Thank the Lord for having the mercies today on the highways coming in. Lord, protect us, watch over us, and I praise Him and thank Him tonight. Let's open our Bibles to Romans chapter number 8. Romans chapter number 8 tonight. I want to read verse number 31. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Let's pray. Our Father, we thank You tonight for this opportunity to be back in this place of worship. Thank You for bringing us safely thus far today. Lord, thank You for the good songs of Zion that have already blessed our hearts tonight. And Lord, I pray tonight that you'd help me, you'd touch me, and dear God, that your Word may go forth in power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost tonight. Lord, you might speak to every heart, and dear God, you might do a work in the hearts of your children here tonight. Dear God, we thank you for your goodness and mercy extended to us day by day. What a privilege it is to serve you and live for you in these wicked days. Lord, help us to stand fast And I love you day by day, in Jesus' name, Amen. The book of Romans, what a tremendous book it is. Romans chapter number 8 is the Mount Everest of the book. I mean, it just keeps building. It gets to the top. I don't guess you can go any higher than when you get to Romans chapter 8. It's kind of like the Holy of Holies in the temple and in the tabernacle. It's a special chapter. It's a tremendous chapter. It deals with the security of the believer. Have you ever thought about how saved? A child of God, he is. Just how saved a child of God he is. Verse number 31, Paul asks the question, well, what shall we say to these things if God be for us who can be against us? This common interpretation is interpretation of physical force, and you'll hear that preached about every time. The fact that God is on our side and God with a man is majority and nobody can do anything against God. The children of Israel had just crossed the Red Sea and they watched God destroy Pharaoh's army. He drowned them there and then Chapter 15 of Exodus, they begin to say, the Lord is a man of war, the Lord is His name. And truly He is a man of war and nobody can whip Him. I read where in 2 Kings 19.35 where God killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers one night. They had threatened to kill Judah, and the king had gone down and spread himself out before God and said, you hear all the lies you're telling, the blasphemous things you're saying against me, what are you going to do about it? And God passed through that night and killed 185,000. When the children of Israel entered into the Promised Land, God told them, walk around the walls of Jericho one time a day. And the walls of Jericho fell. And they went in and took everything in the city. 1967, I was a senior in high school. I remember when there were six Arab nations came against the little nation of Israel. They were outnumbered, outgunned, everything. But God gave them the victory in six days. And there are stories of how God works and God did miracles for that little nation of Israel. So there's no doubt about it, when God is on the side of a person or a nation, that nation will win because no one can defeat God. And that's how you'll find this preached nearly every time. But that's not what Paul's saying in this verse. The key to this verse, 31, is the word for. Paul said, If God be for us. That word for, and I'm not a Greek scholar, only had one year of Greek, but it's the word And if you check, you'll find that in just about every application of that verse in the New Testament, it means substitution. And not only in the Greek does it mean substitution, but in English, the word for it means substitution. When, I think, Brother Milby, Sunday morning had Brother Dale to preach for him. Preach for him. Preach in his place. Brother Melville didn't preach, but Brother Dale preached in his place. Preach for him. So when Paul wrote this verse 31 to the church at Rome, He was saying, if God be for us, if God be our substitute, then who can be against us? You see, Christ is our substitute. Now, the context of the passage tells me that he's dealing with substitution. Look at verse 32. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. He's talking about the crucifixion when Christ was delivered up on the cross and took our place, our substitute. God deliver Him up for us all. How shall He not with Him freely give us all things? So, the context of this passage is teaching us substitution. So, when we come to verse 33, Paul asks another question. He said, shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect. It is God that justifies. And so because of the work of Christ on the cross, God can justify the sinner, and we have a substitute, and nobody can lay anything to our charge. That word justify means to declare innocent. So when a sinner comes to Christ and gets saved, gets born again, God justifies that sinner, declares him innocent, and nobody can ever lay a charge against him. There, in verse 34, He asks the question, who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. And so you'll notice these pronouns at the beginning of these questions. It's who. It's not what. A what can bring no charge? The who is a personality. Well, the Bible tells me that the devil is the accuser of the brethren. So when he comes before God to accuse the child of God, God sends him to the substitute. He does not deal with us. He has to deal with the substitute. And the substitute is perfect. So, Lord Jesus Christ, He paid the sin then, so there can be nothing wrong against the child of God. The devil can't find anything or bring any charge to the child of God. Because we, therefore, if any man be in Christ, He is a new creature. So the child of God is in Christ tonight. I played a little football in high school. I was kind of a runt back then. I wasn't very big. And I know a little bit about football. But anyway, the defense tries to get to the quarterback. He's the first one that gets the ball from the center, and he's either going to hand it off or throw it to a receiver. And those men on defense try to get the quarterback before he can get rid of that ball. Or if he hands it off, then they're going to get the man with the ball. But let's say the quarterback's been in the game for three quarters, and they have been after him. They've been trying to get him the whole game. And the coach sends in another quarterback, and that quarterback that was in the game comes out, and he stands on the sideline. He's got a substitute. Now they have to get their substitute. They have been trying to get this guy for three quarters, and now he's standing on the sidelines. He's out of the question. He's not in it anymore. Well, you see, when a sinner comes to Christ, he gets born again. God has placed him over to the side, and the devil has to come against the substitute, and he can find nothing wrong with him, because the substitute's perfect. Well, that who? I mean, the devil can't do anything because we have a substitute, and he has to deal with our substitute. Christ, what about him? Well, he willingly became our substitute, and by the very definition of a substitute, he took our place. And he can never renounce what he's already done. God the Father accepted what Jesus did at Calvary and justified us. And therefore, God, if he has anything to say, he must deal with the substitute, which is himself. So God can never bring anything against the elect, children of God. The devil can't. Jesus can't. Who else can? in this universe that can bring anything against the elect of God. I'm saved tonight. I'm as saved as you can possibly be tonight because of Jesus. I'm in Him. And so, God showed us in verse 29 how He was for us. And I do not understand all of the workings of God, and neither do you. