All Things, These Things, All These Things
First B Jackson
2016-07-31

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Good morning, everybody. How are you? Good. It's good. Good to see you.

Florine is on piano for Judy this morning. I'm going invite Scott if he'll come forward. We're going to sing a few songs. If you know em, sing em like you em, okay? Sing em out.

This is a very encouraging Sunday morning. Stand with us and we'll get going. I love to tell the story. Hymn number four forty four.

What's great? I love to tell the story of unseen things above of Jesus and his glory of Jesus and his love I love to tell the story because I know it is true it satisfies my longings as nothing else can do I love to tell the story twil' be my theme in glory to tell the old old story of Jesus and his love I love to tell the story more wonderful it seems than all the golden fancies of all our golden dreams. I love to tell the story it did so much for me and that is just the reason I tell it now to thee I love to tell the story it will be my theme in glory to tell the old old story of Jesus and his love I love to tell the story displeasant to repeat what seems it's time I tell it wonderfully sweet I love to tell a story for some have never the message of salvation from God's own holy word I love to tell the story 'twil be my theme in glory to tell the old old story of Jesus and his love.

Oh, there's another one.

Come on, Ray. I would

love to tell a story.

One more. I love to tell the story for those who know it best. Same hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest. And when in scenes of Thank you, Lorraine.

What a friend we have in Jesus. It's hymn number six thirty. Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I've got a few announcements this morning.

Summer nursery is available downstairs for kids from zero to five years old. And there's a new nursing room downstairs too. I have Monday nights at First Beads on the schedule. It's every Monday night. Down the hall, the fellowship hall down here.

We will have meal, music, and a message on tomorrow night. Carl,

what's

the deal tomorrow night?

Yeah, Mike and he's speaking tomorrow and then it's also pop up tomorrow.

So, it's everybody bring a

little something.

Mike Demetrius is speaking tomorrow. Fantastic. Thank you, Carl and it's potluck. So, if you come, bring a little something to share. Meal, music, and a message.

That's a good time. That's I love that. I love that church. Multi church, young adult cookout is happening at Rivercross and this is we're trying to spread it around to as many different churches for folks that will attend. So, if you know or are a young adult and you wanna tell em about it, August 9, that is next Tuesday, not this coming.

So, if you're from Georgia, that's Tuesday week, alright? Tuesday week at 7PM. Bring long games and something to share. They're going to provide the meat and for everything else, actually, there's one more. The men's fraternity, men's group that gets together to do a horseshoe tournament.

It's happening this week. It's in your bulletin. It's important and it's in your bulletin but I don't know when it is. It is happening from 05:30 to seven, one of the nights this week. Anybody know?

Second which is Tuesday. Okay, Tuesday night. Thank you very much. So, it's in the bulletin and if you would, check your bulletin for all the other announcements. I'd appreciate it.

Would you stand up and greet one another and we will bring you back together with another Romanian folk tune.

Standing on the promises of Christ my king through eternal ages let his praises ring glory in the highest I will shout and sing standing on the promises of God I'm standing on the promises of God standing on the promises that cannot fail when the howling storms have died and fear us sail by the living word of God I shall prevail standing on the promises of God standing on the promises standing on the promises I now can see perfect present cleansing in the blood for me standing standing in the liberty where Christ makes free standing on on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God, my savior. Standing standing on the promises standing on the promises of Christ the Lord bound to him eternally by love's strong cord overcoming daily with my spirit sword standing on the promises of God standing standing on the promises of God my savior standing standing on the promises I cannot fall listening every moment to the spirit's call resting in my savior as my all in all standing on the promises of God. Here we go. Standing on the promises of God my savior standing standing on the promises of God Amen.

Amen. Well done over there.

That's beautiful. Know. Number three fifty eight, if you wanna grab your part, is because he lives.

God sent his son they call him Jesus he came to heal and forgive he bled and died to buy my pardon an empty grave is there to prove my savior lives because he lives I can face tomorrow because he lives Just the ladies. Just the ladies. Join them, fellas. Join them. Amen.

