If God Be For Us

If God be for us, who can be against us?

I would like everyone to walk out of here this morning after they listen to this message and be aware of one thing: That God is for you. And if God is for us, who can be against us?

God is for you! He is on your side! He loves you from the top of your head to the tip of your toes. He will never leave you nor will he ever forsake you. He knows you intimately yet he still believes in you.

God is for us, because first of all, His Word declares it, and I have experienced it first hand, and I know that even if you don’t realize it now, you can look back and realize it. Look at Romans 8:31- and this morning we will be hanging around this chapter, so you will not need to flip your pages too much.

"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31, KJV)

Paul knew this fact, and he was determined to prove it to you and to me and to emphasize it. Paul, like all of us, went through hard times and would go through many more hard times in his life. A promise of suffering was part of his calling! (Acts 9:16) His testimony in 2 Corinthians 11:23-33 is telling:

"Are they servants of Christ? I can go them one better. (I can’t believe I’m saying these things. It’s crazy to talk this way! But I started, and I’m going to finish.) I’ve worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death’s door time after time. I’ve been flogged five times with the Jews’ thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I’ve been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I’ve had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I’ve been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I’ve known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather. And that’s not the half of it, when you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches. When someone gets to the end of his rope, I feel the desperation in my bones. When someone is duped into sin, an angry fire burns in my gut. If I have to “brag” about myself, I’ll brag about the humiliations that make me like Jesus. The eternal and blessed God and Father of our Master Jesus knows I’m not lying. Remember the time I was in Damascus and the governor of King Aretas posted guards at the city gates to arrest me? I crawled through a window in the wall, was let down in a basket, and had to run for my life. “(2 Corinthians 11:23-33, The Message)

Now, have you experienced trouble, real trouble in your Christian walk? God has been gracious to all of us in trouble and in joy. Job was a very righteous man, but he lost everything: his possessions, his family, his health- leaving only his wife, who also attacked him for his righteous stand. What did he say? “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” We all have experienced or are experiencing or will experience hardship in our lives. Jesus said

"I’ve told you all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace. In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties. But take heart! I’ve conquered the world.” “(John 16:33, The Message)

Because of the fact that Christ has overcome the world, And God’s Word does not change no matter what; I know that God is for us. And if God is for us who can be against us?

I know that God is for us because he promises that every situation, all things, work out for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28) What is that good? That question is answered in Romans 8:29- that we may be conformed to the likeness of Jesus- that is that we may look more and more like Jesus. The things that we go through, the highs and the lows, the difficulties and the easy times, the dry times and the times when the living water flows, God is absolutely for us. It does not matter where we are, or what we do, God is using everything to work together so that we can be conformed to the likeness of Jesus. Because He wants me to look more and more like my Savior, I know God is for me, and if God is for us, who can be against us?