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. Predestination has to do with the child of God. He's predestinated to be conformed to the image of God's Son when He comes to Christ and gets born again. But God foreknew those who would come. And those that He foreknew, and whom He did predestinate, them He also called, past tense, and whom He called, them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified. It's all in the past tense. It's already done. God lives in eternal presence. And God already sees us seated in heaven. In the heavenless lap, He's in second number two. We're already there. Oh my, if you can get a hold of this tonight, this will solidify you and give you some steadfastness. You won't be wondering. If you know that you came to Christ and got born again, this should solve your doubts tonight. I'm saved and secure by the labor of Christ on the cross of Calvary and what He did. And then here on verse number 34, who is He that condemns? It's Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. So not only am I saved and secured by the work of Christ on the cross, but I'm secured tonight by the life of Christ on the throne. When he got up out of that tomb, and the father declared him to be the Son of God with power for the resurrection, and Jesus ascended back to heaven, he carried that blood and placed it on the mercy seat and began his ministry of intercession for those who come to him. He is there for us. He ever liveth to make intercession for us. And we are saved, eternally saved, if you love Christ, by His life on the throne. Hebrews 7.22, By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better covenant. That word, surety, is a guarantee. That new covenant is the new covenant of the New Testament of His blood shed at Calvary. Intercession. He ever liveth to make intercession for us. Hebrews 9.24. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us, for us. And as long as Jesus is alive, he'll be our intercessor, and he shall never die. Romans 5.10, Or if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. That life of intercession there in heaven. before the Father. The blood that was shed is there. The blood that washed away our sins is a reminder, constant reminder, that our sins are gone. So I'm secure tonight by the life of Christ on the throne. He's there. for us, for us. And then, the believer tonight is secure by the love of Christ in our heart. I'm secure tonight by the love of Christ in my heart. And hope they could not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. And so the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost who came from heaven, came from heaven to live within us. So we have one from heaven who is in us. We got blood that was here that died for us and went back to heaven that's for us. So you can't beat that tonight. Ephesians 1.6, what made us accepted in the beloved. You see, the father loves the son. Now, the book of Romans began, chapter 8, verse 1, there is therefore now Now, present tense, right now, now, no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Father. But the chapter ends up with no separation. Oh, said in verse number 35, another one of those questions. shall separate us from the love of Christ. So, the love of Christ has been shed abroad, not harked by the Holy Ghost, and He lives within us, and He is the, is the, see, but I'm looking, yes sir, but I'm looking for another word. All I can get in Spanish is sello, the seal. He's the seal. We are sealed by the Holy Ghost until the day of redemption. The seal. God sealed us. So who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Christ surely would not because he loved us and gave himself for us. God surely would not. And the devil can't do anything about it because we're sealed into the day of redemption. And he can't separate us from the love of Christ. Paul goes through a long list of things, so tribulation, that's pressure from without. The pressures from without in this life cannot separate you from the love of Christ. The tax may come, and it will. And sometimes we wonder if our ship is going to sink or not. But tribulation cannot separate us from the love of Christ. Distress, that pressure from within, even with the stress of life and with the problems of life, it cannot separate us from the love of Christ. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12, 10, he said we're troubled, but not distressed. Troubled, but not distressed. Persecution, that's active enmity against the truth. Then that's a result of the opposition between the flesh and the spirit. It cannot separate us from the love of God. Famine, that's hunger, one of the ordinary means of life, it cannot separate us from the love of Christ. Nakedness, one of sufficient clothing for the body, cannot separate us from the love of Christ. Peril, that's danger, especially such as threatens the life of one. Paul said it can't separate us. from the love of Christ. Sword, the space of judicial death, death at the hands of a magistrate. If they take the Christians and bring them to court, as the Roman Catholic Church did in Inquisition, and by the sword or whatever means they put you to death, It will only usher into the presence of God. It cannot separate you from His love. When Paul comes on down in verse number 38, he said, I'm persuaded. I'm persuaded. I know within myself that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Holy Spirit who lives within us, Paul tells us, I believe Paul wrote the book of Hebrews. He said in Hebrews, he said, I'll never leave you. nor forsake you." Never, never leave you. Jesus told the disciples when He gave them the Great Commission in Matthew chapter number 28, He said, and lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the world. And so, this One who is an Almighty God lives within us. And brethren, regardless of what comes, there is no peril from the physical world that can harm our relation to Christ, and there is no peril from the invisible world that can harm our relation to Christ. Romans 14.8, Paul said, For whether we live, we live unto the Lord, or whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. And so, in my heart, in my mind, it's settled just as it was with the Apostle Paul. I'm convinced that the child of God is eternally saved. We're saved by the labor of Christ on the cross, our substitute. I'm saved by the life of Christ on the throne. He, whoever liveth to make intercession for me, and I'm saved by the love of Christ which is in my heart. God bless you.