In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes that the promise in Romans 8:28 is specifically for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. The promise states that God will cause everything that happens in their life to work together for their good. The preacher highlights the importance of seeking God's purpose and not being driven by love for money or worldly fame. The ultimate goal of God for believers is to make them like Jesus Christ, and He works through the Holy Spirit to fulfill this purpose.

Let's turn today to Romans and chapter 8 and verse 15. Since the Holy Spirit is now leading us and we're sons of God, we're under no obligation to live according to our old nature. And so, we don't have to live as slaves anymore. That's the point of verse 15. Romans 8.15, you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again. The Holy Spirit is a spirit of life, spirit of freedom. It's not a spirit of condemnation. Anything that brings condemnation is not from God. Anything that brings death, agitation, is not from God. The spirit of God is spirit of life and peace. Equally, anything that brings fear is not from God. Romans 8.15, whenever you find fear in your heart concerning anything, you can be sure of one thing. That fear has not been given to you by God. God has not given us the spirit of fear. When you find yourself enslaved to a habit, you can be sure that that spirit of slavery is not from God. God does not want you to be a slave. God wants you to be an overcomer. God wants you to be a king. God wants you to walk in triumph. You have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you've received a spirit of adoption as sons. What's the meaning of adoption as sons? Today we speak of adoption as a set of parents taking a husband and wife, selecting a child from an orphanage and adopting it. It's not a natural child. It's somebody else's child they adopt. But the adoption spoken of here in Romans 8.15 is not that type of adoption at all. It's talking about placement. A more correct translation would be placement as sons, which is a custom in those days that when children came to a certain age, they would be acknowledged as heirs, as we read in Galatians 4. At a certain age, they can be heirs of their father, who is the king. That's the adoption spoken of here. It's a born child, born to the parents, who has been placed as a child. The spirit of adoption as sons. I am a child who is now a son. God wants me to be a son, not a baby. Crying out, Abba, Father. The Holy Spirit within us calls out, Father. Showing me that I'm a child of God. Showing me that I'm a son of God. The Spirit of God wants me to have security in my life. He doesn't want me to be defeated. He doesn't want me to be insecure. You know, when you know God as a Father, that all insecurity goes away from your life. Insecurity is the result of not knowing God as a Father. God is a loving Father. And the more you know Him as a loving Father, the more you are freed from insecurity. And when you are freed from insecurity, you are freed from a lot of other problems in your life. The Spirit Himself, verse 16, bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. I never go to any believer and say to him, you are a child of God. I say the Holy Spirit must tell him that. If the Holy Spirit doesn't tell you that you are a child of God, it's no use somebody else coming and giving you that assurance. You need to get that assurance from God through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. How do I know I am a child of God? It's not just because of some letter that I read in Scripture. Yes, it's on the basis of that that I get faith. But in addition to that, it's the Holy Spirit within my spirit telling me I am a child of God. And that's what we find, is the experience of every true born-again child of God. He has a witness within him. We have the external witness of the Word of God, but we also have the witness within that I am a child of God. Do you have that? God wants you to have it. That's why He puts the Spirit within you. And if you are a child, then you are an heir. You see, the child born to a king is heir to the king's throne, to all the king's wealth. Heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and I am a fellow heir with Him. He is my elder brother, as we read later on in Romans 8.29. Now, I can be a fellow heir with Him if... Now, there are many promises in Scripture which are unconditional. God's love is unconditional. His material blessings very often are unconditional. He makes the sun to rise in the good and the evil, we read in Matthew 5. He makes the rain to fall on the righteous and the unrighteous. But certain promises are conditional. If we repent and believe, our sins can be forgiven. The sins of people are not automatically forgiven just because Jesus died on the cross. There is a condition. They have to repent and believe. God's love is unconditional, but forgiveness is conditional. Conditional on their repenting and believing. In the same way, it says here, we are heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ, Romans 8.17, if we suffer with Him, in order that we may be glorified with Him. Now, if you are not willing to suffer with Christ, you cannot be glorified with Him. It's completely out of the question. Suffering is the pathway to glory. And, heirship, being an heir of God, sharing His throne, is dependent on choosing to suffer with Him now. And in relation to that suffering, He says in Romans 8.18, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not even worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us. We have seen many things about life in the Holy Spirit in Romans chapter 8. One of the things we see here now, is that the Holy Spirit leads us into a life of suffering. Fellowship with