Because he lives I can face tomorrow because he lives all fear is I'll see the lights of glory and I'll know he reigns amen because he lives I can face tomorrow because he lives all fear is gone because I know he holds a future and life is worth the living just because he lives

Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I'll invite the frontline team to come forward. I I feel like I could just do a closing amen though. Quite honestly, that is a about the best song service one could ask for.

All of the elements are there. God, thank you. Thank you that we can get together and and experience such peace and joy and comfort in the midst of difficult times in general. We have a very specific privilege to those who love you and are called according to your purposes. Lord, those who trust in you and your promise.

God, would you take what we are offering right now? Lord, an acknowledgement that you have given every good and perfect gift that you have given all of the resources that we will need. God, would you take back some of what you've given us and would you spread your good gospel to the ends of the earth? Would you do it, lord, in a way that is winsome and attractive and lovely and loving. Lord, would you fund your purposes by our willing obedience to give.

In Jesus name, we thank you. Thank you, Florine. So, last week, for those of you who were here last week, you might think I tried to cover all things last week, everything. I tried to cover summary of chapters one through eight of Romans, the whole book. Up to this point, we started January 17.

I've preached 22 or 23 messages on Romans since January and then last week, I tried to cover them all. So, it was Romans one through eight and I got up as far as verse 28. Now, today, we're just gonna cover 28 through 39. So, just those verses but in those 11 or 12 verses there, there are three paragraphs. One of em starts with all things.

The next one starts with these things and then, the last one starts with all these things. So, you'll know where we are in the sermon by when we get to those things, alright? All things, these things, and all these things. It'll be a little bit heavier in the front than it is at the end but I was so encouraged by this passage this week. I can't even tell you.

I had a lot of pep in my step from having paid attention to what this says and if I were going get a tattoo which I'm not. I would get Romans eight twenty eight through 39 printed right here backwards so that I can look in the mirror and see this and read this every day. It is so good, so good. All things, these things, and all these things. Now, last week, like I said, I tried to cover all the chapters and I could've just read the whole thing because Romans, I think is the clearest theological statement in the Bible and the most compact section of any any other I think.

So, for those of you who are in love with bullet points, here they are. I am more a long narrative guy myself. Chapter one, there was a gospel prescript where Paul doesn't just mention who he is and who his readers will be but he gives the basics of the gospel and the very prescript, the first seven verses. By the sixteenth verse, he hits the theme of Romans which is, I'm not ashamed of the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ. For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

There's a lot in that statement right there and that's the theme of Romans. That along with the next verse gets into practice but bullet points. God's general indictment of humanity immediately follows. Now, he gives his good news, his gospel first and then he says, I'm not ashamed of it and I will be sharing this throughout this book. It's about Jesus but then, God's general indictment of humanity starts where he says, people have rejected the knowledge of God.

They've walked away from him. They have taken what he gave them and walked away from him. He gets more specific in chapter two. God's specific indictment of both Jews and Gentiles, not in that order, Gentiles first, then Jews. God's specific indictment and then in chapter three, the final verdict is in the entire world, both Jews and Gentiles are declared guilty before God but in verse 21 in chapter three, justification is spelled out that it's justification by faith, not by works.

20 is very explicit. It is not by works. No flesh will be justified by works. Justification is spelled out and defined there at the end of chapter three and then, in chapter four, God's justification is illustrated with Old Testament examples. So, Abraham primarily but then David also.

Great chapter following up on the end of chapter three and then immediately, he goes into the results of justification in chapter five. We have peace with God. We've been introduced to his grace. The grace in which we stand. Those are the results of justification and then, he goes on that there are results of condemnation also.

Will it be Adam that you identify with and that's the default position? All of us start off identifying with Adam in our disobedience and rebellion against God or will it be Christ? Will it be obedient? Will it be accepting the plan that he has made for salvation? You can either identify with Adam or you can identify with Christ.

You do not have a neutral position, okay? Chapter six says, and I I wish I had preached it this way but I didn't. When I went back and studied again, I thought about it and I I I like the three imperatives in that chapter. They are no, reckon, and yield. Now, what I said was the believer is dead to sin but alive to Christ and that's perfectly in there.

