What Shall We Say to These Things?

We could find our way to our seats. Excellent. Hey, good news. A fine young man here at Cornerstone, Joshua Van Barsel.

got engaged to Sarah Carey. We're, you guys, don't you understand. Congratulations. I described him as fine and I didn't say anything about Sarah, but she's a fine young lady also.

Perfect match for each other. We rejoice with you guys. Over God bringing your lives together. Well, why don't we go to the Lord in prayer and ask His blessing on our time.

In the word in the coming moments, let's pray. Father, I am mindful of Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1 as he prayed. For his readers that the eyes of their heart would be enlightened. And then in chapter 3 as he prays for his readers that That you, Father, would cause your spirit to do a work in their inner person and to strengthen them.

And capacitate them to understand and comprehend the height and length and breadth and depth of the love of Christ. In asking those things, Lord, Paul is acknowledging that he, as an apostle, has no power over the human heart. He cannot touch the recesses of the soul. He can speak truth, but if you do not show up and enlighten hearts, and transform people on the inside to be able to hear, receive, and understand your truth, then all of his ministry was for naught.

And as we are here this morning, Lord, I, Everything that I'm going to say would be for nothing if you, God, did not show up and do thousands of miracles in this room. We, we need you to enlighten our hearts to understand and to transform us from the inside. I cannot do this. I acknowledge my inability to transform a single heart in this room.

But you can, and to you, I appeal and ask that you would do a work in every person, in every heart that you would. Love them By touching their hearts. If they already know you, draw them closer to yourself, take them deeper into the gospel. If they're in this room, Lord, and they've never, They've never put their trust in, in you for salvation through Jesus.

God, would you love? Would you love that person this morning and use the words that are read from your word and, and the words that are spoken. To further that person in their journey to the end of themselves and to the foot of the cross. And that perhaps by your grace today they would call upon you for salvation.

We welcome you into this room and open our hearts to you and give you full permission to do with us as you please, in the coming moments, and we just surrender ourselves to you, Lord, in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said, Amen. Well, Romans chapter 8 for our time of study and the word this morning, Romans, chapter 8, we're doing a verse by verse study through, Romans 5. 67, and 8. And as we continue in our study of this section of Romans, we come this morning to Romans chapter 8, verses 31 and 32.

And the title of the message, message is, what shall we say? To these things. What shall we say to these things? every once in a while, probably a couple of times a year, I come across an article online where someone is talking about the words we speak and how many words like the average person will speak on an average day or in a lifetime.

I came across, yet another article this week where they were saying that the average person speaks 370 million words. Throughout his or her lifetime, that's the average 370 million. It was also pointed out that women speak twice the volume of words. That men speak and I'm just reporting the results of the study that was done.

But of course the explanation for that is that women have to say everything twice because their husbands don't hear them the first time. That they say something, and I know that because my wife told me that once. She says she told me twice, but I. I only remember once.

If you took the 370 million words, think of it this way, if someone were to type out every word you spoke in your lifetime, in an unending line in a size 12 times New Roman font, And just the line never, the line never ended. That line would stretch from where we are now to Indianapolis, Indiana. And that's a long way because I've made that drive a number of times with my family. size 12 font from here all the way to Indianapolis, Indiana.

That's a ton of words. And ponder this in Matthew 12:36. The screen says 26, it's 36. Jesus tells us that God will bring every word.

Into judgment, we will give an account for every word spoken. That whole line from here to Indianapolis, we will give an account for every word. When I told my son Benjamin that this week, he said even the word the. but Jesus isn't so much saying every particular word, but every collection of words that conveys a meaning.

We will give an account for all the choices we make of the words that we choose to communicate either verbally or in writing. I am stunned that God takes us this seriously. So seriously that every word we choose to allow to come out of our mouth we are accountable for. At the judgment, the words we speak are important, vitally important.

This matter of how you speak ought to be a matter of great importance to you. And if it is, then this passage ought to cause you to sit up and take note because it begins with the words, What then shall we say to these things? In other words, what shall we speak to these things? And I know this is a rhetorical device by Paul, but going by the literal wording, he's like, what will we say?