Christ in His sufferings. Now, a lot of people don't like this. They think the Spirit leads us to prosperity and comfort and ease. That's a false gospel. Romans 8 speaks very clearly about victory over sin. It also speaks about suffering. And, that's why we see God's people are led through suffering, just like their forerunner, Jesus Christ Himself, went through suffering. It was not so in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, God's people were promised prosperity and wealth and lands and houses and prosperous businesses, etc. But, in the New Testament, we are told that we are to suffer along with Jesus Christ. And, He says, this is not something to be troubled about, because all the suffering that we can ever face in the world is like a drop in the ocean compared to the glory we are going to have if we are faithful in that suffering. And then He speaks about creation in verse 19. All of creation is eagerly waiting for the revealing of the sons of God, because the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will also be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know, verse 22, that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, we groan within ourselves waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. He says here that nature itself is waiting for the day when it will be delivered from the death and decay that there is in it now. Today there are thorns and thistles, sin, death, decay, all types of things. And creation is waiting patiently, hopefully, for that future day when God will raise up His children and reveal their glory. And then, creation itself will be liberated from the curse that came upon it when Adam and Eve chose to sin. The things that this world, creation is suffering, will all disappear in that day. And He says here that creation is waiting for that day. And it's not only creation. We ourselves are waiting for that day. And Paul likens it here, verse 22, the Holy Spirit likens it to the pains of childbirth. Every child is born through the mother going through pain. And through that pain a child is born. In fact, that's part of the punishment which God gave to Eve, that in pain and sorrow she'll bring forth children. But she would have children. But the joy would come after the pain. And in the same way, we also, he says, are going through that painful process right now. But the purpose is to bring forth this new creation. We groan within ourselves, verse 23, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons. Waiting eagerly for the redemption of our body. Waiting eagerly for the day when we'll have a new body that will never be sick and that will never die. And so he says here, that is the same longing that creation has that we also have. And it's in this hope, verse 24, that we've been saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. We don't see it yet. But you can't hope for what you already see. But if we hope for what we don't see, with perseverance, verse 25, we wait eagerly for it. What are we waiting eagerly for? For all this world to see that we are the sons of God. Right now the world doesn't recognize that. The world sees us just like everybody else. But Jesus has put a life in us through His Holy Spirit and made us God's children. And one day the whole world will see us as God's children. So we wait patiently for that day when our bodies will be redeemed and then creation itself will that day be set free. So all these things are a challenge for us to be faithful to the leading of the Holy Spirit in daily life. Let's turn today again to Romans, chapter 8. We've been looking in our last studies at this wonderful chapter which describes life in the Holy Spirit. Freedom from condemnation, verse 1. Freedom from the law of sin and death, verse 2. Fulfilling the righteous requirement of the law, verse 4. Having our mind transformed by the Spirit, verse 5. Peace in our mind by the Spirit, pleasing God, verse 8. And the Spirit of Christ Himself, verse 9. Making our spirit alive through righteousness, verse 10. Giving us a foretaste in our mortal bodies of that resurrection life we shall one day enjoy in our body, verse 11. Giving us the power, verse 13, to put to death the deeds of the body, verse 13. Leading us, thus manifesting that we are the sons of God, verse 14. Crying out, Abba, Father, from within us, verse 15. Assuring us that we are God's children, giving us security in Him. Leading us along the pathway of suffering so that we can become heirs with Him. And in our last study, we were also looking at a groaning within us, verse 23. The firstfruits of the Spirit. What we have tasted of the Holy Spirit, we read in verse 23, can be compared to the firstfruits. It's like a tree full of mangoes and say one or two fruits have become ripe. There are hundreds of mangoes in that tree, but you got just one or two so far. The firstfruits, the ones that are ripe. And what we have experienced of the Holy Spirit so far in our life is only of firstfruits. It's just a little bit of what we are going to experience in fullness one day when Christ comes back in glory. And the Holy Spirit is in tune with the mind of God. God wants to change this whole old creation into something new. To finish with that old creation that was destroyed and ruined by sin. And to make it something new. And He begins that by starting in our hearts. In our hearts, He gives us this new life to begin with. And one day it will cover the whole earth as the waters cover the sea. And this is the meaning of receiving the firstfruits of the Spirit. And the Spirit, because He is in tune with the mind of God, He gives us also that same desire. A groaning, a longing for the new creation and the spirit of love and peace and joy to flood the earth. That longing. It's in this hope that we are saved. And if you are responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, you will find within yourself a dissatisfaction with everything in this world. If you are comfortable in this world, you can be pretty sure that you are not responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. A person who is responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit will not feel comfortable in this world. There will always be a groaning, a longing to move on to that better kingdom. I've met a lot of people in India who are always longing and hoping to migrate to a better country, to some western country. And they are longing and hoping and many times their longing is not fulfilled and they are disappointed when they don't get an immigrant visa or something like that. And that longing, why do they long to go to a better country? They can live more comfortably there. Now, this is a picture, a faint picture of the longing that a true child of God has for heaven. He is not happy here. He is not happy no matter how rich he becomes, no matter how famous he becomes. He longs for heaven where he can have the life of God. And if we have this longing, then we know we are in cooperation with the Holy Spirit. And he goes on to say in verse 26 something more about life in the Spirit and that is praying in the Spirit. The Spirit helps us in our weakness. That's a beautiful verse. Jesus called the Holy Spirit in John 14 a helper. We need a helper only when we are weak. When we are strong, we don't need a helper. And when a lot of believers think that they are strong, they don't need the power of the Holy Spirit at all. The power of the Holy Spirit is needed only if we recognize we are weak. And so, the Spirit comes to help us in our weakness. He is a helper. And the first area where he helps us is in prayer, it says in verse 26. Because we don't know how to pray as we should. We don't know the way in which we should pray. And we don't know what to pray for. We pray for a lot of stupid things. God wants to give us better things. Nobody prays for suffering. But God allows a lot of suffering in the lives of his children because that's the way they get sanctified. Let me give you an illustration from the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, we read of the first three kings of Israel as Saul, David and Solomon. Why was it that the reign of Saul was such a useless reign? And why was it that the reign of King Solomon also ended in spiritual disaster? Both Saul and Solomon, their reigns ended in spiritual disaster. David was also an imperfect man, just like Saul and Solomon. But his reign for 40 years was such a glorious reign. What was the difference? The difference was that David had gone through many, many, many years of suffering. Unrighteous, unjust suffering before he came to the throne. Whereas Saul and Solomon had a very comfortable, cushy life before they came to the throne. That was the essential difference. That teaches us something in our Christian life too. We are fit for reigning only if we have gone through suffering. Otherwise, we don't know how to reign. Our reign will be disastrous, like Saul's and Solomon's. If you want your reign to be glorious, you must be willing to suffer like David. So, the Spirit prays according to the will of God. It says in verse 27, verse 26, The Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Sometimes we have longings in our heart which we cannot express in words. Some of those longings can be expressed in tongues and other ways, but there are others which are so deep it cannot be expressed in any way. Groanings too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Here is an amazing verse. We know that Jesus intercedes for us according to Hebrews 7.25. Here we are told that the Holy Spirit also intercedes from within us. How does the Holy Spirit intercede? Through your tongue. Through my tongue. Jesus has already got a body. Now the Holy Spirit takes your body and my body and intercedes through us. He is in the same ministry as Jesus of intercession, of praying, asking God to do things. And if we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, He will make us pray according to the will of God. He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. He will make us pray for God's people. If a man is filled with the Holy Spirit, he will pray for God's people according to God's will. He won't be praying primarily that God's people will be prosperous and rich and famous and get big jobs on the earth. No. He will be praying that God's people will become Christ-like and will seek His kingdom first and His righteousness and live for the glory of God in their daily lives. That's what he is going to pray for them. And this is what the Holy Spirit prompts us to pray for ourselves and for others. Now, I believe that if a man is filled with the Holy Spirit, he will be in fellowship with Christ and if Christ is praying, he will be praying. He will lean upon God in helpless dependence for his ministry. He will always long that God's power will be manifested through him. He will recognize he cannot live this Christian life on his own. The other thing we read in Romans 8.28 is that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God to those who are called according to His purpose. Now, this is a very, very big subject. And it teaches us something about the tremendous sovereignty of God over all the circumstances and events that touch the lives of His children. All things are mentioned in verse 28. It's Almighty God controlling all circumstances, events that affect the life of His children, those who love Him. This promise, remember in verse 28, it's one of the most fantastic promises of the sovereignty of God as it affects our lives. But I want you to notice here that it does not apply to every person in the whole world. When