There's no doubt about that but this is a good kind of take home points, application points. Know that you died with Christ. Did you not know that you were buried with Christ in baptism? Chapter six early on says and then it says, reckon that as true. It did happen and know that it happened and now, consider that and account it for yourself that this is true.

You're dead to sin but alive to Christ and then, yielding which I spend a lot of time on, Yielding to righteousness. Instead of yielding to your sin nature, yield to righteousness. Chapter seven is about our relationship to the law of God or to the law in general. And then at chapter seven fourteen through 25, it is this conflict with indwelling sin. It's the concept of an indwelling sin nature that's within us that is at war with the spirit of God which is also in the heart of believers.

So, our relationship to the law of God and conflict within dwelling sin and praise God for chapter eight. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Praise God. No condemnation. So, justification is what is available for those in Christ and when God says that he justifies, he makes you right with him.

He declares you to be right with him. He declares you righteous when you're really not righteous, okay? There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Now, struggles, yes, but they're temporal struggles. He says that the temporal struggles that we face now are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us, to us, with us, for us.

There's no condemnation in Christ. Struggles, yes, temporally. Now, if you look back through, I think that there are statements of the gospel throughout this book probably more often than I have put em up there but no doubt about it in the first chapter. It goes from 118 to three twenty without really mentioning the good news. It's talking about the bad news which makes the good news even brighter.

Justification spelled out in chapter three and then actually repeated throughout but their Old Testament examples. Gospel, gospel, gospel all over this book. That's what came up for me. When I was presenting all eight chapters at once, I wanted you to hear how many times the gospel is presented in this book. It's a real call.

It's a real call to accept the plan that God has made. Now, here we are. Romans eight twenty eight through 39, all things, these things, and all things, all things first. 28 says, and this is where we ended last week because 29 gets in a little bit hairy. So, and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.

So, the all things there, if I were to stop just on that front line, you know, so how blackout the things. If I were to just say and we know that God causes all things, would that be right? God causes all things. If I were to say, God causes all things. Would you agree with that statement flat out?

Did he cause Adam's rebellion? Did he call, does he cause your sin? He's not the author of temptation. He's not the author of sin. Every good and perfect gift is from above.

It's not. He's not causing all things like we're automatons and he makes us do whatever it is that we do. A better way to look at this is you see how that's highlighted up there. You can't stop reading at all things. You have to keep reading because God causes all things to work together for good is much more compact.

It is the unit that you have to pay attention to. You can't just stop anywhere in a sentence and make it make sense. God causes all things to work together for good. I've shared last week too at the very end. This wooden translation.

It's a little bit cumbersome in English but it is the word order from the Greek and it is specifically what it says. We know, moreover, that to those loving God, he is working all things together for good. To those who according to his purpose, being called. That's to me, theologically, a lot more powerful to me. I don't know if it is to you but when I look at it going, he is the one who's working all things together for good.

Now, he is not the author of the bad things but he can take the bad things that humans do and their free will and still he can work them to the place of goodness for those who love him or are called according to his purpose. Praise God. That's an almighty God because there's plenty of bad stuff that man can throw at himself and at other people. So, he's working all things together for good to those who are according to his purpose being called. So, as we go through this, I thought of this theologian.

Some of you might be familiar with him. Rudolph Otto. He wrote a book called The Idea of the Holy. He wrote it during World War one. So, it's 1917.

The book defines the concept of the holy as that which is numinous, numinous and the word numinous is actually from it's it's an old old word from the Greek but it was never used and it's late eighteenth century. So, seventeen hundreds, it had been in use but very, very, very minimally. When he wrote this book in 1917, I think that this stuff is interesting. Sorry, I'm a nerd but that's the way it is. When I look this up on the internet, Numinous, if you look up the word and it talks about the usage of it, it is flat line from the time it starts being used at 1700 until 1917 and then it does this.

