a grave. He was dead. He died. He was oppressed. He was afflicted. He was led to the slaughter. This is the Father being for you, showing that what He did is He didn't hold back anything with His Son for your sake. He was cut off from the land, made the grave with the wicked. And then verse 10 says, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He was put him to grief. So the father crushed the son. Why? So that he was for you and for your salvation. He didn't hold back. I mean, the picture is the father crushing his son on the cross. I mean, I think of spikes being driven into his hands. And as I think about those spikes that are striking and the blows that are taking place, they're coming, yes, from Roman soldiers, but ultimately from the hand of Almighty God Himself. Why? Because He's on your side. Every drop of blood that was shed, every hot coal of wrath that was revealed was not held back by the Father. He poured it all out. Wow, on His Son. That's how much God is for you. That's how much God loves you. And He gave Himself up for us all. He killed Jesus for you. He took the wrath. Now who did He deliver? It says He gave Him up over for us all. Who did He give the Son over to? Some would say, well, He gave His Son over to the devil. to appease the devil. But actually, I think theologically correct is he basically crushed his son, and then he gave his son the blood sacrifice over to himself as a propitiation so that his wrath would be satisfied. He did this for all of us. See that? All of us. Not some Christians. The others that fall away doesn't apply. No, all Christians. Everyone. No lamb will escape from His flock. So here comes the question, in light of that fact, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? See the greater to the lesser? If He sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, He crushed Him. He nailed Him. He was a blood sacrifice. He died. He rose again on the third day. He did that for us. That's the big thing He did. Then how is it He will not also graciously give us all things? You see what Paul is saying. If God gave up His own Son, how will He not save you to the end? I mean if God can make the Beartooth Mountains tower up above the valley down below and the plains down below, can't He also then take a little sand, a little gravel of sand and move it? I mean, if He raised the mountains up, can't He move a little piece of sand? That's the greater to the lesser. And if He did this for His Son and held nothing back, can't He also keep you all the way to the end? Can't He graciously give you all things, all things pertaining to life and salvation? And you say, if you're thinking, and I'm anticipating your objections, someone might be thinking, I hope I didn't trigger it by Joel Osteen. This sounds a little bit like a prosperity gospel here. Jesus died on the cross. He got to hold back anything with the Son. Why? So He can give us all things. I mean, this sounds good, right? I'm thinking Lime Lamborghinis. You know, some might be thinking perfect healing from cancer. Some of you might be envisioning a house on the beach. That's not the all things that's being spoken of here. Absolutely not. If He sacrificed His Son to bring our justification, He sanctified His Son to actually…or He sacrificed His Son to bring us ultimate glorification. Everything you need in your spiritual life, He'll provide for you graciously, including your eternal happiness. all things that lead to Christlikeness, all things that lead to perseverance, all things that lead to empowering the gifts that you have, all things that fulfill everyone, the promises that He's made to you in Scripture. All of His sheep will be saved. None will be lost. None will fall short. And He continues to give us grace from the beginning all the way to the end. And how do you know that? When you're on your deathbed, how do you know that? look to the Son. Father gave Him up, held nothing back because He was on your side. There wasn't a whit of wrath that was in the Holy Father that was not poured out on the Son to accomplish your salvation. It was all poured out. What I would encourage you to do is to remember this. Here's a sermon you can preach to yourself. regularly. Because the enemy does come and he wants to put doubts in your mind. Am I really a Christian? Am I going to lose my salvation? Have I done the unpardonable sin? All of these things. And what do you do? You preach to yourself. You preach to yourself this truth. God is for me. He didn't hold back one thing with His Son so He could accomplish my salvation. It is finished once and for all. And no one, not even myself, will be lost. Let's see if we can draw this to a close. If God is for us, who can be against us? What's the answer? No one, no thing. In Spanish, it would be nada. How about the devil? No. What about the world? No. What about yourself and all your weakness? No. You're secure in Christ because of all that He's done for you. You can rest in the work of Christ. Why? Because you have a Father in heaven who's on your side who's never held back. By grace He's given you all things. Preach it to yourself regularly. Preach this to yourself during times of weakness and doubts. Preach this to yourself whenever we come to the Lord's table. When you look at the bread and you look at the cup and you're caused to remember what Christ has done on your behalf, remember God is on your side and He held back nothing, nothing that's represented there from His Son, including His wrath. And then here's a message you can preach to the enemy. Next time he takes his bony fingers and sticks it in your face and accuses you and puts doubt in your mind about whether you're a Christian or not, what can you say? Do the same thing Christ did. Speak it right back to the devil. And the devil says, God is on my side. He held back nothing. For His Son, that He would accomplish everything that I need to be saved. Devil, flee. Because that's the truth. And by Christ, you are saved and you will be saved. And today we're here to rejoice and to worship Him for that truth. Father, thank You again as we close. Lord, we love You. Lord, I know we're weak, we're frail, we're little sheep that go astray. We're full of doubts and we just struggle through our Christian life. And Father, I know that You're with us, You're in us, You're comforting us, You're strengthening us. You're helping us during our time of need. But Lord, the most glorious and greatest truth of all is You're the God who held nothing back as far as dealing substitutionally with Your Son. And Lord, as He took for us, took on our behalf, the judgment, the wrath that we deserved. Lord, help us realize You are on our side all the way until we see Your Son face to face. In His name we pray. Amen. In preparation for the Lord's table, let's stand and just sing to Him.