What will we speak in response to these things? We know that he's speaking even as he is delivering this letter, there's a guy named Tertius, who we learned about in chapter 16, who's writing down what Paul is speaking, and Paul at this point of the letter is saying, what shall we speak in response to these things. We find this. in the book of Romans, a handful of times, in Romans 6:1, what shall we speak then, chapter 7, verse 7, what shall we speak then?

Chapter 9, verse 14, what shall we speak then? Chapter 9, verse 30, what shall we speak then? And in our passage today, what shall we speak to these things? The idea is we're facing towards these gospel realities that have been presented up to this point in the book of Romans.

And Paul says, what are we going to say? What are you going to speak in response to these things? What Paul is saying is that these gospel truths are something that ought to cause you to open your mouth and say something. And whenever you do open your mouth to say anything to anyone, whatever you say needs to be molded and shaped and colored by these gospel truths.

That Paul has been going through up to this point of the letter. Paul is going to teach us how to speak Gospelese. In these verses, verses 31 through 39, all we're going to have time to do is look at verses 31 and 32. Let's read this.

Paul says, What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son but delivered him over for us all, how will He not also with him freely give us all things? What we observe here in these two verses and in the verses to come is what we could call gospel reasoning.

we observed Paul looking at gospel truth and then reasoning from gospel truth and coming to some conclusions. He's drawing inferences from gospel reality, and going in different directions with it. What we learned from Paul's example is that God doesn't want us to just be thinking gospel and say, yeah, yeah, yeah, Romans 567 and 8, I believe that that's all true. But God wants us to think those thoughts.

And he wants us to go beyond that and actually think from those thoughts, and make inferences, and to apply those thoughts, to draw out those thoughts, and to apply them to the various ethical relational, theological, marital, parental, commercial, whatever area of our life. To think from the gospel to these areas of our life and to make gospel inferences. Does that make sense? and there, there may be some in this room who say, Pastor Milton, that's, you're losing me there.

I'm just not good at like thinking from the gospel and drawing inferences. I don't even know what an inference is. so I'm, I'm just not good at that thing. I'm not a thinker like other people.

What I, what I want to submit to all of you this morning is every one of you in this room are very good at this. I know that for a fact. We're all very good at observing things and then drawing inferences from what we observe, coming to conclusions, and then another conclusion, and then another conclusion. We do this all the time, every day.

Maybe. You're at church on a Sunday morning and you walk by someone and you say hi to them and they don't even look at you, they don't even say hi back. you never are content to just let that stand. No, you draw inferences from that.

Maybe they didn't hear you, but that's not what you're thinking. You're thinking they're a snob. That's an inference, OK? Or you're thinking they're mad at me.

They're angry with me. That's an inference. And then you're thinking, what would they possibly be angry with me for? Oh my goodness, they called me 4 days ago.

And left a message and I forgot to return their call. That's what they're mad at. That's an inference. And then you're thinking, well, how dare them to be upset with me over that.

There's been several times I've called them and they never called me back. So how dare they be offended with me over the fact that it's taken me 4 days to return their call? And why are they always so sensitive anyway? So all of these inferences, how long does it take to compile those inferences?

Probably about 2 or 3 seconds, right? We're all very good at this. And in our marriage relationship, good night. We do this all the time.

A husband leaves his pants crumpled up in the middle of the bedroom floor. And ladies, you, you look at that fact and you begin to draw inferences from that. And if your husband was interested, you could sit him down and talk to him for at least 10 minutes, and tell him what this means, what this says about him. What this says about what he obviously thinks about you, and what this says about the state of your marriage, you could go on for 10 or more minutes about the meaning of that crumpled pair of pants lying in the middle of the floor, or husbands, your wife comes and asks you a question and you detect a tone.

Just, just barely atone and your mind begins to race and inferences are being drawn from that. And then you speak to her from that vantage point of all of those inferences that you have drawn, and then she responds to all of that. And thus the vicious cycle continues. We are all very good at this.

So let's admit that we're experts at this. Imagine living a life where you go to the gospel, you turn toward the gospel, and you start Reasoning and thinking from the gospel. And in a matter of seconds, you're drawing the same intensity of inferences. That's what Paul does in these verses.

He's like, what are we going to say to these things? All of these things we've learned about Christ dying, and we're justified, and we have peace with God, and we're always enjoying a gracious standing before God and, and we're freed from sin's power, and God has given us the Holy Spirit, and on and on the list can go throughout these last 4 chapters. What do we make of this? And Paul said, well, I, I know what to make of this.