Because this is a really good concept that we don't have as much of a good word for. Holy is the closest that we have. Our concept though of holy is through years and years and years and years and years of use, we've kind of dulled it down. It's kind of like awesome. Awesome used to be awesome.

Now awesome is like, oh, man. Cool. So and so's on sale. It's awesome. The Slurpee is awesome.

Holy used to be like this but numinous carries this idea. It's funny because he's German. He's writing in German. We're speaking English and I'm now quoting something that he defines in Latin but Mysterium Tremendum, Et Fasinans. It is a mystery that is at once terrifying and attractive.

It is terrifying and attractive and the power of almighty God and we keep talking about for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. He's working all things together for good. Well, what about those who are rebelling against God? God is terrifying. Terrifying.

It would be easier to believe that God didn't exist and to believe that his wrath rested upon you. It's at once terrifying and attractive. Actually, CS Lewis quotes him in a couple of different places, references him in multiple others. In the great divorce, he mentions how if there were a tiger in the next room, that might be something that would instill a little bit of fear in you but you're in another room. That's not that big a deal.

If somebody said, in the next room, there's a ghost, then, that might be a little bit different fear not because what the ghost is going to do to you but the ghost is out there a little bit. That's more than we can understand. But if somebody said there is a magnificent and almighty power in the next room, that's terrifying. Does that make sense? Are you with me?

Doesn't say what kind of magnificent power it is. Just it's terrifying. It is a power that is holy other. That's the concept of numinous. It's absolutely, totally, and holy other.

Now, when we are talking about these kind of verses and it's all things work together for good, God's able to change the actual status of what was meant for evil into something being good. To those who are called according to his purpose and then we get into a statement like for those whom he foreknew. Oh my goodness. Does he know things before they happen? Of course, I heard.

Praise God. Yes, that's the biblical response. Yes, he does know things. Now, because he knows them ahead of time, does he cause them to happen? No.

No. He gives us free will. For those whom he foreknew. So, he foreknew. There is right now theological discussion of open theism that God does not really know everything that is to come to pass.

He does not really know the beginning from the end from the beginning that open theist would say that dependent upon the will of man, God cannot know because we can choose anything we want to at any given time. I think God is the author of time. We have to deal with past, present, and future. God is completely outside. He's holy other.

He is numinous. He's at once terrifying and attractive and so, he says that he knows ahead of time. Praise God. I don't know how he does but I know that he does because his word says he does. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined.

I stop right here. If I stop right here, it's a really, really hard thing to deal with. The verse doesn't stop right there and so to say that those whom he foreknew, he also predestined. If he predestined them to either heaven or hell, oh my goodness. That is terrifying.

The verse actually says, when it says predestined, it says, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son. Amen. The predestining that God has done is according to his plan, according to that great gospel plan which we have covered multiple times in Romans. For those who love God, to those who are according to his purpose called, he predestines them to be conformed to the image of his son. Actually, predestined conformed is better.

The to become. If you see anything in italics in the New American Standard Bible that's been supplied so it makes more sense in English. I think it actually makes more sense this way. Just like it says, predestined conformed. He also predestined them conformed into the image of his son.

So, this speaks to God's sanctifying influence on his adopted sons and daughters. Earlier in chapter eight, he says that we can cry out to him as Abba, father, that we have been adopted as sons and daughters and so, he says that for those who love him, who have accepted his plan, and embrace his purpose. He will sanctify them. You remember my graph, my timeline graph where it says, from the moment of belief, you are on a sanctifying journey. As you yield your will to God's will, he is by his spirit, the work of the Holy Spirit.

It says in Thessalonians, conforming you more and more into the image of his son. So, God, this great master, artist, and sculptor is chipping away everything on you that doesn't look like Jesus as you will yield your will to his. Praise God. That's a good amen moment right there. So that he, that is Christ, would be the firstborn among many brethren.

So, God, for those who love him and are called according to his purpose, has planned for you to be made more and more into the image of his child. His firstborn, Jesus. You're an adopted son or an adopted daughter who is coming more and more into having the family resemblance of your older brother, Christ. That's a praise God moment right there too. This is a very encouraging passage.

