Bible Reading: Romans Chapter 8 Verses 31 - 39

If God Be For Us

It is a good thing to know we are safe. When you're at school have you ever been bullied? It is not a pleasant thing. But what if you had a very large powerful dog as a pet? A dog that really liked you and that did everything you told it to. Or, better still, several very large powerful dogs. Not the sort of pets anyone would argue with - surely they'd look after you. Even very large powerful dogs can't protect you from everything.

OK. Make friends with The President of USA. He'd look after you - wouldn't he? All the American armed forces would be there to protect you. Even then an unexpected terrorist attack might get through and do you harm.

The people of God are the only people who are truly safe. They are eternally safe. In the verses preceding our reading Paul has been talking about all the great things that come to the people of God. All the historical records in The Bible show how God kept His chosen people safe through all sorts of pressures and difficulties and saved them from all manner of attacks. From the beginning of time evil forces have set themselves against all who seek to know God. God has saved all His people from their greatest enemy, spiritual death. He has made them alive to spiritual things. They have God-given faith and understanding of the things of God, the things that really count. God's people are eternally safe and guaranteed a place in heaven. All other problems and difficulties are of lesser importance than that first great thing God has overcome already for His people through what The Lord Jesus has done. No matter what happens to one of Gods people they are always safe. Whatever God allows to happen to them - even if they die - they are safe.

History shows Gods goodness to His people. Satan tempted Eve and Adam so that they offended God by breaking His commandment. In doing this satan led them into conflict with God and they brought death upon themselves by their wickedness. God immediately told them of a way that people could be saved from condemnation and eternal loss in hell.

Cain killed Abel but he was not allowed to kill Adam and Eve as well. They had another son, Seth who continued to pass on the truth about God and His creation and about the Saviour to come. When Seth's son Enos was born in the year 235 men began to call upon the name of The Lord. Genesis 4: 26 And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD. God had His chosen people whom He intended to watch over. Even though Abel was killed by evil Cain God preserved the line of people down through history that were His chosen people.

When the evil of mankind grew to the level where it was described as "every imagination of man was only evil continually", then God destroyed all air breathing land creatures on earth, saving only examples of each kind with Noah and his family.
What power do you suppose it takes to bring about a worldwide flood? God has the power to do such things, just as he had the power to keep Noah safe so that the truth was passed on from generation to generation so that we, today, have Gods complete word, from start to finish, written down for us.

God brought The People of Israel through the Red Sea on dry land when they were escaping from the Egyptians. There is an article around that gives some statistics based on estimates of the numbers of Israelites in the desert. The path through the Red sea would have needed to be 3 miles wide for everyone to get across in one night. (A narrow channel with everyone in single file would have led to an 800-mile queue! God did that for His people. What power did it take to dry out a 3-mile wide stretch of Sea Bed - quite apart from moving the water back to get at the seabed to dry it out! The same thing happened when, after 40 years in the wilderness, they came to cross the river Jordan into the land God had promised to them as a home for the nation.

God kept his people from their enemies, and, under King David they conquered best part of the Middle East. Even when God allowed the enemies of His people to defeat them because they had fallen into sinful ways God still delivered them and restored them.
At one time, most of the nation was carried away into captivity but after God had dealt with them in a far country He brought the nation back to the land He had given them.

In the time since The Lord Jesus was ministering on earth, The Gospel Age, God has continued to keep His people. Before The Lord Jesus came Gods people looked forward to how God was going to save His people. They had an idea from the sacrifices in the Old Testament Law. In The Gospel Age the truth has been revealed and we know how God saves His people by the life, death and resurrection of The Lord Jesus Christ.

There have been terrible attacks on Gods people. Some were made to fight wild animals in the Coliseum at Rome. In this country only a few hundred years ago some of God's people were tied to poles, had wood placed around them and then they were burned to death. Enemies of God tried to ban the Bible from being translated into English and printed for ordinary people to read. They paid lots of money for Bibles so they could burn then! Despite these efforts of evil men there are still God's people in the world and His Word, The Bible is still available for people to have and read.

I heard of a Chinese Minister who was arrested because he was a Christian. He was questioned and beaten by the Chinese police but would not deny his faith in God. They put a rope round his neck, made him stand on the top of a chair back so he had to balance himself to avoid falling, then they tied the other end of the rope to one of the rafters in the roof. If he lost balance and fell he would hang himself. He would not give in and deny his faith so they kept him there for three days under guard. He was only one man, seemingly helpless in the hands of all his guards.

On the third day a great storm came and the Chinese Minster, by then, was very weak. His legs had swollen because of having to stand and balance himself so long. He began swaying as his strength finally failed and he fell off the chair. As he fell, lightening struck the building, hit the rope above his head and burned it through in an instant. The Minister was saved from hanging and was released shortly afterward. One of the guards came to faith in God through The Lord Jesus as a result of seeing Gods power used in saving the Minister.

God's people are persecuted terribly in many lands. The USSR is a good example. Communism has fallen but there are still many Christians in the countries that made up the USSR. God's people have outlasted Communism.

In all these things God has kept His people down through the years. There has never been a time when there have been no people of God despite the best efforts of evil men to try and wipe them out. There have been times when the efforts of evil men to wipe out the people of God have been used, in Gods power, to bring more people to know and love God because the persecuted Christians spread out and told more people in other places about The Lord Jesus than they would have done if they stayed put.

God's power is total in all things. There is nothing He cannot do - except to sin. He is in control of every circumstance and He watches over His chosen people in even the tiniest detail of their lives. Romans 8: 28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.Again in Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. Such is Gods care and concern and provision for His people.

A question for us all.

If God be against us who can be for us?

Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; If we have heard God's truth, as we all have here, and we choose to reject it then we put ourselves deliberately in opposition to God. Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. If you or I go through life living in unbelief and refusing Gods authority, who will stand up for us before God when we finally come face to face with Him? Who is there, that you know, who can withstand God and overcome Him? Each of us will one day stand in the presence of God in all His power - what protection can we look to then?

Visualise the scene on the day of judgement. Everyone who has ever lived will be there. Great historical characters you learn about in school will be there - you might recognise some of them from their pictures in history books. The whole of humanity in every age bowed down to the ground in the presence of God. One by one people will be called to give an account of their lives. What will you rely on when your name is called? How will you explain all that you have done in your life?

Only if God Himself will protect you in that day will you be safe.

We all need to seek to be right with God now so we are ready on that day. We need to be one of those people for whom God stands in protection.

How can we find God's protection for ourselves? We cannot find it for ourselves - we can only ask God to give it to us. It is only His to give. We must realise we need His protection or we are lost. We need to ask Him to take care of us - not just now in this life but forever. We must ask Him for strength to turn away from sinful things. We must ask Him to enable us to believe what He says. Only by admitting that we are wrong and disobedient to God and by asking Him to forgive us and cover us with the righteousness of The Lord Jesus can we become the people of God and have God for us rather than against us. Hebrews 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

BUT

As we read in Romans 8:31 If God be for us, who can be against us?