God is for us. And, and if he's for us, then who can be against us? And if God did not spare his own son, but he delivered him over for us all, then how will he not also with him freely give us all things? That's gospel thinking that is taking place.

And just from Paul's example in these two verses, we observe 5 things that we ought to say in response to the gospel truths that are presented in the book of Romans thus far. And let's go through these. number 1, God is for us. You ought to be able to look at the gospel and come to this inference, and that is that God is for me.

When you look at what God has done for you in Christ, you need to conclude God is for me. That's an amazing thing. The Greek preposition that is translated for is found in various other places in the book of Romans, just a few in chapter 5, verse 8, Christ died for us, chapter 8, verse 27, the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And chapter 8, verse 32, God who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all.

And then in verse 34, Christ Jesus intercedes for us, for, for, for, 4. And here in verse 31, God is for us. Reason from the gospel to this conclusion about God's disposition towards you. If you have believed in Jesus, God is for you.

These are beautiful words that we find in this text. One writer says that we find here a summary of the gospel in 4 words. This is the most concise definition of grace in the Bible. Memorize these words, God is for me.

In fact, literally, it's, it's God for me. So it's even less than 4 words, God, for me, you look at the gospel, God, for me, the sovereign king of the universe, who was once my judge, and I was under his wrath. God is now for me. I look at myself now and there's a lot of reason for God still to be against me, but nonetheless, he is for me.

As one writer says, God is for his elect. They have failed, but He is for them. They are ignorant, but he is for them. They have not yet brought forth much fruit, but he is for them.

Romans 7, the good they want to do, they often don't do the evil they hate, they find themselves doing, but God is for them. They have a principle of sin that is raging within them, waging war against their desire to do what is right. But God is for them. In Romans 8, they often don't know how to pray as they should, but God is for them.

They experience weakness, but God is for them. Guys, as we've been learning in recent weeks, you get this right, everything else begins to fall into place. God is for you. In the midst of temptation, you've got to remember this.

God is for me. Omnipotence is behind me, and God is for me. When the risings of sin develop within and you're actually embarrassed by the desires and the temptations that are rising up from within. And the devil is saying you ought to be ashamed of yourself for even being tempted with this.

God is disgusted with you. You need to say, no, God is for me. God knows this, and he knew all this when he saved me. He is for me.

And on the other side of even failure, you need to preach this to yourself. God is for me. We all need to make this inference from gospel truth. There's a second thing that we need to not only think but actually say, open our mouths and say this.

And that is that no one and nothing is against us. No one and nothing is against us. Paul says, what shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

He's letting out a defiant challenge. If God is for us, who is against us, is what? He is asking Now imagine this question. Who is against us?

Imagine that there was no context for it. And Paul is writing to us and he says, let me ask you a question. Who is against us? We would all raise our hands and say, I know who's against us.

And we would have a whole litany of things to cite and beings and people and institutions that are aligned against us. Indeed there is much against us. Even in Romans 8, Paul, who experienced a lot of opposition in his life and ministry, speaks of those who would want to bring charges against us, those who would want to. Condemn us.

Verse 35, he speaks of persecution, even the sword, speaking of those who would want to kill us and often do kill Christians throughout church history, and he speaks in verse 38 of principalities and powers that are aligned against us that would seek to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ. So, think about this question. Is Paul by this question saying, hey, I want to let, if you believe in Jesus, and God is for you, you will never experience anyone against you, ever again.

Is that what Paul is saying?

Obviously not. So what is he saying by this? If God is for us, who is against us? Meaning Paul's like, I don't reckon if God is for us, who is against us?

There's like 3 layers of meaning here. One is that Paul is actually asserting that if God is for us, no one of any account compared to God could ever be against us. What he's saying is if God is for us, who of any account compared to him could be against us? That's essentially the question.

God is the sovereign king of the universe, absolutely omnipotent. and Isaiah 40, he scooped out the waters of planet Earth in the hollow of his hand. He measured the heavens with the span of his hand. God is unimaginably awesome, and immense and all of his power and perfections.