Hence, the tattoo that I'm not going to get. And these whom he predestined, he also called and these whom he call, he also justified and these whom he justified which is what Romans is about, right? Chapter four, chapter three, the justification process and it is those who accept the plan that he has made. Willingly love God. They're not rebelling against him.

To those who are called according to his good purpose. He called them. They received the call. By believing, they are justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.

I love the tents of this because Paul is saying this, a certainty that of something that has happened in the past. We're humans. Something that has happened in the past. He also glorified. You and I, brother and sister Christ, have already been at the cross glorified.

It is a done deal. This is something that happens for eternity future. The glorification process is sealed by Christ. Who is the these there? These are those who love God called according to his purpose.

The ones he foreknew, the ones he predestined conformed to the image of his son. If you have believed and trusted in Christ, that's you. Praise God. So, this is also, I will remind you, a letter written by a Christian to a bunch of Christians. It's supposed to be a comforting passage and an attractive passage, not a terrifying passage.

If you're reading it and you're seeing it and you're seeing it from the perspective of not knowing Jesus, It is terrifying. It is a great and mighty power that's in the next room and you don't know when he's going to pass through that wall and you don't know what he requires of you. We do know. It's belief. He loves us.

These things, paragraph two. What then shall we say to these things? Now this is referring back up to what he's just said. We know all things work together for good for those called according to his purpose of predestination. The whole deal.

Predestined conformed. What should we say to these things? Because this is a massive issue. This is the high point. This is the Grand Teton of Romans.

This is it. What do we say to these things? It demands a response. If God is for us, then who is against us? Amen.

Amen. He restates this a bunch of different ways but think about that. If God almighty, numinous, is for you, who can be against you? There is no power greater. Father, son, and Holy Spirit, everything else is a created something or time or space which he also spoken to be.

If God is for you, who is against you? So, God, he who did not spare his own son, Jesus, but delivered him over for us all, Christians. How will he not also with him, with Christ, that's we get Christ automatically but with Christ, how will we not also get all things? It's the inheritance with our older brother. Join heirs with Jesus as we travel this side.

I'm part of the family of God. He who did not spare his own son, he gave his only son so that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life. Now, God who did not spare his own son, delivered him over for everyone who believe, everyone who loves God, called out according to his purpose, accepts it. How will he not also along with Christ, which is closer than a brother, he lives within my heart, the old song says. With him, not freely also give us all things.

I love the reference back to the all things. Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. So, okay. Now, the judge, the judge is the one who says, yay or nay.

He's the one who says, righteous, unrighteous. He's the one who justifies. He's already told us exactly how he does that. We've already accepted that fact. Who will bring a charge against God's elect?

God's the one who justifies. He's the one who condemns. Well, I mean, if you want to technically answer that, we have an adversary. We have an accuser. We have an enemy, Satan, but he's a created thing.

He's not. It's not like we have the yin yang and good and bad are equal. No. They're not equal. Who's the one who condemns?

Think about this. Christ Jesus is the one who died. Yes, rather and raised. He was the one who was raised. Who is right now at the right hand of God also interceding for us.

So, who is it that condemns? Think about the woman caught in adultery. This one's the one that just popped into my mind yesterday. So, woman caught in adultery. The Pharisees drag her out.

She's most likely set up. They bring her before Jesus, throw her down at Jesus' feet. He's down in the dirt already. Drawing in the sand. Guilty, completely guilty.

No doubt about it, caught in the act. Who is the one who condemns? Now, the Pharisees were all seeking to condemn. They carrying stones. The law says that we must stone her and Jesus says, very simply, let the one without sin cast the first stone.

Now, he was the one without sin. He could have cast that stone and been righteous doing so. But he says, let's back back up. If God is for us, who is against us? So, when Jesus said to him who's without sin cast the first stone and they all walked away dropping their stones.

God, Jesus, was for her. Who was against her? Where are your accusers? They vanish. Nobody can stand against one of God's children.

God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus, it's he who died. Yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Think about that.