you read a promise in Scripture, you need to find out whether it applies to you or not. To whom does it apply? To those who love God. Jesus said in Luke chapter 16, verse 13 to 15, He said, You cannot serve two masters. You cannot love God and money. This promise, Romans 8.28, is not for those who love money. It's not for those who want to be famous and popular in the world. It's for those who love God. It's for those who are called according to His purpose, whose aim in life is to fulfill God's purpose for their lives, not their own. What is the promise for them? God will cause every single thing that happens in their life to work together for their good. Isn't that a fantastic promise? Isn't it wonderful to love God, to seek His purpose? Because everything will then begin to work for our good. Today we will turn to Romans chapter 8 and verse 28. One of the most wonderful promises in the New Testament. We looked a little bit at it in our last study. The sovereignty of God that controls all circumstances, situations and everything that affects the lives of His children. God's children are placed like sheep in the midst of wolves. We are like helpless creatures in the midst of a society that is against us and very powerful. Jesus sent His apostles forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. He Himself said that. A sheep is quite helpless before a wolf. A wolf has got far more power. It can tear many sheep apart. Why has an almighty God allowed His children to be like helpless sheep in the midst of fierce wolves? There is a purpose to show, first of all to teach that sheep not to depend on its own strength but to depend upon God for all its protection. Secondly, to show that when that sheep trusts in almighty God, even what the wolf may do to it will only work for its good. Satan uses men and women to harass God's children, to trouble God's children, to persecute God's children, to put them in jail, to take them to court, to rob them, to kill them. But everything that Satan does, God turns it for good, for the good of His work, for the good of His church, for the fulfillment of His purpose on earth. And so we see here that God in a wonderful way manifests His power through weakness. Jesus came in the same way. Jesus could have called 72,000 angels to come and defend Him in the garden of Gethsemane. He Himself said that to Peter. So that those Roman soldiers could have been destroyed in a moment. We read in the Old Testament that one angel destroyed 185,000 soldiers of the King of Assyria in the time of King Hezekiah. Imagine if 72,000 angels came down. What would be the end of that Roman battalion that came to capture Jesus? But He would not call them. He was like a sheep in the midst of wolves. He allowed those people to capture Him, to take Him to court, to falsely accuse Him, and He kept quiet through it all, and finally to kill Him. And God raised Him from the dead. And that which the devil accomplished on Calvary, which we could say is the greatest sin that man ever committed, the greatest evil that was ever done on this earth, was done on Calvary's cross when Satan killed the Son of God through human hands. But that very cross, which is the greatest evil that was ever done on this earth, became the very place where the greatest good was also done. That on that cross, Jesus took the sins of the whole world and redeemed us for eternity. So what do we see there? That the greatest evil that Satan could do on this earth was turned by God to become the greatest good. Teaching us that lesser evils that Satan may do to us will also be turned by God, every one of them, into good. That's why we don't fear. If you have God on your side, you need never fear. Because every single thing, when it says all things in Romans 8.28, it means all things. Every single thing that a man can ever do to you, that demons can ever do to you, that Satan does to you, God can turn it and will turn it for good if you trust Him. It may not look like working for your good right now. But God causes all things to work together, it says. It's not just one item by itself. When it's all put together, it works for good if you love God and you're called according to His purpose. Now if you've got private ambitions on earth and your aim in life is to make money, I'm not saying things will work for your good. The Bible's got other warnings for those who love money in 1 Timothy 6, they will pierce themselves through with many sorrows. But here it is speaking for those who are called according to God's purpose. Whom God foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Verse 29. So Romans 8.29 explains the good mentioned in Romans 8.28. When we think of good, we think of comfort, money, prosperity, happiness, earthly happiness and many things like that. When God thinks of good, He's not thinking of any of those things. He's thinking of eternal good. What is the greatest good that God can cause everything to work for in your life? When it says in Romans 8.28 that God makes everything work for good, consider for a moment, what is the greatest good that you would like to happen in your life? Is it getting a better house? Is it becoming richer? Getting a promotion in your job? These things are not eternal good. You may get some benefit from that for twenty, thirty, forty years. But the one thing that can give you eternal good is if God can change your character so that you become like Jesus Christ. And that is the good that's mentioned in verse 29. God causes all things to work together for this good. Verse 29. That we might be conformed to the image of His Son. Jesus was not the richest man that lived on this earth, but He was the happiest. Jesus was not the one who had the most comfortable life on this earth. He had a lot of suffering. But He was the one person who fulfilled