And Paul is saying, if this mighty God is for us, who of any account compared to him could be against us? This is, he's demeaning those that are aligned against us and saying they're nothing, they're actually nothing compared to God. Isaiah speaks this way and Isaiah 40. And he says, Behold the nations.

He's talking about how great God is and how powerful, how immense he is. He then says, Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket. You take all of the nations of the world and combine them together, and he says, what they are compared to God? They're a drop of water from a bucket.

And then Isaiah's like, actually, I'm not quite content with that analogy. He says they are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales. Imagine God on this side of the scales, and on the other side, all of the combined might and energy and ingenuity and resources of all the nations combined together are but a speck of dust that floats endlessly through the air and eventually settles on the other side of the scale. Compared to God, that's what the nations are.

They're a speck. Of dust on the scales. And then Isaiah's like, actually, that's giving the nations a little too much credit. Verse 17, he says, let me, let me revise this.

All the nations are as nothing before him. So he goes from a drop in the bucket, from a bucket to a speck of dust to now nothingness compared to God, all of the nations combined are nothing before him. And then Isaiah's like, actually, That's still giving the nations a little too much credit. Let me, let me say it this way, they are regarded by him as less than nothing and meaningless.

And Paul in Romans 8 is taking up that same sensibility and applying it here that if God, if this God is for us, as we see that he is in the gospel, who? Who's against us? that is of any account compared to God. Also, what he's suggesting is that no one, if God is for us, can successfully be against us.

They may oppose us, they may fight against us, they may even kill us. They may even achieve what seems like on some levels, a victory for their cause against us and against Christ. But ultimately, No one who aligns themselves against us can ever really succeed in being against God's purposes in us. In Isaiah 54:17, it says, No weapon that is formed against you will prosper.

God says, and every tongue that accuses you in judgment, you will condemn. This is the heritage or the inheritance of the servants of the Lord, and their vindication is from me, declares Jehovah. What God is saying is, if you are my people, here's your inheritance. No weapon that is ever formed against you will prosper or succeed.

This is your inheritance as a child of mine. No one will be able truly to successfully be against you, and tied to that is the third layer of meaning, and that is that anything done against us actually will be turned into something that is for us. And that's what we learned in Romans 8:28, that God works everything together for good to those who love God, to those that are called according to His purpose. So even that includes even those things that people do against you, God takes those things.

And as the ultimate judo expert takes all of those things and actually harnesses them and uses them to do good in you. And to accomplish something great through you. We see this in the scripture in so many places. You think of the day of Christ's crucifixion, the confluence of all of the evil acts of mankind on that day, and all of the demonic, satanic hatred of Jesus, all of the evil that was done on every level that was hurled upon Jesus Christ and his suffering on that awful day.

God took all of that wickedness, all of that evil, and accomplished the most amazing thing that's ever been accomplished. And salvation has and continues to come to millions of people as a result of the evil that was committed that day. By wicked beings and wicked men and women. In Philippians 1:12, Paul says he's in prison in Rome, and he says, I want you guys to know that my imprisonment.

He's in prison because of those against him. He says, I want you to know that my imprisonment has worked out for the greater progress of the gospel. And, and you might read that and go, man, that's, that's neat that God will sometimes take some evil that's done against some believers and actually work that together for good and to further his gospel purposes. And so now as I face my life, I'm encouraged to know that sometimes God will take some of the things done against me and actually work them out for good.

But that's not what we need to draw from this. Paul is saying everything that anyone ever does, anything that ever happens to you, including the actions and the devices of those that are aligned against you, God will ultimately work all of that for His, your good and His glory. Joseph's brothers hated Joseph, sold him into slavery. They meant that for evil, but that set in motion a chain of events where Joseph ultimately ended up second in command to Pharaoh and God used him in that position to bring salvation physically.

To Jacob and his family, about 75 of them, and thus the Messianic line continued. And Joseph said to his brothers when they went down to Egypt and they found out that he was alive and there, second in command in Egypt, he says, you meant it for evil. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. God used the evil that you did, and he worked it out for good.

And today, thousands of years later, we are still living in the good. That God brought about as a result of the evil that Joseph's brothers did. Paul himself knows what he's talking about here because he used to be a persecutor of the church. He ravaged the church like a wild beast.