Christ Jesus, the one you put your faith in is praying for you at the right hand of the father right now. Amen. Now, who will separate us from that kind of love, from the love of Christ? Well, tribulation. No.

Christ actually promises us tribulation. That's a part of life. Lipsis is a part of this experience. Distress. Distress is how we feel about tribulation.

Not just our circumstances but how we deal with our circumstances. Will that separate us from the love of Christ? No. Well, persecution. Actually, persecution always makes the church stronger, always.

Famine? Nope. Somebody reminded me between services of Cory Ten Boom and the hiding place. Do you remember the stories? Yeah.

In concentration camps. In hard hard places, under extreme persecution where there was nothing to eat, nakedness also involved usually. Peril, the true possibility that you could lose your life or sword? And the last one is a violent death. And this was written in '57 wintertime of fifty seven AD.

Paul lost his life to the sword seven years later in Rome under the same emperor that was in charge right here. Who will separate us from love of Christ? Did that chopping Paul's head off, separating from the love of Christ? No. And this might not be the crowd for this reference, but Star Wars, Ben Kenobi, Darth Vader.

Do you remember the scene? Kenobi's like, strike me down. I'll become more powerful than you'll even imagine. You can't kill em. You can't kill somebody with eternal life.

They get to go into their eternal reward. Making this peril or sword. No. He then goes into Romans eight thirty six and it says, as it is written, now, he's calling for Old Testament evidence evidence again and he uses, for your sake, we are killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Now, I use a lot of musical references. Y'all heard five or six of em already today. They were just spur of the moment. Paul knows the Psalms like I know the Baptist Seminal. So, for your sake, we're killed all day long.

We're counted as sheep for the slaughter. When he references that, Psalm, that song in the Israel's songbook, they all are most of the Jewish flavor Christians in the audience would know it and I'm going to read it for you. I'm just going to read it straight through. Try not to comment too much. Psalm 44 in whole says this, we have heard with our ears, oh God, our fathers have told us the deeds you did in their days, in the days of old.

You drove out the nations with your hand, but then you planted, you afflicted the peoples and cast them out, for they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, nor did their own arms save them. Lord, these are our forefathers, our ancestors, these are the patriots, these are the people. You are right there. It was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your countenance because you favored them. Lord, you are my king, oh God.

I'm calling out to you. Command victories now for Jacob. We wanna see that like they saw it then. Through you, we will push down our enemies. Through your name, we will trample those who rise up against us.

He's putting his faith in God, right? For I will not trust in my bow nor shall my sword save me but you, lord, have saved us from our enemies and have put to shame those who hated us in the past. In God, we all day long and only in God and praise your name forever. Selah, let that part ring. In God, we boast all day long and praise your name forever but you have cast us off and put us to shame and you do not go out with our armies.

It's not like it used to be, he's saying. He's lamenting right here. We want to see the power. We want to see what you did before now. You might feel like that sometimes as a Christian.

You make us turn back from the enemy, and those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves. You've given us up like sheep intended for food and have scattered us among the nations. You sell your people for next to nothing, and you're not enriched by selling them. You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision. They're making fun of us, Lord.

To those all around us, you make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples, a mockery. A dishonor is continue, my dishonor, lord, is continually before me and the shame of my face has covered me because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles because of the enemy and the avenger. All this, lord, has come upon us but we have not forgotten you. He's holding fast. Do you get this?

This servant of God, the ones who wrote this old song, all this has come upon us. Lord, it's hard times but we have not forgotten you. We've not dealt falsely with your covenant. Our heart has not turned back nor have our steps departed from your way. We're still practicing it.

Lord, we're still walking out exactly what you've shown us but you have severely broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death. If we had forgotten the name of our God or if we had stretched out our hands to a foreign god, would not God search this out? Would you not, lord? No? We know that you would.

For you know the secrets of the heart. Yet, lord, for your sake, we are killed all day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Now, that's the phrase that Paul uses at 08:36 for his proof. Referencing the whole song.