the will of the Father completely more than anybody else. Do you want to be like that? A lot of Christians say they want to be like Christ, but they don't want Christ's poverty or suffering. They want to be like Christ in character without any of the suffering of Christ. It's not possible. God is going to cause everything to work for good so that we become like Christ in our character, in our life. And if that is to be fulfilled in our life, then we have to taste of His sufferings. And that's why God allows us to go through suffering. That's why He allows the devil to do a lot of things to us. But one thing is clear. God foreknew us. It says in verse 29, He foreknew us, which means long ages ago. He who knows the future knew that you would respond to the claims of the Gospel and surrender your life to Christ. And because He foreknew you, He also predestined. Predestined means He determined a destiny for you. A destination. You know, when you get into a train or a bus, you got a destination towards which you are going. You may go in the bus through many potholes and dangerous paths, but you finally reach a destination. So when it says predestined, God has determined a destination for you. What is that? That you might become like Jesus Christ. He predestined that you should become like Jesus Christ. He did not predestine you to go to heaven. He never predestines anybody to go to hell. He predestined that you should become like Christ. Like it says in Ephesians 1, that He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1. And predestined us, Ephesians 1.4, that we should be holy and blameless. That's why He chose us. Now once we understand God's purpose, we won't be going in a wrong destination. When you get into a bus, don't you make sure it's going to the place you want it to go? That you want to go? You don't get into some other bus which is going some other direction. When you get into a train, you make sure this is the train going to the right place you want to go to. What is your destination? As a Christian, what is your ultimate goal? Let me ask you. Is it to live a comfortable life? Is it to become rich? Or is it to become like Jesus Christ? If your goal is the same as God's goal, to become like Christ, then God will make every single thing work towards that purpose. And the purpose is that Jesus Christ, verse 29, might be the firstborn among many, many brothers. That means that Christ is going to be our elder brother for all eternity in heaven. That's why He became like us. This is amazing that Jesus Christ might be the eldest among many brothers. And we are the younger brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. And that's why in the Christian church, we address each other as brother and sister. Once you see the glory of that title, you will find that there is no title greater than brother or sister. Do you think, would you be happier if somebody called you reverend or right reverend or pastor? Do you think that is a greater title than younger brother of Jesus Christ? When somebody calls you brother, he is calling you a younger brother of Jesus Christ. When somebody calls you sister, he is calling you a younger sister of Jesus Christ. Think of it. Is there a greater title that you can ever have on earth? This is our calling. This is our privilege to become the younger brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. And this is the goal towards which God is making everything that happens in your life work. That's why you can give thanks for everything. Don't complain anymore because everything is destined to make you a younger brother and sister of Christ exactly like Him. Today we will turn to Romans chapter 8 and verse 30. In our last study, we were considering this wonderful promise of God in Romans 8 verse 28 and 29. The ultimate purpose of God for our life is to make us like Jesus Christ. What is God's plan for man to make Him like Christ? Don't ever forget that. And God makes everything work together to that purpose. He predestined us, He foreknew us all for this ultimate purpose to make us like Christ. He has sent the Holy Spirit to the earth to work inside our life to make us like Christ. And He works outside in our circumstances also with the same goal. This is wonderful to see this, that God works outside us in our circumstances, inside us in our hearts with one goal to make us Christ-like in our conduct, in our speech, in our behavior, in our thoughts, in our attitudes, in our motives. And if He predestined us, it's going to be fulfilled unless you fight against Him, submit to His dealings, give thanks for everything that He allows in your life. And God's purposes will definitely be fulfilled. No human being can ever frustrate God's purpose for your life. But you can frustrate it yourself if you don't cooperate with God, if you don't respond to what God wants to do. Now, in verse 30 He says, Those whom He predestined, He called. First of all, it says in verse 29 that He foreknew. That means God looked, right? Before the worlds were created, He looked into the future and He could see who all would respond to the Gospel. He foreknew. And those whom He foreknew, verse 29, He predestined. Okay? I know in advance that millions of years later this particular person, John, Thomas, Matthew, Mary, Elizabeth, whoever you are, that you would respond to the Gospel. And God chose you. And He planned to make you like Christ. He predestined you to become like Christ. And in due course, when you were born and time came in your life and you were born again, He gave you the Holy Spirit and He began to work in all your circumstances. He called you. Those whom He predestined, verse 30, He called. And you responded to His call. Verse 30, Those whom He called, He justified. He declared you righteous in His sight. And those whom He