It says in Acts chapter 8. And yet as he did that, Christians fled, they scattered, but it says in Acts chapter 8, I believe in verse 4 that they went everywhere that they scattered to preaching the word. So Paul's like, I'm trying to bring an end to this, but it's spreading on me, and multiplying even more. One of the great frustrations of the enemies of Christ in the first century in Rome, and actually beyond the first century was, as they would take Christians in the Colosseum and throw them to the lions, and these Christians would die with nobility and trust and faith in Christ, that it was said that for every Christian that was devoured by the lions, 3 or 4 people would stand up in the stands and confess Jesus Christ is their Lord.

Trying to wipe out Christianity. And They failed in that, and God even used the evil that was being inflicted upon Christians to serve his purposes. Man, imagine, fantasize for a moment and imagine actually believing what we're talking about. Imagine believing this.

Nothing of any account, no one of any account compared to God can be against us. No one will ultimately ever succeed against us, and anything done against us. And as we're serving Christ done against our work, anything that is aligned against us, God will ultimately turn that for us, leading one writer to say beautifully, he says, in reality, in terms of verse 28, nothing is against us so as to work ultimately for evil. If God is for us, all things work together for our good.

In the last analysis, there is no against. Within the orbit of the interest of the people of God. Paul is looking at the gospel and he's like, OK, I infer from this that God is for me. That's incredible.

And if God is for me, then I'm going to infer that no one of any account compared to God can be against us. There's a third thing that Paul says that we can say with him in response to gospel truth. And that is that God did not spare His own Son when carrying out His plan to save us. God did not spare His own Son when carrying out His plan.

To save us, Paul says he who did not spare. His own son. This word spare, almost always in the New Testament means to spare from trouble or to spare from suffering. And what we're learning here is that in accomplishing our salvation, what needed to happen was not just that God would decide to save us, but that ultimately God needed to provide that salvation Himself through His Son, and God did not withhold His Son.

He spared no expense. He was willing to give His Son up and over in death in order that you might be saved. Also in saying that God didn't spare His own Son, part of what's suggested here. is that in giving his son over to death, there was all of this evil and suffering unleashed upon him, and God didn't spare Jesus one iota of that suffering.

He didn't diminish or mitigate that suffering in any way, and he could have, he could have intervened. Throughout the awful events leading to Christ's death on the cross and the events of his crucifixion. God could have intervened and stopped some aspect of the suffering. God could have said, when someone tried to punch Jesus, he could have intervened and said, listen, he's going to go to the cross because that's my plan, so that mankind can be saved, but don't punch my son.

I'm not going to let you do that. He could have done that. But at no point did the Father ever intervene and mitigate the suffering of Christ in any way. One writer says there was no mitigation.

Or no diminishment, judgment was dispensed upon the son in its unrelieved intensity, and at no point did the father intervene to spare his son the suffering. That was necessary not only for our atonement, but that was necessary, as we sang earlier for Christ. To take all of our sorrows and all of our pain and all of our grief upon Himself. That's what was happening at the cross.

He bore our sins, but essentially he said to his father, Father, when I'm on the cross, can you, can you do something? Can you take every sorrow and every grief and every pain. That my people will ever experience in their life on any level, physical, relational, marital, parental, emotional, psychological. Take, take all of that pain, even the pains they bring upon themselves, and can you put all of that on me at the cross, because I want to feel it all.

This was a part of God's plan, and, and God allowed that to happen. And at no point did he intervene to lessen Christ's suffering to the slightest degree, and he did that for us. He did that for you. And for me, The 4th thing that we can say with Paul in response to the gospel is that God delivered over His Son for us.

To be saved. He delivered over His Son for us. To be saved, He who did not spare his own son but delivered him over. For us all.

He delivered him over. This, this expression delivered over is a powerful word in the New Testament. It's, it's the word used to speak of what the priest did in delivering Jesus over. it's the word used to speak of what Pilate did and handing Jesus over.

It's actually the word that's used to speak of what Judas did in delivering Jesus over. And we're learning here that The real issue is not so much that Judas, Pilate, and the priest handed Jesus over. Ultimately, they did all of that, because the Father handed Jesus over, and death for us that we might be saved. What's also striking about Paul's use of this word is that in Romans 1:24, 26 and 28, Paul speaks of God delivering over mankind.