I'll finish out the song. Awake, it's an earnest plea to God. Why is it that you sleep, oh Lord? Arise and don't cast us off forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our affliction and our oppression for our soul is bowed to the down to the dust and our body clings to the ground.

That's pretty low. Arise for our help, lord, and earnest plea and redeem us. Why? For your mercy's sake. Not because we're good, not because of anything that we've done, for your own mercy, by your grace, we're calling out lord because that's who you are and how you are for your mercy's sake, redeem us.

It's calling for it. That's Old Testament. Now, Paul brings that into the now in that these things passage. Now, we're going to all these things. All these things considering that this is the last line of it.

For your sake, we're killed all day long. We're accounted as sheep for the slaughter. But in all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. Now, Paul was seeing in fifty seven AD how things were going politically. He was seeing how things were going in the land that he was in.

He saw that the emperor had absolute power and was a crazy nut. In all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us, through Christ. For I'm convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities. Now principalities is a big $10 word for rulers. Those who are in charge temporally, politically, earthly.

At that time, this was the guy or this is a artistic representation of this grumpy guy, Nero. Paul would be murdered under Nero's rule seven years later. Nero historians tell us fiddled. He was a musician. He fiddled while Rome burned.

Probably a fire that he set. It burned three quarters of Rome. To build himself a house. He already had the plans. The Domus Arius.

He already had the plans built up for his house but he needed to move some stuff out of the way. So, he set Rome on fire. Three quarters of Rome burned and then he blamed the Christians for doing it and then started on his palace. That's a bad dude, you know? I'd say that's a megalomaniac.

You know, that's kind of the definition of it. Nor principalities, that's rulers, things present. Now, that's anything that is present at that time and Nero was the emperor right then nor things to come. Whoever is the next one that's going to take over. Nor powers, whatever they may be.

Nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing. Already mentioned, Satan's a created thing. Nothing, none of that stuff. Will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our lord. That's an amen moment right there too.

Amen. Nothing can. So, I go back to Mysterium Tremendum at Fassinans. A mystery that is at once terrifying and graciously attractively fascinating. The plan is for whosoever will may come.

I almost sang the song, whosoever surely meaneth me. You remember that old hymn? Whosoever surely meaneth me, surely meaneth me. Yeah. Whosoever surely meaneth me.

It's attractive. It's fascinating to believe that that's the case. It's terrifying if you're on the other side of that. I want to go back over how many times the gospel has been declared so far and probably more than that. Those are the bullets of Romans.

It's all gospel. I've got a couple more stories. One of them is, I think this sermon is the antidote for watching the news, okay? I was and and you know, y'all read the papers and you've read internet stuff and you know that it doesn't matter who you are. Everybody sees this as kind of the worst election ever.

You know, there's like, oh, it's this is bad and then that's worse. When you get more votes for neither, that's pretty bad times, you know? And they're getting more votes for neither in a lot of places. I was thinking on that and I've been reading the news more often than I usually do in the past few weeks and kind of fascinated on my phone just kind of paying attention to the news while I'm waiting for stuff. And I've gotten a little bit of that malaise.

I'm catching a little bit of it I felt in the past few weeks. And then I went to bed last night and I had a nightmare. So it can get worse. I had the nightmare that I was one of the candidates. I cannot imagine that.

That is absolutely horrible but I woke up in a cold sweat like I was the one of the ones that people would be voting for and one of the ones that everybody's saying all this nasty stuff about and the ones who are blindly saying other good stuff about the other one. Praise God. I'm not in the race. I had one more as far as the all things and everything's and the benediction today is going to be about in everythings. We can give thanks in, not for, but in everything, give thanks.

And I thought of the story of being in Mexico. Now, Paul was in a place where it was bad and it was going to get worse and he could see that coming and he was saying that and you know, when when emperor sets fire to the capital city and then blames it on you, that's pretty bad. You know, when we were down in Mexico, we had some this is just temporal but it's it's something to remember. When we were down in Mexico, we had this septic tank and it was not working properly. We're having a backup.

