God Is for Us

I think you'll agree with me this morning when I say that life even for God's people can
sometimes be very difficult.
I was talking earlier this week to a young mother.
She is a handicapped child, that child for a variety of reasons during the last couple
of months has developed some very frustrating and irritating anti-social behavior patterns.
And the poor mother is virtually beside herself.
She's overwhelmed by the challenge of parenting this child overwhelmed by the darkness that
stairs are in the face, the hopelessness she sees in all light at the end of the tunnel.
The cry of her heart, of course, is, "Why doesn't God hear my prayers?
Where is God in my hour of need?"
Now we may or may not be able to identify with the seriousness of her difficulty.
In fact, it remains, however, that most of us at one time or another in the course of
our lives find ourselves in similar situations.
Sometimes when the darkness just sort of overwhelms you when hopelessness says life is never going
to be any different.
When our prayers are abouncing off walls and off ceilings and when we wonder where God
really is and what is the use of trying to follow Him and obey Him.
Well, that happens as the Scriptures.
It's important to remember that if we are in Christ, no matter how gloomy sometimes
the outlook may be, no matter how deep the valleys that we go through or hide the mountains
that need to be crossed, God is for us.
And if God is for us, it doesn't matter who is against us because we are more than conquerors
in Him. That's what Paul now begins to talk about here in Romans 8 as he begins to wind
up his argument concerning the certainty of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
He says, "Of God is for us who is against us, He who did not spare His own Son but gave
Him up for us all. Will He not also give us all things with Him?" God, He says, "Is for us."
Let's talk about that a little bit. What does it mean?
What does it mean that God is for us if we are in Christ?
Well, obviously, it means that the Almighty God of heaven and earth who made the whole
universe out of nothing by the word of His power, who raised Jesus from the dead, who dwells
in unapproachable, a light and glory and majesty in power, who was adored by myriads upon myriads
of angels, this God, who is all-powerful and eternal, has committed all the resources of
His person for your well-being and my well-being. Think about that a little bit. Let's analyze
it just a little bit further, because it means, first of all, does it not that God knows
me? He knows my every thought, my every wish, my every fear, my every dream, my every hope.
If ever you've gone through dark valleys, if ever the dream of your life is shattered
right in front of your eyes, then you know that one of the greatest pains of going through
that kind of thing is the sense of isolation. People say, "I understand, but you know they
don't." People say, "Well, it can't possibly be that bad, but you know it is." And people
say, "Well, it'll pass, but you have no sense that it will ever pass." And you come
away feeling desperately alone saying to yourself, "But there is nobody who really knows what
I really feel inside. God knows." He made you. He knew you before you were made. He put
a lot of the hopes and the dreams and the ambitions that live in your heart. He understands
you much better than you understand yourself. And not only does he know you, but he uses
all of his power to care for you and to love you. Jesus at one point of the gospel says,
"That as the Father has loved me, so He also loves you." I want you to think about that.
God not only knows the feelings that live inside my heart. Not only understands my dreams,
my goals and my ambitions, but he says, "I'm for you. I am willing to use my power to
make sure that every one of your legitimate needs gets satisfied because that's what
love means. Love means taking me by the hand and protecting me and guiding me and leading
me. God is for me." And that means that He's looking after me. Not only when I can see
it, but also when I cannot see it, He's still there. God knows me. God cares for me. Number
three, God is leading me into His plan. We've been talking about that together as we've
been looking at Romans chapter 8. How God in Jesus Christ has a destiny for us, a destiny
that we be conformed to the image of Christ. That we be restored to His character and to
His image and also to our authority and how God has for us a slice of life and inheritance
that He wants to bring us into and inheritance that one day we shall experience and fall,
but an inheritance that already now by the power of the Holy Spirit, God is leading us
into, if you're in Christ this morning. You're not just a meaningless cog in the machinery
of the universe. You've been chosen and you've been destined by God who has designed you
and who has equipped you to fulfill the one function in the whole universe that only
you can fulfill. And all of the dynamics of life and our past and our background and
our present and the ups and the downs, God has calculated and geared all of them to bring
out in our lives that which is His purpose so that we can live for the praise of His glory.
God is for us. He's got a destiny for us and He says He's going to bring us into that
destiny. He knows me. He cares for me. He's got a destiny for me and number four. Nothing
in the universe can keep Him from bringing me into that destiny. That's why Paul says
if God is for us, who is against us? The argument is very logical. It's irrefutable logic.