Man was rebellious against God, refused to give thanks to him, refused to honor, glorify, and worship God. They preferred their sins, so they suppressed the truth about God so they can continue living the way that they want to live and unrighteousness. And it says in verse 24, God delivered them over in the lust of their hearts. Verse 26, God delivered them over to degrading passions.

Verse 28, God delivered them over to a depraved mind. This is what God has done with much of mankind. This is what we deserve to have God do to us, to hand us over to our sin that we wanted instead of him, and to hand us over to the eternal judgment that we deserve for our sins. And yet, Paul's looking at the gospel saying, I observe that God instead of handing me over to sin, And it's judgment, God handed His Son over for me and for my salvation.

In Romans 4:25, Paul says Christ was delivered over, same word for our trespasses. Christ was delivered over to live the life that we failed to live a life of perfect obedience to God. And then to suffer and die the death that we deserve to die. So that we might have forgiveness.

An atonement for our sins. There's a 5th and final thing that we should be able to say with Paul. In response to the gospel truths that we've seen up to this point of Romans, and that is that God will graciously give us all things needful. For our ultimate good.

Look at this in Romans 8:32, Paul says, He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely, Give or freely grace us. With all things. Paul's reasoning from the greater to the lesser, and he's like, if God didn't spare his own son, but he was willing to deliver his son over for me and for my salvation. How, how would that God Ever not give me anything that's needed for my ultimate and eternal good.

Think about it. God has already given you the greatest gift. If you believe the gospel, you're already believing the craziest thing there is to believe. If you believe the gospel, what you're saying is when I was an enemy of God, hating him and rebelling against him, he gave his Son for me.

The 2nd member of the Trinity. He sent the 2nd member of the Trinity. God the Son into this world to die for my sins, so that I can have my sins forgiven. That's crazy.

And if you're a Christian, you believe that. And yet we believe this amazing thing. But then in our prayer life, we, we think that we're asking too much from God. Listen, Paul is saying if God already gave His Son, that's the greatest thing there is to give.

What could you ever come to God and possibly ask for? And God would say, Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. That's a little much, don't you think? That'll never happen.

He's given us His son We ought to bring this confidence to our prayer life. And as we evaluate our circumstances that we have a God who at the present time, and into the future, we know will give us absolutely all things needed for our ultimate and eternal good. And we know that because we have reasoned from the gospel and come to this conclusion. This verb give, like I said, it, it's the verb form of grace.

Yeah, we don't deserve it. It's all a grace. It's undeserved, it's ill deserved. But we have a God who already gave us the most amazing grace in giving up his Son.

And now we know, therefore, that He will give us all things with Him that we would ever need. Now let me ponder something with you guys as we wrap this up. I know very well just from Being in the ministry for 20 years or so that, that there are some who are Christians who would read this verse and stumble over it. And they would see where Paul is saying, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?

And there are some perhaps in this room. Who will observe that, what, there are things that I want and I have asked for repeatedly from God. They're not bad things, they're good things. I've asked for God to transform my wayward child and bring him back to the Lord.

I, I've asked God for this and this and this. And as far as I know, I think my motives are pure. These are good things that I'm asking for. And yet I'm not getting these things from the Lord.

But I see other people around me who seem to receive some of these very things in abundance. And they're not coming to me. God seems to be withholding. From me.

And so, there might be some in this room when you read the statement in verse 32, you're like, yeah, I believe it, but man, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. So how do you deal with the fact that God withholds?

And I want to encourage you actually to apply the same train of thought that Paul is on because that's what will help you in even evaluating. How, just how to process what God may be withholding from you at this point in time. And I, I wrote this out so that I can make sure we get this right. So let me say it this way.

If you have not received something from God that you want very badly, a good and noble thing. You've been praying for it. You want it very badly. Just realize that the decision to withhold that thing from you has been made by the one who loved you so much he gave his son for you.

So that that decision, your circumstances are being governed providentially by the one who gave His Son for you. Let your train of thought begin with that, and who is himself most happy to freely give you all things needful for your ultimate good. It must be then that God is withholding that thing from you because it is not ultimately in your best interest to have it right now. It must be that God is seeking to do a work in you and thereby impart to you some greater good that can only come to you through the absence of this thing that you desire.