justified, listen to this, verse 30, It does not say that He will one day glorify you. No! It says He's already glorified you. What does that mean? Are you already glorified? You know, God calls the things that are not as though it exists, as we read in Romans 4, 17. Things that do not exist. He speaks as though they already exist. God can see the massive oak tree in the seed, in the acorn. In the little seed of a mango tree, God can see the full grown mango tree. And God sees you as already glorified. When are we going to be glorified? When Christ comes back again in glory. But according to this verse, God has already seen you as glorified. He already sees you in the end as glorified. And this is the thing that encourages us as we struggle through our difficulties and our trials on this earth. We wonder when is this all going to finish? What's the ultimate end? But when we see that God sees the end and He's already seen us as glorified, that brings rest into our heart. Even though we may be struggling with some sin today. Even though we may be battling against Satan and wondering where and when is this going to finish. We believe that God has already glorified us. To such a wonderful gospel, verse 31, Paul says, What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who is against us? Who can be against you, my friend, if God is on your side? If you love God and you want to fulfill His purpose, even though you may have sinned in so many ways in the past, you've repented, you're sorry, God's forgiven you. Now you want to do the will of God. God is on your side. He's going to make all things, all the people who do evil to you, He's going to work for your good. It's like these water filters. You put dirty water into it, it comes out clean. So the evil that people do to you will be filtered by Romans 8.28 and works out for your good. So, if God is for you, working for you like that, who can be against you? He who did not spare his own son. Don't you think? He will freely give you all other things. Did you pay for Jesus Christ to come from heaven to save you? No. No. God will give you everything else. Freely. Freely. God gives everything freely. And if He gave His own Son, don't you think that He will give everything else also to you freely? He certainly will. Who is the one, verse 33, who can bring a charge against God's elect? Satan is always trying to accuse you, my friend. But God is on your side, declaring you righteous all the time. Because you walk in the light before Him. You are transparent. You acknowledge your sin. Can anybody bring a charge against you when God declares you righteous? No. Verse 34. Who can condemn you? Satan would like to condemn you. But can he condemn you? No, he cannot. Jesus Christ died for you. He was raised up. He stands at the right hand of God, interceding for you, praying for you, day and night. And if Jesus Christ is praying for you specifically at this moment, at the right hand of the Father, which accuser can stand on the other side and condemn you, why do you feel condemned then? You don't have to feel condemned. Further, verse 35. Who can separate you from the love of Christ? The love of Christ is a bond with which He has bound Himself to you. Who can separate you from that bond? Do you think tribulation, when it comes into your life, will separate you from the bond of Christ? Verse 35. Or some distress that you may be going through now? Or some persecution that you may be facing from people who hate Jesus Christ? Maybe from your relatives? Do you think that can separate you from the love of Christ? You may have suffering, but nothing can separate you from the love of Christ. God's people may have to go through famine, shortage of food, shortage of clothing, nakedness, dangers. Verse 35. Sword, even death. Think of the things that God's people are allowed to face by their Heavenly Father. Verse 35. Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, petal sword. None of these things any human being likes to face. God allows His children to face them. And they overcome. It says, this is how it's written in the scriptures in verse 36. The Old Testament in the Psalms, it says, For thy sake, Lord, we are being put to death all day long. Do you know why you go through all this suffering? It's for the Lord's sake. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. Other people slaughter you. Wolves come and bite you. Swallow you up. And there is an Almighty God in heaven watching all this, and He allows it. The Christians in the 2nd and 3rd centuries were thrown to the lions. The lions ate them up. God Almighty, who shut the lions' mouths in Daniel's time, could have done it in those Roman Coliseums. But He didn't do it. He allowed His children to be eaten. And they went to their death with a song of triumph in their lips, putting the devil to shame. Put the devil to shame today by saying, in all these things, verse 37, we overwhelmingly conquer because of Jesus Christ who loved us. That's why we conquer. And so we can say with the Apostle Paul, verse 38 and 39, I am convinced, there's no doubt in my mind about this, that nothing can separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Not death, not life, not angels, principalities, demons, whoever they are, things that are happening right now, things that may happen in the future, powers, evil powers, height, depth, or any created thing. Nothing can separate me from God's love for me. If you can believe this, you are secure. Nothing, nothing, no one can separate you from the love of God. God's love surrounds you on every side. My brother, my sister, God loves you. Rest in that love. Trust Him. And in everything you face in life, God's working for your good. You can be more than a conqueror, not just a conqueror, but more than a conqueror. God bless you. Amen.