If God is the Almighty ruler of all of the universe and He's bigger than everybody else,
then it doesn't matter what anybody else throws in front of me to keep me from realizing
my goal, God is bigger. And as he goes on later on in this chapter to tell us there is
nothing in all of the universe that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our
Lord. You've noticed, have you not that once you lay hold of your destiny and you start
moving forward into that destiny, it's like all hell rises up against you sometimes
and wants to keep you out of that. And when the darkness descends upon you and the rug
is pulled out from underneath you and you wonder how in the world am I ever going to get
to where I got? That's the time to remember. Getting into my destiny, getting into my
inheritance isn't my responsibility. In Christ, God is for me and because God is for me,
He will move heaven and earth if need be. He will drive back the darkness and He will
establish my inheritance. That's what it means that God is for His children. He's going
to bring me into the purposes that He's got for my life so that every gift and skill
that He is imparted to be can be developed and can mature so that I can live for the praise
of His glory, a demonstration of His redemption. God is for you. You can be against You.
Now most of as I suspect of no difficulty believing that when things are kind of going
okay, when it feels like we connect in prayer, when my life's on course and things are working
out the way that I envisioned they should work out, it's easy to sing hallelujahs and
to say well, I guess it really is true God really does love me. But what about those
times when the night is black? When the future has no hope, when you discover that you haven't
got the skills to pursue the kind of career that you thought you were going to pursue.
When you lose everything you've ever lived for, everything you've ever dreamed for in
that hour, do we still know? God is really for me. How can I know that even in the midst
of the pain, even in the midst of the darkness, even in the midst of the despair, how do I
really know? God really knows me, cares for me, is guiding my life and will bring me into
my destiny. It feels on every hand that all that which is coming against me, life with
its pain, is bigger than God. How do I know that He's going to reach down into my agony?
Take me by the hand, lift me up as the psalmist said, and put my feet upon the solid rock.
How do I know? Well Paul says, I know because of the price God paid for my redemption. Listen
again to verse 32, He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. Will
He not also give us all things with Him? Listen to it again. Listen carefully to how He
constructs this sentence. Listen to His logic. He who did not spare His own Son, but gave
Him up for us all. Will He not also give us all things with Him? What's His argument?
Well His argument is that God laid everything on the line when He sent Jesus into the world.
Paul says, God not only did not spare His Son, but He delivered Him up for us all. Notice
both the negative and the positive there, the passive and the active. On the one hand
Paul says, God did not spare His Son. That's the negative. It's the passive. If you love
somebody then you try to protect them. You try to keep harm from coming to them. God
so loved you and me that He didn't spare His Son. He didn't try to protect Him from
you and my sin and the consequences of that sin, but He goes on to say He actually gave
Him up. He delivered Him up. Peter quoting that many years later in Acts chapter 2 says
that this Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and for knowledge of
God. God deliberately took Jesus while we were yet sinners. Send Him into the world. Why
did He do it? So that our sins could be forgiven. So that we could be restored to God.
And we could receive once again the benefits of God's favor. How do I know God loves
me? Simply by looking at the circumstances of my life all the time. Saying, well, things
are really going good. So God must really love me. Not at all. He says you understand the
love of God. When you consider, He says that God didn't spare His Son, but He delivered
Him up for us all. Will He not also freely with Him give us all things? That's the logic.
God didn't love me. He wouldn't have got all this work of sending His Son into the world
and causing Him to die for our salvation. If God goes as far as to give up Jesus and
to deliver Him to the cross for our sins, then God cannot but help give you and me all
the benefits of that salvation. That's the message of the Bible. When by faith we're
joined to Jesus, there is no longer any condemnation. God is for me because all my sins have
been forgiven and now God uses all of His power to lead me into everything that He's got
for me. And so if you find yourself in a situation where you say, well, I don't know
God loves me. I don't know if God cares for me. I don't know if God's going to lead me
into my inheritance. I don't know if God's ever going to do anything for me in the pickle
of my life where I find myself, think through the logic, a God who poured out the life of
His Son in the cross, allowed Him to experience the terrible horrors of hell, didn't spare
Him but delivered Him for a soul. With that God, not with Him, also freely give us all
things. God cannot do more than what He has already done to demonstrate the seriousness
of His love towards you and me. If He didn't love us, if He didn't want to bless us, He
wouldn't have given us His Son. Conversely, in the fact that He gave us His Son and He
died and He shed His blood. God says to you and God says to me, I want to bless you. I
want to love you. I want to give you my glory. Why is it so important to understand that?
Because ever since Adam and Eve fell in the garden many years ago and had that first
conversation with the serpent, the devil is constantly trying to drive a wedge between
God and ourselves. And He always does that by casting questions on the character of God.
God doesn't really love you. God's really not interested in your problem. If He was
interested in your problem, why didn't He do something about it ten years ago and He
could have? God may want to deal with everybody in a general fashion but He's not going to
do anything for you specifically in this situation. Besides that, who do you think you are anyway?