Hence, you must view the withholding itself as a gift. From the God who is all wise and who knows how to love you far better than how to love. Yourself. See, that's, that's reasoning from these very truths to evaluate maybe those things that it seems like you're not receiving that you would want to receive.

In some cases, Let me say it this way, guys, God is for you. Start your train of thought with that. He is, he is more for you than you are for you. But he is more intelligent and wise than you are in executing that foreignness towards you.

God is more intelligent and wise and demonstrating and acting upon how for you he is, far more so than you would ever be in. Be for yourself. Every one of us in this room are for ourselves, right? I am for me, you are for you.

That comes naturally to us. But if left to ourselves to carry out that foreignness, if God gave us sovereignty for a decade, says I know you are for you. I'm going to give you absolute sovereignty for 10 years, we would all destroy ourselves. Sometimes the worst thing that can happen to us is to get what we want at exactly the time when we think we ought to have it.

Cynthia Heimel, who, to my knowledge, is not even a believer, she was writing an article, a few years ago where she was talking about three people that she knew before they became famous, and she knew them before and she also knew them after. And she said, after they became famous and got what they wanted, they became more intolerable, more angry, more neurotic, and fearful and anxious than they ever were before they got what they wanted. And she then said, I've come to conclude that when God wants to play a practical joke on someone, He gives them exactly what they want.

I'm not saying that's a theologically true statement there.

But you understand the point that we in our limited wisdom, we're like, I ought to have this and I ought to have it right now. Why is God withholding it from me? We just need to realize that God, start your train of thought with this, God is for me. He gave his son for me.

And so God is always at all times, giving me exactly what is needed for my ultimate and eternal good. Therefore, if there is something I think I need that he is not giving me, then it must be that that's not necessary. My ultimate and eternal good. And even the withholding of that thing from me is itself a gift.

And it is clearing the way for God to give me some greater thing that he and his wisdom knows that I need even more right now. Also apply this thought that God sacrificed his son for me. And for God to then ever withhold anything from me that is truly needful for my ultimate and eternal good would be an insult to his son. Imagine that.

God, God gives his son over in death for us. And then saves us and then imagine God doesn't take care of us. How would that play in Jesus' mind? He died for us.

God gave him over in death. He suffered to the fullest extent for us, in order to purchase us for the Father. And then he watches the Father not give us absolutely everything needful. See, God gives us what we need for our ultimate good, not simply because he loves us, but because he loves his Son.

And he values his son and the sacrifice of his son for our salvation. Paul is teaching us and we're going to go deeper into this in the coming weeks, how to, how to think gospel and how to reason from the gospel to the various areas of our life. And may we follow his example of not only knowing these things, but thinking these things and not only thinking these things, but speaking them aloud and allowing these truths to color all that we say. And all that we do.

Let me ask you to bow your heads. Again, if, if you're here today and And You've never really had the relationship with God that can only come through Jesus, where God is for you. Caring for you in this way and therefore you can't have the assurance that we're talking about this morning. I just would urge you to Turn your eyes to Jesus.

Renounce all other trusts. And anything or anyone else and say, I want Jesus. To be my Lord and Savior. Allow the Spirit to awaken you to the reality of Of your sin, the reality of the death of the Father's love for you, and respond to his beckoning.

And enter into this relationship that is available for free and it comes to all those that are humble enough to accept it for free. Father, we just come before you right now. We thank you for the gospel. We have so much to learn.

I feel like, even now, like I'm on the very front end of actually believing the very things we're talking about. And I, I feel almost ready to explode, just like looking at everything in life through the, the, the lens of what we're talking about. And actually believing in God, this is, this is radical. This is transformative.

This gives a holy boldness and an unshakable confidence in the face of anything. Anything against us is nothing compared to you. You are a good God. You are for us always.

And you've already given us the greatest thing imaginable. What would you ever withhold from us that we truly need for our ultimate good? And we walk with confidence before you and live in the good of these things, to relish the taste of thinking these things and To feel these thoughts on our tongues as we speak them and form the words with our mouths and let them roll off our tongues. God, these are amazing truths.

May we speak them and preach them to ourselves and to one another. We thank you for the opportunity to give our offerings to you, Lord, in the next moment or two, receive these funds, do much with them for the glory of Jesus. We ask all of these things, Lord, in Christ's name, and all God's people said,