We try to fix it several different ways. We decide, we've got a team there. There are 45 people staying. This is one of the things you have to use when you have people staying with you. You gotta make sure your system's all working perfectly, properly and it wasn't and so as we decided what to do, I called a pump truck.

Come in and clean this thing out. That's what's going to have to happen. Apparently, something is messed up in the bottom. It's silted in. We're to have to fix it.

So would you come help out? Guy came out with a pump truck, puts a little thing down in there, the suction thing down in there, and he goes, I'm sorry. I can't help you. Why not? Too many solids.

I'm sorry. That's just what he said. Alright? Yuck. Okay.

So how are we going to do this? We have to empty it. We got to empty this thing by hand. Now, the septic tank for a school this big is and it's only one of the ones. We had lots of em but it was almost eight feet wide.

It was 10 feet long. It was this deep and it had a concrete foundation on the bottom made out of block, had a little passageway through the wall. So, it came up about two feet and so after you start emptying this side, you gotta empty that other side over there which is even bigger than what I just described and so, as we considered how we're going to do this, blessed rainfall came about 01:00 that afternoon. We had 45 people there and we're talking amongst ourselves, the leadership, how we would do this and we have to empty it by hand. We got 45 people here who came to serve God in whatever way they were asked to do and so, one of us was the first one down in but we we had to empty it with five gallon buckets.

We had lots of for pouring concrete and we took about seven or eight buckets. We had a hook on a rope. We'd lower that thing down in there. Somebody had to splash it down in empty. And we handed it down an ant line, you know, two lines of people going out into a farmer's field and we're dumping the contents into this farmer's field and that's that's pretty bad.

Okay, that's pretty bad. While we were doing that, the team starts singing all of these good old hymns. They start singing these songs by heart. They're overflowing. We're overflowing one way.

They're overflowing a different way. So, as they're going, they're singing songs and praising God and they're dumping this contents into this farmer's field and it was pretty bad and we got all the way down to the bottom and when we got to the pass through level about two feet high, we recognized that silt, sand had gotten in there and filled up all the way up to that pass through and that's why nothing was passing through. So we had to take a shovel at that point after we've emptied this stuff all the way down to the bottom, take a shovel and start digging out sand and muck and putting it in five gallon buckets, and there are people down in there taking it and we're spreading it out in that farmer's field, fertilizing that crop. And when we got to the very bottom, somebody had had the forethought to write in the concrete at the very bottom. We're cleaning up the very bottom and it said in all things give thanks.

Because it can always get worse. We were thanking God for the rain. We're thanking God for for the camaraderie, for the willing spirit of those 45 students that were there, that were helping, you know. It was fantastic And we got the job done and everything's good. Everything started flowing from there.

But I love that. It can always get worse. Politically, you know who's on the throne. You don't worry who's in in the Oval Office. Right?

You can't get worse than Nero. Sorry. That's my statement. Would y'all stand with me? Let's sing and end this thing.

I think that this is this is a a time to be praising God and the benediction hopefully will go through that and think of that. When you leave today, I want to leave you with a blessing and kind of with what this should, I think, inspire. It's from Thessalonians but I think it inspires. Jesus is lord of all. Hymn number five ninety nine.

All my tomorrows all my past Jesus is lord of all I've quit my struggles contentment at last Jesus is lord all things all of my conflicts all my thoughts Jesus is lord of all his love wins the battles I could not have fought Jesus is lord of all king of kings and Lord Jesus

There's one more, I know. In all things. So, the benediction is this and it's a very Pauline benedictions from the last part of Thessalonians, first Thessalonians. Rejoice always. No matter what the news says, okay?

When people come to me and they say that they're angry all the time, I say, quit watching the news. Altogether. Read Romans eight. Quit watching the news. Rejoice always.

Pray without ceasing. We are in a desperate situation. You are understanding correctly but you can still rejoice in it. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing.

In all things, give thanks. Amen. For how often do you get God's will just laid out for you? In all things, give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Lord, would you remind us of this this week and would you give us a joy that is just infectious? Would you give us a confidence that is unshakable and would you give us a good word for everyone we meet in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.