Celebrating Victory – 09/02/07
Date: 9/4/07
Sermon Series: Just Desserts
Sermon Title: Celebrating Victory
Text: Romans 8:31-39
“What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He did not even spare His own Son, but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him grant us everything? Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the One who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the One who died, but even more, has been raised; He also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
As it is written: Because of You we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (HCSB)
Theme: This message will be about the incredible anthem of God’s victory over all of the dangers that threaten the covenant believer. The ultimate answer to all of the questions that we raise to God is that God’s love conquers every enemy of the Christian.
Introduction: Erik Weihenmayer in many ways is an incredibly ordinary guy. He grew up in a close family with brothers and sisters, a loving mother and father. As a child he loved doing all of the things that other children love to do. He rode his bike around with all of his buddies, jumped the ramp out in the street and played basketball in the driveway. He loved camping out and messing around: Just an ordinary child.
As an adult a lot of his life seems like that of any other person. He is a high school English teacher he is married and the father of a beautiful little girl named Emma.
In other ways Erik is far from ordinary. As a 16 year old he was the second ranked high school wrestler in his weight class. He runs marathons and climbs mountains. As a matter of fact in 2001 he was part of a team that ascended Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world: A mountain that is summited by only a small percentage of the very best mountain climbers in the world. Oh and by the way, Erik Weihenmayer has been completely blind since he was thirteen. Erik is an over-comer.
Transition: This section of scripture that we read today is the climax of the Apostle Paul’s thesis on the majesty of a relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ as our redeemer and atoning sacrifice. The subtitle heading in the Holman Christian standard translation of the Bible here reads, “The Believer’s Triumph”. The NASB subtitle calls this section, “Our Victory in Christ” and the NIV is labeled “More Than Conquerors.” Let’s take a look at some of the aspects of this victory.
1. The Case for Victory
a. The Apostle Paul here uses the analogy of a courtroom to reiterate the case on which our victory stands.
i. Who can bring an accusation?
ii. Who is the one who condemns?
iii. The picture that is being painted here should give the covenant believer a large measure of security. Think about this with me for a minute. The case that Paul is reminding us is that:
1. God is a just God. He has a prescribed sense of holiness that doesn’t allow sin, which is the breaking of His law, to go unpunished.
2. God loves man, who is His special creation, and wants to have a relationship with us.
3. Every person who has ever lived has broken the law. Each of us has disobeyed God and deserves the punishment that this leads to.
4. The answer to this dilemma is that God has melted His perfect love and perfect holiness into a plan whereby He sends His Son, the second person of the Godhead, to become the perfect atoning sacrifice and pay for the lawbreaking that has been done by man so that we could once again enter into relationship with Him.
iv. So what is happening in this courtroom is that, we, the sinner are being called into culpability for our sin as we stand before the judge in the courtroom. But we are not standing by ourselves our defender is at the table beside us and it is none other then Jesus the very one who took our place at the gallows.
v. Think about this situation that Paul has described for a minute.
1. First of all, the judge who is responsible to see that justice is done is God the Father and He was the one who designed the plan which is in place that delivers us into perfect justice. Who is going to tell this judge that this plan is not sufficient or does not meet all of the requirements.
2. Secondly, our defense attorney is the best witness in the world He not only intercedes on our behalf he is the one who has completed the payment for the penalty of our sin.
vi. This scene should give us a lot of security. As Christians, one of the things that we need to remind ourselves of is that God, the judge, and Jesus, the defender both say that we no longer carry guilt.
vii. One of the things that Satan loves to do to the believer is whisper accusations in his ear. He tries to dredge up reminders of our sin and guilt that God has already taken care of, DO NOT listen to him. The case has been judged and he has no standing.
2. The Condition of Victory
a. Another aspect of this victory that we stand in is its condition. In other words the manner in which the victory has been obtained.
b. This victory is a result of God’s power released on our behalf. It must be clear to the reader of this Roman letter by now that we haven’t managed some clever maneuver that has outflanked the enemy and secured our own victory. We haven’t found a technicality in the law that gets us off. We haven’t kept the law perfectly and we haven’t escaped the implications of God’s precepts.
c. Our victory is based on the condition that we have faith in the atonement that took place for us in Jesus. Verse 37 says we are more than victorious through Him who loved us.
d. In this passage the Apostle Paul quotes a section of scripture out of Psalms 44. The Psalmist earlier in that same Psalm makes it clear that he understands that all of Israel’s victories are the result of God’s action. (Read Psalm 44:4-8)
e. The implication of this condition of our victory for the believer is two fold.
i. Firstly, the things that the world might consider to be problems or weaknesses are exactly the qualities that God uses to overcome what the world throws at us.
1. 1 Corinthians 1:26-31. The things that we struggle with, the weaknesses in our character and in our bodies, if turned over for God’s use, will be the best tools for kingdom building imaginable.
a. Back to the illustration of the blind climber. As he was preparing himself for the ascent of Everest many people were trying to convince him not to do it. Even his wife thought that a blind man didn’t have any place in a team that was attempting to take on the biggest challenge in the world of climbing but his climbing partners never doubted his ability. As a matter of fact one of them was quoted as saying that in some places he was a better climber then anyone else because he was blind and able to hear thin ice and other conditions that the others couldn’t see.
2. Secondly, as Christians we have to make sure that God is the one receiving the glory for the kingdom work that is taking place. As this Church reaches out and has an impact on our community, as people come in and find their place in God’s community we have to make sure and turn the praise for that back to God.
3. The Completeness of Victory
a. The final aspect of God’ victory on our behalf that I want to talk about is the completeness of that victory.
b. Sometimes during the course of our lives we go through things that kind of knock us around a little bit.
i. Sometimes it is a physical oppression.
1. A disease or disability of ourselves or someone that we love.
2. Or it might be a loss of some kind, someone that we loved and depended on has died or goes away and we are not sure how it is that we will be handle life without them around.
ii. Sometimes it is more of a spiritual oppression.
1. An inability to over come worry or fear. Or a dread that fills our lives with depression and anxiety. A boxed in feeling that is stifling.
2. It might be that someone that we love is experiencing these sorts of challenges.
iii. It might be a worry over the future or insecurity about finances or the state of our society.
c. When a person becomes a Christian their life is not suddenly free from all of these kinds of problems but instead these problems should take on an entirely different tenor as we understand that Our Father has already overcome them.
d. This scripture is the guarantee to us that nothing is outside the realm of God’s compassionate control.
i. Nothing from this world or the next
ii. Nothing spiritual or physical
iii. Nothing from any dimension
1. Is outside of God’s care for us.