You're not no good bum. Remember what you did yesterday and what you did twenty years
ago? God's punishing you, man. Why should He turn around and bless you? You're the failure
and everything that you've ever undertaken. Nobody's ever going to count you as being an
important person. And so persuasive is the logic. And so logical, the reasoning. You know,
I will hear that stuff particularly if we're predisposed to buying the line. We said, yeah,
I guess that's true. You know, why would God love me? And even though we might never
put it in those kinds of words. And even though technically and theologically and intellectually,
we believe all of the right things our hearts is. God's not really there. Or if He is, He's
really, I can't really trust Him with the real things of my life. And so the result is,
you and I, we end up taking matters into our own hands all the time because we can't
possibly imagine that God will move from heaven into the particulars of my situation. Move
with power and establish His purposes for my life. The Bible says it's all a lie because
if you're in Christ, there is no condemnation. If you're in Christ, then God has seated
you at His right hand in heavenly places. God knows you. God cares for you. God has a
destiny for you. His power is there to lead you into the things that He's got for you.
And there is nothing in all of the universe that can separate you from the love of God
in Christ Jesus, our Lord, and the key to Christian living. And the key to Christian confidence
and Christian security is to see who we are in Christ, lay hold of that which we are
in Christ and boldly draw near to the throne of grace saying, "Lord, I know I've blown
it. I know I'm a sinner. I know I'm born on the wrong side of the tracks. I know that
I haven't got any of the things that will ever contribute to greatness. I'm weak. And
the forces that are around me and the things that are right against me, they're much bigger
than I am. And I admit, Lord, I cannot overcome if I live to be a thousand years old. But
Father, when Jesus died, I died with Him. When Jesus arose, I arose with Him. And today
in Christ, I stand before you, secure, washed of every sin, renewed by the power of your
Holy Spirit. I'm one of your children. And God, I believe that no matter how little of
it I see with my eye or with my experience, you love me, you understand me, you're working
all things together for my good. And together, Lord, we're going to get the glory because
you have committed yourself to getting me to where I need to be. If God is for me, who
is against me, let me ask you this morning. Do you believe that? Not just with your head,
but with your heart. Do you believe God knows you? But He cares for you. You've got a plan
for you. But He's going to lead you into that plan and that nothing the devil, the world
or hell can ever throw at you is going to keep you from arriving at that destiny. I would
you say, I'm so weak. I'm so sinful. I've been so bad. You don't know how I'm wired
out. Doesn't make any difference because of God is for me. Nothing can be against me.
And I believe with the Lord wants to do in our lives this day and I think this season
in our church life is to give us that kind of revelation of who we are in Christ. Have
you come to Jesus? Have you admitted your need? Has he washed away the sins of your past?
Is he renewing your lives by the power of his spirit? Are you incorporated into the
family of God? Then God says, I'm for you. God says, I'm fighting your battles. God says,
I am on your side. God says, I love you. Who can ever stand in the way when you are
for me? Faith says. Lord, I may not see it. I may not always feel it. I may not always
experience it. But I choose to believe that what you say concerning yourself is truth because
that's what faith is. That's what Joyce was talking about last Sunday night when she
shared her struggle of coming into faith, a deliberate choice that says, Lord, I believe
your truth and I reject the lie. That's why we celebrate communion. When the bread is
broken, when the wine is poured out, we're acknowledging that the Lord Jesus when he hung
upon the cross, absorbed into himself, all of the things that you and I have deserved
because of our sin. We celebrate that when he arose from the dead sat down in heaven
at the right hand of God the Father, received the kingdom and the glory and the majesty. He
did that so that by union with him we can be seated at the right hand of God and we can
learn the reality of it today by the power of his spirit. Christian, will you arise?
Lay hold of your inheritance in Christ. Will you declare that in Christ, God's for you and
if He's for you, nobody, nobody, nobody can be against you. Let us pray. Lord, we hear
these words so often we ascend to them intellectually, but so often the unbelief in our hearts keeps
us from going all out and really demonstrating our faith in you. And Lord, this morning
we confess our unbelief. We confess that so often we've bought into the lie rather than
the truth. We've listened to the accusations. We've listened to the lie that you're not
to be trusted. You're not really interested in us. You're just out to give us a hard
time. And Lord, by faith in Jesus, we acknowledge that as we are in Christ, you're for us. You
love us. All the resources of heaven are made available so that we can be conformed to the
image of Christ. No help cannot prevail against the church. And we pray this morning as we join
in the celebration of communion. That Lord, your Holy Spirit will just empower that truth within
our hearts. That will see you in a way that we've never seen you before. Experience you in a
way that we've never experienced you before. And that with determination and with conviction,
we may declare that because God is for us and nobody can be against us, we're gonna launch out.
And we will follow and we will obey you and we will do your will. And we shall overcome. And we
shall be more than conquerors. Thank you, Lord, for your grace. Thank you for your truth. Thank you for
who you are in Jesus' name. Amen.